My Mother the Car: The 1965 TV Series About a Man and His Reincarnated Mother

My Mother the Car is one of the most unusual concepts in American television history — a 1965–1966 NBC sitcom in which a man discovers that his deceased mother has been reincarnated as a 1928 Porter automobile. The show lasted one season of 30 episodes before being cancelled, but it has lived on as a cultural curiosity, frequently cited on "worst TV shows ever made" lists and studied by media historians as a case study in the limits of high-concept comedy. If you've heard the name and wondered what it actually was, here's what you need to know.

What Was My Mother the Car?

The series aired on NBC from September 14, 1965, to April 5, 1966. The premise: a lawyer named David Crabtree, played by Jerry Van Dyke, goes to a used car lot intending to buy a sensible family vehicle. Instead, he's drawn to a battered 1928 Porter — a fictional vintage automobile — and when he turns on the radio, his late mother speaks to him through it. Voiced by Ann Sothern, the mother has been reincarnated as this specific car, and only David can hear her.

The conflict driving most episodes involved a villainous antique car collector named Captain Manzini, played by Avery Schreiber, who wanted to acquire the Porter for his collection. David spent the series protecting the car — and by extension, his mother — from Manzini's increasingly elaborate schemes.

The Car Itself: The 1928 Porter

The Porter was not a real automobile brand. It was a fictional make created for the show, though the physical prop vehicles used in production were real vintage cars modified and dressed to look like a specific era of motoring. 🚗

Several cars were used during production, with the primary hero vehicle being a 1928 Maytag automobile — yes, the appliance company briefly made automobiles — rebadged and modified to serve as the on-screen Porter. The car featured a distinctive touring car body style typical of late-1920s American automobiles: long hood, open body, spoke wheels, and period-correct trim.

The vehicle's antique status was central to the show's premise. A 1928-era automobile would have been nearly 40 years old by the time the show aired, making its appeal as a collectible entirely plausible within the story.

Why Does the Show Still Get Talked About?

My Mother the Car has become something of a benchmark in discussions about television quality. TV Guide famously named it the second-worst television show of all time in a 2002 list. The show is frequently referenced in academic and popular discussions about:

• High-concept premises that don't sustain a weekly episode format
• The limits of fantasy sitcoms as a genre (a format that was otherwise thriving in the mid-1960s alongside Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Munsters)
• Network programming decisions of the 1960s and the speed at which shows could be greenlit and cancelled

Jerry Van Dyke himself — brother of Dick Van Dyke — has spoken candidly in interviews about his mixed feelings regarding the role, which he reportedly chose over a guest role that eventually became the Gilligan's Island castaway Professor. That anecdote has become part of the show's mythology.

What Makes the Show Interesting From a Vehicles Perspective

Beyond its comedy legacy, the show offers a window into how vintage automobiles were perceived in mid-1960s America. Several things stand out:

The show leaned on the visual contrast between the battered, ornate Porter and the practical modern cars of 1965 suburbia. That contrast — old vs. new, sentimental vs. functional — was part of what the writers were reaching for, even if the execution didn't land with audiences or critics.

The Variables That Shape How People Remember It

How My Mother the Car gets discussed depends heavily on context:

• Television historians tend to treat it as a case study in premise-over-execution
• Classic car enthusiasts are often more interested in the prop vehicles and period accuracy than in the comedy
• Jerry Van Dyke's legacy colors how his fans approach the show — some view it more charitably given how warmly he was received in later roles
• Generational familiarity matters: viewers who saw it in original broadcast have a very different relationship to it than those who only know it through reputation

The show exists in a peculiar space where its reputation has arguably outlasted its actual viewership. Most people who cite it as "the worst TV show ever" have never watched an episode. 📺

What the Show Left Behind

My Mother the Car ran for one full season and was not renewed. It has never had a significant home video release and wasn't heavily rerun in syndication, which makes it genuinely difficult to watch today. Clips circulate online, and the full series has appeared intermittently on streaming and archival platforms, but it remains less accessible than most shows of its era.

The prop cars used in production — particularly the hero Porter — have a murky post-production history. Their current whereabouts and ownership are not clearly documented in public records, which is itself characteristic of Hollywood prop vehicles from the period.

What persists is the title, the concept, and the reputation — a combination that says as much about how television criticism works as it does about the show itself. Whether the series deserves its notoriety or has been unfairly maligned is a question that depends entirely on what you're watching for and what you bring to it.