Custom TV Icon Cars

Podcast Episode: 0247
Custom cars from the Shows we love

       ​Unlock the secrets of TV's most iconic custom vehicles and discover how these imaginative creations have captivated us all. Step into a world where cars are more than just machines, as we journey through the nostalgic memories and pop culture impact of such legendary rides as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Turtle 

​Van and Scooby-Doo's Mystery Machine. We'll take a closer look at how these vehicles have become symbols of creativity and adventure, sparking the imaginations of generations and cementing their places in the pantheon of television history.

​       Well, I'm just a kid and I'm at home and I'm watching cartoons and with it comes one of the cool things with some of the shows I watch. And one of the early shows that I watched with something really cool in it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Remember the turtle van? That was cool and it was one of those amazing toys that you really wanted. You saw it and you were like oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want that toy because I love cars and I want the turtle van. It shoots pizzas. You can put all your guys in it. There were so many cool things about it. It was a toy that made me want it.
 
        Well, like television shows, there's all kinds of great icon cars from TV shows and you can think of a whole whack of them. But unlike the actual reality of the automobile industry, with cars like the Dukes of Hazard, 69 Charger, what we're going to be taking a look at today are the icon cars that don't exist in the real world. Some of them may actually exist, but will be custom variations of what you would find, and today AutoLooks is going to be taking a look at television's most iconic custom cars. Welcome back to the AutoLooks podcast. I am your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by check it out. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the Corporate Leaks website. Corporate lakes website page. Big or small, we have them all, car companies from around the globe, all available on the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com, if you'd like to get in touch and send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net. 

​         So, like I said in the beginning, the turtle van one of the most iconic toy vehicles and one of the most iconic vans, like automobiles you can think of. From little kids in the early 90s the Ninja Turtles were big. The release of the Ninja Turtle movie in 1989 just blew up the world. Sure, the movie didn't have a cool van, but the cartoon did. Gotta remembers there's always differences between the comic book, television, cartoon and the movies. Hell, even when they re-released the movies a few years back, the van was completely different. Again, they tried to make it similar to what was in the comic and the cartoon, but they really didn't get it. Now the Turtle Van, like I said, was one of those cool toys that I always wanted and I really wish I did get it because of how much they're worth now, but it was on TV. Hell, from back in those days I can remember some of the cool cars being customized as well, and not just cartoons.
 
     Hell, one of the most famous cartoon vehicles of all time that you could think of would be, in the 1970s, Scooby-doo. The Scooby-doo rode around in a van that didn't have any name or anything on it, so it was always kind of a mystery to everyone. We kind of like we looked at it and we're like, uh, I don't know what is it? Well, when you actually look at it, its kind of like piecing together some of the cars that make cars from the movie, like trying to figure out what makes lightning McQueen or what makes Finn McMissile. You could see so many different vehicles in it.
 
          Well, the Scooby-doo van, which helps them all out on their great adventures and, trust me, they have some great adventures that van is what you would consider kind of like a cross between a microbus and a ford Econoline from the 1970s. It wasn't like anything else that you had ever seen and it became so synonymous with a television show, the Scooby-doo van. People try and make it all the time utilizing any type of van hell. My son has the Playmobil Scooby-doo van, which is built of the exact same casting that they use to build the A-team van and their off-road adventure van for the Playmobil series. So, it's essentially a ford Econoline. When I look at it, I'm like no, no, that's. That's not the Scooby-doo van, it's more of cab over style, it's similar to that of more of a microbus or hell, even, like I said, the original Ford Econoline’s, the little red wagons, or hell, even the Corvair vans from General Motors. You sat over top of the front. That's what the Scooby-Doo van was and it was cool and we all loved it.
 
       Even though they never put a major emphasis on the Scooby-Doo van, it's one of the most memorable vehicles in history. We look at it and we think, yes, that's Scooby-Doo. We know who Scooby-Doo is. We know that's Scooby's van. Well, it's not Scooby's van, it's Fred's van. But they all ride around. You know, with Daphne and Velma they cruise around in the Scooby van, kind of like the Mach 5. Now there is a difference between the Mach 5 that you see in the movie when it was released a few years back than the original cartoon. The Mach 5 kind of took inspiration from the original Ford Mustang concept yeah, hence the Mach used in its name. But Speed Racer's Mach 5 was one of those things that got a lot of kids into racing Like the Mr. X car. That was cool, black and yellow, but Mach 5 was it. 

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          We didn't watch the show for all the other weird antics that went along with speed racer. Like, trust me, you go back and you watch the show and it's just like what, what was I thinking watching the show? Oh, yeah, that's right, I was watching it because I love that car and that's what a lot of icon cars from tv shows are. It's kind of like the 1983 GMC Vandura used by the A-Team. Now, this wasn't a production model, it was a customized GMC Vandura. A top spoiler and a custom paint job, along with aftermarket rims and a front spoiler with lowering springs, made this van even cooler.
 
       And when you go back and you watch the A-Team, yeah, start to question yourself on literally what the hell was I thinking when I was watching the show? This is boring, oh God, this show is whatever. But we all watched it for two reasons Mr. T and that van. That van made the show. Nobody watched the A-Team because the A-Team was good. They watched it because of the van. They were car enthusiasts. When I was a kid, I saw the show once and I always wanted to see it. I'm like, ah, I want to see it, I want to see it, I want to see it. I love that van. Not realizing the show is so boring.
 
      The show is supposed to be about the characters and the missions that they're solving. It's not supposed to be about the van, but it's an icon vehicle, like icons from movies like the Back to the Future DeLorean. The movie centers around Marty trying to get back in time, but we all remember the DeLorean. Well, the A-Team van, is it? We all remember that GMC van. Now that is one that actually did have the proper proportions and we could see what it was. But General Motors is famous for this. It's kind of like the 1982 Pontiac Firebird used for KITT. We know it's a Firebird, we know KITT is based off of Firebird, but when you open the door, trust me, the interior of that car is completely different than a standard Firebird. KITT was it.
 
        And just like the A-Team, we didn't watch that show for the show. We watched it because of the cool automotive chases with KITT, that amazing looking customized Firebird. We knew it was a Firebird but it was custom, it was kit. It's not a Firebird, that's kit, kind of like the A-Team van. That's not the GMC Vandera, that's the A-Team van. These are vehicles that are so synonymous with the shows that the show names the vehicle Like the Dukes of Hazzard. You could think of that as an Icon car. But it's a 69 Charger. We all know it's a 69 Charger but it has a name it's the General Lee. Well, the A-Team van. How many people knew that was an 83 Vandura? We all knew it was a Pontiac Firebird for a kid, but we can never figure out the years for some of these. 

        One of the greatest custom Icon cars in history was actually built from a concept car. George Barris used the original Lincoln Futura concept from 1955 to build the original Batmobile. So, it's a concept car made into a custom car. Yeah, Batman With Adam West, we all know it and it's the car that we all love. You show that car all over the world. Anybody who has ever heard of batman knows that car. But batman also had the Batmobile for the movies.
 
           But every television show had its own variation and I remember in the 1990s they had that long, essentially giant brick on wheels, the Batmobile from Batman, the animated series. And the funny thing is my daughter is one of her favorite shows to watch with me. She loves Batman, the animated series from the 90s. I tried to get her in a Spiderman, she wouldn't get into it. Try to get her into, you know, watching the Ewok shows or droids. No, wouldn't go for it. She likes batman and she likes that cool Batmobile. Trust me, it's the only reason why I watched that series back in the day. It was a good series.
 
         Now, that was one of the few that didn't center around the car. The car was a cool addition to the show, kind of like the Batmobile from the original Batman series. It was a cool addition to the show. We all wanted to see them jump in that vehicle and go on out, kind of like the Monkee Mobile, the 66 Pontiac GTO that made the Monkee Mobile. We all wanted the monkeys to jump in that car and go out Hell. We didn't like the music, we didn't like the band, we definitely didn't like the show, but we all wanted to see that Monkee Mobile in action, because when they fired up that engine, we knew exactly what it was. Oh, that's a Pontiac GTO V created by the godfather of DeLorean Motor Company, Mr. John Z DeLorean. That is the GTO Gas, tires and octane, as everybody always thought it stood for, the original goat became the monkey mobile. Like I said, nobody watched the show because of it. 

         There are specific shows that did center around the cars and two of the greatest ones you can think of one is from the 90s and one is from the 70s. You didn't know this. There was a cartoon in the 1970s called Speed Buggy that centered around a talking dune buggy. Yeah, a cartoon dune buggy that talked. It was pretty cool. I went back and I watched it. It followed the same premise as Scooby-Doo, just this one centered around the automobile portion of the show. Scooby-Doo had the cool van which all kids wanted to see, but Speed Buggy centered completely around the automobile portion that we all wanted to see, the Dune Buggy. And it's the 1970s when Dune Buggies were the biggest thing out there. Everyone wanted it. Hell, go back and watch James Bond movies from the 1970s and you'll be surprised at how many you'll find with a dune buggy in them. They were a cool thing and they made a cartoon about a dune buggy. It's not really big and it's very hard to find but trust me, go out and find the Speed Buggy show and watch the cool cartoon. It's different but hey, it's for car cult people. The other one was made in the 90s just after the release of the Dodge Viper GTS coupe.
 
      Dodge started getting into well, not dodge Chrysler corporation because of its vested interest in its expansion and for how much they turned themselves around and how much money they were now making. They decided to get into television series. They remember the 1980s with the A-team and night rider and how successful that was for General Motors. But Chrysler Corporation wanted to emulate this and they did it with a cop drama show called Viper. It was a standard 1996 Dodge Viper GTS coupe but for the show since it came out during 1997, they used the 97 model, that 1997 Dodge Viper. When they got a call and they had to go save the day it transformed into this weird grayish, snakehead-looking blob essentially of a vehicle, and they went out and they fought crime with it. It was essentially Chrysler's answer to Knight Rider but with the rise of shows like NYPD Blue in the 90s. They wanted to base the premise off more of a cop drama. To go after more of the adults who watched Knight Rider in the 1980s when they were during their teen years, they wanted to appeal to their aspect of these cop dramas with a new show that's centered around a Dodge Viper. This has helped drum up sales and awareness for both Chrysler Corporation and the Viper in itself. 

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        Now, the show wasn't the world's greatest, trust me. I remember going back and watching it now and I'm just like what the hell was I thinking? It's because you waited for that car to transform. That car transformed every episode. You just waited for that one scene to happen. You're just like yeah, yeah, I love it. It's like watching the Gadget mobile, Inspector Gadget.
 
       One of the greatest cartoon cars in history was the Gadget mobile and it did something that the viper from the show viper did. It transformed when inspector gadget had to bring Penny and Brain around. It was a minivan. Why? Because the 80s and 90s were big for vans. It was a family vehicle to get your family in and around. But when the gadget had to get going quick and had to save the day, his van turned into a car very similar to a 300ZX (Fairlady). It became a two-door sports car from a minivan go-go gadget mobile.
 
       Oh, I loved it. I loved the gadget mobile and hell inspector gadget was one of those ones that I watched all the time as a kid and I loved it. But unfortunately, the movie did not do its. Justice is a convertible and it didn't transform. The only good thing about the movie version is it spit out Skittles like it was the greatest thing in the world. I'm just looking like, oh yeah, I want that, but unfortunately it didn't transform and that was one of the biggest problems I had with the Inspector Gadget movies. The car didn't transform. That was the Gadget mobile. I'm. I'm sorry.
 
        You can make inspector gadget have every single cool thing in the world. You can make them any after, but the gadget mobile has to turn from a minivan into a sports car. I'm sorry, but that's the gadget mobile. We all remember it and that is how it was. It had to transform, kind of like the Jetson aero car. Oh yeah, it transformed as well. It became George Jetson’s briefcase for work. Okay, it flew through the skies. And if you didn't know this about the Jetsons, there's a reason why they live in the sky is because we've polluted our planet so badly that we now have to live in the sky, above the pollution. Luckily, by this time and age we have flying cars, so we can live above the clouds in these massive cities. Don't you remember in the movie? And he pushes the button and like, oh, it's so crummy outside, let's get out of this and go above the clouds and all these apartment buildings start popping up out of the clouds, out of the pollution. To get around, we need our Aero car. And if you're wondering no, that's not how I got the name for my car company it's not from the Jetsons, but the Arrow. It takes the family in and around, it can travel through space, it can bring them to the moon and it brings George to work every single day. And then it becomes a briefcase. It's cool, just like the other Hanna-Barbera. 

           The Footmobile from the flintstones yes, the Footmobile. Fred flintstone had to use his feet to get this vehicle moving and it's just too cool. We all want to make one and we all want to roll around in it. But literally, if you try to make one the same way it's made there, it'll take you forever to get it moving. And then how do you turn corners? Like he has a steering wheel in front of him, but the wheels are fixed straight. There is no curability to them. How does he turn the car? That is a question we all want answered. You can't. The steering wheel is literally just there for him to hold on to. But the Footmobile is one of the coolest things.
 
        Like we all grew up watching the Jetsons and the Flintstones, we all loved the shows. They were great shows. There were amazing cartoons. We loved them. But seeing those vehicles in the shows just made it even better and they became one of the most iconic custom vehicles of all time.
 
        You ask people to name a list of their top 10 most iconic cars. I could think of the Jetson car and the Footmobile. At least one of them will make it into the list, along with the Mach 5 and the Scooby-Doo van. If you're not a car person, trust me, the Flintstone Footmobile and the Scooby-Doo van will always be part of the list. For myself, the Ninja Turtles, Turtle Van is part of that list as well. ​

          There are so many cool cars out there and they do this to fit with the personalities in the show. That's kind of like the Green Hornet and the Munsters. Now remember, the Munsters not unlike the Adams family didn't drive around in regular vehicles. Older vehicles were custom. The Munster mobile was a custom-built car but his grandpa's Dragula not to be confused with Dragula from Rob Zombie, although he does hint towards that.  “Oh, yeah, Dragula”. the Munster's Dragula, it's a dragster that's made from a coffin because grandpa is a vampire, even though he takes it out during the day to go drag racing.
 
       Come on, the monster mobile is not as memorable as the Dragula. Trust me, if you've ever watched the monsters and you've seen their vehicles, it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you kind of remembered that. But it kind of reminds you of the Adams family and the Beverly Hillbillies. It's an old, classic car. It's like, okay, it's custom, it's the Monster Mobile. If you saw it in real life, you're like, oh, the Munster Mobile, but the Dragula, grandpa's drag racing car. You see that in real life. You're like, ah, that's the Dragula, that's grandpa's car. Oh yeah, that's too cool. 

         It's just like seeing a 1966 Chrysler Imperial Crown in jet black, with no front bumper, all blacked out and an oversized front chrome grille. That's the Green Hornet, or the Green Hornet's car, known as Black Beauty. Anyone who has a 66 Chrysler Imperial. A lot of people will look at it and go, ah, that'd make, that'd be really cool if you made it into a Black Beauty. But nobody wants to do that because the Chrysler Imperial on its own is such a classic and rare vehicle. But Black Beauty Chrysler owned it before General Motors. They had the Black Beauty. Now it really wasn't fully customized when you consider it compared to some of the other ones on this list. But Black Beauty was still a customized variation of the original product, kind of like the show Sunset Strip with their Cookie T, a custom-built vehicle for the series.
 
       There's been a lot of them out there, but the show that has some of the most memorable cars in history. It's got to be the longest-running television show in both the comedy, sitcom and cartoon faction, running for over 35 years. The Simpsons have given us some of the most iconic custom-made vehicles for the television world. The Simpsons gave us a 1986 pink sedan and orange station wagon, very similar to Plymouth products from that time period. Anybody who has a pink sedan, four-door and it has a boxy image, people automatically think oh, that's the Simpson car. But the Simpsons have done it more than once. When Homer meets his brother, you find out about Powell Motors.   

​        Powell Motors does show up later on in the show. But you find the other most iconic vehicle from the Simpsons, the Powell Motors Homer, and we've done an entire podcast about the Homer. We actually released it on April 19th, the international date for the Simpsons. Why? Because that's the date it first aired on the Tracy Allman Show in 1987. Yes, the Homer. It's his weird bubble vehicle that Homer designs to save his brother's company. But his brother doesn't understand. Homer doesn't know anything about the car buying public and he gives the public the car that he thinks the average person wants and it's a flop and they do it in a way on the show that is reminiscent of another major American flop, the Tucker. Yeah, the Homer, but the Simpsons have done it yet again the Plow. 

​          Some of the most iconic episodes were written by Conan O'Brien, like the Monorail and Mr. Plow. What's that name? Name again is Mr. Plow. Yes, it's a standard gelatinous truck. Look, a two-box design with a plow on the front of it. Like anybody can make that. But if you have an old Chevy short box from the 1980s, you paint it black and put a red plow on the front of it with a roll bar. People are going to look at it and see Mr. Plow and they're going to be asking you are you wearing a Mr. Plow jacket? Hell, kids today who've watched the Simpsons, grown up with it or even just watch it now and have seen that episode and love that episode. Anytime they see a plow truck on the road they think that's Mr. plow. It's so iconic and its so generalized design that made the Mr. plow truck just like the original pink sedan and station wagon, the homer you'll never see on the street. It's custom, it's like the Dragula or the Aero car. It's made for the shows. But in every Simpson fashion, all their vehicles are essentially two-box designs. And if you remember back to one of the most famous vehicles, it gets promoted in one episode and then Homer buys one and realizes it's the girl version.
 
     The F-series making fun of Ford the Canyonero. You have to remember the Canyonero. It's the only SUV endorsed by a clown, Krusty. When he stops doing comedy because they find out he's not that funny compared to someone like Jay Leno and he reinvents himself, then he gets approached by the guys creating the Canyonero and he's a sellout. Krusty is a sellout Anything for money, so he sells his soul, essentially, and gets a Canyonero and then takes Bart home and there's the whole freaking advertisement at the end and the only SUV endorsed by a clown, Yee-haw.
 
       And then Homer buys it. He just he gets tired of driving his car and he buys a Canyon Aero because he wants a big, burly SUV. It's the early 2000s and everyone's got SUVs, that's what I want. And he drives it to work and all the guys are whistling at him because they think it's a girl. He's like oh yeah, that's the F-Series Girl fight. See, your cigarette lighter is for lipstick and look, it even has steps. I'm driving a girl car here. Where are your keys to the station wagon? I don't want to drive my fruity car today. Yeah, the Canyonero. It's funny because it's a company that doesn't exist.
 
       It's a design that's so generic and it only shows up for a few episodes. And yet anyone who watches the Simpsons and understands the series can remember it. We can remember the plow truck, we can remember the sedan, we can remember the orange station wagon and we all remember the Canyonero. “Canyonerooooooo, Can-yon-er-Ooooo.” You watch that episode. It's ingrained into your mind, just like all the other custom, iconic vehicles. There are so many great ones out there and so many tv shows with great cars. 

       This episode we only focused on the custom ones, and some of these custom vehicles aren't even much different than their regular bodied products and some of them we don't even know to this day what they are. But they're famous and we know what they are. We could draw a silhouette image of it and we automatically know what it is. You draw the outline of a two-box sedan and put a little dent in the front and people would be like oh Simpsons. You draw a generic truck and the second. You draw a plow on the front of it. It's Mr. plow. You paint your dodge viper pure gray and people think it's the car from Viper. Hell, you have a custom ford coupe and people think it's the monster coach.
 
          They're iconic cars. We all know them and if we love the automobile industry, you'll know them. Hell, people that don't even like cars will know them, and one of my favorite ones throughout history plays such a short role but makes the biggest statement of all time the most famous custom car, which literally showed up on this tv series for only a few seconds, but you'll remember it for all time. What car am I talking about? I'm thinking you'd look great in the ThunderCougarFalconBird yes, making fun of Ford and their animal product, the ThunderCougarFalconBird. What show is it on? Futurama, Amy’s looking for a new car. They go and look and the salesman all slick and sly trying to sell her on the ThunderCougarFalconBird.
 
         And when you hear him say that you're like well, that's pretty funny, those are old names of real cars. It gets stuck in your head for life. I watched that episode with my son and he I'm like what ThunderCougarFalconBird? He's like Futurama, seriously like Simpsons had a pink sedan. Futurama. We all remember the spaceship, one of the most iconic flying spaceships of all time, the planet express spaceship. It's funny because this one goes with another mac reigning show. But the thunder cougar falcon bird, it's like joey JoJo Jr. Shaba doo. He shows up in one episode for a split second but we all know who he is and if you watch Futurama and know the Simpsons, all you have to do to somebody is just say ThunderCougarFalconBird and they'll probably giggle. 

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​        These shows have done this to us. They've ingrained it in our minds. When you listen to Rob Zombie's song Dragula, how many times do you see Grandpa Monster in his car? ThunderCougarFalconBird. How many of you just saw a futuristic-looking Thunderbird Cougar mixed with a falcon Like, come on, we know these cars, we see them all the time and we love them.
 
         They're iconic cars and they don't even exist in the real world because they were custom made for the TV shows we all love, and that's what it's about creating something memorable throughout the ages. Scooby-Doo can go off the air tomorrow. People can forget about it, but when you ask them about the most iconic television series Cars of All Time, that'll show up. There's so many of them and so many shows out there, and for our next episode we're going to have to talk about the actual icon cars, the ones that do exist and we do know. When you see them, you just automatically think of those tv series. These are the custom ones, from the Batmobile to flying cars. They're all customized and made especially for these shows, but they're all memorable. No matter how bad the show is, we remember the car.
 
          So, if you like this podcast, please like, share or comment on any of the major social feeds or streaming sites that you found the AutoLooks podcast on. Remember to click the like button at the bottom, the little button at the bottom that says like, click it and then send a comment to us. Tell us about your favorite custom icon cars from the world around you. Tell us about all the ones from across the globe, all of these amazing cars like. There's so many of them. We just can't talk about every single one of them. We can only talk about the top ones, and these are only the top ones that you'd find in North American climates. Tell us about all the great cars from around the globe. Send us an email, send us a text, send us a comment on a website or the social sites or streaming sites that you found the AutoLooks podcast on, and then click the like button so you can find out more from the AutoLooks Podcast when our next episode comes out.
 
       The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net. The AutoLooks podcast is hosted by the one and only Everett Jay, who's also the owner, the creator, the producer and sound technician from the Ecomm Entertainment Group. Everett Jay is the one who handles it. So, for myself, Everett Jay, the Ecomm Entertainment Group and PodBean.com, strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride that these custom TV icon cars are going to take us on. Thank you,