Throwback Thursday is a new series here at The Nerds Templar where we take an old article written for the site (or we’ve personally written for previous sites that no longer exist) and update it with new information or selections that make sense to the article now. A “Best of” list that adds some new movies that were released after the original article was written for example. Up next in the series is Throwback Thursday: TV’s Best Rides.
Earlier this week was the 15th anniversary of the premiere of Supernatural. I wrote the original article after binge watching a few seasons of the show and the anniversary reminded me of that sweet Winchester ride and the original article. So let’s get into it with Dean’s baby.
One thing has stuck with me season after season of Supernatural, the 1967 Chevrolet Impala the Winchester Boys travel across the country in. Sure both leads do a bang up job and the show uses great music, but man is that ’67 Chevy Impala killer. It’s a fantastic car and you could easily see Vin Diesel driving one in the Fast & Furious franchise.
As a kid I remember watching reruns of Adam West’s Batman. You know the one with the POW, BAM, Ker-POWs and the shark biting Batman 1960s show. The series may have been total camp, but it certainly made West’s Batmobile a TV legend. With the bubble windshield, toy versions of the car flew off of store shelves. To this day that Batmobile is a hit at comic conventions and the like all across the country.
Staying with my childhood, is there a TV car more famous than the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard? No sir. From the horn to the welded doors and hood slides, every kid in the 1980s wanted a General Lee. You don’t get as cool as a Detroit made muscle car like a Dodge Charger! And Daisy Duke certainly didn’t hurt. A certain emblem on the roof may not be “politically correct” today, but screw’em, that car is and always will be iconic.
Sticking with an 80s theme, as a kid was there anything more futuristic than a talking car? No way Jose. That’s why K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider has to make the list. K.I.T.T. was a tricked out 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and if we learned anything from Smokey & the Bandit, Trans-Ams are super cool. That car made David Hasselhoff hip!
And the 1980s didn’t make just cars seem cool, but The A-Team made vans a must own for good guy vigilantes. A simple color scheme with a red stripe was all you needed to save the day or to drive your action figures around in your backyard. I pity the fool who didn’t own an A-Team van as a kid.
But don’t think the 80s were the only decade to make cars seem great and make kids want to own them. The 1970s had a few of their own. Sticking with vans, is there a more iconic van than the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine? How many crooks would have gotten away with it if Shaggy, Scooby and the gang didn’t get there in their Mystery Machine to solve the crime? If there’s one thing I’ve learned while growing up, stoners love their vans.
The Mystery Machine wasn’t the only vehicle of the 70s that might be confused for a stoner ride, remember The Partridge Family bus? Multicolored with lots of singing, yeah I’m sure there was some toking going on in that bus. And why did they need a bus in the first place? There wasn’t THAT many of them. Say what you will, but that bus sold a lot of lunchboxes.
I wasn’t the biggest Arrested Development fan, but if I remember one thing from it, it’s the Bluth Company Stair Car. Just because you don’t have your own plane anymore doesn’t mean this tricked out Ford F-350 should go to waste. Plus it made an appearance in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War!
There’s been multiple versions of it, but at its core Krieger’s van on Archer is a 1978 GM G-Series conversion van. Featuring murals of the doctor’s favorite band Rush, he’s seemed to have one destroyed in most seasons of the animated show. He’s done all kinds of activities in the vans and has even brought his virtual girlfriend, Mitsuko Miyazumi, with him in it.
Honorable Mentions:
- The Rockford Files’ Pontiac Firebird Esprit
- Speed Racer’s Mach Five
- Get Smart’s 1965 Sunbeam Tiger
- Starsky & Hutch’s Red Gran Torino
- Fonzie’s Motorcycle
- Sanford & Son’s Pick-up Truck
- Magnum PI’s Ferrari
- That 70’s Show’s Vista Cruiser
- CHiPs’ Motorcycles ridden by Ponch and Jon
- Sons of Anarchy’s bikes
So what did I miss? The Munster Koach? The Green Hornet’s Black Beauty? Hurley’s van on LOST? The HOMER from The Simpsons?
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