Modeling TV sit-com cars from '50s-60s; any out there?

[Richard Bartrop]

I've been making my way through the Peter Gunn series, and Grabowski's car made an appearrance in one episode, along with Grabowski himself.

I don't think the car itself has ever been offered in kit form, though there is a diecast, but the individual parts can be found in a few kits if you feel up to kit bashing it

 

[W Humble]

I'm going to stick with my 'sitcom mutts' for the time being.  I haven't found any 1/25-24th figures I could use so far; maybe it a lost cause.  I need four, easily adaptable to Eddie Haskell, Wally Cleaver, Lumpy Rutherford, and Bud Anderson and a girlfriend in his broken-down Model A.  The '40 Ford is done, the A-bone just needs the brush-on flames.  Sure is a lot of fertile ground out there for subjects, tho!  Thx!  Wick

[The Modeling Hermit]

I remember seeing a 58 Edsel n Leave It To Beaver.  Green Acres had a rather strange 60s Lincoln convertible.    I even have the videos of that show, but as many times as I watch it, I know something is 'off' about that car, but I just can't place it.   I Love Lucy had the famous windshieldless 55 Pontiac convertible.   Although not a comedy, one should never forget Route 66 and the Corvettes.

Edited August 15, 2023 by Kodiak Island Modeler

[W Humble]

LITB used Fords until it changed networks, then went to all MoPars -- except for the teenager's Fords and Chevrolets.  They, along with Father Knows Best centered an amazing amount of sitcom story material around autos; FKB at least one car epsode (or motor scooter) a month!  In one LITB, they use two different '60 Plymouths, substituting a wooden door post/divider to simulate the sedan.  Note: ya have to watch them a lot of times to spot it all; I used to run that episode for my fine-arts classes when they did a streets/maps/transportation unit. (Wally gets busted when Beaver and pal let Ward's car roll out of driveway and block their street; bro drives in back in -- without a license!)

Like Ricky's glassless Pontiac, most of the b &w shows dulled-down the paint to avoid glaring reflections from their lights and big reflectors, esp out doors; some very poorly done, which must have made the carmaker's PR guys unhappy!  One FKB has the Andersons borrow a station wagon for a family trip -- which loses a fuel pump and strands them in strangely uninhabited countryside -- and since Mercury sponsored the show and supplied the family sedan, the loaner car is a Chevy!!

My wife and I love the old sitcoms (everything else on today is such trash!) that we enjoy the vintage cars a lot.  Thus, my model diorama, still in progress, of Lumpy's neat 'forty Ford ragtop, and Bud's decrepit Model A touring 'hot rod'.  They later replaced it with a late 'forties Ford ragtop; probably didn't really run!  I painted mine Ford sky blue, but Billy Gray, 'Bud' emailed me that he recalled it being gray, with brush painted flames! Ha!   Wick

[oldcarfan]

My wife is a fan of Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie and I looked it up once out of curiosity. Whatever auto brand sponsored the show made sure to send a few of next year's newest and best cars to be featured prominently in upcoming episodes. That explains how the star characters could always afford the nicest convertibles and such.

[W Humble]

As I recall, Bewitched was all Chevrolet.  Google the ill-fated show from '62, 'Straightaway' and see their 'rods & customs'; mostly I recall a '56 Chevy with scallops.

 I was driving my first ride, a '55 Delray 'post' with hot 4-bbl. 265/three on floor.  It ran about 85 in the quarter mile, upper 16-sec. range, and almost beat at least one MoPar 413 and FoMoCo 390 T-bird.  With three Strombergs, the previous owner had eked out a flat 100.00 at the strip, in 15's -- amazed even him, but he'd saved his timing slip!  Racing on our unofficial quarter outside of town, we usually carried passengers, too!  That was the year my school photo was the one in the MCM headshot!  Those were the days!  Wick

[Wickersham Humble]

Billy Gray on Father Knows Best had two rides, one the Model A tub with the 'genuine wool carpet uphostery; wears like iron, Dad!' and later a (I think) '48 Ford ragtop.  In one episode, he falls for a local rich gal (who has a heart of gold, as it turns out!) with a black Jaguar 120 (or 150?) roadster.  The A-bone was 'hand painted' with flames, which I am still going to try to emulate (c. 2025 -- long term project!) but I cut out some 'Persian' rugs from an old Architectural Digest' mag for the seats; white glue and paper towel backing, etc. 

Here's Lumpy's 'forty and axle.  My son was five years old when we watched a re-run of that show, and I thought we'd have to give him CPR, he laughed so hard and long!  OC, that (or the later 'American Graffiti' chain scene) would break a driver's neck, like as not!  Wick

[Dave Van]

Green Acres.........

 

 

[Wickersham Humble]

Pat Buttram as the horrible, surreal con-man, Mr. Haney!  That was a pretty good show, and often very off-beat, to the point of theater of the absurd level.  I mean, when Oliver Wendell Douglas was the only sane character... they say that if you're the only sane one, and the rest of the world is crazy, it means you're the nut!!  I think Buttram was on some Roy Rogers movies, or his radio show to which I listened faithfully (sponsored by Dodge Royal Lancer, source of some very steal-able hub-caps!) but he also had a character named Pat Brady, who drove the famous Jeep 'Nellybelle' which had a plywood windshield.  Petticoat Junction, and ??

Mrs. Ziffel, Barbara Pepper, was originally a Goldwyn Girl (where she became friends with Lucille Ball) and a reasonable facimile of Jean Harlow in her prime -- which was obviously long before Green Acres. Wikipedia says health problems forced her to leave before the show expired, and she died in 1969.  I always assumed that the teen actress Cynthia Pepper was her daughter, but not so.  I began to lose interest in GA when they featured the cute piglet Arnold too much!  Wick