Best:
Also, a good bit from the largely forgettable Arnold Schwartzenegger clone-themed action film, The Sixth Day - a supporting character is a hippie/counter-culture type, who of course drives a beat-up, third hand VW Beetle. But the film, which came out in 2000, was set ~20 years in the future, so the beat-up old VW driven by the hippie character was the newly released, restyled Beetle Volkswagon had just rolled out.
I remember seeing the pilot or one of the first episodes of The Partridge Family, showing the family repainting the school bus themselves. I can see that they would have done that. But it seems unlikely that they’d have gone to all the trouble of painting that Mondrian pattern. That requires really fussy masking. It seems unlikely they’d go to all that trouble.
Like I said - the art style is from the 30s, but someone in the studio thought it was hip for 60s.
Maybe a truly psychedelic bus would have been too much for Mr and Mrs Mid-America, and the Partridges were more Cowsills than Stephen Stills, but the show should have went for:
Good: Russ Hanneman’s McLaren on Silicon Valley.
The A-Team had a nice van but it should have been solid black.
Why would this elite group of mercenaries have a unique paint job like that when they were supposed to be hiding?
They pretty much were the Cowsills. According to Bob Cowsill, daddy Bud wanted his family to be the Partridges but the producers weren’t interested.
I just happened to be watching that show on HBO Max last night. Although it doesn’t get that much screen time, Richard Hendricks’ Chevy Volt is also a good choice. Based on my unscientific observations, that seems to be a popular car for Northern California tech workers, or at least it was when the show came out. Now Teslas seem like the more popular choice. I kind of wondered if he could afford one as a struggling entrepreneur, but he probably bought it back when he was working at Hooli.
Not saying this is bad casting, but more ‘ridiculous use’. Watched an episode a few days ago where the guys are doing a stake-out… in the Torino! Right. Like that isn’t going to stick out a bit.
My question about car casting, is why does everybody in TV commercials drive a '68 Ford Bronco, in near perfect stock condition? You know how rare those are?
The Simon Brothers drove cars that reflected their personality, I think. Power Wagon for Rick and Z-28 (or was it a Firebird?) for AJ.
Good: Gus’ blue Toyota Yaris (a.k.a. The Blueberry) in Psych. The perfect kinda goofy looking compact - they got a lot of mileage (ha!) out of that car over the years.
Even better was him explaining why it was a problem that his net worth dropped below a billion (as he was forced to drive a car with conventional doors).
And I should point out that just because a car has become iconic doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good casting. Although I have to admit I’ve never actually watched Starsky and Hutch, so I can’t really comment on that particular case.
I’m torn on James Bond’s Aston Martin. On one hand, there’s no way a real spy would ever drive anything that flashy. But on the other hand everything about how Bond operated was completely unrealistic in terms of actual spy craft. So I have to admit it is a good fit for that character, but terrible for a real spy.
As a child of the 60s and a Kid With A Paintbrush, I can guarantee most hippie schoolbuses were not painted with professional attention to detail (that “Summer of Love” bus is clearly painted by 21st century professional marketers).
Now, a bus amateurly painted with stoned unicorns in space and anthropomorphic truckin’ foxes in bell bottoms holding huge joints… there’s some cultural accuracy for you.
That’s the problem, James Bond is not a real spy, James Bond is Bond, James Bond.
I was wondering how much longer it would take until someone wrote that. Correct.
On Magnum P.I., Thomas Magnum’s, actually Robin Masters’, Ferrari seemed like an odd choice for a private investigator seeking an inconspicuous car to drive
Little bit of trivia: Nissan/Datsun did manufacture cars in the United States in the 80s. It is possible the station wagon was built in Detroit.
Painting the bus in a way that’s supposed to invoke '60s counter-culture nostalgia, but which is in fact just a bunch of squares, seems pretty on-brand for the Partridge Family.
IMCDB identifies the car as a 1980 model. That seems just a tad early to have been manufactured in the US. If I’m not mistaken Toyota was the first Japanese company to manufacture cars in the US with their NUMMI partnership with GM, and the first cars manufactured at that plant were 1984 models.
.
Maxwell Smart seemed to be paired well with his Sunbeam Tiger
The characters Terriers fit in perfectly with their beat up Ford Courier.
In Lodge 49, Dud’s VW Thing was the perfect vehicle.
In one episode they were talking car comparisons, and Starsky made a comment about one car that, and I quote, “doesn’t corner like the Torino.” I’m quite sure that’s true, because I think a school bus (either pained in color squares or not) would corner better than a Torino, expecially one with the ass end jacked up. But it sure looked purty. (The bubble light was the best touch,.)
In season 1, it was a 57 Chevy convertible. It probably didn’t corner like a Torino, either.
But if you were freeloading off the largess of a multi-millionaire author, you know you’d take the Ferrari over the Audi or the Jimmy. Or whatever POS “Robin 4” was. Probably a window van.(Now TC’s van, that made sense. Paint job matched his helicopter.)
This is a perfect comment!