# It's About Time - or - I have wasted my brain **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 7, 2019, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521 "2019-12-07T17:52:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/81 "2019-12-10T20:18:35Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > If I’m not mistaken, you can also see them in S2E30 “Vitamins,” where she’s dressed in the French maid’s outfit. :o Thank you so much **terentii**. But this is a dream sequence and those are dream panties. Oh wait, all of Mary Ann’s panties are dream panties. I sincerely believe this is very useful information and not crap that will clog my brain. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/82 "2019-12-11T06:00:16Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > Thank you so much **terentii**. > > But this is a dream sequence and those are dream panties. Oh wait, all of Mary Ann’s panties are dream panties. > > I sincerely believe this is very useful information and not crap that will clog my brain. IIRC, this pair had ruffles, too. Ruffles, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! 🆒 I have all three seasons on DVD. I’ll have to watch this episode when I get home, just to, uhm, make sure. :o ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/83 "2019-12-11T09:33:30Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I’ve heard that the LiS cast practically rebelled when they were told they had to dress as vegetables. I must’ve missed that episode. Christ, I imagine it looked like a grade-school pageant about the four food groups. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/84 "2019-12-11T10:59:55Z")
The other night I could not sleep at 2:00am and watched an entire episode of \*\*Mannix \*\*(used to love that show as a kid, hadn’t seen it in more than 4 decades). The very next day I was watching Everybody Loves Raymond. In the episode they made a joke about old farts sitting around and watching Mannix. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/85 "2019-12-11T11:22:42Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I must’ve missed that episode. > > Christ, I imagine it looked like a grade-school pageant about the four food groups. A truly lamentable gap in your education. This should bring you up to date: Enjoy! :cool: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/86 "2019-12-11T11:46:50Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > Hated _I Dream of Jeanie_ with a passion. I watched it only when really bored. Something about that pouty, whiny, robotic, “Yes, Master” and the stilted dialect they gave her (“I only wanted to please thee, Master!” “Do you not wish it, Master?”) set my teeth on edge. Ugh. And all the plots were the same. No. I think it was Larry Hagman who said in an interview that there were four basic plots, and they kept getting recycled (just like the ones on _ **Gilligan’s Island** _). \*"Ooh, Master! I will shake my \*\*boobs \*_for you!" “Ah-ha, Jeannie. Not in front of Dr Bellows!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/87 "2019-12-11T12:47:05Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > The other night I could not sleep at 2:00am and watched an entire episode of \*\*Mannix \*\*(used to love that show as a kid, hadn’t seen it in more than 4 decades). > > The very next day I was watching Everybody Loves Raymond. In the episode they made a joke about old farts sitting around and watching Mannix. Mannix holds up. It’s still good. At least season 1, which is where we are. Certified old fart here. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Brother\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_brother_1/32/3513_2.png) [@Little\_Brother\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Brother_1)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/88 "2019-12-11T21:05:41Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Do any of you watch the MeTV network? _Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, Green Acres_ (which actually is still funny and watchable). > > Last night I couldn’t sleep and ended up watching an old episode of _Voyage to the Bottom of Sea_. The Seaview discovered a space capsule on the bottom of the ocean and brought it onboard, which was pretty stupid because they didn’t know what it was and it had a pointed nose cone and fins and looked kind of like a big bomb (at least to me). > > After it was on board it opened up and a lobster man from space emerged. It pretended to be friendly but actually planned to steal their nuclear fuel and use it to destroy the human race. > > The lobster was an actor in a ridiculously bad rubber costume. It wasn’t meant to be funny but I couldn’t stop laughing. > > I suppose we only watched this junk and took it seriously because we were kids. I’m posting without first researching the Internets to get my facts straight-- but that’s OK, because it gives a more teevee-erudite poster a chance to correct and/or refute me. Anyway, I read somewhere that the success of “Batman” in 1966 warped TV producers into believing that “camp” was a ratings-boosting magic ingredient. I know that some of the series you mention were in production before 1966, but there was a tendency to camp up sci-fi action programs. I’m pretty sure that “Lost in Space” went into campy orbit instead of following its original straight sci-fi premise. It was supposed to be a sort of “Swiss Family Robinson in the stars” the way the original “Star Trek” was “Wagon Train to the stars”-- the popularity of Jonathan Harris’s Dr. Zachary Smith character and the Robot also greased the slippery slope to campy overkill. Even the TV listings blurbs of “Voyage to the Bottom, etc.” seem to confirm that the producers thought that camping it up would somehow enhance the straight sci-fi/adventure premise. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Brother\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_brother_1/32/3513_2.png) [@Little\_Brother\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Brother_1)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/89 "2019-12-11T21:25:44Z")
Speaking of vacuous and/or unintentionally creepy premises, does anyone remember “The Smothers Brothers Show”? No, not the famously canceled variety show-- the 1965-1966 sitcom that was renamed “My Brother the Angel” in syndication, although I seriously doubt that it’s been successfully syndicated in either broadcast or DVD form. See: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188362/reference](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188362/reference) To shamelessly quote from the linked IMDb plot summary, > [@](#): > > Dick is a rising young business executive who life is turned upside down when his younger brother Tom reenters his life. This wouldn’t be too unusual, but Tom had died two years earlier in a boating accident and is now an apprentice angel always trying to help others… I have very dim memories of watching the show, and recall the theme song sung by the stars. Yes, I know that the concept wasn’t original, and that Hollywood has a long tradition of successful comedies (and melodramas) featuring deceased persons returning as ghosts. So the premise wasn’t particularly daring, much less taboo. Still, I was somewhat creeped out by the idea that Tommy Smothers was a dead guy, and even the lighthearted theme setting up the premise that Tom had gone overboard “without his water wings”. Apparently I wasn’t alone, because the series sank like a stone. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/90 "2019-12-11T22:17:12Z")
I don’t recall that sitcom but I do remember their highly rated, and very good, variety show, which was canceled due mainly to it’s anti-war stance regarding Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/91 "2019-12-12T00:17:38Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > So was Jerry Van Dyke hearing voices due to undiagnosed mental illness too, in “My Mother the Car”? Or was someone trying to drive him insane by broadcasting the voice of someone pretending to be his mom? > > 😕 > [@Cochrane](#): > > It could be both. In one episode he confessed to his wife that the car contained his dead mother’s spirit and she treated him as if he was possessed. He had to pretend he was joking all along before she had him committed. Now there’s a show begging for a [darker and edgier](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkerAndEdgier) reboot! Just jettison the whole “reincarnated as a 1928 Porter” bit and the make the car a supernatural magnet that attracts and traps the souls of the recently deceased of which the titular “Mother” is the first. Like in the original, her son ends up with the car but, as the series goes on, other newly dead souls join her since the vehicle’s spirit capacity is near-infinite. Also, instead of setting the series in a typical sitcom household, make it a road series as the son searches the country for the holy man who can exorcise the car and send Mother and the other souls to their eternal rewards. All the while, they’re all pursued by a necromancer tries through honest and dishonest means to acquire the car on behalf of a mysterious benefactor. (I wasted a lot my brain just writing that entry.) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/92 "2019-12-12T00:38:41Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > \ > > (I wasted a lot my brain just writing that entry.) Hey, I like the idea! ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/93 "2019-12-12T03:59:10Z")
_ **’doom despair and agony on me, if I din’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all, doom despair and agony on me’** _ BR549 ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/94 "2019-12-12T04:12:05Z")
> [@simster](#): > > _ **‘doom despair and agony on me, if I din’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all, doom despair and agony on me’** _ > > BR549 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZAAKPJEq1Ew/hqdefault.jpg "Gloom, Despair & Agony...") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAAKPJEq1Ew) ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/95 "2019-12-12T04:35:40Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > [https://youtu.be/ZAAKPJEq1Ew](https://youtu.be/ZAAKPJEq1Ew) I hate you… ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/96 "2019-12-12T05:07:20Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Hey, I like the idea! Well, it might work I guess. I was just flippantly combining the most infamously inane and infantile American sitcom ever broadcast with the increasingly-tired trend to give old TV shows, movies, and comic books “darker and edgier” reboots. However, I now wonder if someone, without disclosing anything about the original source material, could successfully pitch this in Hollywood and how long it would take before anyone realized it was a remake of “My Mother the Car.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/97 "2019-12-12T06:16:52Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Well, it might work I guess. I was just flippantly combining the most infamously inane and infantile American sitcom ever broadcast with the increasingly-tired trend to give old TV shows, movies, and comic books “darker and edgier” reboots. However, I now wonder if someone, without disclosing anything about the original source material, could successfully pitch this in Hollywood and how long it would take before anyone realized it was a remake of “My Mother the Car.” Like I said, I like the idea. I don’t see it as a remake of “My Mother the Car,” but I do see it as something inspired by that show. Really, given what you posted, Mother is just one of the spirits in the car. The others could be anybody, and plots could revolve around them. Mother need not be in every episode. If I can further refine your idea, let’s call it something like “Afterlife Road,” and make it into an hour-long drama. Next, look at it as a modern-day “The Fugitive,” with a beginning, a middle, and an end; but where each episode can stand on its own, as long as the viewer understands the basic premise. As I said, I like it. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/98 "2019-12-12T13:10:01Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Like I said, I like the idea. I don’t see it as a remake of “My Mother the Car,” but I do see it as something inspired by that show. Really, given what you posted, Mother is just one of the spirits in the car. The others could be anybody, and plots could revolve around them. Mother need not be in every episode. > > If I can further refine your idea, let’s call it something like “Afterlife Road,” and make it into an hour-long drama. Next, look at it as a modern-day “The Fugitive,” with a beginning, a middle, and an end; but where each episode can stand on its own, as long as the viewer understands the basic premise. As I said, I like it. Wait! Add in a little Route 66 and stir in some Ghost Whisperer. The recently deceased souls have some unfinished business, something holding them from moving on. And they need to have it settled before they can move on. So the car travels all over the country to the locations of said unfinished business. The JvD surrogate guides them, like JLH in GW. The car is such a soul magnet that souls come to it from all over the country, so lots of driving. Sometimes the soul takes over and drives, like Knight Rider. It SINGS! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/99 "2019-12-12T13:26:25Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Wait! > > Add in a little Route 66 and stir in some Ghost Whisperer. > > The recently deceased souls have some unfinished business, something holding them from moving on. And they need to have it settled before they can move on. So the car travels all over the country to the locations of said unfinished business. The JvD surrogate guides them, like JLH in GW. The car is such a soul magnet that souls come to it from all over the country, so lots of driving. Sometimes the soul takes over and drives, like Knight Rider. > > It SINGS! Throw in _Christine_ and you’ve got a smash. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/100 "2019-12-12T14:15:51Z")
Who DOESN’T see what you did there? Dan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521.md?page=6)