While completing computer work I'll usually have music or TV on, for background white noise. There isn't really much interesting that is new, which gravitates to old shows. The vehicles catch my attention more than the shows. The cars in the background often have more character and are more interesting than the shows, or than new shows would be, cars, actors and all.
This weekend had on both "The Wrecking Crew" and "Mr Bean" and saw so many interesting vehicles...

Today's shows cannot have interesting vehicles, because they all essentially look alike.

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
Today's shows cannot have interesting vehicles, because they all essentially look alike.

There's a small town in NW MT that has a classic car get together every summer for a weekend. A few years ago I was working up there that weekend and staying at a local motel. I got up early Saturday morning to head in to work and looked out at the parking lot filled with 50s, 60s, and 70s cars...all in near perfect condition, and all different. It was like stepping back in time and was quite a refreshing change from looking at pretty much any parking lot these days. They all look the same. Some iteration of an SUV in colors ranging from grey to white.

Perry Mason reruns, always a great group of stylish vehicles.

Peter Gunn. Cool Convertible! With a car phone!

There’s a classic murder mystery movie and the protagonist drives a ‘39 Plymouth business coupe. Mitchum?, para will know. I’ve seen the movie at least twice and a good part of the attraction is that car.

I think it’s Bogart in The Big Sleep

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TMats, May 15, 2022 09:09 PM

I've done that for many years now. A movie from the late 60's
I'm always looking for the muscle cars.

We watch a lot of British mystery series. The period ones--Agatha Christie, Poirot, etc.--have wonderful classic English cars from the 20's through the 50's. If I can't recognize it I look it up on imcdb.org. I amaze my wife when I say "Look! It's a Bristol!"

Brave a gander at these movies,

Invasion of the Saucer Men
The Giant Gila Monster
Teenagers from Outer Space

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World has AMAZING cars. They also crash quite a few of them. . . There is a '53 Vette (the only Corvette I noticed in the entire movie) that appears in two scenes. They did a really good job of switching out the cars in the background.

My new hobby is to watch old movies as an 'historian.' I enjoy the movie for what it is, but I also see what I can learn about the era in which the movie was made. I check out the old cars, see everybody smoking and drinking (and often driving), see different attitudes about women and 'alternate lifestyles,' etc. You won't see men joking about 'women drivers' in a Marvel movie, for example (unless he's the bad guy or they want you to know he's a really bad person).

I enjoy spotting the really cool old cars in the older movies, too. It's different seeing a movie filmed recently taking place in the 50/60/70/80s, vs a movie made in the same time frame.

Driving Miss Daisey,
The adventures of Superman.

CGI owns the screen today, reducing the need to put together 500 cars for a few scenes during a chase.

Back in the 70's car scenes were done with real cars and drivers, probably why we like seeing them, the reality of the situation playing out with humans driving and crashing cars..

If you want to see cool cars, watch American Graffiti to get an eye full of American car culture.

Anywho, some cool car chase scenes of the 70's, and yes Bullitt, the coolest isn't in the list, because it was a 60's movie.

I always like the car Maxwell Smart mostly drove - Sunbeam Tiger which I always loved.
I think initially or at some point here may have been a Karmen Ghia and perhaps others but the Sunbeam was awesome.

Likewise the Volvo P1800 in the Saint.

or the Firebird of Jim Rockford.

Sorry, this is so big! But wonderful!!

I like to watch Adam-12. Everytime they roll down the street I can't help but think of all those classics that would be worth a lot today. A lot of VW bugs and vans.

Watched a show called Full Custom Garage, a customer of Ian's has a movie prop business in LA, said one job was to find over 2000 cars in LA from the 60's for a movie. Said it was a bear to do but they got it done.

Presuming cars for going up and down streets, parked on the side, driveways etc.

I knew a nurse who owned (IIRC) a Corsair which she rented out pretty frequently as an "extra" in movies and TV.
For that purpose you want a car that's not really rare; it needs to be common enough to look believable in a street scene for a certain period.

Did you ever notice in the old movies. 50's and before... that more often than not if the car was parked on a city street the driver got in on the passenger side and just slid over?

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
I knew a nurse who owned (IIRC) a Corsair which she rented out pretty frequently as an "extra" in movies and TV.
For that purpose you want a car that's not really rare; it needs to be common enough to look believable in a street scene for a certain period.

^That's really interesting!

quote:

Did you ever notice in the old movies. 50's and before... that more often than not if the car was parked on a city street the driver got in on the passenger side and just slid over?

Kinda hard to do that in today's cars

Frank Cannon (William Conrad, Cannon, 1971-76) with his Lincoln Mark IV (the hood alone is as long as some new cars) and his mobile phone the size of a large suitcase. Cannon TV series

And Barnaby Jones (after he moved to Beverly) had a cool LTD coupe. Mannix had a cool Dodge Dart GTS.