History Series / MyMotherTheCar

* M'saliciousMisnaming: Done as a RunningGag with Captain Manzini. ("I'll get my hands on that Porter yet, Crankcase." "Crabtree." "Whatever.")

* MaliciousMisnaming: Done as a RunningGag with Captain Manzini. ("I'll get my hands on that Porter yet, Crankcase." "Crabtree." "Whatever.")

* TemporalParadox: How does a dead mother get reincarnated into a car that ''already exists?'' The explanation from the show is that you don't get to choose what you come back as when you 'apply' for it in the afterlife.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/my_mother_the_car.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[ExpositoryThemeTune A 1928 Porter, that's my Mother dear...]]'']]

''My Mother the Car'' is considered by many people to be one of the worst television series ever made. However, to people who have deemed it SoOkayItsAverage, there are other shows much worthier of that title. Still, despite – or perhaps ''because'' of – its reputation, it has enough of a cult following to have gotten a complete release on DVD. It has also aired on Creator/AntennaTV, and you can find episodes (including the pilot) on Website/YouTube.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Mother doesn’t actively seek out Dave in the pilot — he discovers her accidentally while shopping for a car. She merely happens to be at the lot he's visited that day and had he passed that specific car by instead of checking it out, probably never would have even known his mother was in that particular vehicle.

In 1965, Creator/{{NBC}} was looking for a show to air on Tuesday nights opposite ''[[Series/Combat1962 Combat!]]'' and ''Series/{{Rawhide}}''. Their answer: this FantasticComedy series about a woman who has been reincarnated as an automobile.

Despite this, NBC left the show on for its entire 30-episode season, probably to burn off the episodes and recoup some sort of investment (a common tactic in television). It should be noted that Creator/JamesLBrooks, now well known as a film director and as one of the executive producers of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', worked on this show as a writer. His [[OldShame dis]][[CreatorBacklash dain]] for the series allowed ''The Simpsons'' to [[TakeThat poke fun at it]] a few times.

Creator/JerryVanDyke starred as Dave Crabtree, an attorney and typically hapless sitcom family man who discovered that the spirit of his deceased mother ([[TheVoice voiced]] by Ann Sothern) had returned to inhabit a 1928 Porter open touring car. Most plots involved Dave getting into situations with his family and neighbors, and dealing with the various headaches of owning a [[TheAllegedCar vintage]] car. The show even had a recurring villain in Captain Manzini (Avery Schreiber), an obsessed automobile collector who was bent on acquiring Mother to complete his collection. (Apparently it was the only make and model of the car to exist.)

''My Mother the Car'' is considered by many people to be one of the worst television series ever made. However, to people who have deemed it SoOkayItsAverage, there are other shows much worthier of that title. Still, despite--or perhaps ''because'' of--its reputation, it has enough of a cult following to have gotten a complete release on DVD. It has also aired on Creator/AntennaTV, and you can find episodes (including the pilot) on Website/YouTube.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mother's actual name is never revealed.

In 1965, Creator/{{NBC}} was looking for a show to air on Tuesday nights opposite ''[[Series/Combat1962 Combat!]]'' and ''Series/{{Rawhide}}''. Their answer: this FantasticComedy series about a woman who's been reincarnated as an automobile.

Well you all may think my story is more fiction than it's fact\\

The show was critically lambasted, and led NBC to become something of a laughingstock for green-lighting it in the first place. The UsefulNotes/{{ratings}} were horrid across the board, save for viewers in the younger {{demographics}} who were more inclined to watch something fun and silly than the two serious dramas competing in the timeslot. (While that might actually be enough to keep a modern show on the air, in those days the networks only looked at total viewership numbers in deciding which shows to renew. Also, most households at the time only owned one [=TV=] set and parents were generally the ones who decided what to watch, limiting potential viewers further.)