History Film / TheLoveBug

[[AC:The main series consists of:]]

* '''''The Love Bug''''' (1968) -- Down-on-his-luck racing driver Jim Douglas (Creator/DeanJones) gets more than he bargained for when he acquires a second-hand Beetle. The car is named "Herbie" by his mechanic, Tennessee Steinmetz (Creator/BuddyHackett), who is the first to realize that the car's odd behavior is more than just an idiosyncratic collection of mechanical faults. Peter Thorndyke (Creator/DavidTomlinson), the snooty car salesman and race car driver who sold Herbie to Jim, is driven crazy when Jim starts winning races with his new car. Thorndyke tries to find out the secret of "the little car" while also sabotaging it. Meanwhile, Jim falls in love with Carole (Michele Lee), Thorndyke's assistant.
* '''''Herbie Rides Again''''' (1974) -- Herbie is left with Tennessee's aunt Mrs. Steinmetz (Helen Hayes) while Jim and Tennessee are out of the country, and helps save her home from evil property developer Alonzo Hawk (Creator/KeenanWynn), all while helping tough airline stewardess Nicole Harris (Stefanie Powers) fall in love with timid lawyer Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry), who turns out to be Hawk's nephew. Features a DisneyAcidSequence not found in other films.
* '''''Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo''''' (1977) -- Herbie and Jim reunite for a career comeback in a French car rally with goofy mechanic Wheely Applegate (Creator/DonKnotts). To add to their troubles, two bumbling jewel thieves hide a stolen diamond in Herbie and the Love Bug ends up falling in love with another sentient racecar owned by Diane Darcy (Julie Sommars), a tough woman racer. First Herbie film directed by Vincent [=McEveety=] and shot on location in Paris and Monte Carlo.
* '''''Herbie Goes Bananas''''' (1980) -- Jim's nephew, Pete Stancheck (Stephen W. Burns), ends up finding Herbie in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico after an unknown debacle in Baja California. Intent on taking Herbie to race in Brazil, Pete and his friend DJ (Charles Martin Smith) come to a pickpocket named Paco (Joaquin Garay III) that gets them embroiled with a group of gold smugglers. After Herbie causes trouble on the ship, Paco reunites with Herbie and, with help from the happy Aunt Louise (Cloris Leachman) and the blustering Captain Blythe ([[Series/TheCarolBurnettShow Harvey Korman]]), Herbie ends up fighting bulls, selling bananas, and munching on a plane. The last in the classic Herbie films.
* '''''Herbie: Fully Loaded''''' (2005) -- Now long forgotten, Herbie winds up in a junkyard where he's bought as a college graduation present for Maggie Peyton (Creator/LindsayLohan) by her overprotective father Ray Sr. (Creator/MichaelKeaton)--yet he doesn't seem to have any issues with Ray Jr. (Creator/BreckinMeyer), despite him having ''several'' crashes and is clearly not cut out for his family's racing legacy. With Herbie's help, Maggie dons the disguise of "MAXX" and goes to a car show where Herbie beats arrogant, egotistical champion racer Trip Murphy (Creator/MattDillon). Murphy demands a rematch and vows to discover the secret behind the mysterious VW bug.

* '''''Herbie, the Love Bug''''' (1982) -- A five-episode miniseries directed by Vincent [=McEveety=] and starring Dean Jones. Semi-retired single man Jim Douglas runs the "Famous Driving School" with his mechanic Bo and of course semi-retired racecar Herbie. After foiling a bank robbery, Jim meets soon-to-be-married Susan [=MacLane=] (Patricia Harty) and her children Julie ([[Franchise/BackToTheFuture Claudia Wells]]), Robbie (Douglas Emerson), and Matthew (Nicky Katt). After Herbie inadvertently interrupts Susan's wedding to jealous bank manager Randy Bigelow ([[Series/{{MASH}} Larry Linville]]), Jim and Susan spark a romance as Randy tries all he can to discredit or sabotage Douglas and his little car. All episodes are on Youtube and can be watched [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcbLWnNRuf0&list=PL43ooqSfaVzGM_dIS-1IR4_DN5GnEFYR8 here]].
* '''''The Love Bug''''' (1997) -- TV movie directed by Creator/PeytonReed. Repeats the basic "Herbie helps out a down-on-his-luck driver" plot of the original (it's not a reboot, but more of an example of how events tend to repeat themselves). Creator/BruceCampbell stars as former-driver-turned-mechanic Hank Cooper working at Chuck's Car Shop. After winning Herbie in a fix-it competition, Cooper tries to start a relationship with former flame and racing journalist Alex Woodward (Alexandra Wentworth) while evading Simon Moore III (John Hannah), a disgraced UsefulNotes/FormulaOne driver and Herbie's owner at the film's beginning. Introduces Herbie's evil twin Horace the "Hate Bug" as well as a nonsensical origin story for Herbie (in which he was developed as some sort of "special weapon" under false pretenses but only came alive when a photograph of his creator's wife falls into a vat of metal compound.) Dean Jones also makes a surprise cameo and references meeting Carole, so this film could be considered part of the official canon.

** Thorndyke. Particularly when he encounters the bear in his car.

* HydrantGeyser: In the 80s TV series Herbie uses this trope to soak a used car salesman, as revenge for Jim & Susan buying a station wagon from him. [[RealityEnsues He gets towed away for damaging city property.]]

** Horace from ''The Love Bug'' (1997), possibly the only real evil-looking Volkswagen in film history (aside from [[ThoseWackyNazis the obvious]].

** Horace from ''The Love Bug'' (1997), possibly the only real evil-looking Volkswagen in history.

* '''''The Love Bug''''' (1968) -- Down-on-his-luck racing driver Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) gets more than he bargained for when he acquires a second-hand Beetle. The car is named "Herbie" by his mechanic, Tennessee Steinmetz (Creator/BuddyHackett), who is the first to realize that the car's odd behavior is more than just an idiosyncratic collection of mechanical faults. Peter Thorndyke (Creator/DavidTomlinson), the snooty car salesman and race car driver who sold Herbie to Jim, is driven crazy when Jim starts winning races with his new car. Thorndyke tries to find out the secret of "the little car" while also sabotaging it. Meanwhile, Jim falls in love with Carole (Michele Lee), Thorndyke's assistant.

** Thorndyke and his co-driver Havershaw do this rigorously throughout the El Dorado race, such as using an oil slick to send Herbie off the road, stopping to change a road sign to send Herbie and the rest of the race cars to travel down an old mine, or rolling a tree onto the racetrack. Amusingly, these cheats had a tendency to backfire on him; the oil slick distracted Thorndyke enough he drove off the road as well, the mine actually allowed Herbie to pull ''ahead'' of Thorndyke, and Thorndyke ends up stuffed into Herbie's trunk when Herbie comes to the tree in the road.

* '''''The Love Bug''''' (1997) -- TV movie directed by [[Film/BringItOn Peyton]] [[Film/AntMan1 Reed]]. Repeats the basic "Herbie helps out a down-on-his-luck driver" plot of the original (it's not a reboot, but more of an example of how events tend to repeat themselves). Creator/BruceCampbell stars as former-driver-turned-mechanic Hank Cooper working at Chuck's Car Shop. After winning Herbie in a fix-it competition, Cooper tries to start a relationship with former flame and racing journalist Alex Woodward (Alexandra Wentworth) while evading Simon Moore III (John Hannah), a disgraced UsefulNotes/FormulaOne driver and Herbie's owner at the film's beginning. Introduces Herbie's evil twin Horace the "Hate Bug" as well as a nonsensical origin story for Herbie (in which he was developed as some sort of "special weapon" under false pretenses but only came alive when a photograph of his creator's wife falls into a vat of metal compound.) Dean Jones also makes a surprise cameo and references meeting Carole, so this film could be considered part of the official canon.

* SlobsVsSnobs: The down-on-his-luck driver Jim and his hippie friend Tennessee vs. the very snobby British businessman Peter Thorndyke.

-->'''Peter Thorndyke''': [[NoIndoorVoice "BLAST you, Havershaw! How dare you patronize me! I am not losing my nerve!"]]

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: A minor version, but Herbie keeps coming up with new, increasingly impossible tricks he can employ for the movies. This ranges from driving up walls (or ceilings), vaulting long distances by using other cars as ramps, to outright bending his own body in ways cars were not meant to in ''Herbie Goes Bananas''.

* MechanicalEvolution: Tennessee believes machines are becoming sentient. Such as a giant claw machine in the Sutro Amusement Park that [[ThrowTheDogABone took pity on him when he was broke]], giving him cameras and watches so he could hawk them for lunch. Contrariwise the traffic lights down the street which seems to hate him and he has [[IrrationalHatred no idea why]]. Making him wait 6 seconds longer than anyone else (he timed it). But he can't share his theories with anyone but Jim for or people will [[JustAMachine think he's mad]].

* MechanicalEvolution: Tennessee believes machines are becoming sentient. Such as a giant claw machine in the Sutro Amusement Park that [[ThrowTheDogABone took pity on him when he was broke]], giving him cameras and watches so he could hawk them for lunch. Contrariwise the traffic lights down the street which seems to hates him and he has [[IrrationalHatred no idea why]]. Making him wait 6 seconds longer than anyone else (he timed it). But he can't share his theories with anyone but Jim for or people will [[JustAMachine think he's mad]].

* FortuneTeller: In ''Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo'', Herbie rampages through a Gypsy camp. A Gypsy fortune teller tells a horrified client that "Darkness is about to fall on you." The next instant, [[VisualPun Herbie hits the tent, collapsing it.]]

* '''''Herbie Rides Again''''' (1974) -- Herbie is left with Tennessee's aunt Mrs. Steinmetz (Helen Hayes) while Jim and Tennessee are out of the country, and helps save her home from evil property developer Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn), all while helping tough airline stewardess Nicole Harris (Stefanie Powers) fall in love with timid lawyer Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry), who turns out to be Hawk's nephew. Features a DisneyAcidSequence not found in other films.

* '''''Herbie: Fully Loaded''''' (2005) -- Now long forgotten, Herbie winds up in a junkyard where he's bought as a college graduation present for Maggie Peyton (Creator/LindsayLohan) by her overprotective father Ray Sr. (Creator/MichaelKeaton)--yet he doesn't seem to have any issues with Ray Jr. (Breckin Meyer), despite him having ''several'' crashes and is clearly not cut out for his family's racing legacy. With Herbie's help, Maggie dons the disguise of "MAXX" and goes to a car show where Herbie beats arrogant, egotistical champion racer Trip Murphy (Creator/MattDillon). Murphy demands a rematch and vows to discover the secret behind the mysterious VW bug.