Breaking News Interruption: In its original run, the last episode was interrupted by a special bulletin involving NASA. When it was over, the show did not resume. It wouldn't be until later that the final episode was shown in its entirety.
It's been joked in a SimpsonsDVD Commentary that mentioning James L. Brooks' stint as a writer on this series would get you fired. He and series co-creator Allen Burns later created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which included several in-jokes about My Mother the Car such as the WJM program grid featuring reruns of the show several times a day.
Even while the show was still airing, Maggie Pierce (Barbara Crabtree) admitted that, while she liked the show, she didn't necessarily think her character was "wonderful".
Maggie Pierce: Of course, I like the show. But that doesn't necessarily mean that I think my character is wonderful. She isn't. My role is all hemmed in. Jerry and the car get all the laughs.
Executive Meddling: The sole reason the show got a full series run, oddly enough- despite the low ratings from the outset, the network deduced that running the entire series as ordered would be more profitable than cancellation, as they had already spent the initial cost on sets and the two prop cars used, coupled with paying out for breaking contracts if they ended the series early.
Ann Sothern's motivation for being in the show: a chance to earn television-level salary for radio-level acting.
While not money directly, Maggie Pierce, the actress who played Jerry Van Dyke's wife Barbara, freely admitted while the show was still airing that she was just using it as a "stepping stone" because she considered that to succeed in show business and to become well-known in it one had to be a regular on a TV series. (Ironically, this would be the last series she worked in.)
Maggie Pierce: All I'm interested in is using the show for as much publicity value as I can get. [...] I took the part because to succeed in this business and to become well-known you have to be on a series regularly.
No Export for You: Due to the premise of the show and its sheer unpopularity in the States, the only known countries (according with both Wikipedia and IMDb) which broadcasted this show were France, Italy, Japan and bizarrely enough, the former Soviet Union, of all places. No other western countries, not even the ones from the geographically close Latin America, got this show.note The Latin American case is worth of mention here, because traditionally Latin America, and especially speaking, Mexico, has being considered as a dumping ground for failed or unpopular U.S. shows, being this one the few exceptions on this rule.
The series ensured that Jerry Van Dyke would remain stuck in the shadow of his brother Dick (having even made guest appearances on The Dick Van Dyke Show) until he landed the role of assistant coach Luther Van Dam on Coach in the '90s, roughly three decades later.
Maggie Pierce, the actress who played the lead character's wife Barbara, had appeared on small roles in films and guest roles in TV shows in the early '60s, but this ended up being her last role on a TV series, as this, alongside The Fastest Guitar Alive, a Non-Actor Vehicle for musician Roy Orbison that was a flop with audiences and critics, seem to have killed Pierce's nascent acting career.note Ironically, she had stated on interviews that her main motivation to star in the series was because she considered that to succeed in show business she had to be a regular on a TV series. She had become a theatre producer until her death in 2010.
What Could Have Been: Jerry Van Dyke turned down the title role in Gilligan's Island because he thought the concept of that show was too strange. He ended up getting something far more preposterous instead. He had also been offered a role on The Andy Griffith Show to replace Don Knotts (Van Dyke appeared in the final episode of season 5, set up to be a returning character) but turned that down as well.
The 2013 TGG DVD box set removed the show's omnipresent Laugh Track, splitting reviewers as to whether it let the humor breathe a little better, or killed what few good jokes there were by throwing off the timing with awkward silence.
