Just been watching one of the numerous house programmes on TV(Channel 4's Selling Houses) and noticed the camera lingering for rather a long time on the Peugeot 607 driven by the presenter.
If you watch Location, Location, Location you'll see them do the same with a Volvo XC90.
Not really bothered about a debate about the pros and cons of soft marketing, but it got me thinking once again about the long, chequered relationship between cars and TV.
Everybody has their favourite, but for my money you can't beat VHK 741S, a Granada which used to appear on The Sweeney back in the 1970s.
And if you don't agree with me, then in the words of Jack Regan...shut iiit!
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I know they get money for 'product placement' - sauce on table, cornflakes, drinking x from can,etc.,etc..
Perhaps it applies to cars?
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Selling Houses, or whatever it's called, proves that the buyer knows nothing about buying cars, or maybe just a bit about product placement?
Oh and personally, I preferred VHK295M, the Roman Bronze Consul 3.0 GT they used in the earlier series. The styling, in its proportions, actually reminds me of the new Mondeo saloon, which is why I like it so much, especially the unpretentious ST220 which is a good handling car with a massive engine at a semi-sensible price - heaven!
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Don't think any money changes hands on product placement. Just as they loan out press cars for a week or so to newspapers or magazines, so they dole them out to TV programmes where there are clear 'synergies'.
Presumably, 'Selling Houses' concentrates on large amorphous properties which shed value rather quickly!
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As a bit of an insider, the car is normally provided on free loan for the duration of the shoot. Most of the time it is driven around by stressed assistant producers or researchers, rather than letting them loose on the crew vehicles (Galaxys, Vitos usually).
Yoby
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I seem to remember that in the first series of the Professionals they drove Austin Allegros! In the next series they had changed to Ford (I think). Ford went out of their way to pander to the film crews aware of the prestige to be gained.
Many celebrities get cars for free from Vauxhall, Rover, Porsche etc. Can't be bad.
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Isn't the internet wonderful?
www.personal.u-net.com/~carnfort/Professionals/pro...m
Not quite Allegros, they had some Rovers and Triumphs. The story appears to be that they reluctantly used British Leyland cars as a stopgap measure until they had completed negotiations with Ford.
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Cyd should follow the link above.
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Biglig: Thanks. The internet is indeed impressive.
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My favourite scene from the Professionals is when Bodie was being chased in his Capri, he bazzes round a corner, handbrakes it across the road, jumps out slithers across the bonnet, pulls out his shooter all ready for the bad guys. Only they don't appear and he's left looking a right wally in front of a bus queue.
Or was that a scene from one of those comedy Famous 5 type extracting the Michael from the Professionals programmes?
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How about KAR 120C - the Lotus 7 from the intro to The Prisoner. Or one of the mini-moke taxis from the village?
Terry
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...or the Ford Torino from Starsky & Hutch. Looked the mut's nuts in its day, but I've got no idea whether its tail-out antics were the result of genuine talent or just a stunt driver making the most of a bag of nails.
Used to like the Chevy Camaro which Jim Rockford drove, too. And Frank Cannon's Lincoln Continental - big car for a big guy...
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I thought Jim Rockford's car was a Pontiac Firebird? I seem to remember the Firebird on the hood. But I could be wrong.
Sad I know, but I thought Roger Moore's Volvo P1800 was the bees knees in The Saint. Apparently the producers asked Jaguar for an E-Type, but they weren't interested. So Volvo came up with the goods.
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Columbo's 403 convertible.
From when Peugeot made 'rather good' cars.
If you take one to Poland it might be best to remove the wipers before setting off on your sailing boat...
Columbo's paintwork could certainly do with some Meguiars...
Just one more thing; don't use hypoid in the worm drive diff.
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...not forgetting the Arkansas Chug-a-bug or the Boulder Mobile from Wacky Racers.
I really am losing it now...
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00 The Mean Machine Dastardly and Muttley
01 The Bouldermobile The Slag Brothers
02 The Creepy Coupe The Gruesome Twosome
03 Convert-A-Car Professor Pat Pending
04 The Crimson Haybailer The Red Max
05 The Compact Pussycat Penelope Pitstop
06 The Army Surplus Special Meekley and Sarge
07 The Bullet Proof Bomb The Ant Hill Mob
08 Arkansas Chug-a-Bug Luke and Blubber Bear
09 The Turbo Terrific Peter Perfect
10 The Buzzwagon Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth
Sad or what? But hey my fav would be an SPV.................
SPV whats that? Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle - drive it backwards!
or Ed Strikers jet engined car with Gull wing doors from UFO
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Goodness RF, yes sad indeed! But very interesting too. Sadly I hoped this would bring back a few memories, but I can only picture 00, 01, 05 and 09 at the moment. And possibly 02. Loved the Bouldermobile the best - I often wondered when I had my old Renault if I might be better off driving the way they did.
Guess I'm sad for answering, too!
HF
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I can only picture 00, 01, 05 and 09 at the moment.
HF,
www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/wackyraces/characte...l
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Ta, DD, it's all coming back now. I'll refrain from turning this into another 'reminiscence about old tv programmes' thread though ;)
HF
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Goodness RF, yes sad indeed! But very interesting too. Sadly I hoped this would bring back a few memories, but I can only picture 00, 01, 05 and 09 at the moment. And possibly 02. Loved the Bouldermobile the best - I often wondered when I had my old Renault if I might be better off driving the way they did. Guess I'm sad for answering, too! HF
Hmmm interesting pyscological profile
Means you fancy blond women, and you think of yourself as a bit of a caveman or cad but smooth type. Defintely a "hunter gatherer"
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ROFLMAO RF!!!!
I'm afraid you need to get your psychology text book out again! Oh, if only you knew how far wrong you are ;)))
HF
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>Everybody has their favourite, but for my money you can't beat VHK 741S, a Granada which used to appear on The Sweeney back in the 1970s.
>And if you don't agree with me, then in the words of Jack Regan...shut iiit!
Reminds me of the time he got a new driver. Regan opened the huge glovebox on the granny and found an apple. Chucked it out the window and said "the boys git 'ungry, I wannit filled wiv Crisps, cheese sandwiches - the kind wrapped in plastic, oh and chocolate, lots of chocolate GOT IIT!"
Cant do that now we have passenger airbags, gloveboxes are pathetic these days
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My favorite is that orange Dodge Charger in The Dukes of Hazzard: "General Lee" with #1 on the doors. All that leaping over buildings and stuff. Friday nights 8 p.m. 1979-85 on Saudi TV.
D of H trivia is legion but did you know they got through 19 Dodges filming that series?!
The muscle car era, good honest cars, no messing,can't beat 'em vs the emasculated wheezing PC stuff they make nowadays.
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I loved that programme when I was a kid. I have still got a toy version of general lee and aim to buy a real one eventually. Might not have the orange paint though! It doesn't surprise about the number of cars they got through.It also explains why the shot of them jumping over the large creek is the same one every time they do it......
I also wanted a car like Kitt out of Knightrider until I discovered it was a not very good pontiac under there.
teabelly
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Firebird or Z-28? I forget. My daughter loved that programme and was thrilled when my company gave me a Datsun 240 which spoke to you in a metallic Japanese voice ("Fasten seat belt", "handbrake is on" "lights are on", "service car soon", etc) but couldn't understand why it wouldn't return a conversation like Kitt's!
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My First car, all mine, was the nearest I could get to KITT .. a talking Renault 25 TXi
rojer@lycos.co.uk
Astra, Renault 18, Renault 25 TXi, Astra Est, Passat Est, Mercedes 190E, Mercedes
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My favorite is that orange Dodge Charger in The Dukes of Hazzard: D of H trivia is legion but did you know they got through 19 Dodges filming that series?!
I heard it was closer to 80 per series.
Did anyone notice that the wiper blades were there one minute, then gone the next?
I must confess to still occasionally watching it on the satellite channel, Granada+
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I must confess to still occasionally watching it...
Nothing to with Daisy Duke then DD?
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>> I must confess to still occasionally watching it... Nothing to with Daisy Duke then DD?
Boss Hogg was the real hero. How can you fail to admire someone who was clearly the inspiration for the back end of the BMW 7 series?
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Yep!
The "new driver" was Kevin Savage, who went on to be a radio/TV presenter, and later a radio station owner here in Cape Town.
Great fellow, used to drink in the local pub [the Drunken Springbok, now sadly closed] at lunchtime - did some very plucky work with the elbow...
On a non-motoring theme, he was infamous for setting up half an hour of music on the computer, and popping out for a swift pint DURING his show ... he'd walk in, ask the landlady to tune to KFM, and when the last song of the 'set' came on, he'd scuttle back to the studio, sharpish!
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I ought to know this but it's at the back of my VHS collection. What was it Burt Reynolds drove in Smokey and The Bandit? Sally Fields' delightful derriere tended to distract one from the rest of the proceedings. And the ex-police cruiser in the Blues Brothers? A Buick I think.
In more decorous vein we can't overlook Morse's Jaguar 3.8. I get a Japanese cable channel titled "The Mystery Channel" which serves up Brit re-runs, inter alia, and it's quite hilarious watching a cranky Morse berate a slow-witted Lewis in dubbed Japanese over the mandatory pints of bitter. Goodness knows what they make of it in Yokohama. Surely sub-titles would have been cheaper!
And Maigret's Citroen Traction Avant must be a classic.
Oh, forgot Lootenant Colombo's beat-up Peugeot (306?) with the ripped ragtop.
How about the Morris 1100 being thrashed by John Cleese in Fawlty Towers - "you stupid b******d! Why won't you go? That's what we bought you for!"
..now we're getting into OAP-land: Roger Moore's Volvo P1800 in the b & w Saint series.
And what did Mrs Peel drive? All those episodes filmed in exactly the same set of ?Bucks lanes, so after you'd watched 18 episodes you could pretty much predict that the baddies would shoot out of the side turning by that pub round the next bend.
The Avengers was the only TV series I can ever recall my drinking mates leaving the pub before closing time to go home and watch. Nowadays they'd have it on wide screen at the end of the bar.
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>And Maigret's Citroen Traction Avant must be a classic.
It was a 1954 Paris built 15/6 - 6 cylnder 2867cc "hydraulique"
This means it was fitted with the new Hydropneumatic suspension on the back, prior to it being used in the D's.
The car is still owned (or was in 1995) By Rupert Davies (who played Maigret) family.
Probably the best value classic car around, prices range from £5k for good tidy UK built Light 15s to £12k for rare french models.
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What was it Burt Reynolds drove in Smokey and The Bandit?
77 Trans AM
Blues Brothers:
" It's got a cop motor of four hundred and forty cubic inch plant, it's got cop tyres, cop suspension, cop shocks, it was a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. What do ya say, is it the new Blues Mobile or what?"
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LOL, 'nuff said -- I have the DVD's must re-watch!
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Blues Brothers: " It's got a cop motor of four hundred and forty cubic inch plant, it's got cop tyres, cop suspension, cop shocks, it was a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. What do ya say, is it the new Blues Mobile or what?"
To which Jake replied:- "Fix the cigarette lighter."
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>> Blues Brothers: >> \" It\'s got a cop motor of four hundred and forty >> cubic inch plant, it\'s got cop tyres, cop suspension, >> cop shocks, >> it was a model made before catalytic converters so it\'ll >> run good on regular gas. What do ya say, is it the >> new Blues Mobile or what?\" To which Jake replied:- \"Fix the cigarette lighter.\"
Problem solved, Growler:
\"We are in pursuit of a \'74 Dodge sedan, with Illinois plates.\"
Sad, or what?
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