Things you find unexpectedly

I bought a DVD set of classic movies a while back and when I watched them this weekend, found that some of them were actually early 50s TV movies.. sponsored by Chrysler and Plymouth!

These were "Plymouth Playhouse" and "Chrysler Climax!" productions and I think a couple of them may have actually been live-to-tape. The neat thing was the vintage Mopar ads incorporated in them. Hats off to whoever decided to not edit the original commercials out!

I think I found this set in a WalMart $5 movie bin if anyone's interested in finding a set. Some of the stuff was typically-for-the-time overacted, but the commercials made it worth the price of admission!

In a similar theme, the old Peter Gunn shows are lots of fun. The plots are thin but some great characters, jazz music, fifties sets and film noir lighting, and all the great Chrysler products (Gunn's Plymouth convertible, and the villain's black Imperial in nearly every show).

I have a Peter Gunn set too and enjoy those for the cars and the jazz. I do remember seeing one of the PG crooks driving a late-30s Buick in several episodes.

Then again I'll watch cheesy 70s TV shows for the cars, and 60s Bewitched and Hazel for all the then-new Chevys and Fords. Ya gotta believe that those product placements sold some cars, otherwise they wouldn't have loaned them.

Carmakers' TV product placement could probably warrant its own thread.

The other day, saw a Curtis Aerocar 5th wheel trailer pulled by a Packard coupe in a 1933 Will Rogers picture called Mr. Skitch. You don't often see one in a movie, I think this is the only one.

I have a Peter Gunn set too and enjoy those for the cars and the jazz. I do remember seeing one of the PG crooks driving a late-30s Buick in several episodes.

Then again I'll watch cheesy 70s TV shows for the cars, and 60s Bewitched and Hazel for all the then-new Chevys and Fords. Ya gotta believe that those product placements sold some cars, otherwise they wouldn't have loaned them.

Carmakers' TV product placement could probably warrant its own thread.

The music Henry Mancini wrote for the Peter Gunn series is some of the best west coast jazz ever written. The soundtrack is available in CD and it's called Peter Gunn and more of Peter Gunn. If you like clear uncluttered ( NOT out of control ) jazz written, conducted arranged by a master (Mancini ) and great un-ego session musicians who were former big band era players this CD is a must....Every cut a stand out!

Have 'em both- on CD and original RCA vinyl! Those early Victor Living Stereo pressings can still compete with anybody's, especially played thru the vintage RCA Victor Stereo Orthophonic High Fidelity Victrolas they were engineered for.

One Peter Gunn episode had an eccentric who drove an electric car from the teens. It ended up overturned in one scene.

Cruising the channels late today, ran across the "Batman" show running in a group.

The old Batmobile was front and center! I didn't even know these shows were being rerun.

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BATMAN!!!!!!

And don't forget the Studebakers on Mr. Ed!