George Barris pumped out some legendary custom TV stars over the years.
Some of them are legends—the original Batmobile is like a brand name even now because it was so popular.
But remember how many Barris customs were built and how many made it to TV, so here are five lesser TV stars from Barris World.
Jerry Sutherland
You have to be a Level 1 TV historian to remember ‘The Good Guys’ show that ran from September 25, 1968, to January 23, 1970. The show starred Bob Denver from ‘Gilligan’s Island’.
Bob Denver was the star, but the real co-star was his 1924 Lincoln Cabriolet Landaulet taxi. A car like that would get a place of honor at a Pebble Beach show, but Barris made it fit a situation comedy role. It was designed to be a part of the grifting games Denver played with his customers plus it had an anchor for a brake.
The second Barris star is the Mannix 1968 Dodge Dart GTS convertible. Mannix was an old school detective who liked to pound on bad guys as part of his daily exercise routine.
The car showed up in the second season when ‘Mannix’ was circling the drain with its ratings, so the Dart was a very effective part of the retooling. The car was rare from new because Dodge only built 271 ’68 Dodge Dart GTS 340 automatic convertibles. Barris did minimal custom work to the Dart with a minor hood scop tweak and some work on the headlights—but that makes it rarer than the other 270 versions built that year.
‘Daktari’ ran from January 1966 to January 1969. It was an African safari show, but it was shot in California, so they asked George Barris to build a Jeep truck for the series.
Barris chose a Jeep Gladiator J-3000 and added zebra stripes to give it the Kenya vibes. There were rifles mounted on the side of the Jeep, but Daktari was about saving animals, not shooting them. The Daktari Jeep Gladiator was a welcome relief from the Land Rovers that dominated the series.
The ‘Acorn’ car is another built-for-TV custom that only made sense if you liked cartoon characters. Basically, Barris was given a mandate to produce a hot rod for Alvin– from the kiddie-centred characters, ‘The Chipmunks’.
Barris built a custom tubular frame and added a metal body built from a plastic mold. They went for a color based on the ‘The Chipmunks’ TV show version. The Acorn was a hit with kids and their parents at the time, and it still has a big fan base.
The fifth Barris custom/supporting TV actor was from the TV show ‘Bearcats!’. This show was set in pre-World War One Southwestern United States, and the heroes were private security/problem solvers.
‘Bearcats’ had a very short run, but the stars ran with a 1914 Stutz Bearcat—or precisely a Barris version of a 1914 Stutz Bearcat. This car was the equivalent of a Vette in 1914, and Barrett spent 1500 hundred hours building this incredible, Ford-powered, TV co-star.
In the end, these cars weren’t the Batmobile, but they had their own place in the world of custom TV cars.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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