knight rider online

I had a nostalgic weekend recently and watched some old Disney movies on TCM, including "The Love Bug". That led me to YouTube browsing, where I stumbled on to this clip of George Barris talking about his involvement with the Herbie movies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-uiIqoNFbY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think George is a little confused... he says that Herbie got his number "53" because they made 53 cars. That sounds like an AWFUL lot of cars. They interviewed someone from the Disney Archives on TCM and she said they used 8 VWs for filming. So I'm not sure what George was thinking of. I thought maybe he meant 53 cars TOTAL, including all of the non-VW cars, but he seems to be saying 53 Herbies.

In any case, my passion for thinking-cars began with Herbie and it was fun to watch again.

In my experience with George Barris, he's a kind hearted guy who just loves life and at his age - who could blame him? When it comes to historical accuracy however, his memory isn't the most dependable. Regardless, he and his team are cemented in history as men who made a difference for the world of Knight Rider and motion pictures.

His lifetime of work speaks for itself.

=VK=

Michael Pajaro wrote:I think George is a little confused... he says that Herbie got his number "53" because they made 53 cars.

Maybe he meant only 8 cars after all (5+3... 53)?

One of the Herbie movies used this same logic when a kid kept calling Herbie "Ocho" as 5+3=8.

PBH wrote:One of the Herbie movies used this same logic when a kid kept calling Herbie "Ocho" as 5+3=8.

BLASPHEMY! Herbie Goes Bananas does not exist in my world - it is the Knight Rider 2010 of the Herbie franchise.

But the 5+3 theory is as good as any I suppose, so good thinking!

The 53 comes from one of the producer's favorite baseball players Don Drysdale whose number was 53.

jeremy223 wrote:The 53 comes from one of the producer's favorite baseball players Don Drysdale whose number was 53.

I never knew that... thanks!

George Barris has an extremely impressive body of work.

Herbie is not included in this body of work in any way, unless you count the walk-on role Barris had carrying one fender in the 1997 TV remake of "The Love Bug".

Carey Loftin's stunt team and Danny Lee's special effects team are responsible for the Herbie film cars built pre-1980. Disney Imagineering built all of the other publicity and parade cars. POV FX built the cars for the 1997 remake (including the one in my garage), and Cinema Vehicle Services built all of the cars for "Herbie: Fully Loaded".

Barris built a fake two years ago to show at car shows.

Unfortunately Barris is definitely of the "pre-internet" era, where he would get away with selling multiple copies of the same "screen used" batmobile, or covering one of the BTTF off-road deloreans in glow tape and black spray paint for the Petersen museum as a "screen accurate" restoration, or taking credit for any Disney cars. Which is too bad, because his hot-rod work speaks for itself and doesn't need any exaggeration.

--Brian