For whatever reason, someone convinced Matt Hardigree to drive David’s terrible $2,000 Nissan Leaf from his Studio City apartment to Galpin in Van Nuys. It’s just 11 miles, but the car’s barely better than a golf cart, packing an assumed 12 miles of range from its 12-year-old degraded battery pack. I mean, the battery took just 4.5 kWh from the charger. I’ve written about motorcycles with better capacity.
Yet, our resident New Yorker managed to really stretch that battery pack. Not only did Matt make it to Galpin, but then he went to a parts store, back to Galpin, then around the block, covering nearly 25 miles along the way. There’s gotta be something about how those city slickers drive, I tell ya.
Anyway, Matt’s ill-advised journey needs a song. COTD winner Data has just the thing:
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from an apartment
Inside this Nissan Leaf.The boss was a mighty editor,
The driver brave and sure.
Hardigree set out that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.The traffic started getting rough,
The tiny battery was toast,
If not for the courage of the fearless Matt
The Nissan would be lost, the Nissan would be lost.The Leaf parked in the parking lot of the Galpin dealership
With Hardigree,
Mercedes too,
Hollywood Dave and his cats,
Torchinsky,
Adrian Clarke and Beau Boeckmann,
Here on Autopian Isle.
If you, like me, can’t figure out what those lyrics are a play on, here you go:
I admit, I’ve never seen Gilligan’s Island before. Anyway, A. Barth also got me with this line:
I’m at 21. I might have gained a mile from just being an excellent driver…
Thank you, Rain Man. ????
Thank you for the tear I just shed laughing. Have a great weekend!
(Top Photo: David Tracy/CBS)
I’m here to help. 🙂 Cheers!
My favorite Gilligan’s Island joke came from Bob Denver in the movie, “Back to the Beach.” Something like, “Let me tell you about the smartest man I ever knew. He could make a nuclear reactor from coconuts and sea shells. Couldn’t fix a hole in a boat.”
WHAAAAAT? NEVER SAW GILLIGAN’S ISLAND? And DT gets branded as the unenlightened neophyte of media? Oh Mercedes child you need a dep dive saturated viewing of GILLIGAN’S ISLAND.
There is a generation out there that has not seen the Brady Bunch or Gilligan’s Island. My son is 19, and hasn’t seen either.
For folks born after 1964, if these shows have been seen, it was most likely on local UHF stations in syndication. And I’d say that since at least the late 1990’s, they haven’t been shown at all. Now, the shows are so far down the list, that they are only shown on substations of local affilliates, like MeTV, etc. Nothing that a kid would seek out…
I’m pretty sure it never made it outside the US either, my only knowledge of it is through memes.
And I am stuck with years of useless knowledge I know the plots the lines the. Songs.
Calgon take me away!
Something else you probably don’t know.
Anybody?
Buehler? Bueller?
Hours later, I still have that damn earworm.
-and the memory of an episode of The Tonight Show in which a guest led the audience in an impromptu singing of that theme song—basically wrestling control of the show away from the host. Johnny Carson was not amused
Did you ever hear the Stairway to Gilligan’s Island? Earworm worthy.
Thanks for that: I’m still grinning
Horrible recording: reminds me of taping The King Biscuit Flower Hour. Amazing how well the lyrics fit the song—and no surprise that it was pulled for fear of lawyerly action!
King Biscuit Flower Hour? Holy crap on a cracker! Thanks for the memory, Pal. Sometimes I wonder if half my recollections are made up.
That was awesome, thank you. Great start to a Monday morning.
“I admit, I’ve never seen Gilligan’s Island before.”
Oh, Mercedes… you’ve got to fix that.
While we are on the subject…. There’s also MASH, The Three Stooges, Charlie’s Angels, The A-Team, Three’s Company, Land of the Lost…
I’m going to throw in Hogan’s Heroes as well.
The ole Gilligan’s Island trope eh…
Who do you choose?
I’d eat The Skipper first.
Define “Eat”.
I’d eat Marianne and Ginger day after day. But OK you do Skipper, Alan Hale, Honus Grimby.
Marianne.
David has never seen any of the movies we reference. Mercedes has never seen Gilligan’s Island. Are they just out of touch, or are we, the commentariat, just – dare I say it? – old?
I’m about the same age as them, but, unlike them, I am familiar with the concept of “reruns”
What was that, young feller? I couln’t quite hear you over the crunching of my joints.
I’m in my 40s and surprised by the age of some references from the comments.
Fortunately I grew up on a healthy dose of old reruns during the day on our 3 TV stations. As a kid I remember watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island and many popular shows from the 60s and later, but even got a healthy dose of I Love Lucy (50s) mixed in.
/Kids these days.
I am that age (maybe older), but I haven’t seen any of these. I also have two small(ish) kids, so there is zero time to watch anything at all. Of course, I only moved to the US in 1994, so that may have something to do with it.
Hey, I resemble that remar!
Perhaps David should give the Leaf a name. Say, “The S.S. Minnow”?
Gilligan.
Galpigin?
No! Then the range would suddenly become undefined and it would leave him stranded every time just because it’s cursed!
Mrs. Howell, aka “Lovey”. The least useful person on the island.