All language subtitles for Jeff.Dunhams.The.Cars.That.Drove.Us.S01E08.Wait.Thats.Factory.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Howdy, folks! Hank Dunham
at Dunham Family Motors.

And today, I'm here
with my boys--

Danny and Jeff.
Boys, say hi

to the nice folks at home.

Hi.

All right, fellas,
what do you want to be

when you grow up?
Danny?

I want to run this dealership.

Oh, that's great!

And little Jeff, how about you?

I want to be a ventriloquist.

Son, I've told you before,

you're not gonna amount
to anything doing that.

Now put that doll away.

You want to sell cars.
That's what you wanna do.

Let's show the folks
what we have.

Yay!

Yay.

This episode isn't about
what you need in a car.

It's about what you want.

And for automakers,
the sky's the limit.

Not just the radio.

- Not just leather.
- Ooh.

We're talking options
that make you say,

"Wait, that's factory?"

If they could dream it,
they could build it.

And they did.

Welcome to the wild world
of factory options.

And finally,
the crème de la crème

of our dealership this week--
the 1954 Kaiser Darrin.

This is a rare beauty
right here.

Wait until you take a peek
at those doors.

It'll make you say,
"Wow, that's factory?"

Come on down
to Dunham Family Motors,

where you're family, too!

- Right, boys?
- It's not that bad.

Hey, that was pretty good.

Throughout time,
humanity has been obsessed

with getting places using
anything but their own two feet.

We've tried
all kinds of things.

Until finally, the greatest
invention of all time--

the automobile.

Moron!

These are
"The Cars That Drove Us."

Ah, the 1950s.

A glorious time
when every lawn was trimmed

with military precision,

every fence was white
and picketed,

and safely within the confines
of that fence

were exactly 2.5
well-adjusted children,

frolicking in domestic bliss.

Yes, sir, the American
dream is alive and well.

Vacuum sealed in suburbia
and powered by--

A healthy fear of communism.

♪ Duck and cover ♪

But while Dad waxes
the Plymouth

and Mom starts the laundry,

something cosmic was unfolding

over those cookie-cutter
roof lines--

space.
Yes, space, the final frontier,

now featuring
Soviet metal beach balls,

like Sputnik beeping ominously

as they orbited overhead.

You are hearing
the actual signals,

transmitted by the Earth
circling satellite,

Sparking a full-blown
American innovation panic.

And that same
feverish excitement

made its way back down to Earth,

showing up in kitchens,
living rooms,

and, of course, car showrooms.

This new
futuristic technology

that you were seeing
in the outside world,

you needed to have
that stuff in your car.

It was a vision
of what the automotive

future could look like.

Fueled by
the same engineering bravado

that launched
monkeys into orbit,

the automotive space race

often pushed creativity
into overdrive,

resulting in designs,
concepts, and factory options--

that felt more sci-fi
than street legal.

In the early days
of the auto industry,

carmakers weren't
aiming for the masses.

"Automobiling," as it was
called, was a hobby

practiced by rich people.

$12,000 for a car?
This you gotta see!

It was seen as something manly,

and you're an automobilist.

"Ooh, he-- he's gone
50 miles an hour.
Ooh."

As cars became
more affordable,

manufacturers found a new
way to cater to the rich.

Options come
into the fold right there.

If it didn't involve
accelerating or braking,

it probably started
as a factory option.

Automatic transmissions,
power steering came in,

air conditioning became
very popular, very common.

In some cases, paying
for options was the equivalent

of volunteering
for a test flight.

Volkswagen made a gas heater.

You'd light it with a match,
and you would use gas

from your engine to heat
the inside of the car.

Yeah.
What could go wrong there?

Eventually, heaters
became standard.

But, ah, not that gassy VW one,
of course.

There were also concepts

designed to meet the needs
of the moment.

Some of the car configurations
that were developed

were really around the emerging
mobility of Americans.

It was a time when, you know,
motels were starting to appear,

but there would be long
stretches of American highway

where you couldn't
really find a place to sleep.

Now, you can sleep in any
car, but in 1936, Nash came up

with a way for the whole
family to take a nap,

just so long as it wasn't
barreling down the road.

You can even get
your Nash equipped

with complete twin beds.

So now, on long road trips,
you just sleep in your car.

And road trips
would be on the rise

thanks to the Interstate Highway
Act of 1956.

The suburbs
were getting popular.

No one lives in cities.

So now, people were starting
to commute to work.

Some suburbanites
were even buying two cars.

And at that point,
the sky was the limit.

Putting just about anything
into a car

seemed like a good idea.

You know what was the big thing?

Plug-in electric shavers
for your car.

The GM in-car electric shaver.

Plugs into your lighter.

You can shave
while you're driving.

Grooming while driving.

Save time.

I mean, all you're looking
in the mirror

and get rear-ended.

That is, if the potholes
didn't get you first.

As more Americans got behind
the wheel, roads filled up,

and so did the hours
spent in cars

that had little to offer
in the way of entertainment.

Today, we're used to
the concept of having all kinds

of great music in our car,

but back then you pretty much
just had an AM radio.

Oh, yes, nothing says
I'm driving under power lines

like AM radio,

but for those who could
afford a little more,

Chrysler had an alternative--

Plymouth has everything,

even a Highway
Hi-Fi record player.

Chrysler had something called
the Highway Hi-Fi.

And it was the first time
that you could take music

out of your house
and put it in your car,

which was at that time,
obviously,

an actual record player.

Although you couldn't
actually use your own records.

It only worked with proprietary
records from Columbia,

so you were also
very limited on the music

that you could play.

For those who wanted
to hear something other

than the soothing swoon of Percy
Faith And His Orchestra,

salvation wouldn't arrive until
the 1960 Dodge Polara,

and the dealer-installed
Chrysler approved--

RCA Auto Victrola.

What was great about this one
was you could pick out

your own records.
It's a stack of 14 45s

from your own record library.

Listen to that.

Now that they had tunes,

it was time to focus
on the real innovations.

Car manufacturers were
simply experimenting.

If somebody had an idea
to put something in a car,

somebody said,
"Well, let's do it.

Let's put a bar in a 1957
Eldorado Brougham."

Named the
Cadillac Eldorado Brougham,

engineers were handed
a free rein.

And free-flowing American
whiskey all around.

In all fairness, vices
in the '50s were different.

Luckies, Viceroys, Camels were
just what the doctor ordered.

This resulted in a boom

in aftermarket
cigarette accessories.

You're driving along,
you press the button,

the cigarette roll down,
the thing would light it,

and then, the stupidest part,

it would flick the cigarette up.
- Ahh!

And you catch it, you know.

Just the idea that you're
in a car-- .

Machine is throwing
lit ci-- lit cigarettes.

But nothing goes better
with cigarettes than coffee.

Volkswagen enthusiasts know
about the esoteric options

that could be had on the Beetle,

one of which is often talked
about, is the coffee maker.

Oh, the
Hertella-Auto-Kaffeemaschine.

A coffee maker that mounted
to the dash of your car.

You're out here
engineering portable kettles,

but no one thought just
to put in a cup holder.

And while astronauts sip
from high-tech Capri Suns,

we Earthlings
prefer a place to park

our easily spillable drinks.

So, it's hard to imagine there
was a time without cup holders.

After three-and-a-half
decades of improvising--

We came up with
a doctor of cupology.

We had cupholders
that could hold anything

and would clamp it
like claws of a crab.

You go to Europe,
a cup holder holds a cup.

Here, it's got to hold
a 44-ounce Big Gulp.

Now, that's what I call a large.

As Yuri Gagarin and Alan
Shepard became the first men

to voyage into space,
their bravery inspired engineers

and dreamers here
on Earth to devise

new and exciting ways
to traverse the land.

But one car dared
to go beyond the land.

With the flick of a switch,
it becomes a boat.

The Amphicar was marketed

to the adventurous
American outdoorsman.

Lyndon Johnson, the president,
made them famous.

He had one on his Texas ranch,
and whenever

Khrushchev or world leaders
would come,

he'd take them on a ride,
and then he'd press the brake,

"Oh, oh-- ah--

"oh, God, we're gonna
go in the water!

Oh, my God,
the brakes don't work!"

And he would go in the water,

and they would go,
"Oh, my God, what's going--"

And then they'd go across
the lake, whatever.

Yeah, that was his big trick.

These themed
cars were made

for a very specific customer.

But there's another
kind of themed car,

one that didn't have
a target demo.

In fact, it wasn't even
for sale.

Well, a concept car
is usually an engineer

or a designer's idea
of a vehicle of the future.

We're all set for auto control.

There were a series of three
concepts back in the 1950s,

Firebird 1, Firebird 2,
and Firebird 3, which were

coincidentally all powered
by turbine engines.

Everything had
an aeronautical look,

and the idea that
you could have an airplane

on the ground that flew at,
quote, "airplane speeds,"

well, that was
just unbelievable.

While the first Firebird
was a single-seater,

the second featured
two rows of seats,

perfect for families that wanted
to feel like they were heading

into combat together.
Then there's the Firebird 3.

Firebird 3 from General Motors
with twin plastic canopies.

It was brimming with concepts
that would foreshadow things

that are still maybe
headed to production.

Get ready
for a ride in Firebird 3.

Full autonomous driving.

Want to sit back and relax?

Set in the speed
you want to drive

and switch over
to automatic guidance.

Release the stick
and Firebird 3 is on its own.

Wait, a self-driving car
in the '50s?

Good luck with that.

Considering this is what
a computer looked like in 1959,

you might be thinking--

It's not possible, it's--
it's physically impossible.

Computing technology,
on the other hand,

was coming along
in leaps and bounds.

But still, well, in those days,

America's space program

was using something
much more reliable,

the computing power of women.

You have a brain.
That I can work with.

But meanwhile, the auto
industry seemed to ignore

women's intelligence and appeal
instead to their vanity.

A bunch of guys figured they'd
design a car for women.

Think of it as a series
of car options for women

bundled into one
lovely vehicle--

Designed entirely by men.

What did the husbands in
Detroit name this beautiful car

for their blushing brides?

The Dodge La Femme.

That's great.
It's French.

It was just a regular Dodge.

They offered colors
like pastel pink and white.

They had a rosebud interior.

It even came with a parasol

and matching raincoat
and a purse.

Came with this purse.
You open the purse up

and look at the stuff
that's inside.

What woman wouldn't love this?

Lipstick-- oh, a lighter,
because back in the '50s,

everybody smoked.

The change purse.
Oh, oh, and the compact.

I wonder if there's
any makeup left in it.

Hold on, let me see.
Yes, there is!

It's powder.

OK, there.

I actually did that.

Oh my gosh, what did I do?

There's powder everywhere now!

This is the '50s.

Is it carcinogenic?

Hold on.

As the 1960s moved
into the 1970s,

style became important again.

Leading the charge?

American Motors,
they were the fourth

largest car company in America.

You know, the big three,

and then there's
American Motors.

They needed something to help
their brand stand out.

If you had to compete with
the three biggest car companies

in America, what would you do?

So American Motors thought,
"How can we--

"how can we make these
a little fancy?

Maybe we'll get together with
some fancy designer like Gucci."

Gucci designed an interior
for the AMC Hornet.

It was the perfect blend
of European and American.

It was pretty successful.

Turns out,
the unlikely pairing

made a lot of sense.

It got a lot of people
into AMC dealerships,

so they reached out
to other designers.

As a result,
the world's greatest designers

weren't headed to Milan,
Paris, or even New York.

They were headed to Detroit.

The AMC Javelin,
a really outrageous-looking

muscle car, had an interior
designed by Pierre Cardin,

and there was an AMC Matador

with an Oleg Cassini
designed interior.

On the other end,
were the Levi's collaborations

that AMC also did.

So you could get a car

that actually was
upholstered with denim.

Well, they look
like denim seats,

but the actual denim didn't meet
the fire safety protocols.

And so they actually
made spun nylon.

So this is dyed nylon.
But it feels a lot like denim.

But then look at this.
You got the tags,

just like on the Levi's jeans.

And then you got the buttons.
It's just goofy fun.

Jeans are all about comfort.

But when you want to impress--

The idea of having
leather in your car,

well, you must be special.

And along comes
Ricardo Montalban,

the actor.

I know my own needs.

And what I need
from an automobile,

I know I get
from this new Cordoba.

That voice.

Montalban's voice
could make you feel welcome.

Welcome to Fantasy Island!

Or terrified.

This is Ceti Alpha V!

As to the car itself--

It was a big, comfortable car.

It only had two doors
because it was for somebody

who didn't have a family

or wanted to pretend
they didn't have a family.

That's actually
a pretty good tagline.

The Cordoba sold luxury
on a budget.

One thing that people wanted
were supple leather seats.

But Chrysler
didn't line the Cordoba

with just any old leather.
They used--

Soft Corinthian leather.

The name was infectious.

Rich Corinthian leather.

Rich Corinthian--

Rich Corinthian leather.

Suddenly, I had to have
Corinthian leather.

America was obsessed,
begging the question--

Why didn't all cars have
Corinthian leather?

One question
would lead to another.

What was so special about
Corinth that they had these

special cows that made
this unique leather?

Yeah, about Corinth.

It was something that
an ad agency came up with.

The writer, Jim Nichols,
who wrote the commercial

for Chrysler for me,
at that time, found--

he wanted to find a-- a word
that sounded sort of elegant,

that I could say with a little
verb, you know.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- And, uh, so "Corinthian."
- Oh, yeah.

You know what I mean?

- But-- but does it
mean anything?
- Mm-mm. Nothing.

Yes.

Corinthian leather was
completely made up.

It was just standard leather
from New Jersey.

Ah, Jersey cows.

The Cordoba somehow
turned real leather

into faux leather.

But what came next
was really real.

Real, undeniable change.

By the '80s,
high-tech and digital-tech

started to invade
the automobile.

Please turn off your light.

Thanks, Maxima.

While the formal space
race wrapped up in 1975

with the Apollo-Soyuz
Test project,

the world's obsession
with the stars

was far from over.

We have ignition.

We have a liftoff.

And in 1977, the universe
was expanding,

and we were searching
for ways to be a part of it.

This was the era of "Star Wars."

Even legendary interior
designer, John Shettler,

was captivated
by the space drama.

What was the most exciting part
of the "Star Wars" movies?

I have you now.

And they were in the starfighter

trying to take down Death Star.

Although John appreciated
the sequence

from a certain point of view.

But it was all interior
looking to drop that missile.

Great shot, kid!
That was one in a million!

The '80s was packed
with legendary sci-fi vehicles,

each with their own
futuristic interior.

A cue the real-life
auto industry

would begin to pick up on.

You had things
like digital dashes.

No more were there
analog gauges.

Those weren't cool.
Those weren't futuristic enough.

While some
of the vehicles Hollywood

envisioned were odd,

one would border on prophecy.

Amazing!
And it's like mission control.

I'm into gadgets.

When "Knight Rider"
came out in '81,

yeah, I thought
that was fantastic.

To see the car,
you could talk to it.

Come on, KITT say something
to the bear.

I'm sorry, Michael,
I have nothing to say.

It was wonderful.

While you couldn't banter
with the cars of the '80s,

the 1981 Datsun Maxima offered
a one-sided conversation.

- ♪ Datsun Maxima ♪
- Datsun Maxima!

Lights are on.

Thanks, Maxima.

"Your door is ajar."

You know, when I was a kid,

"The car talks Dad.
That's cool!"

You know, that was the idea.

And then after your third
conversation

with the guy, "Hey, shut up."

The 1984 Nissan 300ZX,

I have an affinity
for this vehicle,

because this very car right here

is the first thing
that the dummies paid for

that was kind of expensive.

I love this thing, because some
of the factory options

are great, but the number one
is the talking car.

It was one of the first
talking vehicles.

For example, uh,
let's leave your lights on.

Lights are on.

But the conversation
was just getting started.

From advanced technology
comes a new kind of luxury car,

the Chrysler New Yorker.

That's right,
Corinthian's biggest leather man

was back, and Ricardo Montalban

had become the voice
of Chrysler cars.

With electronics so advanced
it even monitors itself.

But unfortunately,
not the actual voice

of the actual talking
Chrysler car.

All monitored systems
are functioning.

A real missed opportunity.

Love is the creative
energy of the universe.

Without it, life would be hell.

Anyway, the options
of the '80s and '90s

brought the focus back
to comfort.

Meanwhile, the auto industry
took a slightly more

down-to-earth approach,
offering features people

actually wanted.

They're old ideas,
the technology is new.

The reason why we're putting
them in the car

is the same reason
that we put record players

in cars in the 1950s.

It was to make the car feel

more like the home.

What else did every home have?

In 1984,
Buick actually offered,

as an option, a car phone.

To be able to talk
on the phone in your car

really felt like the future.

Now you were
a member of the elite.

The name Buick has always
stood for automobiles

that are well above
the ordinary.

And in some ways,
it set the table

for what was going to happen
over the next 20, 30 years.

I mean,
it wasn't until 2004

that you could finally send
a fax from your Audi A8,

just in case your Blackberry
was on the fritz.

I think the car industry
is most exciting

when there are
new vehicles coming,

when they're challenging
each other.

The goal is, let's do
something that nobody

has ever done before.

They push boundaries.
They challenge conventions.

It's an exercise in exploration.

From hybrids to EVs.

Augmented reality windshields
and self-massaging seats.

From self-braking,

to self-parking.

- Car parks itself.
- It's smart.

It's wicked smart.

Today's cars
are packed with tech

once reserved for sci-fi.

Shields at 60%.

Auto manufacturers are still
chasing that space-race energy.

Only now it's software
over steel

and battery hum
over engine roar.

Even what we could have
imagined back in the '50s,

the '60s, '70s, the '80s,
even the '90s.

The cars we have today,
they're not just cars anymore.

They are mechanical
and technological marvels.

The mission?
Go further.

Do more and spark
the imagination.

Ideally, without catching fire.

Kids, don't smoke.

And whichever element
we conquer,

be it space,

sea,

or land.

We're all set for auto control.

We'll be there, embracing
whatever the future holds.

As long as it still holds a cup.

If you don't have
good cup holders,

you don't have a car.

I'll kill you!