Television has long been a huge part of society and culture for people everywhere. Since it started, there have been shows portraying realistic world characters and places, and also plenty of fully fictionalized ones. Amidst the many historic shows that have been made, many motifs from the show have too solidified themselves into our culture. One such type of motif lies with automobiles. This is to say many TV shows have launched famous TV cars as well. Some shows have created new vehicles for shows, while others merely popularized a real car. Either way, oftentimes, cars come to feel like a character in the show itself. Here are some cars that have surpassed the title of mere cars and instead grew to leading roles in shows.

The Mystery Machine – Scooby Doo, Where Are You!

Animated cars managed to make as big of an impact as real cars in shows did. Sometimes, they made even bigger ones. The Mystery Machine is arguably one of the most famous fictional vehicles. With its groovy, hippie-esque design, it became an incredibly identifiable symbol for the era and the TV show.

The Batmobile – Batman

BOOM! POW! This fake car packs a big punch, lasting through generations and countless iterations. The Batmobile set the precedent for super cars, defining a generation of American television. The sleek design and high-tech features made it an aesthetic success and an extremely well-loved car.

Flintmobile – The Flintstones

The Flintmobile is most notable for its pedals or rather its lack thereof. In the prehistoric cartoon, the Flintmobile solidified itself into history after homes were filled with images of the Flintstone patriarch, Fred, using his feet to power up the vehicle.

Ferrari – Miami Vice and Magnum P.I.

Ferrari had a massively successful decade in the 1980s with two huge television shows featuring their cars. Don Johnson’s detective character in Miami Vice, and Tom Selleck’s P.I. character in Magnum P.I both famously drove Ferraris. The nature of the characters and the show led to Ferrari building an association with investigative work.

Munster Koach (Model T/Hearse) – The Munsters

The iconic spooky monster family was accompanied on their TV show by an equally spooky vehicle. The ‘Munster Koach’ was a monster car as it was a mixture of a hearse and the Model T Hot Rod. This custom vehicle created a demand for this grim-looking car while managing to perfectly encapsulate the Munster family vibes.