Car 54, WHAT Are You?

[missy's pop pop]

One of the more remarkable things about "Car 54. Where Are You?" was the realistic look the police car had. I have read that the Plymouth patrol cars Toody and Muldoon used on location were painted red-and-white so as not to be confused with the green-and-white paint jobs of real New York cop cars. In black-and-white, of course, the cars looked gray either way.

Remarkably, this led to an interesting if unintentional production error. If you know your early '60s Plymouth sedans, you know they were four-window designs. That is, windows in the front and rear doors only. In the process shots, Toody and Muldoon are seen inside a Plymouth four-door sedan with six side windows (doors plus a small triangular rear quarter window behind the rear doors). These four-doors were built from 1957 to 1959; it is possible the car may have been used as a taxi cab in a late-'50s movie. In a sequence I saw on YouTube, the top of the instrument panel seems to be from a 1957 or 1958 model...

[missy's pop pop]

Another interesting note about Car 54: In the opening and closing credits, where the P & G sponsoring products are shown ("Tonight's show is brought to you by New Ice-Blue Secret..."), the optical effect--technically called a windowpane wipe--is in the shape of the police car, complete with gumball light on top....