These Are The TV Shows You Love Watching For The Background Cars

If there’s anything to be learned from my most recent Question of the Day, it’s that anything you watch — whether film, television, or even YouTube — can be carspotting worthy. From sitcoms to drams to animated children‘s shows, there’s always a car (or several) to appreciate on screen. The cars don’t even have to be real or something you can buy off of the lot on Monday. It actually seems like the more unrealistic and nondescript the car is, the more likely we are to be enamored by them.

Earlier this week I asked you dear readers to tell us about the television shows you love watching for the background cars. When I posited the question I truly thought the answers would skew more towards older shows that purposely had cars built into the storyline, and a few of the answers were exactly that. However, I throughly enjoyed the surprises and range in answers from deep cuts in science fiction television to historical dramas and mysteries. Admittedly, when we write and talk about cars all day, there’s a tendency to believe everyone is deep into watching true car-related things. But we have range. And the wonderful thing about these questions and answers during the week is a reminder that we all have lives outside of cars — sorta.

Here’s a small, top ten guide to television shows with some good background cars to keep in mind when you don’t know what to watch next. There’s even a show that’ll be fun to watch with the kiddos included in this round.

Archer

FX’s Archer. The animators always filled the screen with great cars, from Ferraris to Dacias and plenty of American muscle cars. Even a Mazda rx-2 and a Bizzarini make appearances.

Archer. They have some hilariously obscure cars in the background.

Miami Vice

Miami Vice. And it just isn’t Crockett’s Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Because it was actually (mostly) filmed in South Beach and Miami Beach, it frequently had the sports cars and luxury cars of that era parked or as background traffic. And all of these years later, and still knowing that it was a mock-Ferrari built on a C3 Corvette frame, it’s still hard watching that “Ferrari” Daytona get blown up.

Severance

Severance has some really well-thought out main character cars – and the rest of the parking lot is a sea of 80’s/90’s debadged anonymity. It’s a fun challenge to identify them.

For All Mankind

“For All Mankind” has some cool cars, and gets extra points because it’s set both in the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Another one is “The Americans.”

The Sopranos

I finally started watching “The Sopranos” from start to finish after years of catching clips or episodes here & there. There’s some pretty ham-fisted product placement in there, but I love that snapshot of the late-90s/early-2000s.

Sex Education

The British show Sex Education had fantastic 90’s cars in it for no real reason since it did not take place back then. Mindhunter would be one as well and finally Severance where we get 90’s cars, 80’s computers and more modern cell phones for some reason

Caprica

The early 2000s Battlestar Gallactica had a prequel that didn’t get watched much, but it had some great cars. They seemed to have a plan as the show was highlighting different ethnic groups and they tended to be in cars that fit their personalities.

Arthur

Despite being an animated show, Archer has a lot of really specific and niche car pulls. Really notably, they end up getting into the car collection of a dictator in, I think, the last episode of Archer: Vice? Lots of great picks there.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the boxy cars the kids’ parents drove in PBS’ Arthur. They remind me of good old 1990’s childhood suburbia.

From E Warren and Giantsgiants

I know I should have included a car in this image, but I was way more entertained in learning that “Arthur” had an entire storyline built around Arthur calling into Car Talk.

Stranger Things

Stranger Things. Say what you will about the show (personally I loved it), watching the background scenes was amazing because this was my adolescence and teenage years. Watching Stranger Things is like watching my youth. I could have been one of those kids. I rode in those cars, wore those vans, went to those malls…

Seinfeld

Seinfeld. Love seeing the Chrysler Conquest.

I think there’s an ‘8Os Celica ST or GT, and I want to say there is an Audi Coupe GT in there from time to time as well. Good choice.

Yeah there is some good ones. Also, not even mentioning all the cars that are prominent like Jerry’s BMW and Saab. As well as even one of Jerry’s personal 911 from his collection makes a showing as a background car.