For many children who grew up in the UK during the 1980s, the Saturday television schedule offered a bonanza of cars. The weekend offered reruns of Bonanza (NBC, 1959–73), too, but that was another vehicle entirely. I have never been a car fanatic or someone who likes the sound of engines or burning rubber enough to be called a ‘petrol-head’. My interest in TV shows that discuss the finer points of Ferrari is fleeting at best. However, as a child in the early eighties who liked to play with Matchbox cars – die-cast toys owned by most boys in my school – I knew the weekend would provide a spectacle of automobiles.

This was true across a range of TV genres. Friday evenings on BBC1 would see Starsky and Hutch (ABC, 1975–79), the American crime show about two streetwise detectives who drove an iconic Ford Gran Torino, nicknamed the ‘striped tomato’ for its bright red colour and distinctive white vectors. Saturday would produce a parade of vehicles in various states of gleam, motion, dirt and disrepair. Dominating Saturday afternoons on BBC1 was Grandstand (BBC1, 1958–2007), a three-hour sports programme covering favourites such as football but also including minority sports that the BBC helped develop for television, like Rallycross. Early evening provided the highlight of the schedule, BBC1 offering The Dukes of Hazzard (CBS, 1979–85), which guaranteed a car chase in ‘The General Lee’, and ITV showing Knight Rider (NBC, 1982–86), the crime-fighting series featuring David Hasselhoff and a talking Pontiac Trans Am called KITT. Saturday viewing would finish with a gameshow like The Price is Right (ITV, 1984–88), classic light entertainment where excitable contestants would ‘Come on Down’ to up the prize stakes from cheeseboards and dishwashers to caravans and cars, all swooningly displayed by models in evening wear.

There are many ways to consider the relationship between television and cars. Automobiles have long been a fixture on TV screens and provide a way to think about multiple facets of television production, history, genre, aesthetics, distribution, formats, fandom, as well as popular memory. While the title TV and Cars may create expectations about the kind of programme this book is about, cars lift the bonnet on the study of television in more ways than one.