Remember that period in your life before you could actually legally drive but you still loved cars and also before you got all lanky and weird-looking and couldn’t stop thinking about what’s going on in crotches? I sure do. It’s called childhood, and as a former child, I was delighted to see that there’s finally a real car show for kids happening, and even more delighted to take part in it. It’s called Backseat Drivers, and it’s on yet another new streaming network you’ve never heard of.
I’ll be honest that I haven’t really seen much of the finished product beyond the trailer so if everything went to hell in the editing phase, I can’t say.
What I can say is that the show is directed by real car lovers, and the three kids who are hosts are charming and fun and genuinely into cars as well.
Here, watch a trailer for the show:
There’s ten episodes so far, and they cover a nice broad range of cars, from Alfas to Porsches to Hellcats to Grumman mail trucks and even a Messerschmitt Kabinroller and a Peel Trident. They also do fun stuff involving drag races, eating in cars, and a very fun brake test involving piñatas.
I got to be part of the episodes involving a Tesla trying to park itself, an unashamed adoration of the Grumman LLV mail truck, and, of course, the episode with microcars.
That one was especially fun because we got to make a car Turducken: a Peel Trident in the bed of a pickup truck, and the truck on a big flatbed truck. Like this:
They actually drove this crazy-ass rig around with me trapped in there, under that dome, in the sun, which was no picnic.
It felt pretty high up, too.
Considering how early a love for cars tends to happen, it’s surprising there hasn’t really been a car show that’s really targeted to children. I’m glad something like this exists, and I appreciate the way it’s being handled on the show—the kids get to really interact with the cars, including some limited driving, which is, of course, the holy grail when you’re a kid.
The kids who host the show— Jack (Zachlewis Maravilla), Remy (Ariana Raetz), and Cam (Sean Ohanesian)—are extremely professional and did a great job. I hadn’t really spent any time around child actors before, and I think the best part is watching the role reversal as the kids work and the parents mill about in the back, eating snacks and focused on iPads.
The show is on a service called Yippee, which is positioning itself as very “family friendly,” which I suppose means they’ll be bleeping me a fair amount. No, I’m kidding, I’m pretty sure I didn’t use any profanity, especially because I can think of at least one time the director stopped me when I said “damn” or “hell” or some mild profanity like that.
I’m sure it’ll be great, so if you have kids into cars, maybe check it out, why not?