Posted in: TV | Tagged: Jeff Dunham, The Cars That Drove Us

The Cars That Drove Us: Dunham on Batmobile, Schwarzenegger & More

The Cars That Drove Us host Jeff Dunham discussed driving the Batmobile from Tim Burton's "Batman" films, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and more.

Jeff Dunham got to live two dreams, first as a stand-up comic and actor, which allowed him to amass his impressive collection of cars he grew to love as a child from his passion for Hot Wheels. Bridging the two passions together, he now hosts series Jeff Dunham's The Cars That Drove Us on Discovery in partnership with the Nacelle Company, which is behind other nostalgia-driven shows like The Toys That Made Us and The Movies That Made Us, In this second part, the ventriloquist, who's known for bringing favorites like Peanut, Jose Jalepeno, Bubba J, and Walter to life in his act, spoke with Bleeding Cool about how his replica Batmobile from Batman '66 came to be featured by Warner Bros for San Diego Comic Con, being able to drive the Batmobile featured in the Tim Burton films starring Michael Keaton, amassing his impressive lists of guests featured for the season, including action legend Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Cars That Drove Us Host Jeff Dunham on Driving the Michael Keaton Batmobile, Organizing Guests, and Having Breakfast with Arnold Schwarzenegger

BC: The Batmobile is interesting. Admittedly, I haven't seen the episode, but I noticed that with the models and then all the way up to the one featured in the Tim Burton films starring Michael Keaton. Which one is your favorite? Did you have access to the more modern ones after the Burton movie?

Dunham: Yeah, I've had a fun time with the Batmobile since I got the '66 Batmobile, which is a really good replica. That was my favorite one as a kid growing up, but by the time I saw it on TV, it was syndicated. I got to see Batman afternoons every day after school with Adam West, getting that Batmobile. Then, I remember when the Keaton one came out, the first movie, Batman in 1989, and I'm like, "That's not a Batmobile, but man, that is cool!" since I was used to the George Barris version. That (one in the films) grew on me, and that turned into my favorite Batmobile. I love the Tumbler (from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy), because it's so different. The Keaton Batmobile to me, and whatever Batmobile is current when you're 12 years old is probably the one you like the most [laughs]. That was the one for me.

As far as access to the ones after the Keaton Batmobile, I got lucky. By the time I got the Keaton one, which was a prop. It was a screen used in Batman Returns. It was not one of the two hero cars, but it was one that they used for pickup shots and still shots later. We have all that documented by Warner Bros, and then out in Burbank, they decided that for San Diego Comic-Con, they were going to take all the Batmobiles that were in all the movies, and they asked me if they could use my Keaton one, because mine was in better shape than theirs.

I got to see and do hands-on of all those Batmobiles from all the movies, and it was fantastic. At Bob's Big Boy in Hollywood, they had a get-together brought all those Batmobiles together. A lot of it is on YouTube, but this was an amazing experience, and George became a friend. Yeah, I had access to them for the show, but no, we just used the Keaton one, and we had access to a lot of people who had a lot to do with the designers and builders

Speaking of access, you have a lot of high-profile guests like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bob Gale, Jay Leno, and others. I was wondering if you were surprised by who you're able to get for The Cars That Drove Us, and if it was a streamlined process, and if there was anyone that you were trying to get, but weren't able to?

Well, Jay's been a friend for a while, and I've done a bunch of spots on his shows, including The Tonight Show when he was hosting. That was an easy one, but some of these other names, especially some of the guys in the car world, that I did not know, it's all credit to our showrunner Ian [Mallahan] and to the folks who did all the behind-the-scenes stuff, getting those interviews, and some of them were across the globe. They'd hire out a crew and then literally do it via Zoom or however, do the interviews, but with real cameras right there, because they'd hired the camera crew in London or whatever, they'd be filming it, and then just doing the interview part with Zoom.

It was amazing, and to get Schwarzenegger, that was the big one. We didn't know if that was going to happen, and Nacelle's Brian Volk-Weiss was doing everything he could to try to make that happen, and he finally landed the interview. Schwarzenegger was great. I don't believe there is any other show, any other place that Schwarzenegger has told the entire story from beginning to end of how he made that happen to get the Humvee turned into the Hummer and into civilian hands. For people who don't know, it's all thanks to him that it happened, but I got to tell you, Tom, one of the most surreal moments of my life was when Arnold wanted to have breakfast with me. He wanted to meet me, because I wasn't a part of the interview, because that was all Brian.

I found myself sitting in a really nice hotel where Schwarzenegger goes a lot, having breakfast with him and one of his sons. Here I was, Schwarzenegger, sitting right next to me, and Brian pointed this out to me, and I realized it during the thing. You know, when Schwarzenegger does this in a bunch of his movies, he'll look sideways at somebody like this right before he kills them or takes them out. I'm sitting there at breakfast; he's to my left. He would ask me a question, then he would take a bite, and start eating. I'd be answering the question. I'd turn and look at him, and he'd be giving that sideways eye look, and I'm like, "The Terminator's getting ready to kill me. This is just great!"

I can almost picture in my head, like he's asking you if, "You're dating my daughter?"

[Laughs] Exactly, yeah, and his son was a charming guy, too. It was really nice, and also a couple of other guys that he trains with, these guys are from Austria and wherever. I was the tiniest man sitting there.

Jeff Dunham's The Cars That Drove Us, which also features guests Adam Savage, Emilia Hartford, Bob Gale and others, is available Tuesdays on Discovery and is also available to stream online.

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