Episode 11: Car Trouble
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"You lost my car? [pause] My car LOST a race?"
- Cyborg
Originally aired: Nov. 11, 2003
Written by Amy Wolfram
Directed by Alex Soto


Cyborg has just finished building the vehicle of his dreams: the super-cool , uberfast, ultra-high-tech T-CAR! Cy grins like a proud parent as he shows off his "baby" to the other Titans. But before Cyborg can take his cool car out for a spin, the Titians are called to an Electronics Superstore where an electrical menace called Overload is wreaking havoc.

Our heroes race to the scene - and Cyborg leaves behind his beloved car parked out front with its high-tech alarm set. But when they emerge from the store with Overload in custody, Cyborg freaks: the T-Car is gone!! A wild adventure unfolds as the T-Car changes hands from bad guy to worse guy - Cyborg races all over town, trying to catch up. Can Cyborg get his "baby" back - or is the T-Car lost forever?


Matt Levin as Sammy
James Arnold Taylor as Overload
Lauren Tom as Gizmo


This episode was the 11th episode produced, but aired last in season one. It's proper placement is preceding "Apprentice" parts 1 & 2
First appearance of Overload, a villain created for the animated series
The characters of Sammy and Cash are named after series producer, Sam Register - Sammy is obviously for Sam... and Cash for Register (cash register... get it?)


Producer/Story Editor David Slack on CAR TROUBLE: "One of the reasons the first season was so difficult was the way me and Glen had approached it. Rather than let the style of the show dictate what types of stories we would tell, we would instead let the stories we wanted to tell dictate the episode. So SISTERS is our "I Dream of Jeannie" episode, FORCES OF NATURE is an Asian fairy tale, DEEP SIX is our 1940s movie serial, MAD MOD is our crazy 60's mod thing. So we did a lot to change the style of the show with each episode. So that was a lot of fun. But it did make each new script a challenge in terms of finding the style of the episode. By the time we got around to CAR TROUBLE, we had more a handle on the series as a whole. That was our "American Graffiti" episode."

Producer/Story Editor David Slack on inside references: "Yeah, sometimes it's easier to pull a name than to make up one. So the show is always full of the names of people that work on the show. It's fun. The two teens in CAR TROUBLE - Sammy and Cash - are actually BOTH nicknames for Sam Register. Sammy for his first name, and Cash for his last name. We had the voice actor do something Sam does... when he greets you he'll go, "Aaayyy!" So if you watch CAR TROUBLE, you'll see both Sammy and Cash do that."


It's Cyborg meets "American Graffiti."

There's nothing particularly wrong with CAR TROUBLE... but there's nothing too memorable about it either. It's one of those episodes that's high on action, but light on character. There's nothing for us to invest in. And there's nothing that's specific to the Teen Titans or their universe.

The 1950's drag race send-up didn't do much in the way of helping the episode either. The return of Gizmo was just about the only thing to kick the episode into second gear.

As episodes go, it's OK. But since Amy Wolfram is the writer that brought us SISTERS and TERRA (among others), we know she's capable of much more in terms of depth. Grade: C+

 

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