First, a little background from the Family Auto Mart Website:

Brian Power, AKA “The Family Man”, opened the car dealership called Family Auto Mart in 1992, located at 1918 Aurora Road, Melbourne, FL. He bought 3 minutes of airtime on a local leased access car show. Instead of doing what everyone else was doing (walking car to car trying to sell each car through the TV), he took a more creative approach and would write funny skits.

Then he began to run 30 second commercial spots on the local cable system. These commercials, which contained the legendary cartwheel, would forever brand The Family Man as the crazy guy on TV that does the flips. Then he bought 30 minutes of airtime and started something called “The Family Auto Mart Show”. He would show all of his 30 Second commercials along with other skits and one line rhymes. He produced a 6 minute segment and aired it 5 times to make it a half-hour show.

This started the cult like following that exists today. Many people in the Central Florida area that stay up at night would be flipping through the channels and come across this “wacky” show. And the response was phenomenal. People would watch, not because they needed a car, but because it was truly entertaining local television.

I can vouch for that last part. Family Auto Mart’s late night infomercials were a huge hit with me and my friends. A.I. even went over there and was kind enough to bring me back a shirt.

The family man is completely wacky! Cartwheels, silly rhymes, goofy football skits, freewheeling video edits and effects… ya gotta see it to believe it.

Sometimes when you’ve been partying on the weekends and you come back to the house around 3am, you can’t quite get to sleep right away. You stay up and watch TV. Normally, local TV just has infomercials. But if you’re really lucky, you might just catch something as special as the family man. Remember, their boo-coo minivans have ice-cold A/C that will SET YOU FREE.

Today, “The Family Auto Mart Show” is now a complete 30-minute show and is 50% funded by outside advertisers. The show airs in a potential of 1.2 million households 3 times a night, that is 12 counties in Central Florida. As for car sales, Family Auto Mart is still the number 1 dealer in the county (Brevard), selling 80-120 cars/month.

I only wish that Hubcap City, (Sanford!) achieved that same level of success. Now that was a catchy tune…

~bill G