Moo car: The Dobbertin Surface Orbiter cruised...

Moo car: The Dobbertin Surface Orbiter cruised into L.A. this week, fresh from the first-ever voyage through the Panama Canal by an amphibious vehicle (toll: $21.12).

It’s a 1959 converted milk tanker, which can hit 70 m.p.h. on roadways and 8 knots on the waterways. “Globe-Trotting Guernsey,” one car magazine called it. “A boat Elsie would love,” said a boat magazine.

Considering the Surface Orbiter’s dramatic career change, creators Rick and Karen Dobbertin thought they could land a spot on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show.” But Leno said no thanks, even though the Dobbertins deliver to the door.

So, the couple, who are attempting to pick up new endorsements to finance a trip to Europe (by sea), plan to drive across the country, where they’ll conduct media interviews and appear at car and/or boat shows.

The Dobbertins say the question that L.A. drivers most frequently ask about the Surface Orbiter is one seldom posed elsewhere in the nation.

“People are always asking,” said Karen Dobbertin, “if it’s a real car or just a movie prop.”

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For today’s show we have a substitution in the historical cast: An unexpected chuckle for the theater-goers at Neil Simon’s “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” is a bit of flubbed history in the play’s printed program.

Elliot Zwiebach, who spotted the miscue, says the producers could at least have slipped a note into each program, as is done with cast changes. The note would have said that the “infamous anti-Communist witch hunts” of the 1950s were actually led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy--not by Sen. Eugene McCarthy.

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List of the Day: We phoned in a special request to Dr. Demento, whose wacky radio show is heard on more than 150 stations (locally on KSCA-FM, 101.9): A list of some of the most terrible song titles of all time.

Boy, did he find some:

* “God Told Me to Rob the 7-Eleven,” recorded by Dick Price.

* “I’d Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me (Than a Frontal Lobotomy),” by Randy (Dr. Rock) Hanzlick.

* “I’ve Got Those Wake Up Seven-Thirty, Wash Your Ears They’re Dirty, Eat Your Eggs and Oatmeal, Rush to School Blues,” by Jimmy Boyd.

* “Jesus Loves Me (but He Can’t Stand You),” by the Austin Lounge Lizards.

* “When There’s Tears in the Eyes of a Potato,” by the Hoosier Hot Shots.

* “Dead Puppies (Aren’t Much Fun),” by Ogden Edsl.

* “I’ve Got Tears in My Ears (From Lying on My Back in My Bed When I Cry Over You),” by Homer and Jethro.

* “A Bowl of Chop Suey and You-ey,” by Sam Robbins and the Hotel McAlpin Orchestra.

* “I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones,” by the Hoosier Hot Shots.

* “Fish Heads,” by Barnes & Barnes, the duo of actor Bill Mumy (best known as the kid on TV’s “Lost in Space”) and singer-keyboardist Robert Haimer.”

Dr. Demento says “Fish Heads” is his all-time most requested song.

miscelLAny Harvey Farr noticed a new autographed photo on the wall of stars at the Homarus Lox deli on Pico Boulevard. Joining such performers as Sid Caesar, James Coburn and Catherine Oxenberg is the smiling face of Mr. L.A. Law himself, Robert Shapiro.