Route 66

Simply one of the finest shows from American t.v.This is an undeservedly "lost" show ,amazingly neglected when so many inferior 60's series are wildly overpraised.If you have never seen "Route 66" try to,it's a rare gem.The scripts are not just highly literate,but often close to poetic(no wonder Jim Aubrey,downmarketeer boss at CBS TV disliked it!).There's a great deal of acting talent in the guest roles-Boris Karloff,Lee Marvin,Robert Duvall,Warren Stevens,Lew Ayers,Michael Rennie,Martin Sheen,Dorothy Malone,Ed Asner,Walter Matthau,Edward Andrews,Leslie Nielson,Anne Francis,Jack Lord,William Shatner and Dan Duryea are just a few to look out for.The two part story "Fly away home" has a haunting tortured performance by Michael Rennie as a doomed pilot;"Welcome to Amity"featuring Susan Oliver is both uplifting and truly moving; in "A month of Sundays" the "Route 66" camera captures Anne Francis at the peak of her stunning beauty and series regular Martin Milner gives the performance of his life as a drug crazed Tod Stiles in "A thin white line".These are just some of the highlights in "Route 66".The location filming (unusual then and now),provides a marvellous time capsule of a now vanished America.

Just look to your left and click on guest appearances. If you do you're in for one heck of a surprise! This show had some great writing in the early years. Reruns were on the Nick-At-Night TV network in the eighties, I was so disappointed I haven't watched the network since. Every episode was a full and complete story, the writing had to be excellent to be able to pull in the caliber of talent that you see on this list. Many current and back then, future stars ought to make this show more visible than it is but sadly that's not the case. It had a great music score from Nelson Riddle and great stories written by Sterling Silliphant. Last but not least, a great car! PLEASE, SOMEBODY BRING THIS SHOW INTO OUR HOMES AGAIN.

Rt 66 was such a breath of fresh air. I have been a movie buff all my life and after seeing all the backlot tv shows from the mid fifties to 1960, this show had my eyes wide open. Everything was on location and the production values were as good as any theatrical movie. Some of the story lines toward the end of the run were stupid but the values were always there. Most of the time I would watch the show to see how good location filming done quickly could be done so good. I think the producer owned or had owned Republic Studios who were the best at making movie serials and that would explain a lot. In watching reruns it is surprising how little the Corvette was actually seen in some episodes. After this, I found backlot shows to be very cheap, boring entertainment.

I saw many of the 1960 and 1961 episodes while in the service. I was so taken by the show that in my mind (confusing reality and television), I decided to hit the road when I got discharged in 1962. I purchased a 1961 Vette and a buddy and I set off from Sacramento, California sometime in May 1963 a la Tod and Buzz to find adventure and romance at every stop. Unfortunately we only got as far as southern Utah when we totally ran out of money. I guess we forgot that Buzz and Tod took time out to work here and there. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted and my only lasting regret was having sold the Corvette. Back to the show: one fascinating aspect is in the scripts. Silliphant in particular was a great writer both serious and comedic - but what is amusing today is the amount of beat-era language, as well as existentialist philosophy. Sterling must have read his Sartre and Camus - or at least Tod did while at Yale. The show had at times a strangely schizophrenic nature: trite, even stupid story lines, but some very profound dialogue (at least for television). And the need for at least one fist fight in every episode gives the lie to any myth of a "kinder and gentler nation" before the counter culture invasion in the mid 60's.

Marty Milner and his sidekick George Maharis get into intrigue and adventure on the highways and byways. Mostly across the good old USA, but one stop each in Canada and Mexico.

Ahhh, what a great concept for a TV series in this post-war period. Two virile young dudes getting into a gorgeous Corvette and driving aimlessly until the gas money ran out. This was one of the more well written and plotted series of the day, too! Some have called the dialogue intellectual and poetic. It is one of those shows that was impossible to stop watching once you were in the first five minutes. Gorgeous scenery and the perpetual sense that adventure was always just around the turnpike.

Stan Lee and Marvel Comics wouldn't admit this, but it would appear they may have unintentionally ripped off the Buzz Murdock character in creating one of their stable characters, Daredevil. According to all the trivial facts about Route 66, Buzz Murdock hails from Hell's Kitchen! Daredevil's secret identity, MATT Murdock, hails from Hell's Kitchen! It seems to me in one episode, Buzz was even blinded! Matt Murdock is blind!

Nah, I don't really care either, but thought somebody out there might find it interesting.