Ruta 66

I got hooked on this through my obsession with Adam-12 and some tapes I bought off ebay. I've only seen 14 episodes, but they are 14 of the greatest TV episodes of any drama ever to make it into our homes. So few shows now make you think, but this does and that's good. Makes you think about human nature, the world, and your role in it. It's more than just a show about two cute guys in the world's coolest car (though there's nothing wrong with that), it's about people. I cry when I remember that no one has jumped at the opportunity to put this show on their network. What are they thinking??? This is the drama that all the dramas since have wanted to be but never succeeded at becoming.

It's said "they don't make 'em like they used to" and Route 66 certainly brings credibility to that statement. I was only about eleven years old when the show went off the air, but what an impact it had. I can't see one of those old two seater Chevys without the sweet theme song going lightly through my head. Here's a masculine buddy show, two good looking guys, side by side, all the way across the country. Pure and simple, clean and fascinating, both the relationship and the adventures they achieved. I have no doubt that my own cross country odyssey in a little open air two seater from New England to Southern California in the mid 1970s was subconsciously a way to live briefly as Buz or Tod. Can't wait for the DVD which I understand is coming out in a couple of months because the world is a place more lacking for want of reruns of this All American classic.

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.

I was about ten when this show premiered and watched it with my parents every friday night between Rawhide and Twilight Zone. As you can see Friday was a good night for TV. I was fascinated with the show and its two stars, both of whom I had crushes on. They were both so natural in their acting and always delivered some words of wisdom by the shows end. The fact that the show was always on location made it much more interesting to watch. I was sorry too when Nick at Night quit airing it in the 80's. I watched as many of the reruns as I possibly could and even now have a few on tape. It's a show I think that still holds up today because of its uniqueness and naturalness.

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.