L'aventure est au bout de la route

As a small boy, I loved ROUTE 66; as a teenager, it was THEN CAME BRONSON; as a young man, it was MOVIN' ON. And while there were other series about wanderers on the road, often pursued by others (THE FUGITIVE, THE IMMORTAL, KUNG FU, and later even THE INCREDIBLE HULK), what appealed to me most was a story about people who wanted to be on the road, meeting others, experiencing live & the breadth of human situations.

Things had changed by the mid-1970s, of course; but trucking still provided a vehicle (ahem) for such human stories. Gifted with two fine actors in Claude Akins & Frank Converse, it presented the panorama of life as it was then, with all of the drama & humor & unexpectedness of simply being alive. No need for aliens, the supernatural, spies, conspiracies, etc. -- all of those fine & enjoyable in their own right, to be sure! -- just stories about people with needs, dreams, fears, meeting one another, their lives intersecting for a brief time.

And these were "ordinary" people ... and by that I mean real people that you or I would have met, not the supermodels with extravagant lifestyles who seem to populate so many TV shows today. They looked & sounded & acted REAL, with real lives that we could identify with ourselves. I really miss that sort of show; and I'm delighted that MOVIN' ON is finally available on DVD at last. Now to relive those times once more!

I watched a couple of episodes of "Movin' On" as a teen in the mid-70's and started watching it again on Roku via Hulu and PRO. If you've read this far, you already know it's a dramedy about two interstate truckers hauling loads and running into trouble all across America, so I'll leave the premise explanation at that.

Claude Akins was PERFECT as Sonny Pruitt, the veteran trucker who was struggling to keep making payments on the rig doing the hauling. Claude was an in-demand actor whose distinctive, rugged facial features and burly body made him a perfect villain or cop in a number of roles. In this role, he was still a rugged guy who could go to Fist City with the best of them, but he showed a softer, comic side in what may have been his best role on TV (apologies to Sheriff Lobo fans). Akins died in 1994 at age 67.

Frank Converse played Will Chandler, Sonny's younger, college-grad driving partner. Will was the methodical thinker as likely to talk his way out of a jam as duke his way out, i.e., the "brains" of the team. Converse appeared in the 1967 movie "Hurry Sundown" and in the late-60's TV series "Coronet Blue" and "N.Y.P.D." "Movin' On" was his last network primetime show, although he continued acting well past 2000 (appearing five times over 18 years on "Law & Order").

The series itself was interesting and fun, if not outstanding. America's CB radio craze was well underway when it began, personified by the C.W. McCall trucker tune "Convoy," which reached #1 on the pop charts in 1975. NBC's attempt to cash in was this series and while "Movin' On" had promise, if not a lot of polish or believable, but the network pulled the plug after two seasons and 44 episodes. Too bad. The writing was so-so and nothing about this show was ever going to win an Emmy, but it was good escapism due to the creativity within the plots and a good on-screen chemistry between Akins and Converse, and even though it's been over 40 years since "Movin On" aired, there's a kind of timeless quality to it.

I have no idea if the shows are available on DVD or Blu-Ray, but they've made for good binge-watching on Roku. It's better than I remember it being. Not "must-see" TV, but worth watching.

I bought a used Rig in 1974 for $500 down and started cross country trucking. When this show was on, all the truck stop TV lounges were filled with Truckers. We made fun of some things, but we could relate to many of the story lines. Very few of us could afford that KW, but it was nice to dream. But having problems with brokers, Smokies and the public in general were familiar themes. But also there were the good times when people were given and gave help just because they needed it and nothing was expected in return. And my trucking days lasted longer than the series....but only by a couple of years....unlike Sonny, I could not make a lot of money.

This show ruled! I can't believe it lasted only two seasons. The realism was astounding. It may not have been the ER of it's time, but it was certainly the Chicago Hope of it's time. I missed watching Fonzie jump the garbage cans on Happy Days just to watch this show. This show laid ground work for shows like Knight Rider and Love Boat. What else can I say?

I was the ripe old age of 10 when this show came on, but I never missed it. My mother and I used to make time every week to sit down with a bottle of Coca-Cola and watch it. The very first 45 (yes! a vinyl record!!) I bought was the theme song to this show--I thought! I ended up with "Movin' On" by Bad Company! I was very upset. Looking back I don't know why I thought I'd be able to find the theme song to a television show about truckers in the "Top 20" section. Anyway, I would love to watch this again on TVLand, or someplace. It's one of the sadly forgotten 70s shows that were very entertaining, even if they weren't the most popular or well-known.