L'aventure est au bout de la route

If you are old enough to remember the 1970's, the "trucker as a modern day cowboy" phenomena and the great CB fad (10-4 Good Buddy and watch out for Smokey) you remember and maybe even saw this series when it first aired!

I watched this show during its first run in 74-76 and had dim memories of it (I remembered the premise of truck drivers and Claude Akins being in it), but couldn't remember the name of the show or characters or much else about it. I had some of the merchandising tie-ins from the series including a model of the Kenworth and the mobile CB rig (a cheap transceiver radio that was low powered and only worked on CB CH 14 both of which were legal limitations for an unlicensed CB radio at the time).

For those hoping to catch this series again (since it apparently was never released on DVD or VHS) the Retro TV Network has started showing it as of late June 2011! As I write this it's only been on for a week, but I'm enjoying the trip down memory lane and seeing these shows for the first time since I was a kid watching them when they first aired.

It wasn't the greatest series, but I always liked Claude and I especially love all of the location filming that shows the world and highways of the 1970's and seeing the guest stars of the era.

Hope everyone that misses it will be able to catch it again.

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.

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 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.