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!
