Give the Old Cat a Tender Mouse

Maybe it's just me, but I have very little patience for this kind of show. Yeah, Julie Newmar is a uniquely fascinating, knock-out presence, but that only justifies her character for so long. The ephemeral, flighty, stream-of-consciousness BS wears very thin after a while.

And speaking of dull, Robert Webber is a about as colorless an actor as you'll ever see (maybe Wendell Corey is worse in that regard), and a highly unlikely match for Catwoman Newmar as a potential spouse.

Lots of good "Vehicular" footage-- cars, motorcycles, vans, airplanes, (horses), etc. It must have taken a lot of time to map out and film all of this on location--- so I appreciate the effort that went into this one. But as drama---or comedy--- or whatever the heck it's supposed to be--- I've had enough. I only hope Siliphant and friends knock off the early '60's artsy "relevance" soon and get back to something more compelling and less abstruse.

Nice to see Murray Matheson and Natalie Schaeffer--- even with their so-so Southern accents and very limited screen time. Bummer. LR

Julie Newmar returns in the character of Vicki Russell. Here she is in Memphis and engaged to be married to Robert Webber. Like in her first series appearance, 'How Much a Pound is Albatross', she rides around on a motorcycle, but this time she is followed around by a 'babysitter' in a van who is paid by her very rich family to keep an eye on her and keep her out of trouble.

This episode features some great examples of writer Stirling Siliphant's now famous 'poetic dialogue'. It also has a very exciting and well shot sky diving sequence. This was filmed during the period where Maharis was suffering from hepatitis so Milner appears solo. This episode also has the novelty of being one of the few times in any series where the star never once makes direct contact with the guest star.

Grade: A-

Stirling Silliphant tests the loyalty of true "Route 66" cultists (count me in!) with this playful but incredibly self-indulgent episode built around the return of Vicki - played by Julie Newmar, the ultimate free-spirit. With George Maharis still missing (supposedly in a Cleveland hospital -yeah, right), the show's future was clearly up in the air, and no amount of diversion or stalling fills that gaping hole in its premise.

It's a joy to watch Julie in action, but the segment's story makes no sense at all with the miscasting of Robert Webber as her romantic interest in something of an arranged marriage between wealthy families. He's no Southern gentleman, and with the Memphis setting it is totally uninteresting to present the "lifestyles of the rich and famous" locally. I found the scene of the men-only Cotton Exchange more intriguing.

Milner is reduced to low-level comic relief chasing her around (he never gets a single scene with Julie), and I wondered what Silliphant's original screenplay for this, before he had to rewrite it to remove Maharis' major role, played like. Perhaps it was a spinoff pilot episode for a never picked-up series titled "The Adventures of Vicki". I also wondered if the simple substitution of a great choice for leading man, say Robert Redford in 1962 (when he was working in TV roles but had not yet arrived at stardom), could have saved the day.

Okay, in returning over six decades to watching the show I know in advance that handsome Glenn Corbett will be arriving to shore up the front line. But we all know that the heart of "Route 66" is gone with George's absence, and even spectacular guest stars like Julie Newmar cannot hide that fact.

And for the record, that is NOT Dom DeLuise on screen several times during the "do the Twist" sequence (and punched in the face by Webber) -just one of dozens of extras, who in fact looks more like Dom's son Peter (not born until 1966) than Dom!

Just an observation, he's not listed in the credits, but I'd swear that in the club, first dancing in front of the band, then the left guy of the trio standing together is Dom Deluise. I managed to pause and compare a profile, him for sure.

Now we have three Tennessee episodes in a row, obviously filmed after the two Missouri episodes. We also have the return of free- spirited Vickie Russell from season 2's "How Much a Pound is Albatross?", (Julie Newmar), the most charismatic of all the characters Todd, Buz and Linc encountered on their journeys and the only one they meet twice. One wishes there had been a third time. Maybe she could have been the gal Todd married at the end and they could have gone off on her motorcycle for a new series of adventures. The problem is that the character, as wonderful as she is, is rather slight, sort of a zephyr blowing by. She's interesting in a couple of episodes but likely couldn't hold down a series.

Vicki is in Memphis to check out Franck Ridenbaugh, a potential husband the bank who controls her fortune has lined up for her. She now has a semi-comical private detective trailing her in a van who "fixes" the messes she gets into. Franck, (the "c" is for cotton, which his fortune is based on) is well-played by Robert Webber, fully a match for Newmar as a serious-minded businessman who nonetheless is fascinated by his potential bride. They have some adventures together, including skydiving and a brawl at a nightclub that's more to her taste than his formal parties. Eventually he decides he's not ready to stop being who he is and she's not ready to stop being who she is. Franck also adds that he doesn't want "a woman who is a contender for the title", (after her horse jumped higher than his did). Again the recurring theme in this series of how women shouldn't undercut men.

Todd never makes contact with Vicki except through his rear view mirror, (didn't she recognize him?), and gets into a series of comic scrapes with a local cop that pad the episode to an hour but never really become part of the story. There's nothing in this script that suggests the original presence of Buz. One wonders what the original version, if there was one, looked like.

George Maharis is still listed in the credits and Todd chooses Buz for the one phone call when he gets arrested. His "echo virus" is now an inner ear infection, (not that that's what it really is, despite what it sounds like). Buz is still in Cleveland. You wonder why Todd didn't stay in Cleveland and find jobs there. But the show must move on and so must he.