Route 66

I saw many of the 1960 and 1961 episodes while in the service. I was so taken by the show that in my mind (confusing reality and television), I decided to hit the road when I got discharged in 1962. I purchased a 1961 Vette and a buddy and I set off from Sacramento, California sometime in May 1963 a la Tod and Buzz to find adventure and romance at every stop. Unfortunately we only got as far as southern Utah when we totally ran out of money. I guess we forgot that Buzz and Tod took time out to work here and there. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted and my only lasting regret was having sold the Corvette. Back to the show: one fascinating aspect is in the scripts. Silliphant in particular was a great writer both serious and comedic - but what is amusing today is the amount of beat-era language, as well as existentialist philosophy. Sterling must have read his Sartre and Camus - or at least Tod did while at Yale. The show had at times a strangely schizophrenic nature: trite, even stupid story lines, but some very profound dialogue (at least for television). And the need for at least one fist fight in every episode gives the lie to any myth of a "kinder and gentler nation" before the counter culture invasion in the mid 60's.

Rt 66 was such a breath of fresh air. I have been a movie buff all my life and after seeing all the backlot tv shows from the mid fifties to 1960, this show had my eyes wide open. Everything was on location and the production values were as good as any theatrical movie. Some of the story lines toward the end of the run were stupid but the values were always there. Most of the time I would watch the show to see how good location filming done quickly could be done so good. I think the producer owned or had owned Republic Studios who were the best at making movie serials and that would explain a lot. In watching reruns it is surprising how little the Corvette was actually seen in some episodes. After this, I found backlot shows to be very cheap, boring entertainment.

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.

Marty Milner and his sidekick George Maharis get into intrigue and adventure on the highways and byways. Mostly across the good old USA, but one stop each in Canada and Mexico.

Ahhh, what a great concept for a TV series in this post-war period. Two virile young dudes getting into a gorgeous Corvette and driving aimlessly until the gas money ran out. This was one of the more well written and plotted series of the day, too! Some have called the dialogue intellectual and poetic. It is one of those shows that was impossible to stop watching once you were in the first five minutes. Gorgeous scenery and the perpetual sense that adventure was always just around the turnpike.

Stan Lee and Marvel Comics wouldn't admit this, but it would appear they may have unintentionally ripped off the Buzz Murdock character in creating one of their stable characters, Daredevil. According to all the trivial facts about Route 66, Buzz Murdock hails from Hell's Kitchen! Daredevil's secret identity, MATT Murdock, hails from Hell's Kitchen! It seems to me in one episode, Buzz was even blinded! Matt Murdock is blind!

Nah, I don't really care either, but thought somebody out there might find it interesting.

I have been living in Asia for the past 32 years so I don't know if

reruns of "Route 66" have ever been running on television in the States

over the past 3 decades. But 20 years ago when I read Alvin Toffler's

prediction in The Third Wave that the future would see professionals

not loyal to any one company but working with an honest fervor at a

given task and then moving on to the next worthy challenge, my

impression was, "this guy is describing the world of Buz and Tod on

'Route 66'." In an era when America was composed of white collar

office workers and blue collar union members, all working towards a

pension, 'Route 66' was a breath of fresh air, an escape, and a

challenge to try something different as well as a reminder that one

should move on not with a sense of despair but with a feeling of

jubilation and wonder at what is over the next hill. Against the

current economic climate in both Japan and the U.S.A., such a reminder

is especially needed today. Let's move on with a sense of jubilation

and wonder. And to help us do it, bring back the "Route 66" series.