Route 66: Producer's Picks Review

OK, look... some people get lost in science-fiction, graphic novels, role-playing games, rom-coms, whatever... I love the whole "American ideal" kind of a thing... you know, like Rosie the Riveter, and victory gardens, and the innovativeness and indomitable spirit that is uniquely American. The actual highway US Route 66, was an American icon and the pieces of it that remain hearken back to a time when families could afford to go on long road trips with their families in gas-guzzling cars that had a seating capacity of 20 or so. Mom and Pop motels and diners thrived along the route. People sometimes say "that was a better time..." It probably actually wasn't but since I wasn't born then, it's fun to think about.

That being said, the television series Route 66 aired from 1960-1964 on CBS. How did I become acquainted with it? Way back when cable television first made its debut, the channel Nickelodeon aired children's programming during the day, then at 7pm, it changed from Nickelodeon to "Nick At Night." It aired classic TV shows for after the little ones were in bed. They had shows on such as: F Troop, Rin Tin Tin, Mr. Ed, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Route 66. That's when I fell in love with this show and the cool main characters that we never really learn that much about: Tod Stiles (Martin Milner), and Buz Murdock (George Maharis). In season three, Buz was replaced by Linc, but the Route 66: Producer's Picks has the best of the Buz and Tod episodes.

For a little background... Tod was a graduate from Yale University. He's got that blond-haired, blue-eyed Homecoming King look about him (it's black and white... I don't know what color his eyes actually are), his friend Buz is tougher, broodier, and has had a tough upbringing. Tod's wealthy father unexpectedly dies, and all of the sudden, Tod finds himself penniless. He has one possession: a powder blue Chevrolet Corvette convertible car. Buz and Tod ride around the country having adventures in it.

You never really learn too much more about Buz and Tod than that. Also, even though the name of the show is Route 66, it wasn't really filmed on the highway, and it's only mentioned peripherally in a few episodes. That's why I went into all that detail about the American ideal. The show encompasses the spirit of the times, even if it's not filmed on the famous stretch of roadway.

What was unusual for the series of this time was that all of the episodes were shot on location in the USA in places that were scouted out by the show's creator Stirling Silliphant. I found the cinematography in this series to be excellent, owing mainly to the beautiful locales chosen by him.

The storylines of Route 66 were dark, and the situations they encountered were very realistic and well-scripted. The dialog is really deep and often poetic. On every episode, I kept thinking: "I need to write that line down, so I can put it in my review." There were so many, that I actually didn't write them down. I am going to steal one from wikipedia. It's from an episode when Buz and Tod run into a Nazi-hunter from World War II (this episode, The Man on the Monkey Board isn't on this DVD, but the quote is representative of the writing on this show). This man (known as Bartlett), describes the horrors of the war and the Holocaust as such:

"Tod, I hope you live a long life and never know the blistering forces which sear and destroy, turn men into enemies and sweep past the last frontiers of compassion"

and "once you've seen that dark, unceasing tide of faces... of the victims...the last spark of dignity so obliterated that not one face is lifted to heaven, not one voice is raised in protest even as they died..." 

Although Buz and Tod are the main characters in the series Route 66, the stories are more about the people, places, and situations they encounter on their quest for adventure. The episodes often include actors on their way up in the business, or ones making cameos in the twilight of their careers. This DVD includes episodes with some of these Hollywood actors: Alan Alda, Boris Karloff, Walter Matthau, James Caan, Ron Howard (known as "Ronny" then!), Stefanie Powers, Robert Duvall, and Martin Sheen, among others.

The episodes included on this DVD are:

1. Play It Again Glissando 
2. Eleven The Hard Way 
3. First Class Mouliak 
4. The Strengthening Of Angels 
5. Birdcage On My Foot 
6. And The Cat Jumped Over The Moon 
7. You Never Had It So Good 
8. Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing 
9. Poor Little Kangaroo Rat 
10. Soda Pop And Paper Flags 
11. A Cage In Search Of A Bird

The first episode on the DVD's: Play It Again, Glissando, deals in a realistic manner with mental illness. Glissando is a famous jazz trumpet player. The beginning of the episode has Buz in the back of an ambulance with Tod on the gurney, suffering from a gunshot wound. When asked what happened to Tod, Buz tells the EMT that it was a "hunting accident." Then Buz recounts the story of how Tod came to be shot to a police detective in the front seat of the squad car with Glissando's wife in the back seat.

They use a lot of regional lingo, some definitely not politically correct... Glissando's wife is described as a "flip" and a four year "couch case." They call each other "squares" and they try to get a lady "gassed." They explain the original meaning of the phrase: "He/she's too much." I love that stuff. I think it's cool.

The Halloween episode Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing has Boris Karloff in it. He puts on his Frankenstein make-up on for what I found out was the first time in 25 years. Lon Cheney, Jr reprises The Wolfman character, and Peter Lorre was also featured.

Maybe one of the best parts of these DVD's is that the original commercials for Chevrolet, Bayer Aspirin, and Phillips' Milk of Magnesia are still in there. The cast of My Three Sons marvel at how the new Chevy Biscayne's trunk is so large that "you could play a game of tennis in there!" Bigger cars and more powerful engines made the cars more desirable. How times have changed!

The Bayer Aspirin commercials show a kind of science experiment. It's a clear kind of a zig-zag tube leading down to a larger round bottom. It's filled with liquid. When the actor puts a Bayer Aspirin in the top, we see it floating down the zig-zags into the bottom, disintegrating on the way down. This shows the "Immediate Flaking Action" of Bayer Aspirin. There are a few different variations of the commercial, but it cracks me up how things used to be advertised.

Route 66 was four seasons long. It's really expensive to buy the separate seasons. Getting the Route 66: Producer's Picks 11 Favorite Episodes gives you a great feel for the series. Even if these DVD's are all you ever see of the series, I think you're in for one of the best television dramas of all time.