It came to symbolize the nation's wanderlust and love of automobiles, and it inspired the revered TV show starring Martin Milner, George Maharis (later Glenn Corbett) and a Corvette convertible that tapped into that spirit. The new 24-disc Route 66: The Complete Series (1960-64, Shout! Factory, not rated, $130) brings the black-and-white CBS show's entire 116-episode run to home video.
Milner plays clean-cut Tod Stiles, who inherits a sports car from his father and decides to take to the open road. Maharis plays his edgier pal Buz Murdock, and together they find adventures movi ng from town to town, taking odd jobs and meeting all manner of quirky characters and troubled, often desperate, people along the way. The show was created and largely written by producer Stirling Silliphant, who also created the TV shows Naked City and Longstreet, and wrote screenplays for such movies as In the Heat of the Night, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure.
Route 66's anthology format with its roaming leads and new locales and casts every week allowed Silliphant, who was praised for his highly literate scripts, to cover a broad range of social t opics. The show had few permanent sets and integrated the local flavor and landmarks of whatever setting â€" beach resorts, logging camps, shrimp boats, ski slopes â€" they were using. The action centered on the guest stars with Tod and Buz observing and reacting to what was going on.
Maharis missed several episodes at the end of the second season due to illness and left the show for good in the middle of the third. He was replaced by Corbett, who played Lincoln Case, a Vietnam war vet estranged from his family.
Many of the show's guests would go on to greater fame, while others already were well-established. Joan Crawford appears as a woman fearful of her ex-husband. Horror legends Lon Chaney Jr., Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre play themselves in one episode in which they make their own movie. It marks the last time that Karloff puts on his Frankenstein makeup and Chaney does The Wolfman and Mummy. Jazz and gospel great Ethel Waters became the first African-American actress nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of a dying singer hoping to reunite with her old band.
Other stars appearing on the show included Suzanne Pleshette, E.G. Marshall, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Redford, Lee Marvin, Jack Lord, Anne Francis, Jack Warden, Walther Matthau, Darren McGavin, Claude Akins, DeForest Kelley, Julie Newmar, Tuesday Weld, Peter Graves, Rod Steiger, Harry Guardino, William Shatner, Soupy Sales, Vera Miles, Richard Widmark, Martin Balsam and even the German shepherd from Rin Tin Tin.
While it was never explained on the show, each season brought the newest model Corvette, supplied along with most of the other vehicles by sponsor Chevrolet. The iconic jazzy instrumental theme by Nelson Riddle was a top 30 pop hit and earned two Grammy nominations. The song was commissioned by CBS, which didn't want to pay royalties for Bobby Troup's (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66, made famous by Nat King Cole in 1946.
At the end of four seasons, the show ended neatly with a two-part episode Where There's A Will, There's A Way, in which the itinerant Tod finally puts down roots and marries an heiress (Barbara Eden) and Lincoln decides to return to Texas to reconcile with his family.
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