America's Mainstreet

Buz-with one Z and Tod-with one D + one sweet ride

They are both in their 80's now.  Marty Milner lives down the road from me, just one more north San Diego county grandpa.  George Maharis is retired somewhere, probably New York, but  from the Fall of 1959 to Spring of 1964 he and Milner were two of the coolest guys on the planet.  Tod Stiles, Milner, and Buz Murdock, Maharis, were a couple of buddies who set off across the country in a beautiful new Corvette that Stiles inherited from his father.  Week after week, in shows mostly shot on location, they found adventure and sometimes romance in America's cities and on its backroads.  The series was considered hip and sophisticated at the time with loads of appeal for the teens of the baby boom generation.  

Naturally, when Route 66 was released on DVD as a complete series a week or two ago, I had to order it from Amazon.  It was the perfect antidote for the increasingly un-watchable fare offered by the 400 plus channels on my satellite dish.   Or, so I thought.  Just as it is with many things in our rearview mirror, the show seems not nearly as sophisticated or as polished as I had remembered.  Okay, the Nelson Riddle theme music is still hip and cool, but the acting seems somewhat stilted by today's standards, the editing and production values are primative, the fight scenes embarrassingly fake and...well, it IS in black and white.  

Initially I was disappointed.  Then it occurred to me that I was being stupid.  (So, what else is new?)  

Route 66 is a time capsule--a terrific microcosim of a period of immense change in America.  Like no other series on television this show captured the very end of American innocence and the emergence of a cynicism that is with us yet today.  In the Fall of 1959 Ike was still in the White House, Mickey Mouse had a club and a brand new theme park, most moms stayed at home and teachers could smack a kid for being out of line.  By the end of the Route 66 run in the Spring of 1964,  John Kennedy had been elected president and assassinated, the Bay of Pigs crisis happened , also America had begun its long misadventure in Southeast Asia.   No question, a time of great change for the country.

And that's what I see as I begin to watch this now 50+ year-old TV series... a far more innocent America.  I am several episodes into the first year now and the boys encounter moral dilemmas nearly every week and always seem to make sure that goodness prevails and wrong is identified and condemned.  All of this is accomplished with a considerable talent stable of then young unknown actors who later found fame.  Jack Lord, Anne Francis, Walter Matthau, Robert Duvall, Julie Newmar, Dick York, William Shatner, Barbara Eden, even Soupy Sales and countless others can be found in these episodes.  As I said, a "time capsule".

I'm looking forward to watching all of the Route 66 series and wonder how well it reflects those times  recalled by my generation.  It'll be fun to ride along with the boys as they roar down what was once  America's  Mainstreet,  Route 66.