The Corvette Becomes a TV Star on Route 66!

Dateline: 10.7.14 – Fifty-Four years ago today, Route 66 made its TV debut. Beginning October 7, 1960 and once a week into early 1964,viewers followed the adventures of Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buzz Murdock (George Maharis) as they tooled around America in a brand new 1960 Corvette, seeking… well, adventure. Even though Chevrolet wasn’t selling that many Corvettes (10,261 units in 1960) the Chevrolet PR guys couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make the Corvette a TV star.

The guys kicked around living as true vagabonds. There were usually pretty gals and a fight scene with Todd taking a sock to the jaw and Buzz coming to the rescue. Buzz was a tough guy from Hell’s Kitchen, so he, “didn’t take no guff!” The series ran for four years with Maharis leaving the show towards the end of the third season. For the remainder of the series, Tod Stiles co-driver was Lincoln Chase, played by Glenn Corbett.

Filmed in black & white, Route 66 is a time capsule of America from 1960 to early 1964, just as Beatle Mania and the British Invasion took America’s youth by storm.
Suddenly the youth audience wasn’t much interested in two mid-20s dudes wandering around America with Nelson Riddle music playing at the beginning and the end of each show – even though by the last season the guys had a cool new Sting Ray roadster. And speaking of the always new Corvettes, it was never really clear how it was that either one of these fellows could afford brand new, Cadillac-priced Corvette – but no one cared, and few probably noticed.

Rt-66-TV-Show-6 — Here’s the lovely and talented Suzanne Pleshette, one of dozens of TV and movie starlets that had guest star rolls on Route 66.

Another point worth mentioning is that the weekly guest stars was a Who’s Who of TV and movies, including: Alan Alda , James Caan, Joan Crawford, Robert Duvall, Dorothy Malone, George Kennedy, Joey Heatherton, Ben Johnson, E.G. Marshall, Walter Matthau, David Janssen, Buster Keaton, Ed Asner, Lee Marvin, Michael Rennie, Tina Louise, Darren McGavin, Jack Lord, Kent McCord, Suzanne Pleshette, Anne Francis, Tuesday Weld, Susan Oliver, Robert Redford, Leslie Nielsen, Martin Sheen, Rod Steiger, Lois Nettleton, Lois Smith, Sylvia Sidney, Beulah Bondi, Barbara Eden, Diane Baker, Joan Tompkins, Julie Newmar, William Shatner, DeForest Kelley , and others.

It’s also worth noting that a very young Robert Redford was considered for the roll of Todd Stiles. This is interesting because Redford told Fresh Air host Terry Gross that in the late 50s when he was “finding himself” before he got the acting bug, he actually hitch-hiked on Rt. 66! Redford was 24 at the time.

The Route 66 DVDs are available on Netflix. Most, if not all of the episodes are also on YouTube. Watching the show is a trip down Memory Lane and a time capsule of America in the early 1960s. FUN STUFF! – Scott

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