TV ON DVD

Route 66’s traveling duo roved through ’60s culture

— What is it? Route 66, the complete series, 116 episodes on 24 discs from Shout! Factory

When? Now

How much? $129.99

Is this a travelogue? No. It’s a scripted series from 1960-64 that follows the adventures of Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and his friend, Buz Murdock (George Maharis), as they travel the country in Stiles’ late father’s Corvette.

Buz was eventually replaced by Lincoln Case (Glenn Corbett) when Maharis developed health problems.

As they wander aimlessly, they pick up odd jobs, meet people in varying degrees of trouble and help them sort out their lives.

The rambling duo get involved in custody cases, struggling marriages, injustices and a variety of problematic relationships, doing what they can to sort out the troubles and set people on the right track.

Tod, Buz or Linc and the Corvette were the only constants on a show that featured a different story, setting and characters every week. Sometimes those characters were very familiar faces. Over the years, the show boasted an impressive list of guest stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age including Buster Keaton, Peter Lorre, Joan Crawford and Boris Karloff. Also, look for up-and-comers like Martin Sheen, Suzanne Pleshette, Alan Alda and Ed Asner.

The set-up sounds familiar. Well, this wasn’t the only time TV has used this sort of format. The Fugitive, Highway to Heaven and Touched by an Angel were all popular, long-running series that did variations on the“wandering do-gooders” theme.

So this is set along Route 66? No. It’s all over the country (and even into Canada). It’s certainly not confined to the historic roadway.

Part of the point of the show was to examine and showcase America and its regions, people and values. (It also had Nelson Riddle’s jazzy theme music.)

Unusual for the time, episodes were filmed on location, so the series is far more authentic than many series of the era.

Is it good? It was considered groundbreaking in the 1960s and even drew the attention of the censors as it tackled touchy issues like gang violence and drug abuse.

Some episodes can be genuinely moving, some are pretty dark and a few are amusing. But the show can also be preachy and the writing is more flowery and poetic than most modern audiences are probably used to.

Are there bonus features? Yes. There’s a 24-minute documentary about Corvettes, a collection of old commercials for Chevrolet, Bayer Aspirin and Phillips’ Milk of Magnesia, and 40 minutes of highlights from a 1990 cast-and-crew panel discussion at the Paley Center for Media.

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Next week: Breaking Bad, Season 4; Burn Notice, Season 5; Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 8; Fairly Legal, Season 1; Falling Skies, Season 1; In Plain Sight, Season 4; Necessary Roughness, Season 1; Pretty Little Liars, Season 2; Rags to Riches, Complete Series; White Collar, Season 3.

Style, Pages 48 on 05/27/2012

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