The Route 66 show seems to have had the following theme: Two flashy young guys in a flashy new car go around spreading 1960s enlightenment and values to the darker corners of America. And it's not an easy task: Each episode requires a couple of fistfights. In tonight's episode, the two find themselves stranded in a deeply rural Southern town, contending with various kinds of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. The episode is filmed in overwhelming darkness, beyond film noir. Its cultural oppositions seem somewhat pat today, but back then this show represented novelty. Nice score by Nelson Riddle. The show also has interesting early appearances by George Kennedy and Keir Dullea.
10 Reviews
An excellent start to a thought-provoking show.
apbryant24 October 2021
I just started watching Route 66 and I was really struck by how hard-hitting it was for the time. It is obvious that the show was trying to address a lot of the moral questioning that was going on in America coming into the 60s. Many other reviewers have said that this pilot suffered from being too derivative of "Bad Day At Black Rock" and other titles, but the truth is ALL writers are inspired by something they've seen before. Nothing created is ever completely original. The show clearly wants to ask some hard moral questions while highlighting many different communities throughout America along the way. I will definitely be giving this one a chance.
A Creepy Story To Begin A Series.
danrs00000818 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
1. I believe that a black and white film already has a built in factor which enhances the mood and feel of the story. It works well as Todd and Buzz make their way into the tiny town of Garth. Todd even states that there is a very strange feeling in the air. 2. The guys encounter a nutty population in Garth. It seems hard to believe the superstitions and fears which have kept this town paralyzed for years. Apparently it's all related to the intentional or unintentional killing of a minister. Buzz and Todd find themselves in a dangerous situation and it looks very bad for them. 3. According to notes this first episode was filmed in Concord Kentucky. This is a tiny town on the banks of the Ohio River. Its population has dwindled steadily during the past century. 4. If you look at a satellite view of Concord you will see there near the river a clearing in the trees. I wonder if the wooden ramp which served the ferry ran up through that clearing at one time.
Black November 10/7/60
schappe128 March 2015
The boys are on their way to a job with a shrimp boat owned by one of Tod's (many) old friends. (Route66 had come degree of continuity in their early episodes: this is the set up for their second episode). They get lost, go down the wrong road- this one is a dead end- and they crash. They need to get their car repaired to move on but no one will help them. Everybody just wants them to leave. The whole town is totally xenophobic. Tod and Buz find the only way out of their predicament is to get Caleb Garth, the richest man in town who owns everything and runs everybody's life to give the OK to help them so they can leave. While they are waiting for their car to be repaired, they find out the deep, dark secret that has kept the town a prisoner of a moment in the past for a generation.
Everett Sloane is excellent as Garth. George Kennedy has an early role as his chief henchman. The series inaugurates two trends: the heroes have to have a fistfight with somebody in almost every episode and there's a role for a young actress, playing older than her years. In this one it's Patty McCormack, famous for playing the murderous little girl in The Bad Seed, (1956). She was born August 21 1945 so she would have been probably 14 years old when she filmed this but in one scene Garth rips her dress to make it look like she's been raped. Kind of unusual stuff for 1960's television. But Patty will be back in a very different role 17 episodes later. Route 66 was off and running!
Everett Sloane is excellent as Garth. George Kennedy has an early role as his chief henchman. The series inaugurates two trends: the heroes have to have a fistfight with somebody in almost every episode and there's a role for a young actress, playing older than her years. In this one it's Patty McCormack, famous for playing the murderous little girl in The Bad Seed, (1956). She was born August 21 1945 so she would have been probably 14 years old when she filmed this but in one scene Garth rips her dress to make it look like she's been raped. Kind of unusual stuff for 1960's television. But Patty will be back in a very different role 17 episodes later. Route 66 was off and running!
Um...Bad Day at Black Rock Rip?
nammage3 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The beginning reminded me of the Spencer Tracy film "Bad Day at Black Rock" from 1955. That was about a stranger coming to a desolate desert town to find an old friend, who happened to be Japanese, and coming across hostility by certain town folk holding a secret about what happened to him. The plot of this show is two outsiders come to a small town in Mississippi where their car breaks down out of carelessness, and from the start they are unwanted by certain townspeople because of what happened to a German who escaped an internment camp (or was left behind, I forget) and what the 'town' did to him 15 years prior. Same basic plot. I quote "town" because it was really just one main antagonist who seeks payback for the death of his son during WWII. While, in the film, it was mainly just the one guy who didn't get to join the fight against the Japanese during WWII, and so he took it out on a Japanese man who lived near the town. The film is far more superior to this unoriginal pilot episode.
I also wondered if the writers of the episode knew the irony in choosing the name "Garth" as the antagonist's last name? This man hates Germans so much yet his last name's origin is Germanic by way of Norwegian etymology. I don't know, just found that ironic. The episode isn't bad but my main problem with the episode isn't necessarily the plot rip-off but the fact a lot of lynchings (including mob lynchings) happened in the South (including in Mississippi) during the time period and I don't see why this one particular case would have rattled an entire town. I could see it if the antagonist and his 'buddies' went around lynching people with German names or names sounding German, but one man? Just can't get my head around that affecting an entire town during the early 1960s. Maybe I'm wrong but as a Southerner myself, I just don't see it.
I also wondered if the writers of the episode knew the irony in choosing the name "Garth" as the antagonist's last name? This man hates Germans so much yet his last name's origin is Germanic by way of Norwegian etymology. I don't know, just found that ironic. The episode isn't bad but my main problem with the episode isn't necessarily the plot rip-off but the fact a lot of lynchings (including mob lynchings) happened in the South (including in Mississippi) during the time period and I don't see why this one particular case would have rattled an entire town. I could see it if the antagonist and his 'buddies' went around lynching people with German names or names sounding German, but one man? Just can't get my head around that affecting an entire town during the early 1960s. Maybe I'm wrong but as a Southerner myself, I just don't see it.
Village of the damned.
planktonrules26 November 2020
As long as you don't mind that the episode really make no sense whatsoever, this premier episode of the anthology series "Route 66" is worth seeing. I am not familiar with the show and this was the first one I saw...but they have to get better than this one!
The episode is very much like the film "Bad Day at Black Rock", as Tod and Buzz (Martin Milner and George Maharis) end up in a crappy town with a broken down car. The place turns out to be the meanest place on Earth....and several folks try to beat the crap out of our heroes. It turns out some guy named Garth (Everett Sloane) runs the place and keeps everyone under his control. And, if he wants the pair dead, he can easily have this happen. But why?? What sort of secret is this hellish town hiding??
Had the solution to this mystery made any sense at all, then I might have enjoyed the show more. But so much of it is confusing and nonsensical. And, after the mystery is solved, everything in town seems perfect....who cares that the two guys were repeatedly beaten and they were almost murdered?! It really boggles the mind how they decided to show such a weak and dopey episode as the first, as it might have driven away potential viewers. I'll see another few episodes and decide if it's worth it...but based on this one, the answer, so far is nope!
The episode is very much like the film "Bad Day at Black Rock", as Tod and Buzz (Martin Milner and George Maharis) end up in a crappy town with a broken down car. The place turns out to be the meanest place on Earth....and several folks try to beat the crap out of our heroes. It turns out some guy named Garth (Everett Sloane) runs the place and keeps everyone under his control. And, if he wants the pair dead, he can easily have this happen. But why?? What sort of secret is this hellish town hiding??
Had the solution to this mystery made any sense at all, then I might have enjoyed the show more. But so much of it is confusing and nonsensical. And, after the mystery is solved, everything in town seems perfect....who cares that the two guys were repeatedly beaten and they were almost murdered?! It really boggles the mind how they decided to show such a weak and dopey episode as the first, as it might have driven away potential viewers. I'll see another few episodes and decide if it's worth it...but based on this one, the answer, so far is nope!
Sloppy Script Not Up To Series Standards
dougdoepke22 December 2014
Buzz and Todd get trapped in an isolated southern town hostile to strangers.
The entry starts off well with the boys trying to get their damaged Corvette fixed. But then the screenplay appears unsure where to go resulting in a patchwork 60-minutes, despite good turns from Sloane, Bissell, and Patty McCormack of the notorious The Bad Seed (1956). Looks to me like the script was a hurry-up effort that leaves big holes in narrative development, e.g. Todd's almost getting lynched with very little set-up. It also looks like the writers fill up time with a lot of fist-fights, from which Buzz emerges looking like the spiffy cover of Gentleman's Quarterly. Note too how a key story element, Jenny's supposed rape, is only vaguely implied. But then this is not yet the permissive part of the decade.
On the positive side, Sloane delivers an ace performance as the town tyrant, while the location filming shows seedy, yet atmospheric, areas of the US seldom seen on post-war TV. And, catch a strapping George Kennedy as a local thug.
All in all, it's a disappointingly awkward screenplay not up to the series' usual superior standard.
The entry starts off well with the boys trying to get their damaged Corvette fixed. But then the screenplay appears unsure where to go resulting in a patchwork 60-minutes, despite good turns from Sloane, Bissell, and Patty McCormack of the notorious The Bad Seed (1956). Looks to me like the script was a hurry-up effort that leaves big holes in narrative development, e.g. Todd's almost getting lynched with very little set-up. It also looks like the writers fill up time with a lot of fist-fights, from which Buzz emerges looking like the spiffy cover of Gentleman's Quarterly. Note too how a key story element, Jenny's supposed rape, is only vaguely implied. But then this is not yet the permissive part of the decade.
On the positive side, Sloane delivers an ace performance as the town tyrant, while the location filming shows seedy, yet atmospheric, areas of the US seldom seen on post-war TV. And, catch a strapping George Kennedy as a local thug.
All in all, it's a disappointingly awkward screenplay not up to the series' usual superior standard.
Same old garbage
ppehl4 July 2021
Just a rehash of an old horse opera plot where a rich guy runs the lives of a small town. This is nothing more than the stereotypical image that a Hollywood screen writer has of America's rural life. Gee isn't it great that these two big city boys teach the local rubes about morality. Sets the theme for the entire series.
Densely thematic premiere by Stirling Silliphant
lor_3 September 2023
The Corvette convertible heads out on the open road, and this iconic series begins, unforgettable to fans and, judging anecdotally by the handful of negative responses on IMDb, pigeon-holed by unforgiving revisionists. Ah, the hindsight of not being around (alive?) when TV history was unfolding in real-time.
Director Philip Leacock uses superb location photography, often with plenty of evidence of his documentary background plus solid casting to present a Southern small town atmosphere in opposition to our City Slicker heroes, and especially telling is the unusual use of smart-alecky hothead personality as star of a mass-audience tv series. Of course the flashy Corvette is a key co-star, as well as the always sympathetic Martin Milner as its owner -it's impossible to imagine MM cast as villain.
The supporting cast is superb: Patty McCormack oozing empathy as a small-town girl who is the only denizen of Garth, Mississippi to give our boys a welcome, Keir Dullea prepping for his "David and Lisa" indie movie breakthrough as the soft, overly sensitive son of meanie Everett Sloane, as well as George Kennedy and Whit Bissell as convincing local types.
It seems strange as a pilot episode to some, but the confrontation depicted here encapsules a backward community, frozen in place with no outside contact with the wanderlust, "searching for America" tale of our heroes & their 'vette. A decade later "Easy Rider" created a movie revolution with a very similar theme, upping the ante with its violent conclusion. The underpinning philosophy embodied in Stirling Silliphant's script harkens back to the Beats and Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", expressed in a well-written monologue by Maharis on "going with the flow" and living life as a search for meaning.
The episode's level of detail is important, such as Tod (Milner) being imprisoned in a stockade used to hold German soldiers as prisoners in World War II, a crucial setup for the flashback that provides the show's climax and reveals the Original Sin of the town of Garth . Plus the supernatural element of the "wolf tree" which grows near the graves mourned over by Dullea, and which stunts the growth of all the surrounding trees (a la Sloane as tyrant Garth).
The many Gothic elements lead to strong melodrama, set against the realistic backdrop. Since this leads up to a near-lynch of M and M it made me wonder if "Route 66" had come along a decade later if it would have had an integrated lead cast, say a Cleavon Little with a Milner in their Dodge Challenger. It's fascinating to see how many subtle as well as sledge-hammer themes are covered in this premiere. Quite an ambitious new show, with more focused stories to come.
Director Philip Leacock uses superb location photography, often with plenty of evidence of his documentary background plus solid casting to present a Southern small town atmosphere in opposition to our City Slicker heroes, and especially telling is the unusual use of smart-alecky hothead personality as star of a mass-audience tv series. Of course the flashy Corvette is a key co-star, as well as the always sympathetic Martin Milner as its owner -it's impossible to imagine MM cast as villain.
The supporting cast is superb: Patty McCormack oozing empathy as a small-town girl who is the only denizen of Garth, Mississippi to give our boys a welcome, Keir Dullea prepping for his "David and Lisa" indie movie breakthrough as the soft, overly sensitive son of meanie Everett Sloane, as well as George Kennedy and Whit Bissell as convincing local types.
It seems strange as a pilot episode to some, but the confrontation depicted here encapsules a backward community, frozen in place with no outside contact with the wanderlust, "searching for America" tale of our heroes & their 'vette. A decade later "Easy Rider" created a movie revolution with a very similar theme, upping the ante with its violent conclusion. The underpinning philosophy embodied in Stirling Silliphant's script harkens back to the Beats and Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", expressed in a well-written monologue by Maharis on "going with the flow" and living life as a search for meaning.
The episode's level of detail is important, such as Tod (Milner) being imprisoned in a stockade used to hold German soldiers as prisoners in World War II, a crucial setup for the flashback that provides the show's climax and reveals the Original Sin of the town of Garth . Plus the supernatural element of the "wolf tree" which grows near the graves mourned over by Dullea, and which stunts the growth of all the surrounding trees (a la Sloane as tyrant Garth).
The many Gothic elements lead to strong melodrama, set against the realistic backdrop. Since this leads up to a near-lynch of M and M it made me wonder if "Route 66" had come along a decade later if it would have had an integrated lead cast, say a Cleavon Little with a Milner in their Dodge Challenger. It's fascinating to see how many subtle as well as sledge-hammer themes are covered in this premiere. Quite an ambitious new show, with more focused stories to come.
Deliverance meets Macon County Georgia Line meets Hush, Hush Sweet What?
toyguy-315198 September 2021
I'm a big fan of Route 66 and have the entire series on dvd but I will not watch the first episode. Too dark, too violent and too hard to find believable. The storyline gets lost in the screenplay or vice-versa. There is a battle going on as to what overly played story is to take precedence. The series itself was a great travelogue but how Martin Milner got the role of Todd Styles is mind boggling. Then again, no matter what he was in his partners were always the eye candy "Hunks" that relied on his logic and good judgement to make it through any episode of any show he was in. Oh he was the boy next door that every father whoever wanted his daughter to marry a freckle faced red headed stepchild would be a dream a come true. Back to the episode, I'm glad that the critics and viewers saw beyond this one and that the series continued.
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