Seven Things to Know About Martin Milner

1. A second season episode of Route 66 featured a brawl between the characters played by Martin Milner and Lee Marvin--resulting in Milner accidentally breaking Marvin's nose. In the biography Lee Marvin: Point Blank, Milner recalls: "The only reason he didn't punch me back is because we were such good friends." Click here to watch the fight on our YouTube Channel.

2. Milner's first screen role was as John Day, the second oldest son in the Day family in the William Powell comedy Life With Father (1948). He once said: "I was never a child star. I was just somebody who got two or three jobs before I was a young adult."

George Maharis and Martin Milner.

3. Route 66 guest star Nancy Malone said in a 2006 interview: "George (Maharis) was the bad boy. He had this dangerous element about him which was very attractive; this dark, smoldering sexuality. Marty (Milner) was the adorable and wholesome one who held everything together. In certain ways, they were like oil and water, but the overall result was that they were fabulous together."

4. In James Rosin's book Route 66: The Television Series, producer Herbert Leonard noted that the casting of Tod Stiles came down to Martin Milner and a newcomer. The latter "had a tendancy to scream every time he got emotional," so Milner won the role. The other actor had a pretty good career though--his name is Robert Redford.

As Officer Peter Malloy on Adam-12.

5. Martin Milner knew Jack Webb long before he was cast in Adam-12. Milner appeared on Dragnet and starred with Webb in The Halls of Montezma (1950) and Pete Kelly's Blues (1955). Webb also directed the latter film, which featured Lee Marvin in a supporting role alongside Milner's hot-headed drummer (a very different role from the good guys typically played by Milner).

6. Milner married actress Judith Bess Jones (she has one acting credit in the IMDb) in 1957. They remained married until Milner's death from heart failure in 2015. They had four children. Their daughter Amy guest-starred on Adam-12 when she was 17. She died from leukemia in 2004.

7. Reflecting on his two iconic TV series, Martin Milner said in a 1992 interview: "The older people stop me for Route 66 and the younger, yuppie-types stop me for Adam-12."

William Castle Asks If You Believe in Ghosts--13 of Them!

Illusion-O...a nifty gmmick!

I first saw 13 Ghosts on television as a youth. It was my introduction to producer-director William Castle. And even though Castle's famous Illusion-O gimmick was lost on my family's black-and-white TV, I still have fond memories of this ghostly variation of a wholesome family picture.

The Zorba's are your typical sitcom family--except for the fact that they're broke. It's so bad that Hilda Zorba calls her husband at work to complain: "The moving men are here...taking away the furniture again." Apparently, Cyrus doesn't earn much as a tour guide in the paleontology department at the Los Angeles Museum. Their kids, college-age Madea and youngster Buck, don't seem to mind. However, when Buck blows out his birthday candles that night, he wishes for "a house with furniture that no one can take away from us."

Charles Herbert as Buck.

Almost on cue, Cyrus receives a mysterious telegram from attorney Benjamin Rush. It turns out that Cyrus' Uncle Plato has left him a haunted--but furnished--house, complete with ghosts and a housekeeper that doubles as a medium. Their financial situation compels the family to move into the old house. The apparitions are a nuisance, especially the former chef that periodically empties out the kitchen cabinets onto the floor. However, there is also something evil afoot--and that spells trouble for the Zorba family.

As stated previously, 13 Ghosts is a pleasant little picture that didn't need a gimmick. Still, Castle came up with one of his best: a cardboard viewer with blue and red filters that allowed the audience to see the ghosts. At various points during the film, text appeared on screen telling the audience to "Use Viewer." The screen then turned blue and the ghosts appeared in red. If you wanted to "see" the ghosts, you looked through the red filter on your cardboard viewer. However, if you were afraid of ghosts, you could look through the blue filter and see all images on screen except for the ghosts. Castle, in one of his most entertaining introductory scenes, explained all this to the audience.

Audience members were prompted when to use their ghostly viewers.

This is what you saw if looking through the red filter.

When the ghosts departed, you didn't need to use your viewer!

Surprisingly, the top-billed member of the cast was Charles Herbert, who played Buck. Herbert was a busy child actor who appeared previously in Houseboat, The Fly, and The Boy and the Pirates. 13 Ghosts marked his final film role, but he remain in demand on television in the 1960s. He died last year on Halloween.

Margaret Hamilton look like Miss Gulch.

Other cast members included Martin Milner, Jo Swerling, and Margaret Hamilton. Milner started his four-year stint as the Corvette-driving Tod Stiles in Route 66 shortly after 13 Ghosts. Margaret Hamilton has little to do as the creepy housekeeper, but I was struck by her appearance. Her face looked the same as it did 21 years earlier in The Wizard of Oz (only it wasn't green). Pretty Jo Swerling retired from full-time acting in 1964 to raise her deaf daughter. She still remains popular enough to appear at nostalgia conventions.

13 Ghosts was remade as the R-rated Thir13en Ghosts in 2001 with Tony Shalhoub as the head of a family that inherits a haunted house. As you can imagine, the tone is quite different--and there's no Illusion-O.

TV Sidekick Blogathon: The Corvette in "Route 66"

The very first Route 66 Corvette.

You could make an argument that the Corvette was one of the stars of Route 66. After all, there wouldn't have been a show without it. Though it never received a credit, it appeared in every episode. Plus, the entire concept of Route 66  was built around the Corvette convertible. Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) inherited it from his father--and pretty much nothing else (his father's bankruptcy being an unexpected surprise). The iconic car plays a major part in Tod and Buz's decision to wander the highways of 1960s America.

Surprisingly, though, the Corvette rarely had a prominent role in the plots. It did so in the series' debut 1960 episode "Black November," in which car troubles strand Tod and Buz in a very unfriendly Mississippi town. In another season one episode, "Eleven, the Hard Way," Tod sells his hubcaps to bankroll two gamblers (Walter Matthau and Edward Andrews) trying to save a small town. And, in the second season episode "Bird Cage on My Foot," a desperate drug addict (Robert Duvall) tries to steal the 'Vette in the opening scene.

Tod's car looked pretty different by season 3.

There were several models used throughout the four-year run of Route 66. The first episode introduced a 1960 light-blue Corvette (which looked gray since the show was filmed in black-and-white). Subsequent first-season episodes featured a beige 1960 model. Starting in season 2, Chevrolet, which sponsored Route 66, introduced a new model every year. The famed Corvette Stingray made its debut in the third season.

The color of the Corvettes has become the source of much discussion over the years. On the cover of a 1962 board game, the Corvette is cherry red and white.The DVD set covers opt for the light blue 'Vette.  However, most sources state that, with the exception of the first episode, the cars were Fawn Beige or Saddle Tan because they reflected less light and thus photographed better.

I'm not a sport cars enthusiast, but have read where the luggage rack on the back of Tod's car was not an option offered by Chevrolet at the time. For me, one of the great mysteries of Route 66 was how Tod and Buz packed up all their belongings into the less-than-spacious Corvette. In at least one episode, Buz takes all his belongings off the luggage rack, implying perhaps that Tod kept his in the little trunk?

Whatever the model or color, there's no doubt that the Route 66 Corvette helped inspire a generation of sport cars enthusiasts. Even today, there are Corvette clubs, web sites, and Facebook pages named in honor of Route 66. Yet, despite its fame, the Corvette never held out for more money, never demanded more screen time, nor lobbied for its name in the credits. It was content to remain a snazzy supporting player--and, in that sense, it became the ultimate TV sidekick.


This post is part of the TV Sidekick Blogathon. Click here to read all the great posts about television's most beloved sidekicks!

Route 66: Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing

The Route 66 "Halloween episode" was originally broadcast on October 26, 1962 during the show's third season. By then, Route 66 had lost some of the edge that made it one of the best television dramas of the early 1960s. Of course, it's clear that neither writer Stirling Silliphant nor the splendid guest cast intended "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing" to be anything other than a lark. On that level, it's a modest success and all the participants seem to be having a grand time.

Buz and Tod oggling the girls.

The episode features two plotlines which eventually intersect (somewhat awkwardly). Series regulars Tod (Martin Milner) and Buz (George Maharis) land a job at Chicago's O'Hare Inn as "junior executives in charge of convention liaison." By virtue of a coin toss, Buz gets the plum assignment of supporting the secretaries' convention--which is like placing a wolf among the lambs. The incredibly bummed Tod ends up as liaison to the Gerenuk Society.

Tod learns that this mysterious "society" is a front for actors Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Lon Chaney, Jr. (plus Martita Hunt from Brides of Dracula as their legal advisor). Lorre wants to make new horror films, but in the same vein as the old classics. Boris thinks that won't sell anymore and that they need to focus on contemporary horror. (Lorre explans to Tod that a "gerenuk" is an endangered species of antelope...thus drawing a parallel to the old horror stars.)

Meanwhile, Buz pursues one of the secretaries, only to learn that she's smitten with her former boss. In a weak plot development, Boris befriends the lovesick secretary and solves her romantic problems. Apparently, when Boris Karloff (the actors all play themselves) calls you on the phone, you listen!

Her reaction: "You look exhausted!"

There's a sloppiness to the whole episode, but there are minor delights along the way. Chaney has some very amusing scenes, especially when he's trying to frighten the lovelorn secretary while she appears oblivious to his Wolf Man makeup and ferocious growls. It makes one wonder why Chaney didn't try his hand at a horror comedy (a good one...not Hillbillys in a Haunted House). The highlight of "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing" is the opportunity to see Karloff in makeup as the Frankenstein Monster for the first time since 1939's Son of Frankenstein. It's also fun to see Lon as the Mummy and Hunchback (with makeup similar to his father) as well as the Wolf Man.

If you're looking for a great Route 66 episode, this is not it. On the other hand, if you're a fan of the guest stars, you won't want to miss this lighthearted ode to their roles of the past.

Is Gloucester on Route 66?

"No!" And that was about the 15th time my mother responded to our requests to travel to Gloucester where Route 66 would be filming yet another episode. But she finally relented and we climbed into our "beach wagon" and headed off to Gloucester. Let me take the opportunity to clarify the timeframe and our ages. I believe it was the summer of 1961 and I would've been 14 years old and my sister would have been 12. Okay.

We drove uneventfully to Gloucester spending some extra time trying to find the motel where the crew and cast were staying. Finally we spotted it and were a little dismayed; it was not exactly "luxurious". I believe someone from the publicity department was there to chaperone our visit. He led us up some rickety stairs to the second floor of the motel and knocked on the door. There he was, George Maharis... and two women. We were just a tad embarrassed, feeling that we had intruded upon a private moment. However. he took the time to greet us and listen to our fan girl gushing; but we still felt uncomfortable with the situation. After an appropriate amount of time we thanked him for seeing us and left the room, navigating that long and narrow staircase back to earth. We noticed Martin Milner on crutches coming out of what appeared to be a family unit on the motel property. He did not stop to speak with us. Well, we didn't like Martin Milner anyway.

On the drive back home we wondered if our impression of George Maharis had been tarnished by the realization that he had a life separate from Buz. I don't think it really made any difference to us because we kept on watching the show until Maharis left. Although we liked Glenn Corbett as an actor, we didn't appreciate his insertion into the show as a replacement for Buz and eventually stopped tuning in.

As an update, there was a tribute to Route 66 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art sponsored by the Museum of Film and Television in New York. Maharis was there and participated in the question and answer session from the audience after the clip was shown of his powerful scene in the episode Birdcage on My Foot. When the event was over I walked down to the stage and gave Maharis an abridged version of my Route 66 experience. Again he was very receptive and seemed to enjoy my recollections.

When I visited the Museum of Television in New York in 2008, where you can view episodes from its database of TV series, I chose Birdcage on My Foot, a powerfully written and acted drama that still brought tears to my eyes.

Traveling on Route 66

I hope that I can remember all the events that took place during those three or four weeks one summer when the cast and crew from Route 66, a popular television show of the early 60s came to Boston to film several episodes. As a short background let me say that I was a fanatic about Route 66 and especially George Maharis who played Buzz. But that wasn't going to get me on the set. The most important factor was that my father owned a Chevrolet dealership. And as fans of the show know, Todd and Buzz zigzagged across America in a Corvette.


I don't recall how we found out that Route 66 would be filming in Boston and of course we immediately started harassing my father about using his position as a Chevrolet dealer to get us up close and personal with the cast and crew. Whatever we did worked and so began our adventures.


I might not have these events in order but I'll try my best. One of the first filming locations was at the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston. I don't know who my father talked to but we were allowed on the set and warned to behave ourselves. We must have been very good girls because we were asked to be in a scene they were shooting. They would film us as visitors walking up the stairs to the monument. We must have been very nervous, as it took several takes before we got it right. In retrospect I think they were just trying to keep us out of trouble. We never appeared in the episode. Another venue was the Boston Police Department headquarters. With my father leading us we walked through a crowd that had gathered in front of the building trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on. We walked with our heads down because we didn't want to see the dirty looks aimed in our direction. How come they can go in? Who are they? Actually we were nobodies who happened to have a Chevrolet dealer for a dad. We also took a trip down to the USS Constitution one early morning. At this point I think the cast and crew were starting to get annoyed by our presence at every location and there were no more visits to the set.


Next Up: Is Gloucester on Route 66?