Seven Things to Know About Julie Newmar

1. Born as Julia Chalene Newmeyer in 1933, she was billed as Julie Newmeyer in her first major screen role in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). She played Dorcas and was paired with Jeff Richards as one of the seven Pontipee brothers. Richards, a former professional baseball player, was 6' 2", which made him just three inches taller than the 5' 11" Julie Newmar.

2. Julie Newmar won a Tony award as Featured Actress in the 1958 Broadway comedy The Marriage-Go-Round, which starred Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer. She played a Swedish bombshell who wanted the married Boyer, a college professor, to father her baby so the child would have brains and beauty. Newmar repeated the role in the 1961 film version with Susan Hayward and James Mason.

Julie Newmar with Jack Mullaney in My Living Doll.

3. Newmar's first TV series was the 1964-65 sitcom My Living Doll. She plays an android called Rhoda  that becomes the responsibility of an Air Force psychiatrist played by Robert Cummings. Most of the humor is derived from Cummings' character trying to keep Rhoda's android identity a secret. In an interview with Starlog Magazine (issue 148), Newmar stated that CBS considered Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. before casting Cummings. "(The show) needed a different kind of actor...It was not a flip part--it needed a straight actor who could play opposite this bizarre creature so the comedy would come off."

Catwoman with Adam West as Batman.

4. The Batman TV series was already a hit in 1966 when Julie Newmar was offered the role of Catwoman. She had never heard of the show, but her brother had--and told her she had to take the part. Newmar portrayed Catwoman in thirteen episodes during the first two seasons of Batman. Due to a scheduling conflict, she was replaced by Lee Meriwether in the 1966 Batman theatrical film. Also, Eartha Kitt replaced her as Catwoman during Batman's third and final season. Long after the show ended, Newmar acquired her form-fitting Catwoman costume and donated it to the Smithsonian Institution where it's displayed on the third floor of the Museum of American History in Washington, as one of the "National Treasures of Popular Culture."

As Vicki Russell on Route 66.

5. Julie Newmar appeared as Vicki Russell, a free-spirited, motorcycle-riding heiress in two episodes of Route 66. Her first appearance was in the second season episode "How Much a Pound is Albatross?". She returned as Vicki in the following season's "Give an Old Cat a Tender Mouse" (George Maharis had left the series by then). Thus, Julie Newmar is the only guest star to play the same character in two nonconcurrent episodes of Route 66. 

6. She holds a patent for panty hose! According the patent's abstract: "An elastic shaping band is attached to the rear panty portion and is connected from the vicinity of the crotch to the vicinity of the waist band and fits between the wearer's buttocks to delineate the wearer's derriere in cheeky relief."

7. Julie Newmar was married to J. Holt Smith, an attorney, from 1977 to 1984. They had one child, John Jewl Smith, who has Down's syndrome and lives with his mother. You can learn more about Julie Newmar at her website julienewmar.com. 

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."

Stirling Silliphant--The Poet Laureate of 1960s Television

Stirling Silliphant and his wife
Tiana Alexandre.

For years, I knew producer-writer Stirling Silliphant as the guy that wrote In the Heat of the Night (a favorite) and The Poseidon Adventure (a guilty pleasure). I had also read where he and James Coburn were good friends with Bruce Lee. That was pretty much it. But that all changed when my wife gave me a DVD set of with 16 episodes from the first season of Route 66 as a birthday present several years ago.

Most people remember Route 66 as that "road show" with the cool music about two guys driving around the country in a Corvette. That's an apt description, though it doesn't capture what made Route 66 innovative--it was almost an anthology show set throughout the U.S., with terrific guest stars and sparking scripts. The lead characters, Tod (Martin Milner) and Buz (George Maharis), were sometimes the focus of the stories...and sometimes not. Oh, one or both would be present in every episode, but their part in the proceedings might be peripheral. (Note: Maharis eventually left the series and was replaced by Glenn Corbett).

Martin Milner and George Maharis.

Yet, what truly set Route 66 apart from its contemporaries--and even more so today--were Silliphant's scripts. Silliphant, who co-created the series with producer Herbert B. Leonard, wrote an incredible 73 of the 116 episodes over the show's four-year run. In terms of entertainment value, the plots were consistently above-average, but it's Silliphant's dialogue that gave Route 66 its unique voice. As David Mamet would do later, Silliphant embellished his characters with dialogue that would never pass for natural--but which conveyed a singular poetry all its own.

Tod, or more likely Buz, often got the poetic dialogue. But it could be a guest star, too, as in the episode "Hell Is Empty, All The Devils Are Here," in which Eva Stern plays a young woman coping with the memory of her husband's first wife:

"All of a sudden, I know how an insect feels, how helpless when it's caught by a cruel child. A blank face, bigger than the sky, smiling down at you from somewhere beyond your own tiny world. Smiling down and taking its time, letting its icy fingers pull off your legs and wings."

No, people don't talk that way...except in Silliphant's Route 66 episodes. In fact, one can often guess which episodes were penned by Silliphant from just looking at the colorful titles (e.g., Love Is a Skinny Kid, How Much a Pound Is Albatross, There I Am--There I Always Am, etc.).

Inger Stevens and George Maharis.

Stirling Silliphant's later career would include a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Screenplay for In the Heat of the Night. Still, I think he was at his peak in the early 1960s, writing for Route 66, creating some of the most poetic dialogue ever written for a weekly TV series.

For a sample scene from Route 66, check out this clip from the Silliphant-penned episode "Burning for Burning" with Inger Stevens.

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!

Actor-Author-Scriptwriter Jim Rosin Discusses Jack Klugman, His Books,and Playing an Alien in "Buckaroo Banzai"

One of the highlights of my attendance at the 2014 Western Film Fair was meeting Jim Rosin. He started in show business as a supporting actor in TV series such as Mannix, Cannon, T.J. Hooker, and Quincy, M.E. He subsequently wrote several teleplays for Quincy and later penned a number of informative and entertaining nonfiction books on classic TV series. During the convention, Jim took a break from autographing his books and talked with me about his career and books.

Café:  One of your most interesting acting credits is in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, which became a big cult film. When you were making it, did you think it would ultimately become as popular as it did?

The closing credits of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.

Jim Rosin: Not really. When I was filming my scenes, it was a very hot day. We were shooting at a power plant in south L.A. and I had to wear a mask because I played an alien, a Lectroid. It took them about an hour to put the mask on me. I remember being very hot and it was claustrophobic. When I did the scene as John Yaya, where I didn't have to wear the mask--boy, that was a joy. That's what I remember most about the filming. It was really an interesting movie. I think they shot it in about 60 days for a budget of about $18 million. It really became a cult movie when I was living in New York. Every Saturday, for years after, theaters would show The Rocky Horror Picture Show followed by The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. Peter Weller, a very dear friend who later played Robocop, was Buckaroo Banzai. The cast also featured Chris Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, Ellen Barkin, and Robert Ito who played Jack Klugman's lab assistant Sam on Quincy, M.E. Jamie Lee Curtis was Buckaroo's mother, but I think her scene with Buckaroo as a boy was deleted from the opening. The film was a combination of action-adventure and sci fi...with a hero who was also a musician with a band. It was unique and different. They were going to do a sequel, but perhaps the boxoffice receipts didn't warrant it because they never came out with a second film. But, at the end of the first, you see the name of the second Buckaroo Banzai film. I have fond memories of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.

Café:  You appeared on three classic TV series: Banacek, Mannix, and Quincy, M.E. Who was the best detective of those three?

JR:  I don't know. George Peppard was very good as Banacek. He was cool, able to deduce things, and came up with all those Polish proverbs. It was a well-written show. Jack Klugman as Quincy was also very methodical, unique, and very determined to find out the answer to any problem. Mike Connors (Mannix) was a very nice man; I liked working with him. All three of those characters had a tenacity to get to the truth to find out who the guilty party was. It's hard to delineate who was the best. They were all great and I enjoyed working with all three actors.

Café:  You wrote three episodes of Quincy, M.E. Which one was your favorite and what was the inspiration for it?

JR:  I have a soft spot for "A Test for Living," which is about an autistic child. Jack (Klugman) had done a telethon to raise funds to care for autistic children. When we talked about doing a show, we chose that subject and worked on it together. It was a very worthwhile story line that required a lot of research. Jack sent me out to UCLA to talk with doctors and read books, so I had a huge investment in coming up with the script for that episode. Also, Jack's participation in it was meaningful. Lloyd Nolan, who played the psychiatrist, had a son who was autistic. We did another telethon after the show aired. So, all those things put together made for a very memorable experience for me.

Rosin, Klugman, and Henry Beckman in the 1983 episode "On Dying High."

Café:  What was Jack Klugman like?

JR:  Jack was a very good-hearted man. Very intense. He had a great work ethic. He was very demanding. He had high standards of excellence. You had to be on your toes when you worked with him. As a young actor and writer, I learned a great deal from him and he was very good to me. I was very fortunate to have an association with Quincy, six episodes as an actor and three as a writer. I'll never forget it. The fact it was on for seven years was a testament to him. He fought the studio and the network to do socially relevant material and ultimately he was right, because people responded to it. He really was a very diligent, hardworking, top-flight professional who would involve himself in every facet of the show. The end result is that it was on for 148 episodes.

Café:  You were that rare dual threat--an actor and a writer. Which came first?

With Piper Laurie at the Western Film Fair.

JR:  I started out acting first and then I wrote a play in L.A. In between acting jobs, I was first a bartender in Beverly Hills and then a cab driver. I wrote a play about an actor who drives a cab in Beverly Hills. It was a comedy-drama that Jack read and that ultimately brought me to Quincy. It ran at a theater in Hollywood for about six weeks. That's how I got started writing. I subsequently did some Quincy shows and some soap opera episodes. And I recently completed a screenplay. But I always loved being an actor. The more things you can do in the business, the better off you are because the competition is so keen. If you have a talent for directing or writing, it's very good to explore them because it's harder to depend upon one area because of all the people trying to do the same thing as you.

Café:  You have also written a number of books about classic TV series such as Naked City, Adventures in Paradise, Wagon Train, and Route 66. How did you get into doing that?

JR:  Well, I started doing some books on sports and Philly music. Then, I started thinking about writing about classic TV shows that I grew up with, ones that were popular and enjoyed by millions of people. The first one I did was Route 66, because, to me, that was a wonderful show. It had a great premise of two young men driving in a Corvette convertible all over the country, never knowing what was down the road or around the bend. I knew Marty (Martin Milner), who I worked with on Adam-12 several times. He was great and George Maharis was outstanding. There was a chemistry between them and a contrast. So, I felt I had to do a book on that show. When you combine the aura that they projected on TV, the Corvette, the sense of adventure, the different town every week, the people stories, the backdrop of America--it was just a tremendous show.

Café:  What about some of your other books?

JR:  Herbert B. Leonard, who produced Route 66, also did Naked City. It featured the same approach; it was filmed in New York with a stark look. It was not about police procedure, but more about the ordinary denizens of New York. After the book on Naked City, I wrote one on Wagon Train because I wanted to do a Western. Ward Bond and Robert Horton were great together. Again, it was a series about people. In fact, The title of every episode was a person's name--"The Horace Best Story," "The Malachi Hobart Story," and so on. It had wonderful actors and was about their characters' experience along the prairie from Missouri to California. I loved Adventures in Paradise because it was pure escapism. It took us to a part of the world where we never went. James Michener said it best that we all go to work, wake up, go to work, wake up, we drive the same route back and forth--then we turn on the TV and see Gardner McKay on the Tiki in Tahiti in this exotic part of the world. It was a great source of entertainment and Gardner McKay was very good on the show. He was an expert sailor who had sailed across the Atlantic. The other two books I did were two Quinn Martin shows because I had worked on some of his series. The Invaders starred my dear friend Roy Thinnes, who gave a very believable, honest, edgy portrayal as David Vincent, trying to prove to a disbelieving world that aliens were among us. Quinn Martin wanted to do a show about paranoia. It ran for only two seasons, but everyone loved the show and it was different for the time. The other Quinn Martin series, The Streets of San Francisco featured one of the prettiest cities in the country as a backdrop. Karl Malden and Michael Douglas were a fine team. I think Karl saw Michael as his son, because he and Kirk Douglas were close friends. Michael grew immensely on the show and was very willing to learn. He really put his feet to the ground and absorbed all these things about acting and production. After the fourth season, he produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and became an Academy Award-winning producer. John Wilder, another friend of mine, produced it for three years and wrote some of the episodes. Quinn Martin just had a great organization. When you put everything together--the backdrop of San Francisco, the chemistry of Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, the writing, the guest stars, the breezy music score--it was just an excellent series.

Café:  I'm a huge Route 66 fan and have read varied accounts as to why George Maharis left the show. Based on your research for your book, what was the reason?

George Maharis and Martin Milner.

JR:  I know why he left and in my book, he talks about it. There's a misconception that he left because he wanted out of the show, was getting movie offers, and wanted to be a movie star. That wasn't true. Geroge Maharis left because he contracted hepatitis. He missed four episodes at the end of the second year. He came back for the third season because Herbert Leonard said: "If you don't come back, we might not get renewed." The show could not stand alone with Marty. George Maharis was a very vital part of Route 66. And when he left, he proved to be irreplaceable. The show only lasted another season. His replacement, Glenn Corbett, was a competent actor and a handsome guy, but he was too much like Marty Milner. He didn't have the edge that George had. There was a stark contrast between George and Marty. Their characters were sometimes at each other, which heightened the drama of the show. They didn't always see eye to eye. Yet, there was a bond and chemistry. George was not someone you could replace. Unfortunately, when he came back for the third year, he was promised he would only work so many hours a day because the doctor said to take it easy. He came back in three weeks after having hepatitis. He had a relapse midway through the third season. He went to the doctor, who told him he needed to walk away from the show. He didn't work for a year. It took him that long to recuperate. There was acrimony between Bert Leonard and him. The press made something out of it that wasn't there. George regretted leaving the show because he enjoyed it. He and Marty had a great relationship--it's another misconception that they didn't get along. They were two different individuals, but there was never a bad word between them.

Café:  Lastly, do you have any upcoming projects or appearances that you want to share with our readers?

JR:  I did a book on Philly music history, Philly Pop, Rock, Rhythm & Blues. It's dear to my heart because I'm a Philadelphian. It covers the rock'n'roll and R&B eras of Philly from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s--with all the great performers from the golden years of the rock'n'roll and the doo-wop era, then the R&B era that came after. I have a lot of commentary from the performing artists. I have some discographies and biographies. I've got Hall & Oates on the cover and Gamble & Huff on the back. I love the book and thought I owed it to Philly because it's got such a wonderful music history. I scratch my head as to why the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland and not in Philadelphia--with no disrespect to Cleveland, which is a nice town. There are so many performers both nationally known, as well as local and regionally known, that came out of Philadelphia, South Philadelphia in particular.

Café:  It's been great talking with you, Jim.

JR:  Thanks, Rick.


You can order Jim Rosin's books at his website: www.classictvseriesbooks.com. He will be appearing at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Hunt Valley, Maryland, September 18-20, 2014.

The Five Coolest Cars on Classic TV

Classic television and memorable cars have a long history together. Who can forget My Mother the Car, in which Jerry Van Dyke's mom was reincarnated as--yes--a car (a 1928 Porter voiced by Ann Sothern)? Police cars earned title credits in Car 54, Where Are You? and Adam-12. Even cartoons got into the act with Speed Racer. But what were the coolest cars on classic TV? There are many to pick from, but befitting this month's theme at the Cafe, we limited our picks to the Top 5:

1. Route 66 (1960-64) - One of the most iconic cars in American pop culture, the Corvette driven by Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) was the only possession his deceased father left him--other than a lot of bills. There were actually several models and colors of Corvettes used in the series (Chevrolet was a sponsor). For all but one episode of the first season, Tod and Buz (George Maharis) cruised the country in a blue 1960 'Vette. Still, it looked gray since the series was filmed in black and white!

2. Knight Rider (1982-86) - The Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT) was a black 1982 Pontiac Trans Am that cruised at 300 MPH, contained a fine array of weapons (e.g., a flamethrower), and featured an amazingly durable exterior. Its most distinctive feature was a talking computer with artificial intelligence and a a haughty personality to match.

3. Batman (1966-68) - Sure, the movie incarnations of the Batmobile may look sleeker, more realistic, and boast more gadgets--but the '66 version was considered pretty cool for its time. Customized from a 1955 Lincoln Futura (a concept car), the Batmobile was a staple at touring auto shows for years. Today, it is estimated to be worth $2 million.

4. The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-86) -  While Bo, Luke, and Daisy may have gotten more fan mail, the "General Lee"--the boys' 1969 Dodge Charger--was mighty popular. With a Confederate flag on its roof and a horn that played "Dixie," it sure had a Southern vibe. Over 200 General Lees were used during the filming of the series. The doors were welded shut for the stunts--though it looked cool, too, when Bo and Luke climbed in and out of the windows.

5. UFO (1970) - Most of the vehicles in Gerry Anderson's futuristic series were nifty miniatures, but the car driven by Commander Ed Straker was a modified Ford Zephyr Mark IV with doors that open upward. Although probably the least-known auto in our Top 5, it has a cult following among pop culture car enthusiasts and Dinky Toys even marketed a die-cast miniature called, appropriately, Ed Straker's Car. For a few years, it was owned by a BBC Radio 1 disc jockey.


Honorable Mentions:  1975 Ford Gran Torino from Starsky & Hutch; 1978 Ferrari 308 GTS from Magnum, P.I.; 1974 Pontiac Firebird Esprit from The Rockford Files; the "Black Beauty" from The Green Hornet; and Emma Peel's Lotus Elan from The Avengers.

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.

On the Road Again: The Great “Road” TV Shows of the 1960s

What’s a “road” TV show? Well, it’s a TV series where the protagonist travels from place to place—sometimes because he’s being chased, sometimes because he’s chasing someone (or something), and sometimes because he’s trying to find meaning in life. A TV series where the hero has a home base, such as Paladin’s San Francisco hotel in Have Gun Will Travel—doesn’t count. No, in a “road” show, the hero has to be constantly on the move. It also doesn’t count if traveling is a part of the protagonist’s job, as in Wanted: Dead or Alive, where Josh (Steve McQueen) goes to various places tracking down his quarry as a bounty hunter. Now that we’ve defined the genre, here are my picks for the most memorable “road” shows of the 1960s:

1. The Fugitive (1963-67). David Janssen spent four seasons on the road as Dr. Richard Kimble, a physician wrongly convicted of killing his wife. Kimble escapes during a train crash and tries to find the elusive one-armed man who may have killed his wife. Barry Morse is the only other regular, portraying Kimble’s “relentless pursuer” Lt. Philip Gerard. A clever updating of Les Miserablés, the series benefits from brilliant writing, Janssen’s low-key performance (his slight smile is understated acting at its finest), and consistently strong guest stars. This may be one of the first TV series to intersperse a continuing storyline with stand-alone stories: some episodes focus on Kimble trying to prove his innocence; others focus solely on the characters that Kimble meets along the way.

2. Route 66 (1960-64). Stirling Silliphant created this “road” show about two young men driving across America in search of “something”. The protagonists are college-educated Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and street-smart Buz Murdock (George Maharis). They take to the road when Tod’s businessman father dies unexpectedly and leaves a pile of debts. Once Tod pays them off, all that remains of his inheritance is his father’s Corvette. Shot on location throughout the U.S., Route 66 is a portrait of the country in the early 1960s—the big cities, the rural towns, the motels, the factories, and the docks. Silliphant wrote the majority of the scripts, which often sounded like stage plays—but very good ones. Tod and Buz frequently took a back seat to the guest stars’ characters; in fact, in some episodes, the two stars were downright peripheral to the plot!

3. The Invaders (1967-68). Architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) accidentally sees a flying saucer land and learns that aliens are plotting to take over the world. Unfortunately, no one believes David. It doesn’t help that the aliens glow orange and disappear when they die! For its first half-season, this reverse variation of The Fugitive (both were exec produced by Quinn Martin) benefits from inventive stories (e.g., in the episode “The Mutant”, Suzanne Pleshette is an alien who feels emotions…unlike the majority of her race). In the second and final season, Vincent linked up with other believers to form an organization to fight the alien intruders and the show became less interesting (though there were still a few standout episodes).

4. Run for Your Life (1965-68). Ben Gazzara played Paul Bryan, a successful lawyer who learns that he has a terminal illness and only two years to live. He quits his job and goes on the road to live life to its fullest. This TV series was spun off from the episode “Rapture at Forty-Two” on the anthology series Kraft Suspense Theater. Gazzara received Emmy nominations for two of the series’ three seasons. Martin Milner from Route 66,guest starred on a couple of the episodes. Roy Huggins, who created The Fugitive (and many other shows), produced Run for Your Life.

5. The Loner (1965-66). Rod Serling created this "adult Western" that downplayed action in favor of human interest stories. Like The Twilight Zone, the series had a social conscience, this time in the form of hero William Colton (Lloyd Bridges), a former Union officer searching the West for a meaningful existence. This wasn’t the first Western about a drifter nor the last. Nick Adams played an ex-Confederate soldier roaming the West in The Rebel (1959-62), which featured a title tune sung by Johnny Cash. In the late 1960s, Walter Brennan and Dack Rambo looked for Dack’s father (who abandoned his son as an infant and became a gunfighter) in The Guns of Will Sonnett.

Honorable Mentions: Then Came Bronson with Michael Parks (in a role not unlike Buz on Route 66) riding his motorcycle throughout the country; The Immortal with Chris George as a race car driver being pursued by those who want his blood—literally, because it contains antibodies that prevent aging.

Making the Leap from Small Screen to Big Screen

Television has long provided both a training ground for would-be film stars and a second life for former film stars. The road from little screen to big screen has been travelled successfully by the likes of Steve McQueen (Wanted: Dead or Alive) and Clint Eastwood (Rawhide). Other TV performers have achieved spotty silver screen success (e.g., Chevy Chase)… and then there were those who never should have given up a good television gig (e.g., David Caruso in NYPD Blue, Hugh O’Brien in Wyatt Earp). Below are three actors who left hit series, at the height of their popularity, to take a crack at movie stardom.
By 1963, George Maharis had played the cool, likable Buz Murdock for almost three seasons on Route 66. During that time, he had earned an Emmy nomination for playing Buz, scored a Top 25 hit record with “Teach Me Tonight,” and was generally regarded as a TV heartthrob. He left Route 66 in the middle of the third season, stating that the constant traveling was causing health problems (the series was shot on location throughout the U.S). The producers claimed it was just an excuse to try his hand at movie stardom. Whatever the reason, it was moot—Maharis’s film career never took off. The Satan Bug, despite being an entertaining thriller about a germ warfare and global blackmail, was a flop. Quick, Before It Melts (1964), The Happening (1967), and other efforts tanked, too. By 1970, Maharis was back as a TV series regular in the short-lived detective series The Most Deadly Game.

James Garner was so popular as easygoing Bret Maverick in the 1957-62 Maverick TV series that he starred in films while concurrently acting in his hit show. Admittedly, Darby’s Rangers (1959) and Cash McCall (1960) weren’t huge successes (though the latter is a fun flick). Still, Garner had greased the proverbial skids by the time he left Maverick in 1960 after a contract dispute with Warner Bros. He quickly racked up impressive performances in The Children’s Hour, The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily, Support Your Local Sheriff, and many others. NBC lured Garner back to television in 1971 for Nichols, which was basically a reworking of Support Your Local Sheriff. When the show flopped, NBC decided it was because of the offbeat lead character, so the original Nichols was killed off and Garner then played his twin. That didn’t work either and the show was cancelled after a year. Garner rebounded nicely, returning to television three years later as private eye Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files, which ran for six years and earned Garner an Emmy. Post-Rockford, Garner returned to the screen in some of his biggest hits, Victor/Victoria and Murphy’s Romance. Few stars have floated back & forth between the small and big screen so effortlessly.

Pernell Roberts had it made in the early 1960s. As Adam Cartwright, he was arguably the most popular star on TV’s powerhouse Western family drama Bonanza…but Roberts was unhappy. He famously argued that Adam, the eldest Cartwright son and an architect, wouldn’t call his father “Pa”. At the height of his popularity, Roberts left Bonanza in 1966 to focus on the stage, music (he had recorded an album in 1962), and theatrical films. He starred in the famously panned stage musical Gone With the Wind (originally titled Scarlett) with Lesley Ann Warren. He made a couple of forgettable, low-budget foreign films (e.g., Four Rode Out). Mostly, he stayed busy by guest starring on a number of TV series such as Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, Mission: Impossible, and Ironside. Finally, in 1979, he found success again as the title character in the belated M*A*S*H spinoff Trapper John, M.D.

OK, Café patrons, what other TV stars tried to make the leap from TV to film—either successfully or unsuccessfully?

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?