If you've ever had a conversation with me about David Morrell, you'll know that I just can't be silenced on how awesome an author he is. I literally don't know when to shut up. I've been a fan since I read First Blood in high school. As an author, I found his book, The Successful Novelist, to be indispensable.
In that book he talks about what got him into writing in the first place: an American show from the 'Sixties called Route 66, written by a guy with an odd name: Stirling Silliphant. The stories were so good that Morrell felt inspired to write his own stories.
When my disability began I needed to find something to watch that I was OK with passing out in the middle of because I was on a lot of heavy drugs. I wanted to find Combat! because it sounds like Band of Brothers decades beforehand, and I like that kind of storytelling. PLEX supposedly has Combat!, so I downloaded the app and found the show. Motherfucker, it won't play in my area. Goddammit.
But PLEX also had Route 66. Well. Why not find out if it's that good?
Not every episode is great, but many of them are fantastic. The first episode is the best, though.
The idea is, two young men drive around in an awesome car, seeing America. There's just something kind of iconic about that. The Winchesters in the Impala. Dr. Gonzo and his attorney in the shark. And even, in a much different way, Doc Brown and Marty McFly in the DeLorean.
Tod Stiles is a student at Yale when his dad dies. Tod can't afford tuition anymore, so he drops out. The one thing his dad leaves him is a pretty sweet Corvette. His buddy Buz Murdock is very different from him. He's an orphan who grew up in Hell's Kitchen. Give him a book, and he'd probably use it to bludgeon someone. Together they decide to get in the Corvette and see America. Put down roots if they find a place they like enough. It's episodic, but unlike a lot of shows back then, they do refer back to previous episodes. Also unlike other shows, this one was shot on location, not a set. So you can see their progress as they travel around the country. Although I'm 99% sure that Route 66 doesn't actually go down to Florida . . .
They usually get a job in each new locale to fund their journey to the next stop. Adventures ensue. Like in that first episode. In an attempt to find a shortcut to Biloxi (also not a place Route 66 goes to), the boys find themselves in a backwoods small town where everyone treats them like assholes. Of course the townsfolk are hiding a deadly secret that the boys must discover in order to get out of town alive. And Buz gets to kick the shit out of George Kennedy! He also gets to defenestrate someone else later on!
What I really like about the show is that it *is* shot on location, so you get to see the real America as it was back in 1960, not some set on a studio backlot. I also like seeing a lot of actors from the westerns back then in modern garb and driving cars. The only other show from back then I got that from was The Twilight Zone.
But these are snapshots of an America that no longer exists. The backwoods towns are fewer and fewer as corporate America's reach stretches further and further. The only place I've seen on the show so far that is actually the same is Bourbon Street. Probably smells the same, too.
It's all too horrifying thinking about all those places now sporting a Starbucks or worse, a Chick-fil-A. It's definitely not for the better. Sure, it was a more dangerous America, but great beauty often comes with danger.
It's a good show. I watch it when I eat lunch. It's free on PLEX, but it's with commercials, and they don't put the commercials where they belong. They use a stupid algorithm for that, I guess because no one wanted to actually watch the show. Because of that, sometimes the audio is off, so it gives you the feeling of watching something that was dubbed. But these are minor annoyances. Plus there are great guest stars! Like:
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| Leslie "Don't Call Me Shirley" Nielsen! |
And an occasional movie star like:
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| Lee "Woody Biggs" Marvin! |
So yeah, give it a shot. I'm almost halfway through the first season.
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