Route 66: Season One, Volume One

Classic TV buffs will get their kicks (you saw that one coming) from Route 66, the 1960-64 nomadic series that brought Beat-inspired wanderlust to primetime. Nearly a decade before Easy Rider, Tod (Martin Milner) and his friend Buz (George Maharis) were drifters looking for “a place to put down roots,” setting off in search of America in Tod's awesome Corvette convertible (Yale-educated Tod's sole possession following the death of his once-wealthy father). The hot-headed Buz, who hails from Hell's Kitchen, handles most of the scrapes the buddies get into as they become embroiled in the personal dramas of people they meet, such as in the pilot, when they arrive in a closed-off small town hiding a shameful secret. Although Route 66 is perhaps best known today for Nelson Riddle's classic cruising theme song, the series boasts other rewards, not the least of which is strong writing by Stirling Silliphant (an Oscar winner for In the Heat of the Night), who wrote the bulk of the literate, compelling scripts. The DVD box misleadingly features pictures of Walter Matthau, Robert Redford, and Martin Sheen, who did in fact appear during the series' run, but not in the first 15 episodes from the 1960-61 debut season compiled here. But we do get Lee Marvin as a nasty, homicidal sheepherder in “Sheba,” Leslie Nielsen as a scientist who takes refuge in Carlsbad Caverns in anticipation of the end of the world in “A Fury Slinging Flame,” and E.G. Marshall as a misguided father in “Three Sides.” While there's unfortunately no commentaries or interviews featuring the stars, this four-disc boxed set gets some “extra” mileage by including original commercials for Bayer Aspirin, Phillips Milk of Magnesia, and one touting the '61 Chevy Biscayne (featuring William “Bub” Frawley and the kids from My Three Sons), as well as a Corvette photo gallery that should get classic car buffs' engines running. Highly recommended. (D. Liebenson)