The irresistible call of Route 66, the classic TV anthology series, is best summed up in a bit of dialogue from “Welcome to Amity,” one of 15 episodes concluding the 1960-61 first season compiled on this four-disc set. Yet another stranger in distress urges self-proclaimed “searchers and look-arounders” Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buz Murdock (George Maharis) to help her. “Where are we going?” Tod asks, when she asks them to follow her. “Let's find out,” Buz replies. Viewers happily followed Tod and Buz for four seasons on their cross-country odyssey in search of roots. Each week brought a new location, a new job, and new personal dramas in which to become involved. In the gripping “An Absence of Tears,” the pair unwittingly help a vengeful blind woman buy the exact brand of gun and bullets that thugs used to kill her husband during a botched gas station robbery. In “Most Vanquished, Most Victorious,” they have 24 hours to find the daughter of Tod's dying aunt. In “The Newborn,” they help an expectant Pueblo woman escape the clutches of the wealthy and powerful rancher whose late son impregnated her. No wonder that in the more lighthearted “Eleven the Hard Way,” Tod suggests to Buz that they take “a 48-hour furlough from other people's problems” (no such luck; in Reno they end up helping two men win enough at the crap tables to save a dying town). Compelling stories, a vivid sense of place, and literate scripts were signposts of Route 66. Along for the ride are some great supporting actors, many in their earliest screen appearances, including Robert Duvall as “a trigger-happy kook” in “The Newborn”; Darren McGavin as a boxer on his last legs in “The Opponent,” which also featured Ed Asner (with hair!) as his trainer and Al Lewis (Grandpa from The Munsters) as a gym owner; and Walter Matthau at his schlubby best as a disreputable gambler in “Eleven the Hard Way.” As in Volume 1, this set contains no commentaries or interviews, but vintage TV and classic car buffs will be able to cruise through nearly 20 minutes of commercials for brands such as Chevrolet and Bayer aspirin. Highly recommended. [Note: the eight-disc Route 66: Complete First Season Television Series will be available August 5, priced at $49.98.] (D. Liebenson)
Route 66: Season One, Volume Two
Infinity, 4 discs, 810 min., not rated, DVD: $29.98 July 7, 2008
Route 66: Season One, Volume Two
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