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{{work|wppage=Route 66 (TV series)}}
[[File:MMRoute66.jpg|frame|Tod Stiles (left) and Buz Murdock (right).]]
A four-season television drama series starring Martin Milner (later of ''[[Adam-12]]'') and George Maharis. It chronicles two heroic [[The Drifter|drifters]] [[Walking the Earth]] (or at least the continental United States) in a [[Cool Car|Corvette convertible]]. Each week Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock, and then Murdock's [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] Lincoln Case, stumble upon different [[Adventure Towns]] and take odd jobs to support themselves while committing random acts of kindness, chasing skirts, putting right what once went wrong, wearing skinny late-50s ties, &c..
▲A four-season television drama series starring Martin Milner (later of ''[[Adam-12]]'') and George Maharis. It chronicles two heroic [[The Drifter|drifters]] [[Walking the Earth]] (or at least the continental United States) in a [[Cool Car|Corvette convertible]]. Each week Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock, and then Murdock's [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] Lincoln Case, stumble upon different [[Adventure Towns]] and take odd jobs to support themselves while committing random acts of kindness, chasing skirts, putting right what once went wrong, wearing skinny late-50s ties, &c..
The writing can be clever, nuanced, and heartfelt, but whether due to a changed social landscape, the dawn of the cynical age, or the fact that invariably any drama will have scenes that miss their mark, it is also victim of extensive [[Narm]]. Of course, [[Your Mileage May Vary|YMMV]]. The series ran from 1960 to 1964, a period that still falls thematically into the era exemplified by [[The Fifties]] (as opposed to [[The Sixties]]). The series also heavily subverts [[Hollywood Atlas]] stereotypes, as ''Route 66'' had a roving production set-up and episodes were filmed on location throughout [[Flyover Country]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Adventure Towns]]: Real cities across the US serve this function as the two leads take odd jobs.
* [[Back-to-Back Badasses]]: Tod and Buz pull this pose when outnumbered by a gang of hoodlums, complete with the camera panning around them.
* [[Bifauxnen]]: Jan in "Sleep on Four Pillows".
* [[Book Dumb]]: Buz. He claims he received a diploma without being able to ''spell'' "diploma", and in the first episode confuses the homophones "poor" and "pour": "We're P-O-U-R."
** Yet later episodes show that with nothing better to do, he'll settle in with [[Shakespeare]] and [[Ernest Hemingway|Hemingway]].
* [[Character Filibuster]]
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* [[Estrogen Brigade Bait]]: Between swim trunks, lots of [[Shirtless Scene|shirtless scenes]] and wet shirt scenes, almost every inch of the men gets its turn on display. Buz's tiny black Speedo gets special mention.
* [[Evil Twin]]: "I'm Here to Kill a King" features an assassin who looks exactly like Tod and is played by Martin Milner.
* [[Family Versus Career]]: This is ''kind of'' the situation in "Poor Little Kangaroo Rat", where a [[Married to
{{quote|
** ... she's a woman, so she should get back in the kitchen and scrape together a pie using whatever she can find in the almost-bare cupboards. That will be a comfort to him. She's utterly convinced by this, too.
* [[Fauxlosophic Narration]]: Several episodes, where (usually) Tod's narrations are pseudo-[[Contemplate Our Navels]] affairs that try to make ''this'' particular run-in with a beautiful or troubled woman seem more extraordinary than usual.
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Tod and Buz. They have a joint bank account.
* [[Hidden Depths]]: Buz is presented as a barely literate street-fighter type, but his narrations are just as poetic as Ivy League-educated Tod's.
* [[Ice Cream Koan]]: Frequent.
{{quote|
'''Buz''': Who're we supposed to be?
'''Audience''': ... }}
* [[In Love
* [[James Bondage]]: Buz and Tod take their turns getting captured and [[Bound and Gagged|tied up]], and for those who are [[Fetish Fuel|into that sort of thing]], Buz spends some time struggling in his bonds while tied down in "The Beryllium Eater".
* [[Licensed Sexist]]:
** Buz Murdock. See the [[Unfortunate Implications]] and [[Family Versus Career]] examples on this page. To be fair to the character and writers, there's a discrepancy of half a century of changing social norms and two waves of feminism creating [[Values Dissonance]].
** Tod once spanks a fully grown woman - and not in [[Fetish Fuel|a kinky, fun way]], but as discipline. (And no, it's not a consensual arrangement.) That is practically Tod's dethroning moment for any feminists in the audience, screw the humourless [[Femi Nazi]] [[Straw Feminist|stereotype]].
* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: "I'm not exactly a boy. [[Double Entendre|There's a line of departure, and I took that step long ago."]]
* [[May-December Romance]]: Buz gets involved in these, because he's got a mommy complex as big as the moon.
* [[Mushroom Samba]]: "The Thin White Line". Insidious clocks!
* [[Non-Idle Rich]]: Tod, before the family business collapsed around his ears. His father had him working on barges every summer, under Buz's management.
* [[Not Even Bothering
* [[Odd Couple]]: Thankfully kept low-tone for the majority of the series. Tod came from a wealthy family, was classically educated in the best private schools, attended Yale, and when drunk he has the tendency to reveal what a toffee-nosed snob he really could be if he weren't so nice. That is, he tells 'hilarious' stories about free tickets to the opera and being on the fencing team, while Buz sits stone-faced because he is an orphan from Hell's Kitchen.
** Tod and Buz pull quadruple duty as [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]], [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]], [[Odd Couple]], and [[Heterosexual Life Partners]].
*
* [[Out-of-Character Moment]]: The third season episode "Only By Cunning Glimpses" is one long OOC moment for Tod. The episode culminates in him physically restraining Buz from saving an elderly woman and a child from a burning barn because the resident [[Unhappy Medium]] / [[Phony Psychic]] has convinced him that is how Buz will be killed. [[Always Save the Girl|Apparently he'd rather Buz live, forget the old woman and the kid.]]
** In the final episode of the series, he and Linc rather casually get someone killed by an alligator. Yes.
* [[Pop Star Composer]]: Nelson Riddle, responsible for the jazzy ''Route 66'' theme, moved into television and film scores but rose to fame as a popular band leader and arrangement artist for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Nat King Cole.
* [[The Power of Friendship]]: What keeps the two together, even though sometimes ideological differences push them toward [[Vitriolic Best Buds]].
* [[Product Placement]]: Tod's [[Cool Car]]. The Corvette logo on the hood is sometimes conspicuously center-frame. [[Everybody Owns a Ford|An inordinate number of guest stars drive Corvettes as well.]]
* [[Put
* [[Putting
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Tod is deep blue, Buz is fiery red. Later on this dynamic is lost, because Linc is more of a blue as well.
* [[Red String of Fate]]: At the end, Tod marries a [[Victorious Childhood Friend]] and settles down. Fate, in this case, is facilitated by a very exacting will.
** Depending on your sensibilities, the suddenness and the [[Arranged Marriage]] aspect could make this a case of [[Strangled
* [[Revival]]: A very brief 1993 series starring James Wilder and Dan Cortese as Nick Lewis and Arthur Clark (with a [[Title Theme Tune]] by [[
** [[Seth Green]] had a significant featured role in the first episode.
* [[Scenic Route]]: One part of the appeal ''Route 66'' was that it was one of the few (non-[[Reality Show]]) series to be filmed entirely on the road, using for its backdrop actual locations. (Most of them weren't actually on or near the titular highway, but they were all real places, chosen for visual impact.)
* [[Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness]]: The series slides back and forth. There is a barely-whitewashed episode about a drug addict, and a [[Slapstick]]-filled episode with [[Buster Keaton]].
* [[Special Guest]]: The third season episode "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing" is a [[Halloween Episode]] that features [[Peter Lorre]], [[The
* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: Lincoln Case, who does the dark and brooding to Tod's [[Hair of Gold|golden-haired]] also brooding. He pretty much picks up right where Buz left off.
* [[Television Geography]]: The show went a lot of places that Route 66 didn't... like anything east of Chicago.
* [[They Fight Crime]]: Well, sometimes they do.
* [[What Beautiful Eyes!]]: Buz's eyes are often the source of comments. It might be how they're framed by his long, black lashes, and the way that the lighting constantly reflects in them and makes them ''sparkle''... [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|sorry, what]]?
* [[Written
* [[You Fail Biology Forever]]: The most [[
** Though he is basically correct that the Prime Directive of untrained personnel assisting a normal birth is to offer reassurance and do nothing.
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''[[A Worldwide Punomenon|...and no, we don't mean 8.1240384.]]''▼
▲''...and no, we don't mean 8.1240384.''
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:Route 66]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1960s]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
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