MagnumsLeftShoulder wrote:Watched a New Year's episode of Route 66 today. "A Fury Slinging Flame" has Leslie Nielsen as a scientist who's convinced his friend in Russia has been sending him coded messages that the Soviets are going to nuke us New Years Day. He gets some people to take refuge in Carlsbad Caverns with a plan to re-populate the earth after Nuclear annihilation. It's not a great episode, but some of the doomsday prediction stuff is still relevant.
Great minds think alike, I too watched it last night. It was originally shown on 12-30-60 and set on the next day, New Years Eve. For some reason the SHOUT DVD release
and other official versions are missing 4 minutes, which you can only see on bootlegs. Missing bits include real life reporters from the NY Daily News and other papers.
I traded for a bootleg DVD in order to have a complete Route 66 collection as I am a fan.
I agree it's not a great episode, but the Carlsbad Caverns setting helps.
For those who have never seen it, the entire series was filmed on the road. Many times by mid season the writers would hit town first with no idea for or just a vague outline for a script. They'd spend 2 weeks soaking up the sights and the locals and incorporating them into a story, by which time the cast and crew - with their families in tow -
and trucks teeming with production gear would roll in after filming at the last location.
As a result the series is a time capsule of 20th century America before it changed forever with the arrival of the "60's", ie The Beatles, drugs and rock and roll.
Two episodes were filmed in Canada. The roster of then and future stars who appeared on it is amazing.
Ed Asner appeared in 2 episodes and to this day claims Route 66 is the best written series of all time. Today star George Maharis is 91, looks 60 and if you write him he
will respond, with both a letter and a autographed photo.
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Route 66 episode "Love is a Skinny Kid":
Tommy(Burt Reynolds): "No offense fellah, I've just run outta guys to hit. I've already hit all the guys around here."
Buz(George Maharis): "They give cats scratching posts. You ought to get one."