TV.com

Route 66 may have been the first of TV's "road shows". One thing that set it apart from the others that followed was that Tod and Linc, and later Buzz, weren't running to or from anything, just seeking adventure, and finding it. There was one other such show, Then Came Bronson (NBC 1969-70), which featured a man who quit his job as a reporter to discover America on his motorcycle.

Other road shows featured men who were on the run to or from something or someone. In The Fugitive (ABC 1963-67) David Janssen played a doctor falsly convicted of his wife's murder, and escaped death row to find the one-armed man, his wife's killer, all the while avoiding the persistent Lt. Gerard. Then, in Run For Your Life (NBC 1965-6there was Ben Gazzara as a lawyer who was also just seeking adventure, but with a twist: he was told he had two years to live, so he set out to live his whole life in the time left (the show lasted three years, after which he was still alive and kicking). In The Immortal (ABC 1970-71), Christopher George played a test car driver who had a unique blood condition: it made him immune to disease or aging, a blessing, except that he was on the run from a greedy business man who sought it for himself, at any cost. In Kung Fu (ABC 1972-75) David Carradine was a gentle man who killed an imperial guard in his native China in self-defense, and escaped to America, constantly hounded by bounty hunters, using his martial arts skills only as a last resort. The Incredible Hulk (CBS 1978-82) featured Bill Bixby as a scientist who was on the road seeking a cure for his "condition", and avoiding a pesky reporter who, like the rest of the world, thinks he's dead.

Route 66 was more or less to road shows what Dragnet was to cop shows, the Granddaddy of them all.

(P.S. Run For Your Life ran 1965-68. I don't know where that sunny face came from, and I can't seem to get rid of it.)

A short little correction: Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock were the original Route 66ers. Linc Case joined the Corvette crew later in the series.

An interesting little compilation of road show trivia you've made there. Hopefully, you'll also want to add info to the show guide.

P.S. The number eight with the right parentheses mark next to it is the bbCode for making a sunglasses smilie, you can substitute brackets or place a space between the two characters to keep that from happening.

Thanks for the correction, and for the advice about the smiley faces.

I'd like to be a contributor, but I'm afraid that, as of right now, I wouldn't have much to offer the show guide. I've never even seen the show, which was in its network run when I was a small child, and it's never been widely shown in syndication, at least from what I can remember. But maybe eventually I'll have something to offer. Thanks.