Route 66 is an American adventure crime drama[1] television series that premiered on CBS on October 7, 1960, and ran until March 20, 1964, for a total of 116 episodes.

The series was created by Herbert B. Leonard and Stirling Silliphant, who were also responsible for the ABC drama Naked City, from which Route 66 was an indirect spin-off.

Route 66 followed two young men traversing the United States in a Chevrolet Corvette convertible, and the events and consequences surrounding their journeys.

He was originally joined on his travels by Buz Murdock (played by George Maharis), a friend and former employee of his father's, with the character leaving midway through the third season after contracting echovirus.

Route 66 was a hybrid between episodic television drama, which has continuing characters and situations, and the anthology format, in which each week's show has a completely different cast and story.

In the original concept under discussion between Silliphant and producer Leonard, the two series leads were to be ex-army men who had left the service and were looking to re-establish themselves in American life.

Morris was cast beside Maharis in a 1959 episode of Naked City that was written by Silliphant as a backdoor pilot to a potential spin-off series featuring two young travelers who were looking to find themselves.

The Naked City episode that served as the Searchers pilot was called "Four Sweet Corners", and in it, Maharis played Johnny Gary, while Morris was Link Ridgeway.

After spending most of the episode rescuing Johnny's kid sister from a shoplifting ring, the two friends decided they were too restless to stay in New York City, and more of the world existed that they had to see.

Leonard personally financed[citation needed] the shooting of a new hour-long pilot episode ("Black November", written by Silliphant) and CBS picked up the series in 1960.

The two men take odd jobs along their journey, like toiling in a California vineyard or manning a Maine lobster boat, bringing them in contact with dysfunctional families or troubled individuals in need of help.

After the death of the senior Mr. Stiles, and the subsequent collapse of his business, Tod and Buz decided to drive across America in search of work, adventure, and themselves.

The working-class Buz (George Maharis) is looser, hipper, and more Beat Generation in attitude than Tod, though the two characters share a mutual respect.

Writer-producer Stirling Silliphant traveled with location manager Sam Manners to a wide range of locales, and wrote scripts to match the settings.

Locations included a logging camp, shrimp boats, an offshore oil rig, Riverside Raceway, and Glen Canyon Dam, the latter while still under construction.

[citation needed] U.S. Route 66, the highway, was briefly referred to in just three early episodes of the series ("Black November", "Play It Glissando", and "An Absence of Tears").

Although a few publicity photos show a black or red model, for actual filming the entire black-and-white series used Corvettes in light colors such as Horizon Blue, Cascade Green, and Fawn Beige.

An episode featuring Ethel Waters also guest-starred Juano Hernandez, as well as the fictional five-piece Memphis Naturals band, made up of actors Bill Gunn and Frederick O'Neal and real-life musicians Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, and Jo Jones.

Other guest actors (including some old and future stars) included Edward Andrews, Lou Antonio, Elizabeth Ashley, Ed Asner, Lew Ayres, Diane Baker, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, Harry Bellaver, Theodore Bikel, Whit Bissell, Beulah Bondi, Tom Bosley, Edgar Buchanan, James Caan, James Coburn, Alex Cord, Joan Crawford, Keir Dullea, James Dunn, Robert Duvall, Barbara Eden, Gene Evans, Betty Field, Nina Foch, Rosemary Forsyth, Anne Francis, Peter Graves, Tammy Grimes, Signe Hasso, Sessue Hayakawa, Joey Heatherton, Steven Hill, Miriam Hopkins, David Janssen, Ben Johnson, George Kennedy (playing the first heavy in the first episode), Susan Kohner, Cloris Leachman, Robert Loggia, Jack Lord, Tina Louise, Dorothy Malone, E. G. Marshall, Lee Marvin, Walter Matthau, Patty McCormack, Darren McGavin, Ralph Meeker, Vera Miles, Roger Mobley, Chester Morris, Richard Mulligan, J. Carrol Naish, Lane Nakano, Lois Nettleton, Julie Newmar, Leslie Nielsen, Arthur O'Connell, Susan Oliver, Nehemiah Persoff, Slim Pickens, Suzanne Pleshette, Stefanie Powers, Robert Redford, Ruth Roman, Marion Ross, Janice Rule, Soupy Sales, Martha Scott, Martin Sheen, Sylvia Sidney, Lois Smith, Rod Steiger, Inger Stevens, Beatrice Straight, Rip Torn, Jo Van Fleet, Jessica Walter, Jack Warden, Tuesday Weld, Jack Weston, James Whitmore, and Dick York.

McMahon had starred as Lt. Mike Parker from 1958 to 1963 on the New York-based police drama Naked City, another series created by Silliphant and Leonard.

Some 50 years after its premiere, Route 66 is still one of the few TV series to offer such a range of socially conscious stories, including mercy killing, the threat of nuclear annihilation, terrorism, runaways, and orphans.

[12] Billy Vaughn recorded a version of Riddle's theme (also instrumental, but with a wordless vocal chorus contributing to the melody) for his 1962 album Chapel by the Sea.

A vocal version, retitled "Open Highway" and featuring lyrics by Stanley Styne, was recorded by jazz singer Teri Thornton and reached number 150 in the Music Vendor survey of October 1963.