"Pete Malloy you are End Of Watch" RIP

[RJDiogenes]

I agree completely about Stirling Siliphant.

The stories he churned out, week after week, were incredible. He would produce a stinker now and then, but they were few and far between.

True, he wasn't perfect. I recently watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that he wrote that was not too good, but that is rare indeed.

He deserves a spot alongside Rod Serling and Paddy Chayefsky on the Mount Rushmore of B&W television writers.

He really does.

Actually, that's not quite true. He grew up rich, but was fairly destitute in the show. The car was the only thing he had, because it was left to him by his father (or something like that). He and Buz (or Link) had to take jobs in pretty much every episode to support their travels.

Thanks, I never saw the show till two or three years ago and still haven't seen much of the first season. I knew they picked up jobs, but the Corvette was new every year!

That's true. I think that was more of a product placement thing, though-- I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be the same car.

 

[TRON JA307020]

I have never really seen Route 66(A few minutes once) and was planning on watching it soon.

Highly recommended. If you're a fan of 1960's TV drama and haven't seen ROUTE 66, that's like being a fan of Elizabethan theater who is unfamiliar with the works of Shakespeare. It is a superlatively-written series, and so consistent that its worst episodes are excellent and its best are bonafide classics of the genre.

I have heard the same form others. Its just not one of those shows that is aired in reruns regularly. I will have to buy the DVDs. I did find some poor copy eps on YouTube but I feel the poor quality won't do it justice. I am looking forward to seeing it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

If you get Me-TV, they air one episode a week in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. DECADES has also been working episodes into their programming a lot (which varies from day to day but draws from the same programs available to Me).

 

[TRON JA307020]

If you get Me-TV, they air one episode a week in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. DECADES has also been working episodes into their programming a lot (which varies from day to day but draws from the same programs available to Me).

Do those channels air the episodes in order?

 

[RJDiogenes]

MeTV does. Decades does when they do a weekend "binge," but I think their daily programming is based more on themes.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Also, the format of the series is semi-anthology, which means that the focus of the stories tends to be more on the guest characters than the recurring ones...so it's not a show that demands to be watched from the beginning, you can jump in and sample whatever episode(s) they're airing.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Awww...and I was just catching Adam-12 on COZI today. (I'd started a watch-through on Netflix streaming recently and they pulled the show!)

Perhaps Me-TV will do something Route 66-related in commemoration.

RIP, Mr. Milner.

That why you've got to buy the show on DVD, especially if you love it a lot.

 

[ToddPence]

I will have to buy the DVDs.

Unfortunately, ROUTE 66 is a series that has yet to see a proper DVD release. It has had the misfortune to fall into the hands of two cheap, lazy, and unethical companies, first, the fly-by-night Infinity and then the notorious Shout! Factory. Companies that are far more interested in making a quick buck than they are in providing a quality product. Despite this, your best bet is to get a copy of the Shout DVD set, although you will have to supplement this by searching Ebay for a Columbia House VHS copy of the first season episode "A Fury Slinging Flame", an acceptable copy of which Shout! Factory does not include in their set despite billing themselves as offering "The Complete Series".

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^Shout! Factory's actually a great company, it's just that the circumstances surrounding Route 66 were problematic (and were not helped by Sony Pictures not really caring about this show, in addition to Sony no longer owning it-the rights are owned by the estate of series producer Herbert B. Leonard.)

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Yeah, I wouldn't characterize Shout! as "cheap, lazy or unethical." They load their products with extras and don't cut corners when at all possible.

 

[ToddPence]

Here's the story in a nutshell:

When Shout Factory acquired the rights from ROUTE 66 from fly-by-night Image Entertainment, whose poor-quality season one DVDs of the series had been subject to much criticism, Shout planned a full series release. To mollify fans who had already bought Infinity's first three seasons (of four), Shouts' set producer Brian Ward strongly gave the impression through specific comments that the company would be remastering the entire series and the prints used would be completely different from what Infinity had earlier released. Several posters to Shouts forums at the time specifically raised the issue of the episode "A Fury Slinging Flame" and whether the episode would be uncut or not. In response, Ward made an explicit, unambiguous promise that all the episodes would have their complete running time. When the set came out, it was found that abosutlely nothing had been done to upgrade the episodes which were exactly the same as the ones Infinity had released, including the cut for syndication episode, even though Columbia House had released an uncut pristine version of the same episode on VHS just a few years before. Given the circumstances, I think my assessment of Shout Factory as "cheap, lazy and unethical" is an accurate one - and this is not an isolated incident with this company. Brian Ward could have been honest with the fanbase. He could have se3t "Look guys, we can't get any better prints for these episodes", and then outlined the reasons why. Instead he chose to be evasive and ultimately dishonest.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Here's the story in a nutshell:

When Shout Factory acquired the rights from ROUTE 66 from fly-by-night Image Entertainment, whose poor-quality season one DVDs of the series had been subject to much criticism, Shout planned a full series release. To mollify fans who had already bought Infinity's first three seasons (of four), Shouts' set producer Brian Ward strongly gave the impression through specific comments that the company would be remastering the entire series and the prints used would be completely different from what Infinity had earlier released. Several posters to Shouts forums at the time specifically raised the issue of the episode "A Fury Slinging Flame" and whether the episode would be uncut or not. In response, Ward made an explicit, unambiguous promise that all the episodes would have their complete running time. When the set came out, it was found that abosutlely nothing had been done to upgrade the episodes which were exactly the same as the ones Infinity had released, including the cut for syndication episode, even though Columbia House had released an uncut pristine version of the same episode on VHS just a few years before. Given the circumstances, I think my assessment of Shout Factory as "cheap, lazy and unethical" is an accurate one - and this is not an isolated incident with this company. Brian Ward could have been honest with the fanbase. He could have se3t "Look guys, we can't get any better prints for these episodes", and then outlined the reasons why. Instead he chose to be evasive and ultimately dishonest.

Image or Infinity?

And the forum post of the "promise" doesn't seem to exist anymore. When I googled Brian Ward and Route 66, my first result was a blog post saying that the forum post was ambiguous and not a concrete promise, that his statement left wiggle room.

I purchased the set and I'm satisfied that it was the best that Shout! could do given that the market for this item was not going to be all that sizable. Could they have tracked down the absolute, hands-down best copies of these episodes? Sure, but the cost involved would have probably made this set's price tag undesirable to most of that already small market.

 

[ToddPence]

Image or Infinity?

And the forum post of the "promise" doesn't seem to exist anymore. When I googled Brian Ward and Route 66, my first result was a blog post saying that the forum post was ambiguous and not a concrete promise, that his statement left wiggle room.

I purchased the set and I'm satisfied that it was the best that Shout! could do given that the market for this item was not going to be all that sizable. Could they have tracked down the absolute, hands-down best copies of these episodes? Sure, but the cost involved would have probably made this set's price tag undesirable to most of that already small market.

You are right. I meant to say Infinity and not Image. Big difference between the two companies.

The ambiguity of the words are part of the weaselly nature of Brian Ward. The exact quote he said was "we are doing everything we can to have the complete episodes." Since Columbia House released a pristine uncut copy of "A Fury Slinging Flame" on their VHS set in the late 1990's, and METV also today airs an uncut print of that episode, that means that such copies are extant and probably not that difficult to track down. Therefore, if Ward truly had been trying to, as he claimed, be "doing everything we can to have the complete episodes", they likely would have had them. This time Ward was caught in a demonstrable lie.

And, okay, maybe there are valid, realistic reasons as you said in your last paragraph why Shout couldn't get the best prints of the episodes. But, again, I reiterate the point I made above: they could have been upfront with people who posed direct questions to them about this issue. Instead Ward chose to be evasive and dishonest and left a false impression that the quality of the set would be better than it ended up being.

 

[TRON JA307020]

I will have to buy the DVDs.

Unfortunately, ROUTE 66 is a series that has yet to see a proper DVD release. It has had the misfortune to fall into the hands of two cheap, lazy, and unethical companies, first, the fly-by-night Infinity and then the notorious Shout! Factory. Companies that are far more interested in making a quick buck than they are in providing a quality product. Despite this, your best bet is to get a copy of the Shout DVD set, although you will have to supplement this by searching Ebay for a Columbia House VHS copy of the first season episode "A Fury Slinging Flame", an acceptable copy of which Shout! Factory does not include in their set despite billing themselves as offering "The Complete Series".

Dang. Maybe some channel will air the complete series. I like to watch things from start to finish.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Couldn't hurt to try one or two of the weekly airings on Me just to try it out and see if you like it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

DECADES is showing the first episode of Route 66 in its rotation tomorrow, Oct. 7, at 10 a.m., 4 p.m., 10 p.m., and 4 a.m., EST.

 

[TRON JA307020]

DECADES is showing the first episode of Route 66 in its rotation tomorrow, Oct. 7, at 10 a.m., 4 p.m., 10 p.m., and 4 a.m., EST.

Thanks Mixer. I have decades. Those hours give me plenty of time to catch it.

 

[arch101]

Milner was always great but underrated. I've always loved Route 66 but I've been rediscovering Adam 12 over the last year (I remember watching it as a kid in the '70s) If anyone is feeling burned out of Law & Order, etc. I highly recommend Adam 12. It's a very smartly written police show and kind of interesting because of the time it was made in. Milner and McCord really make you believe that real beat cops of the time were like them.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Pubert, if you're interested in seeing more Route 66, your chance is coming up. It's the DECADES Binge for next weekend (Nov. 14-15), and they're starting from the beginning.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Pubert, if you're interested in seeing more Route 66, your chance is coming up. It's the DECADES Binge for next weekend (Nov. 14-15), and they're starting from the beginning.

Excellent . Thanks Mixer I have decades now and I will tape as many as I can. I have caught half a episode and it was quite frankly excellent. Thanks again!