User Reviews

...However, this one (with Glen Corbett as Linc) turns out to be quite delightful. I'll save going through the plot, since the other reviewers do a fine job of that. But having loved "Route 66" since the show was made, this installment (being the only one in the series which was made outside the U.S.) has always been, in my opinion, one of the MOST worth watching of them all. If you prefer Buz to Linc, give this one a try. Corbett does a fine job of playing "White Knight" to the featured 5-piece all girl band (featuring the drop-dead gorgeous 1963 version of Jessica Walter, who you may remember as the MOM in "Arrested Development") the eye-candy alone make this show well worth your time. Trust me on this! And the primarily Stirling Silliphant script - most of them are - is a good one. I promise you this installment of "Route 66" WILL NOT let you down!

At that time I lived five minutes away so often frequented The Inn On The Park hotel events and restaurants where one of the managers advised us they were going to shoot a scene by the swimming pool, so gathered up three very attractive young lady friends, all dressed in their finery, where we arrived for a "cattle call" and were immediately chosen to sit at a table on the other side of that Olympic size pool in the background of the sequence and can be seen a few times as the camera moved around - All in all, it was a nice experience where we and all involved later on had a chance to speak with many of the various performers and staff people involved in the production and there was a nice buffet set up.

This is a very engaging episode about a five women singing group stranded in a Toronto by their no-good manager and Linc's attempts to get them a gig so they can make enough money to get themselves back to St Louis.

This episode has some memorable scenes including a barroom brawl between only the females. You also get to see the amazing shot of having TV's coolest car get packed to it's absolute capacity as Tod and two girls ride up front, while the other three sit in back and Linc rides on top of the trunk facing backwards. There is also a fun appearance by Al Lewis and even a music score that isn't half bad.

There is no penetrating character study here no any deep dark revelations, but it is just as good and a nice 'breather' from the series more heavier episodes. The characters all seem very natural and real, people you wouldn't mind getting to know. They are also attractive although the one I found most attractive, Susan Ringwood, unfortunately never appeared in anything else.

Grade: A

In fact, our heroes are in Toronto and taking a tour of it in a helicopter. They spot a group of attractive women camped out in Exhibition Stadium. They land and find out they are an all-girl band expelled from their hotel room. The boys take up their cause, even allowing them to stay in their own hotel room while they try to find a booking for them, (their agent has left them stranded.) One potential gig turns out to be a strip joint. They finally get hired for a charity ball. Meanwhile, they have to deal with the randy helicopter pilot, an Englishman who, (not unlike David Niven in "Separate Tables"), likes to brag about his non-existent war service. But this character, played by someone named Hedley Mattingly, is not a sympathetic character. He's just there for some unfunny comic relief.

When I first saw this episode years ago, I thought it was the silliest, least substantial episode of the show and a sign that the writers had run dry. Watching it again, it's not that bad. It's just not all that good, either. The most interesting aspects of it are that it's the one Route 66 episode that takes place outside the country and that three of the women in the band are young actresses that we'd be hearing more from: Jessica Walter, Patricia Harty and Linda Day (George). The other two, Virginia Wing and Susan Ringwood, were less successful . In fact, this is Ringwood's only credit.

There's a reference to Julie Newmar's Vicki character, which Linc says he knows all about because Tod keeps mumbling about her in his sleep, a very rare reference to a prior episode..

Everything about this episode clicked with me which was surprising because I usually go for the heavy dramatic stories.

But this was such a lighthearted and fun story that I found myself laughing and smiling throughout the episode.

I loved all five of the girls and actually think they could've spun off into their own show because they were all so likeable and endearing. I definitely would've watched a series with them as stars.

I even liked that old cad Foxglove who originally had less than savory intentions with the girls but proved to be a nice guy in the end getting them the booking.

I've already watched this episode twice now and as much as I love the heavy drama of this series, this one stands out for me as a huge favorite due to its very likeable guest stars and lighthearted story with a happy ending.

The only thing that saddens me is learning that the Inn on the Park hotel where they filmed the episode has been demolished because it looked like a really nice hotel and sad that it's gone.

I can watch this episode again and again and especially when I need to lift my spirits up a little because it's so much fun.

Believe me, I WANTED to like this episode, and I'm sure anyone who thinks highly of it will immediately declare my comments "UNHELPFUL". So be it.

There's just too much NOT to like about this show-- it's really too silly and crass for its own good.

NO WAY would any hotel that's holding the ladies' instruments as collateral ALSO REFUSE TO GIVE THEM THEIR LUGGAGE, PURSES, etc; they would have headed straight to the Police. My goodness, we are to believe that these five lovely ladies are left to wander day and night through the streets of Toronto in Autumn without so much as a coat, a change of underwear, or a toothbrush? It's just plain stupid. The fact that they were STILL wandering the streets on the final morning in the same clothes with NO ability to "freshen up" or protect themselves from the elements is not only ridiculous, it's off-putting in its crudeness.

And speaking of crude, Tod's stubborn, boorish, dismissive attitude towards the ladies' plight was also offensive--and I'm NOT a politically-correct junkie by any means! But if the major plot/character elements are ludicrous, you haven't got much of a show (also, Martin Milner's bogus "Sleepy" routine is only slightly less annoying here than it was in the recent "Celli Brahms" show).

The brawl with the strippers in Grandpa Munster's nightclub is a very strained, sophomoric attempt at slapstick humor; maybe if the REST of the plot wasn't so garish, the fight scene might have come across better. But as it is, it's just one more cheap, burlesque-house gag that falls embarrassingly flat.

Then there's the oily character of Foxworth-- ALSO crude, glib and generally tasteless (as is the scene with his Twisting Male Dancers). Sure, it's good to see him exposed by one of the girls for the phony he is, and it's nice he decided to help them out-- but the connection was poorly delineated, and almost lost in the general "unpleasantness" that affects this entire episode.

ALSO-- the saxophone on the soundtrack during the final rehearsal scene is an ALTO sax, but the young lady is miming on a TENOR---not that anyone really should care by this point.

ALSO #2: could this episode be the FIRST in TV history to feature a SHOT OF AN ACTUAL TOILET (in LInc's prison cell)?? It's hard to resist saying-- but it seems to fit in very nicely with the overall tone of this show.

The next episode, the much-maligned "COME HOME, GRETA."...strikes a MUCH more convincing, consistently light-hearted and whimsical tone that, IMHO, elevates it MILES above "A Long Way from St Louie" in terms of quality.

But again, I'm in the distinct minority. C'est la vie. LR