Let's cut to the chase. Route 66: The Complete Series from Shout! Factory is a mixed bag. Those who are familiar with the previous releases of Seasons 1-3 by Roxbury/Infinity are well aware of the problems with those releases. The first release of Season One was in the wrong aspect ratio (that at least was corrected by Roxbury/Infinity), the picture quality was (to be charitable) variable (the first 15 episodes are widely regarded as substandard), at least two episodes were edited syndicated versions, and the packaging was poorly designed and excessively bulky. Fans of the series were hoping that Shout! Factory was going to correct all of those problems, but that is not the case. A direct comparison shows very little improvement in picture quality, although the excessively dark contrast has been lightened up a bit. The two edited versions are still edited, although Shout! has added a disclaimer to one of them. On the other hand, Season Four looks terrific (one episode has a couple of brief glitches which are discussed below), includes a disc of interesting extras, and the packaging is vastly improved.
Route 66: The Complete Series
Studio: Shout! Factory
Year: 1960-1964
Rated: Not Rated
Program Length: Approximately 100 Hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Languages: English Mono
Subtitles: None
The Program
Let's cut to the chase. Route 66: The Complete Series from Shout! Factory is a mixed bag. Those who are familiar with the previous releases of Seasons 1-3 by Roxbury/Infinity are well aware of the problems with those releases. The first release of Season One was in the wrong aspect ratio (that at least was corrected by Roxbury/Infinity), the picture quality was (to be charitable) variable (the first 15 episodes are widely regarded as substandard), at least two episodes were edited syndicated versions, and the packaging was poorly designed and excessively bulky. Fans of the series were hoping that Shout! Factory was going to correct all of those problems, but that is not the case. A direct comparison shows very little improvement in picture quality, although the excessively dark contrast has been lightened up a bit. The two edited versions are still edited, although Shout! has added a disclaimer to one of them. On the other hand, Season Four looks terrific (one episode has a couple of brief glitches which are discussed below), includes a disc of interesting extras, and the packaging is vastly improved.
For the uninitiated, Route 66 follows two young men as they travel around the United States in a Corvette while looking for fun and adventure. The pair originally consisted of Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buz Murdock (George Maharis). Maharis contracted hepatitis during the filming of Season Three and he was forced to miss many episodes. He also got into a dispute with the show's producers and he wanted to make feature films, so his character was written out of the series and was replaced by Linc Case (Glenn Corbett) toward the end of Season Three. The series features outstanding production values with on-location filming throughout the country, superb and intelligent scripts (many by Stirling Silliphant), and a bevy of famous guest stars. It is one of the iconic television series of the Sixties.
I will not rehash the first three seasons here, as they have been discussed at length in previous threads. I will just mention that the Season One episode "A Fury Slinging Flame" is the syndicated version which is missing approximately five minutes of footage. As noted, Shout! has added a disclaimer noting that this is an edited version and was mastered from the best elements available. The Season Two episode "Blue Murder" also is the syndicated version, although Shout! has not seen fit to add a disclaimer to it.
Season Four contains many enjoyable episodes, although the show suffered from the fact that Glenn Corbett never projects the kind of charisma which George Maharis was capable of. Even so, the final season of the series includes many very good episodes. Of particular note is "I'm Here to Kill a King," featuring guest stars Robert Loggia and Tina Louise (a year before she took on the role of Ginger in Gilligan's Island). Martin Milner plays a dual role as Tod and his exact double, a hired killer named Paul Kades. The assassin is being paid to kill the King of an unnamed Middle Eastern country by the King's chief of security, Colonel Zaman. The action takes place during the King's visit to Niagara Falls. There is an inevitable mix-up when Tod is mistaken for Kades and when Linc mistakes Kades for Tod. Milner is every effective playing both roles, but the real significance of the show is that it was scheduled to air in late November, 1963 and was pre-empted following the assassination of President Kennedy. Some sources report that this episode was aired only in syndication, but elsewhere it is reported that it aired on March 20, 1964, a week after the show's last episode. In any event, Shout! has placed it where it was intended to be aired, as episode nine of Season Four.
Guest stars in Season Four include Jack Warden, Sessue Hayakawa, Joan Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr., William Shatner, J. Carrol Naish, Stefanie Powers, Jessica Walter, James Coburn, Soupy Sales, and Barbara Eden.
I grew up in a family of ten - my parents, my maternal grandmother, and six siblings. We had one television set, and of course no one even dreamed that one day we would have home video and DVRs. Consequently, I had very little input into what we watched on TV. I still remember that one Friday evening in 1961 or 1962 I was attending a high school basketball game and I left early so I could go home to watch 77 Sunset Strip at 9:30 p.m. Alas, when I arrived I discovered that my parents had already decided to watch a different show. In those days video quality was subject to ghosting, snow, and electrical interference. I suppose that those experiences make me a bit more forgiving about the picture quality of vintage TV shows. Shows such as Route 66 and The Untouchables were not favorites in my home and I rarely got to see them. So even though this complete series set of Route 66 is far from perfect, after fifty years I finally can watch every episode, so it is a welcome addition to my video library.
The Video
As noted, the 1.33:1 black and white images seen in Seasons One through Three look much the same as what we saw in the Roxbury/Infinity releases. The first 15 episodes of Season One are not in great shape, although significant improvement is evident as the series progresses. Season Four's picture quality is excellent, exhibiting fine detail and solid contrast. There are several brief glitches during the first couple of minutes of the first episode of Season Four, "Two Strangers and An Old Enemy." While Tod is being questioned by the press, there are two momentary audio dropouts. The first occurs at the 37-second mark. The second occurs at the 57-second mark, where Tod says "I just started working here" but the word "just" drops out. Then there are a couple of very brief glitches at the 1:14 and 1:22 marks. Finally, at the 2:07 mark the picture freezes for two seconds but the audio is unaffected. Others who ordered the set directly from Shout! have reported seeing and hearing the same things, so it is not a question of me receiving a bad disc. Whether Shout! will address this issue is unknown at this point.
I of course have not been able to watch every minute of every episode of Season Four yet, but I at least scanned through each episode and have not seen or heard any other problems. The Season Four episodes also include the Screen Gems end credit and logo.
Some concern has been expressed about the fact that Shout! has put five episodes of Route 66 on each disc (the final disc of Season Two actually contains six episodes), but it has not created any compression problems which I can see.
The Audio
The mono audio is of course limited but it is generally satisfactory. Apart from the aforementioned glitches, the only issue I have with Season Four involves one scene in "I'm Here to Kill a King" which was shot at Cave of the Winds in Niagara Falls. The dialogue between Martin Milner and Robert Loggia is nearly drowned out by the sound of the falls. It would have nice if this had been remixed, but it only involves a few lines.
The Supplements
Disc Six of Season Four contains only bonus features. First up is a 25-minute segment of "Great Cars" which tells the history of the Corvette and celebrates the car's 50th anniversary. It is in color and black & white and is shown at 1.33:1.
From my perspective, the most enjoyable supplements are two collections of vintage television commercials which aired during the original run of Route 66. There are 15 minutes of Chevrolet commercials (including one for the Chevrolet Biscayne featuring William Frawley and the boys from My Three Sons). These are followed by 10 minutes of commercials for Bayer Aspirin and Phillips Milk of Magnesia. These of course are in 1.33:1 black & white and are in surprisingly good shape.
Finally, there is a 43-minute panel discussion of Route 66 which was held at the Paley Center in 1990. It was recorded on videotape and has faded colors but is certainly watchable. Panelists include George Maharis, series co-creator Herbert Leonard, and directors Elliot Silverstein and Arthur Hiller. Maharis was in his early sixties and he looks and sounds quite dapper. One of the more interesting revelations is that Robert Redford was tested for the role of Tod (Maharis was cast first), but he was rejected as being insufficiently mature for the part (Redford does appear in a Season Two episode, "First Class Mouliak").
The Packaging
Ah, the packaging. Here we see a substantial improvement over the horrid packaging by Roxbury/Infinity. The first three seasons released by Roxbury/Infinity altogether take up six inches of shelf space with gatefold packaging and plastic flippers which are prone to easy breakage. The entire Shout! set takes up only 2 3/8 inches of shelf space. Each six-disc season is securely held in a standard-sized DVD keep case, and the four keep cases come in a somewhat flimsy cardboard slipcase.
The Final Analysis
As far as I can determine, there has been no announcement from Shout! Factory about whether a single-season release of Season Four will be forthcoming. I certainly have no argument with those who already own Seasons One through Three and who complain that they are being forced to buy the entire series in order to obtain Season Four. And yes, the picture quality of Season One in particular is far less than optimal, and there remains the issue of two episodes which are edited syndicated versions. On the other hand, the reality is that this set is probably as good as it is going to get. Route 66 is a terrific show, and if you order this set you now know exactly what to expect.
Equipment used for this review:
Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player
Panasonic Viera TC-P46G15 Plasma display, calibrated to THX specifications by Gregg Loewen
Yamaha HTR-5890 THX Surround Receiver
BIC Acoustech speakers
Interconnects: Monster Cable
Release Date: May 22, 2012
