Route 66

The original concept, developed between writer Stirling Silliphant and producer Herbert B. Leonard, envisioned two leads as ex-army men trying to re-establish themselves in American life, under the working title 'The Searchers'.

A backdoor pilot for the concept aired as a 1959 episode of Naked City called 'Four Sweet Corners', featuring George Maharis and Robert Morris as two ex-servicemen friends who decide to leave New York City to see the world.

Robert Morris originated the role that would become Tod Stiles in the failed pilot, but he was replaced by Martin Milner when the show was reworked; Morris died in May 1960 at age 25, shortly before the series premiered.

Martin Milner won the role of Tod Stiles over several other actors under consideration, including Robert Redford, who later appeared as a guest star on the show.

The series title 'The Searchers' was dropped to avoid confusion with John Ford's 1956 film The Searchers starring John Wayne, leading to the final title Route 66.

The character Buz Murdock was subtly modeled in appearance and attitude on Jack Kerouac, prompting Kerouac to consider suing the producers and Chevrolet for allegedly misappropriating characters and themes from his novel On the Road, though his lawyers convinced him he could not win.

George Maharis left the show mid-way through season three after suffering a real-life bout of infectious hepatitis, which was written into the show as his character being hospitalized with 'echovirus'; Tod appeared solo in 13 episodes as a result.

Route 66 was one of the first television series shot entirely on location across the country, filming in 25 American states plus Toronto, Canada, even though the actual U.S. Route 66 highway passed through only eight states and was rarely referenced or shown on screen.

The episode 'I'm Here to Kill a King', about a potential assassination, was pulled from its scheduled November 29, 1963 airdate because of President Kennedy's assassination the week before, and wasn't broadcast until the show went into syndication.

For the Halloween episode 'Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing', Boris Karloff donned his classic Frankenstein monster makeup for the first time in decades, while Lon Chaney Jr. was made up to resemble his 1941 Wolf Man role, both appearing alongside Peter Lorre as themselves.

Two late third-season episodes aired a week apart each featured a guest actor playing a small role foreshadowing his future signature TV character: Michael Conrad played a policeman years before Hill Street Blues, and Alan Alda played a surgeon years before M*A*S*H.

Guest actors Geoffrey Horne and Collin Wilcox played a couple in a fake wedding storyline in a fourth-season episode, and a few years after filming that episode the two actors actually married each other in real life.

CBS commissioned Nelson Riddle on short notice to write an original instrumental theme rather than pay royalties for Bobby Troup's song '(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66'; Riddle's theme became one of the first TV themes to reach Billboard's top 30 and earned two Grammy nominations in 1962.

In 1962, Ethel Waters received a Primetime Emmy nomination for her guest role in 'Goodnight, Sweet Blues', making her the first African-American performer, male or female, ever nominated for a dramatic acting Emmy.

The show was parodied in the April 1962 issue of Mad magazine as 'Route 67', featuring an appearance by comic strip character Mary Worth chiding the boys for usurping her role as the nation's chief do-gooder.

A 1993 NBC revival/sequel starred James Wilder as Nick Lewis, an illegitimate son of Buz who inherits his father's Corvette; only four episodes aired before it was cancelled due to low ratings.