Chapter 10 — The TV Show That Made a Generation Want to Drive

Route 66 ran on CBS from 1960 to 1964, and it was one of the stranger things American network television has ever produced. Two young men — Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock, later replaced by Lincoln Case — drove a Corvette across America, stopping in different towns each week and getting involved in the lives of the people they met there. There was no ongoing storyline. The car was the constant. The road was the point.

The show was shot entirely on location, which was nearly unheard of for a network drama at the time. This meant that every episode had the texture of the real America — the actual diners, the actual landscapes, the actual people of the towns the production visited. Guest stars included Robert Redford, Ethel Waters, Rod Steiger, and Buster Keaton. The writing was literary enough that critics who normally ignored television paid attention.

What the show sold — explicitly and without much subtlety — was the idea that driving across America was a form of education. That you couldn’t understand the country by watching it from a living room. That you had to get in the car and go somewhere, talk to strangers, sit in unfamiliar diners, and let the road surprise you.

Millions of American teenagers watched it and felt something stir. Car sales to young buyers jumped in the early 1960s. The interstate highway system was being built at exactly the same moment, and Route 66 the show was making the old road feel like the better choice.

The show ended, as most good things do, before it was ready. The Corvette kept driving. The road kept waiting.

We are offering licences for ROUTE 66® Beer in specific territories. An invitation to others to become part of this story. To carry a piece of the road with them and to contribute to the story. We will share a percentage of royalties with Route 66 associations to keep the story alive.

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The journey continues. This story is brought to you by ROUTE 66® BEER. Find us at ROUTE66BEER.COM