Cultural Impact
- The series was lampooned in the April 1962 issue of Mad magazine. The parody, entitled "Route 67," followed the publication's established practice of irreverently satirizing current popular programs and motion pictures in comic strip format. The send-up features an appearance by the character Mary Worth, who chides the boys for trying to usurp her role as the nation's chief do-gooder.
- According to biographer Dennis McNally (Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation, and America), Jack Kerouac tried to sue the show's producer Stirling Silliphant, claiming that it plagiarized his novel On the Road, which also featured two buddies traveling America's byways in search of adventure. McNally said Kerouac was "appalled by the show's violence," but the lawyers he contacted convinced him that he could never win a lawsuit. (page 272, Desolate Angel, McNally)
- Route 66 was featured on the cover of TV Guide four times.
- In a 1963 episode of the popular situation comedy Leave It to Beaver, the character Eddie Haskell obtains a summer job on an Alaskan fishing boat and likens himself to "the guys on Route 66." Beaver was at the time airing on the rival ABC network.
- In a 1977 episode of SCTV a space age satire of the show called Galaxy 66 stars Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas as Micron and Antar, two guys who prowl the galaxies looking for adventure, and find it when a mutant thug (John Candy) accosts a human girl (Catherine O'Hara), whom they rescue. Later on in the show, they are seen at the end of another skit tying pyramids to their heads to keep from being hit by meteoroids.
- In the Alien Nation episode "Gimmee, Gimmee," Albert gives Matt a vintage Corvette, whereupon the series theme by Nelson Riddle is heard.
- Actor Martin Milner toured the real Route 66 for the 2002 video production Route 66: Return to the Road with Martin Milner.
Read more about this topic: Route 66 (TV Series)
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