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(More customer reviews)Here's a superb example of the high quality TV was capable of reaching, once upon a time. And not on PBS, not on cable, but on network TV, as entertainment that appealed to millions of viewers & drew consistently high ratings!
These two episodes of the seminal series "Route 66" both deal with drugs; but like most episodes of the show, they also work as philosophical windows.
"Birdcage on My Foot" finds Tod & Buzz, along with a girlfriend of Tod's, agreeing to drop charges against a heroin addict who tried to steal their car. In return, they take him in over the weekend to help him go cold turkey & be ready to enter rehab on Monday morning. The addict is brilliantly portrayed by a young Robert Duvall, in one of his many guest appearances on TV shows of that time.
What strikes the viewer immediately is how the story doesn't hesitate to take a few minutes for a bit of existential discussion, as Tod & his girlfriend take a break on the roof of her apartment. They wonder about the meaning & purpose of life, of making human connections, of realizing just how much they don't know about the mystery of being. Now there's something you simply wouldn't see on a contemporary TV show!
And we see Buzz, tormented by his memories of failing an addicted father figure, slowly coming to terms with Robert Duvall's miserable Arnie. It reaches a raw confessional for Buzz, reliving his own failure to help in the past, clutching the shivering Arnie as he sobs out his repressed grief & guilt. Again, what contemporary show would be so emotionally naked, without any protective curtain of glib irony?
Notice also that the dialogue is peppered with literary quotes & references, taking for granted the audience's ability to catch & understand them. No dumbing down here!
"The Thin White Line" finds Tod accidentally drinking a beer spiked with an experimental hallucinogen & fleeing into the city night, on a shattering emotional odyssey. The black & white photography is nothing short of stunning, and Martin Milner gives a nonstop rollercoaster of a performance.
The scene where he goes home with a world-weary, lonely bar pianist, played by a perfect Sylvia Miles, goes from teasing to outright erotic to horrific as the drug plunges him from euphoria to paranoia & terror -- the seductive & willing Sylvia is suddenly a leering, malicious, Medusa-haired harridan out of "Carnival of Souls."
And when Tod reaches the depressive, suicidal low point in the early morning, and Buzz tries desperately to reach out to him, to pull him back from the brink, the scene is heartbreakingly honest. The men in this series aren't afraid to show their emotions -- on the contrary, they have more robust & sensitive & vital energy than most TV characters today.
It can be argued that some of the show's endings are a little too neat, that some of the writing is a little too artificial -- at least by contemporary standards. But consider the network restrictions of the early 1960s, where married couples were still depicted as sleeping in twin beds! Given those restrictions, shows like "Route 66" constantly pushed the boundaries & dared to ask some of The Big Questions. How many TV shows today can say the same thing?
(And no, the freedom to show more graphic & gratuitous violence & sex isn't always the same thing.)
Sadly, only a few episodes of this excellent show are available right now, and only then on out-of-print VHS tapes. When is someone going to put out a DVD collection of all four seasons, preferably with some commentary? Most highly recommended!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Route 66 The Collector's Edition (Birdcage on my foot and Thin White Line)
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