Like A Motherless Child

[deleted]

I would be interested to know if you also noticed any "sexual tension" between Glenn Corbett, the actor who (as "Lincoln 'Linc' Case") replaced George Maharis' "Buz Murdock" in "Route 66," and Martin Milner?

I ask because there is some indication the late actor Corbett may have been bisexual (even though Corbett had a wife and two children, which doesn't necessarily mean a man is not bisexual, or even "gay" sometimes), and did some beefcake modeling for Bob Mizer's "Athletic Model Guild," a publication known to have had an audience of predominantly homosexual males.

To those who would challenge your premise of there having been "sexual tension" between Maharis and Milner, I offer that all there has to be for "sexual tension" to exist is one of two parties to be attracted to the other. The tension that would then exist is the avoidance/rejection by the object (Milner, in this case) of his pursuer (Maharis).

By all accounts I have read before, Milner was the friendlier and nicest to fans between the two actors in the original cast of "Route 66." And I also once read a quote by Milner that he had never heard from Maharis in all the intervening years, yet remained close friends with his "Adam-12" co-star, Kent McCord (real name Kent McWhirter) until his dying day. So I think Maharis was the one with bug (and who knows what else?) up his ass. On a fan website I also read Maharis' manager was an aggressive and antagonistic woman who may have made matters worse, Maharis evidently already in full-throttle ego overdrive before the series even ended its first season. Maharis even recorded a music album (the fate of several non-singing actors in television, along with a series lunchbox), was obviously captive of the cult of personality that affects so many new entertainers meeting their first-time success just as surely as new moneyed generations tend to go on large spending sprees and demonstrate pretentious behavior, unaccustomed as they are to behaving as if they'd always had that silver spoon in their mouths.

I think it also speaks volumes Milner married only once, and remained married to the same woman for 58 years, and the father of four children. That is very rare for Hollywood actors, and the same is true of McCord, who married his high school sweetheart and is still married to her after 53 years, with three children. I think both Milner and McCord were not only talented actors, but decent and loyal men. McCord and Milner also remained true to their support of real-life law enforcement, and donated their time and money to police charities during and ever after their "Adam-12" days. McCord and Milner remain two of the finest men ever produced by the Hollywood system, men of good moral fiber.

And although I differ from you in that I also enjoy and find much merit in the acting and writing of "Route 66," and make allowances for the occasional lapses into prose and stream-of-consciousness in the scripts (reflective of the Jack Kerouac-"On the Road" influence), I must also concede I enjoy "Adam-12" more so. As with all Jack Webb productions, "Adam-12" was, at least in its time, a pretty accurate depiction of the average workday for a beat patrolman, where not every day involves shoot 'em ups, and there is also boredom, some humor, community interaction, and lots of routine calls and abundance of paperwork in the mix.

But what a contrast of styles between Webb and "Route 66" creators Herbert Leonard and Stirling Silliphant! Webb had his time-tested approach of utilizing a small, semi-repertory cast of the same actors (besides the leads) playing different roles over various episodes, a fair amount of stock footage, constant re-use of basic, no frills' sets, and productions always at or below budget and brought in on schedule. This as opposed to Leonard and Siliphant, who cost Lancer Productions and CBS much more to shoot those beautiful vistas of America, visiting 25 states plus Toronto in Canada, and also paid for the food and lodging of Martin Milner's family when on location (which was most of the time). It made for some picturesque realism, but also tremendous expenditures.

I also guess, by reason of your analysis, Maharis mustn't have been much of an actor, if "the raw energy and attraction that Maharis was unable to avoid projecting" kept Maharis from convincingly portraying the heterosexual character "Buz Murdock" was supposed to be. Certainly other homosexual actors (Rock Hudson, the most obvious example) have been able to realistically portray masculine, heterosexual characters. So perhaps Maharais shouldn't have been cast at all in "Route 66," if his acting skills were such he was unable to overcome his personal sexual desires for or with a fellow actor. I will have to take another look at Maharis' acting in this regard, in "Route 66." But I don't think his lust for Milner is very obvious, and certainly he isn't an overt, swishy "gay" type in the manner of, for example, a Sean Hayes in the TV sitcom "Will & Grace." I think you must be picking up on some textures much more subtle than the average viewer would realize. But I do believe you have seen something to warrant this critique.

By contrast, Milner was a seasoned pro by the time he began his cross-country trek in "Route 66," having been a juvenile character actor who appeared in such noteworthy films as "Life with Father" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," as well the TV sitcoms "The Life of Riley" and "The Stu Erwin Show,", and the radio version of "Dragnet," where Milner first encountered later boss Jack Webb.

Then again, maybe I am wearing blinders, as some have alleged the character of "Floyd Lawson," the barber in "The Andy Griffith Show," was also a flamboyantly homosexual character, and I just never saw that. I do know there was a change (from Season One to subsequent seasons) in Howard McNear's portrayal of the character. But so there was, as well, in lead Andy Griffith's characterization of "Sheriff Andy Taylor," at first a wise-cracking, rapscallion hayseed prone to comic rants similar to his stand-up routine (and then comedy recording) "What It Was, Was Football," before wisely toning down the role to that of a compassionate and sensible community leader who was also a fountain of wisdom for his motherless son and deputy partner, even sometimes older maiden aunt, playing straight to all the loony characters and goings-on around him in the small North Carolina hamlet of "Mayberry." I just attributed McNear's changed portrayal of "Floyd" to a similar blossoming as Griffith's, that is natural for many TV characters as the actors find their footing after a few years in one role.

Whoever said gay men can only play gay men? Plus, back in those days, it was the "love that dare not speak its name." Maharis's sexual preferences were irrelevant to the show and not out there in the public anyway.

Of course, I disagree with you about the writing - I thought it was lyrical, totally different than you get today, totally different than anything I've ever seen. I think it does stand the test of time, if you are of a poetic rather than literal bent. Not that I mind modern writing - some of it is really good - but Route 66 was something unique and often incredibly powerful. I was entering my teens when the show first aired and I loved the writing. Still do.

I'll agree about the "faddish writing"
You honestly do not hear people talking like that.... I don't even remember the people in my life talking like that back then.
This is not to say that there were people who didn't.....
In any case, I like it. I wish people today, would only take the time to express themselves in such a way. Nobody takes the time.
I'd also like to add though, that while the people I knew didn't always talk that way, they are the sort of people living in the sort of world I grew up in.