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The Best Episodes of Route 66 Season 1

Every episode of Route 66 Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Route 66 Season 1!

Binge this in 1d 1h•Peaking at 8.0/10

After discovering that his late father has gone through most of the family fortune, Tod Stiles hits the title trans-America highway in his Corvette in search of adventure with friend Buz Murdock, a survivor of

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Route 66 Season 1 Episode 1 - Black November
    7.5/10(337 votes)

    #1 - Black November

    S1:E1

    Tod's father dies leaving Tod the Corvette. Buz worked for Tod's father and the two decide to start driving. The Corvette breaks down in a small Mississippi town with some very nasty residents. The boys discover that the town hosted a POW camp during WW II and that the town boss had an escaped prisoner lynched when his son was killed in action. The boss plans to lynch Tod and Buz to keep the town's secret. Filming Location: Concord, Kentucky

    Director:Philip Leacock
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  2. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 2 - A Lance of Straw
    6.7/10(190 votes)

    #2 - A Lance of Straw

    S1:E2

    Shrimp boat captain Charlotte Duval hires Tod and Buz as a crew for her boat. Suitor Jean Boussard gets very jealous of the male crew members. Buz falls in love with the captain. Filming Location: Grand Isle, Louisiana

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  3. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 3 - The Swan Bed
    7.0/10(175 votes)

    #3 - The Swan Bed

    S1:E3

    Tod and Buz arrive in New Orleans during a parrot-fever epidemic. They meet a girl named Carrie Purcell and ask her out for a date. Carrie doesn't have money to afford nice clothes. Filming Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

    Director:Elliot Silverstein
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  4. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 4 - The Man on the Monkey Board
    7.5/10(187 votes)

    #4 - The Man on the Monkey Board

    S1:E4

    Tod and Buz are working at a Louisana Gulf of Mexico off-shore oil-drilling tower. Lew Ayres plays a Nazi-hunter hunting an escaped Nazi on the drilling rig. Filming Location: Denage and Venice, Louisana

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  5. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 5 - The Strengthening Angels
    7.5/10(179 votes)

    #5 - The Strengthening Angels

    S1:E5

    Tod and Buz give a lift to Lotti Montana, a migrant worker who is going to help pick the peach crop. As they approach the town of Sparrow Falls she begs them to drive through as quickly as possible. They take her to the Coronet Club and the Silver Dollar cafe. Sheriff Hingle keeps her from leaving town. The boys work with a revivalist. Filming Location: Needles, California

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  6. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 6 - Ten Drops of Water
    7.5/10(184 votes)

    #6 - Ten Drops of Water

    S1:E6

    Vergil and Helen Page with their young brother Homer are owners of the family ranch. Fighting a desperate battle against drought they're too proud to accept Tod and Buz's offer to help. Filming Location: Kanab, Utah

    Director:Philip Leacock
    Writer:Howard Rodman

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  7. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 7 - Three Sides
    7.0/10(171 votes)

    #7 - Three Sides

    S1:E7

    The boys work on a ranch and encounter a rancher's son. Joey dances on a table. Filming Location: Grants Pass, Oregon

    Director:Philip Leacock
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  8. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 8 - Legacy for Lucia
    7.0/10(145 votes)

    #8 - Legacy for Lucia

    S1:E8

    Tod and Buz are working as loggers in Oregon. They meet an Italian girl, Lucia Trapani, who has come from Sicily to buy a new Madonna for her church. She plans to do it by selling her only possessions. Filming Location: Merlin, Oregon

    Director:Philip Leacock
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  9. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 9 - Layout at Glen Canyon
    6.7/10(153 votes)

    #9 - Layout at Glen Canyon

    S1:E9

    A group of models are sent to a construction camp at Glen Canyon to do some fashion shots for a magazine. Jeff Grady head of the crew working at the dam appoints Tod and Buz as bodyguards. Filming Location: Glen Canyon Dam and Page, Arizona

    Director:Elliot Silverstein
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  10. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 10 - The Beryllium Eater
    7.3/10(138 votes)

    #10 - The Beryllium Eater

    S1:E10

    Jack McConkie makes a find of Beryllium, a rare ore. Mine operator Fred Durant insists that he sell his claim. The old man refuses and is found badly beaten. Filming Location: Eureka, Arizona

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 11 - A Fury Slinging Flame
    6.7/10(135 votes)

    #11 - A Fury Slinging Flame

    S1:E11

    The boys meet scientist Mark Christopher and his friends who intend to remain in Carlsbad Caverns until a predicted nuclear war is over. Filming Location: Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

    Director:Elliot Silverstein
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  12. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 12 - Sheba
    7.2/10(146 votes)

    #12 - Sheba

    S1:E12

    Laura Church is paroled from a Texas prison and prepares to take up a new life. Then she discovers that the man assigned as her advisor is none other than Woody Biggs, the rancher who sent her to jail in the first place. The boys work as cowboys. Filming Location: El Paso, Texas

    Director:William F. Claxton
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  13. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 13 - The Quick and the Dead
    7.1/10(132 votes)

    #13 - The Quick and the Dead

    S1:E13

    Tod and Buz work at the Riverside race track for the Grand Prix stock-car races. They get involved with a family's problems, including whether the father should continue stock-car racing. Tod drives a racecar. Filming Location: Riverside Racetrack and Mission Inn, Riverside, California

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  14. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 14 - Play It Glissando
    7.3/10(148 votes)

    #14 - Play It Glissando

    S1:E14

    Tod and Buz watch a show at a local night club where trumpeter Gabe Johnson and his group are appearing. While driving away, they witness Jana Johnson, Gabe's wife, crash her car. She tells the boys that Gabe is insanely jealous and tried to kill her. The boys watch over her. Gabe shoots Tod but Tod tells the hospital it was an accident. When Jana goes back with Gabe, the boys realize that Jana will keep returning to Gabe no matter what. Filming Location: Malibu, California

    Director:Lewis Allen
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  15. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 15 - The Clover Throne
    6.4/10(127 votes)

    #15 - The Clover Throne

    S1:E15

    The boys work on Adam Darcey's date farm. Adam loves his ward, ""Sweet Thing"", who wants to leave the farm. Adam is also trying to stop a road from being built on his property. Filming Location: Indio, California

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 16 - Fly Away Home (1)
    7.7/10(133 votes)

    #16 - Fly Away Home (1)

    S1:E16

    Tod goes to work for the Windus Dusting Company as a crop duster. He meets Summers, a pilot. The company is losing money. Filming Location: Phoenix, Arizona

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  17. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 17 - Fly Away Home (2)
    7.8/10(117 votes)

    #17 - Fly Away Home (2)

    S1:E17

    A farmer wants his crops dusted with sulfur, which is very dangerous to the pilots. However, the risk means more money to for the crop-dusting company. Filming Location: Phoenix, Arizona

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  18. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 18 - Sleep on Four Pillows
    6.5/10(122 votes)

    #18 - Sleep on Four Pillows

    S1:E18

    Tod and Buz meet a teenage girl who claims to be running from gangsters. The girl's wealthy mother thinks her daughter has been kidnapped and calls the police and a detective. Filming Location: Hollywood and Los Angeles, California

    Director:Ted Post
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  19. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 19 - An Absence of Tears
    7.1/10(113 votes)

    #19 - An Absence of Tears

    S1:E19

    A blind widow listens for the voices of her dead husband's murderers. She asks Tod and Buz to buy her a pistol for self-protection. Filming Location: Hollywood, California

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  20. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 20 - Like a Motherless Child
    8.0/10(141 votes)

    #20 - Like a Motherless Child

    S1:E20

    Tod and Buz pick up a small boy who has run away from an orphanage. Tod wants to return the boy but Buz, who has bad memories of an orphanage, refuses. The boys also get involved with showgirls. Filming Location: Reno, Fallon, and Carson City, Nevada

    Director:David Lowell Rich
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 21 - Effigy in Snow
    6.6/10(123 votes)

    #21 - Effigy in Snow

    S1:E21

    A psychotic killer is killing women at the Squaw Valley ski resort. He leaves a body in the snow. Filming Location: Squaw Valley, California

    Director:David Lowell Rich
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  22. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 22 - Eleven, the Hard Way
    8.0/10(121 votes)

    #22 - Eleven, the Hard Way

    S1:E22

    The gown of Broken Knee hand their money over to famous gambler Sam Keep to gamble it in Reno. Filming Location: Reno and Broken Knee, Nevada

    Director:William A. Graham
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  23. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 23 - Most Vanquished, Most Victorious
    8.0/10(123 votes)

    #23 - Most Vanquished, Most Victorious

    S1:E23

    Tod's aunt Kitty asks Tod to find her daughter Carole. The boys find that she was living in a Los Angeles slum and has been killed. Filming Location: Los Angeles, California

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  24. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 24 - Dont Count Stars
    7.8/10(121 votes)

    #24 - Dont Count Stars

    S1:E24

    Tod and Buz meet a hotel owner Mike, who drinks and gambles. Mike is the guardian for his niece Linda, a little girl. Linda's executor wants to remove the child from her uncle, and she asks Tod and Buz for help. Filming Location: San Diego, Sands Hotel, California

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  25. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 25 - The Newborn
    7.6/10(115 votes)

    #25 - The Newborn

    S1:E25

    Tod and Buz work on a ranch belonging to Frank Ivy. Frank's son dies leaving an Indian girl Kawna pregnant. Frank and Kawna's relatives fight over the baby. The boys arrange an ""adoption"" of the baby after the mother dies. Filming Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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Season 1 Ratings Summary

"Black November" is the best rated episode of "Route 66" season 1. It scored 7.5/10 based on 337 votes. Directed by Philip Leacock and written by Stirling Silliphant, it aired on 10/7/1960. This episode is rated 0.8 points higher than the second-best, "A Lance of Straw".