SWC75
Bored Historian
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Since I reviewed the entire series, let's stick with Route 66 for now. This one was a first season episode, shown 12/30/60. My review:
"This is an episode I could still remember vividly years after I first saw it. It makes the other episodes seem unimportant by comparison. . Leslie Nielsen is a scientist who, based on indications he thinks he has received in playing chess with a Russian counterpart, thinks the Soviets are about to launch a nuclear attack on New Year’s Day. He convinces a group of people of his belief and they all go to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, feeling that being deep underground will give them the best chance of survival. Ignoring the pleas of park rangers and friends, including another scientist, to leave, Nielsen and his group, (which includes frightened children one of which is his own son), grimly stay on until his ex-wife arrives with a court order that she has custody of the children. As she and the kids leave, Nielsen runs after them at zero hour. They get outside and…nothing happens. But Nielsen doesn’t give in to humiliation. He makes a haunting prediction with a line that resonated with me to this day: “It didn’t happen this Wednesday. But does that just mean it will happen on some other Wednesday?
I grew up in this era and behind all our thoughts was that at some point we would experience that “other Wednesday”. “On the Beach” had come out in 1959, a story of the last survivors of a nuclear war trying to live life as best they can before the effects of the war drift over to where they are, (Australia). The Cuban Missile Crisis was just around the corner. Conrad Nagel, (a grand old actor from the silent era), plays Nielsen’s older colleague and gives a speech about how if the attack came, he’d rather be right where the missiles come down and get it over with because what remained wouldn’t be much of a life even if you did survive it. We don’t’ think about these things as much these days. Time has passed and that other Wednesday hasn’t happened- yet. The politics of the world have changed. But these weapons are still out there and so is human conflict. That other Wednesday will always loom until we learn to respect each other and minimize conflicts, rather than maximizing them.
Where are the boys during all this? They are working at a near-by amusement park and looking forward to their New Year’s Eve celebration. They meet up with an attractive lady reporter who cons them into posing with her as new converts to Nielson’s group so they can get a story. Todd has a good line of his own at the end when he suggests to Nielsen that there are other days of the week and perhaps we see what they have to offer before that Wednesday comes. The perfect attitude for someone who’s life is just a trip down a road to see what’s around the bend until the road comes to an end."
The IMDB page: "Route 66" A Fury Slinging Flame (TV Episode 1960) - IMDb
Again, you can watch it on Amazon Prime or You-Tube:
You-Tube has a couple of posts that claim to show it for free but they are unwatchable: foggy with a zoomed in picture and distorted sound. Don't bother.
"This is an episode I could still remember vividly years after I first saw it. It makes the other episodes seem unimportant by comparison. . Leslie Nielsen is a scientist who, based on indications he thinks he has received in playing chess with a Russian counterpart, thinks the Soviets are about to launch a nuclear attack on New Year’s Day. He convinces a group of people of his belief and they all go to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, feeling that being deep underground will give them the best chance of survival. Ignoring the pleas of park rangers and friends, including another scientist, to leave, Nielsen and his group, (which includes frightened children one of which is his own son), grimly stay on until his ex-wife arrives with a court order that she has custody of the children. As she and the kids leave, Nielsen runs after them at zero hour. They get outside and…nothing happens. But Nielsen doesn’t give in to humiliation. He makes a haunting prediction with a line that resonated with me to this day: “It didn’t happen this Wednesday. But does that just mean it will happen on some other Wednesday?
I grew up in this era and behind all our thoughts was that at some point we would experience that “other Wednesday”. “On the Beach” had come out in 1959, a story of the last survivors of a nuclear war trying to live life as best they can before the effects of the war drift over to where they are, (Australia). The Cuban Missile Crisis was just around the corner. Conrad Nagel, (a grand old actor from the silent era), plays Nielsen’s older colleague and gives a speech about how if the attack came, he’d rather be right where the missiles come down and get it over with because what remained wouldn’t be much of a life even if you did survive it. We don’t’ think about these things as much these days. Time has passed and that other Wednesday hasn’t happened- yet. The politics of the world have changed. But these weapons are still out there and so is human conflict. That other Wednesday will always loom until we learn to respect each other and minimize conflicts, rather than maximizing them.
Where are the boys during all this? They are working at a near-by amusement park and looking forward to their New Year’s Eve celebration. They meet up with an attractive lady reporter who cons them into posing with her as new converts to Nielson’s group so they can get a story. Todd has a good line of his own at the end when he suggests to Nielsen that there are other days of the week and perhaps we see what they have to offer before that Wednesday comes. The perfect attitude for someone who’s life is just a trip down a road to see what’s around the bend until the road comes to an end."
The IMDB page: "Route 66" A Fury Slinging Flame (TV Episode 1960) - IMDb
Again, you can watch it on Amazon Prime or You-Tube:
You-Tube has a couple of posts that claim to show it for free but they are unwatchable: foggy with a zoomed in picture and distorted sound. Don't bother.
