SWC75
Bored Historian
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ROUTE 66 2/8/63 “Suppose I said I was the Queen of Spain?
Tod is alone again but he’s in California, not Tennessee. Specifically, he’s in LA, where he encounters a young woman in various guises, including a seductive, sophisticated lady and a Salvation Army worker. It turns out, (as we find out at the very end) that she’s an actress, or at least an acting student, who impersonates people out in the world as practice for her roles and to see if she can do it convincingly. Route 66’s sister show Naked City, (done by the same producers), did a show with the same premise, (but a very different plot), called “Dust Devil on a Quiet Street”, (11/28/62).
The episode is a showcase for the great Lois Nettleton, who is equally convincing as the glamorous lady, the Salvation Army worker and also the college student, (although she was in her 30’s at the time). I always said she had an actress’s face: she could be beautiful if the part called for it or plain if that was what was needed. I think she was one of the best actresses on TV at the time and always a pleasure to watch. Here she has a long speech in a theater at the end, explaining who she is and what she does as if it was a play, right out of Pirandello.
But the big thing in this episode is the presence of a buddy for Todd, played by Robert DuVal, (in a toupee), named Lee, who seems to have all the lines Buz would have. His scenes are not vital to the plot: he’s a sounding board in one scene and helps Todd get over a drinking spree in another. They could have been cut out or the lines given to another character, like a bartender. But they aren’t. It’s as if Buz’s lines were just read by Duval as “Lee”. It’s quite a contrast to the fully re-written episodes in Tennessee. This suggests to me that this one was done in a hurry, as if they expected George Maharis to be in this episode and in the last moment, he had to beg out. Maharis is still in the opening credits but there is no mention of Buz and no communication with him, by letter or phone, (there is a brief phone conversation with “your old buddy Lee”). All of this makes it seem as if this was the first episode after Maharis had left the show for the final time and that “A Gift for a Warrior” might actually have been the last episode Maharis filmed after he attempted another comeback. Another alternative is that DuVal may have been auditioning to become Todd’s new partner. If he was, nothing came of it.
IMDB: "Route 66" Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain (TV Episode 1963) - IMDb (Amazon Prime has it for 99 cents)
You-Tube: (for $1.99)
Tod is alone again but he’s in California, not Tennessee. Specifically, he’s in LA, where he encounters a young woman in various guises, including a seductive, sophisticated lady and a Salvation Army worker. It turns out, (as we find out at the very end) that she’s an actress, or at least an acting student, who impersonates people out in the world as practice for her roles and to see if she can do it convincingly. Route 66’s sister show Naked City, (done by the same producers), did a show with the same premise, (but a very different plot), called “Dust Devil on a Quiet Street”, (11/28/62).
The episode is a showcase for the great Lois Nettleton, who is equally convincing as the glamorous lady, the Salvation Army worker and also the college student, (although she was in her 30’s at the time). I always said she had an actress’s face: she could be beautiful if the part called for it or plain if that was what was needed. I think she was one of the best actresses on TV at the time and always a pleasure to watch. Here she has a long speech in a theater at the end, explaining who she is and what she does as if it was a play, right out of Pirandello.
But the big thing in this episode is the presence of a buddy for Todd, played by Robert DuVal, (in a toupee), named Lee, who seems to have all the lines Buz would have. His scenes are not vital to the plot: he’s a sounding board in one scene and helps Todd get over a drinking spree in another. They could have been cut out or the lines given to another character, like a bartender. But they aren’t. It’s as if Buz’s lines were just read by Duval as “Lee”. It’s quite a contrast to the fully re-written episodes in Tennessee. This suggests to me that this one was done in a hurry, as if they expected George Maharis to be in this episode and in the last moment, he had to beg out. Maharis is still in the opening credits but there is no mention of Buz and no communication with him, by letter or phone, (there is a brief phone conversation with “your old buddy Lee”). All of this makes it seem as if this was the first episode after Maharis had left the show for the final time and that “A Gift for a Warrior” might actually have been the last episode Maharis filmed after he attempted another comeback. Another alternative is that DuVal may have been auditioning to become Todd’s new partner. If he was, nothing came of it.
IMDB: "Route 66" Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain (TV Episode 1963) - IMDb (Amazon Prime has it for 99 cents)
You-Tube: (for $1.99)