User Reviews

Route 66 was known for its location shooting throughout the USA, and in this case it really adds to the story. A young boy and girl kidnap their baby brother in order to give him a better life than their drifting trailer park existence.

This is one where filming around an actual real life town gives the story a level of sadness that Hollywood sets or back lots wouldn't be able to provide. This could be your town or my town, and it all seems very real.

Albert Salmi is the only name guest star here, doing his usual blow-hard bit. The children playing the boy and girl here have no other listed credits. I am wondering if they were locals.

This would have originally aired a few days before Christmas, 1963. I'm not sure if I could have taken it.

It's not just this episode, rather it's a hallmark of this series. It contains much of what is ordinary in life but it is always an investment with dividends. Programs and series these days won't take the time for it. Even the children are given an opportunity to develop in the story. The parameters of what decency required were always honored in this series. The tales and travelogues of two young men touring the good old USA would necessarily require sex, crime, alcohol and drugs perhaps. At least the variety included the mundane and not just action. This is why I enjoy this series in 2019!

We get serious again- back in Niagara Falls. Tod and Linc are working on a construction crew with the troubled Albert Salmi, who keeps getting into fights because he thinks his lot in life should be better. He and his wife, who live in a trailer near to the one in which our heroes are staying, are always arguing. They have three children, an 11 year old boy, a 9 year old girl and a baby. The boy and girl figure the baby will have no chance with parents who are arguing all the time so they run off with the baby and set up a home in an abandoned house. They become the "husband and wife" and shop- lift what they need. Linc wants to help, the way Tod would have in an earlier season while Tod has become the cynical Buz, warning him to not get involved in other people's problems but eventually being dragged into it by his friend.

It's touching to see the two kids try to become parents and then become like their parents, arguing about money and how to get what they want. When our heroes find them and lead Salmi to the house, he overhears his children bickering and then realizing that they were acting like Mommie and Daddy and he vows to change, giving us a happy ending. But you wonder how much has really hanged. A very strong episode after some light-weight fluff.

I have found great pleasure and comfort during the pandemic with this series. Route 66 has been on the radar for years but I never had an opportunity to actually start watching it until the pandemic slowed us all down. The episodes can be erratic at times but every once in a while we get one that is so grounded and real. This particular episode really pulls your heart strings and I enjoyed it immensely. The children who kidnapped their little brother and try to make a better life for him are really quite good actors and I wonder if they ever did anything else. Overall this episode is one of my favorite of the whole series. I've been watching season one through season four for the last several months and have really come to rely on the series to give me a sense of peace and solace in these strange days we are now living in. I would highly recommend anyone looking for a good story to check this series out.