Obituary: George Maharis

 Actor George Maharis, 94 (!), remembered by millions as the heartthrob-plus-tough guy Buz Murdock in the classic television series of the 1960s, Route 66, has died.  He died on May 24 at his home in Beverly Hills.  He was on the series for the first three seasons, until health issues with hepatitis--not a contract dispute as rumored--forced him to leave.  Glenn Corbett, a very underrated actor, replaced Maharis in a different role but as traveling companion for Martin Milner's character, Tod Stiles.

Maharis played the hardscrabble Murdock as a contrast to the educated, affluent Tod (Milner), and together they traveled all over the United States in Tod's Corvette (several of these cars were used through the series).  Two things set Route 66 (filmed in black-and-white and basically an anthology as the stories mostly centered on the characters Buz and Tod met along the way) apart from other television shows.  One was the superior writing of the episodes, except for the last two in the series, which were total crap except for the final and memorable scene.  The scripts were way literate, almost over the average viewer's head, and often were influenced by the so-called "beat era" literature.  Second was this was one of the few if not the only series in television history to be filmed entirely on the road.  Milner transported his wife and kids with him wherever the stories took them.  Maharis and the rest of the cast  did likewise travel throughout the country.  What you saw on the show were no soundstages.  Scenes taking place in houses and restaurants were actually in those places.  One of the early episodes took place in southern Oregon, where I am currently living.  Buz and Tod drove over the historic bridge in Rogue River on their way to Grants Pass.  Another early episode took place in Reno, Nevada, where I had lived for 26 years of my life.  I had my then-landlord watch this episode (I have the complete series on DVD), which included scenes shot in the historic Mapes Hotel, which was finally demolished in 2000 after having been closed for years.  Strangely enough, few of the episodes of this series were shot on the route of the famed highway.  It didn't matter.  The series was quite popular and eventually made its way to DVD.  However, the expense of filming everything on the road took its toll, and it ended in 1964 after four seasons.  It remained popular in syndication and then in home video.

Maharis had other roles in his career, but  none as famous as Buz.

Snip:

Born in Queens to Greek parents, Maharis served in the Marine Corps, then studied at the Actors Studio and worked on off-Broadway productions and early television shows such as “Naked City,” which was co-created by Herbert B. Leonard and Stirling Silliphant, who went on to create “Route 66.”

Maharis was also a singer and released seven albums, with the single “Teach Me Tonight” charting in 1962. In the 1980s, he performed in Las Vegas and later took up painting.

Sorry I Am Not

posting much, but I am sitting here watching a DVD of the classic 1960s series, Route 66. Beyond the fact it was one of the best shows in television history, it is fun to watch where the show was filmed for each episode. Of course it was filmed almost entirely on location.

I watched an episode where Tod (Martin Milner), Buz (George Maharis), and the real star of the show, the Corvette, went to Squaw Valley, California. Squaw Valley, of course, was the location of the 1960 Winter Olympics, and it was mentioned on the show. At the beginning of the episode ("Effigy in Snow"), which was about a nutball who had killed a woman skier, Milner and Maharis were parked alongside the road overlooking a lake. I knew it wasn't Tahoe, but never mind. It was Donner Lake, as the two noted, and they also mentioned the tragic Donner Party incident including cannibalization and all. Since the episode was filmed in 1961, before Interstate 80 was built or completed, the location threw me for a bit.

Another episode, "Like a Motherless Child," was filmed in around Carson City and Reno.

I always like how the show picks up right where it left off in the last episode. In the episode I am watching now, the location is Virginia City, Nevada. Near the beginning of the show, they showed Piper's Opera House and some actor mentioned Reno was "90 miles away." That is nowhere near true, and later on, Martin Milner mentioned Reno was "30 miles away," which is more or less accurate. Then they filmed scenes in Reno, at the Mapes Hotel (1947-2000), which was the place to be back then. I had my landlord watch this episode, and it brought back a lot of memories to him. He has been in Reno since 1947, the year the Mapes was built. The hotel was the first hotel/casino in Nevada.

In another episode, featuring Martha Hyer as a blind woman, it featured a seeing-eye dog called "Rex." I was wondering if the dog was actually a real seeing-eye dog. At the end of the show, during the credits, he was credited as "Special Guest Star Rin Tin Tin," descendant of the original (1918-1932), and probably the same dog or the son of the dog (Flame, Jr.) who was in the 1950s television show.*

It's fun to look at these shows, and see how various parts of the country looked then as opposed to now.

This link has a very good recent interview with George Maharis.

*--The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, which I remember in reruns, was produced from 1954-1959 by Screen Gems, which also produced Route 66. The dog in the Route 66 episode either was the main dog on the earlier series or else he was one of the other dogs playing the part in the show.