Route 66 ...And the Cat Jumped Over the Moon (1960–1964) Online

This is a very intense story dealing with a social worker (Kanen), who is also a former childhood mentor to Buz, who falls to his death after playing a dare game with a local youth gang leader (Sheen). Buz then takes it on himself to find answers as well as justice.

This episode marks the acting debut of Martin Sheen who looks so young and different from what you are used to you almost have to look twice to make sure that it is him. He has a bowl haircut here and looks very, very boyish almost like he was fifteen even though he was actually twenty-one at the time. He has a laugh like the Riddler's and plays his menacing role pretty well. James Caan (billed here as 'Jimmy Caan') also makes his debut. The two play an 'ultimate' dare game at the end that is fairly well handled.

Yet the real star of this episode is the fantastic direction by the then up and coming Elliot Silverstein. The nice panoramic views of 1960's Philadelphia is breathtaking. The shooting of the scenes on top of an abandoned building rooftop are thrilling and well choreographed. The editing is crisp and there are some real nice dramatic camera angles. There are also a few scenes shot inside the abandoned building and the rundown interior really helps give the gritty subject matter an authentic feel.

The only problem with this episode is that a middle aged and educated social worker should not be allowing himself to be duped into a stupid and dangerous dare game by some sixteen year old punk. There is also a scene where Tod gets literally pummeled by everyone of the gang members and somehow comes out of it with only a bruise on his cheek when normally it would put anyone else into a coma or worse. It also would have been a little more compelling and satisfying had Buz been the one to take on the Sheen character during the show's climactic dare sequence instead of the Caan character.

GRADE: A-

This is another memorable episode. I remembered it as taking place in New York but it's another Philadelphia episode. What confused me is that the boys are staying with Chuck Briner,(Milt Kamen in a good performance by a guy better known as a comedian) a guy who was a mentor to Buz and many other troubled youths when Buz was growing up in New York. This brings up this subject: Herb Leonard and Stirling Silliphant also produced "Naked City", which was on for the first three years of Route 66 and used many of the same actors, writers and directors. Why did they never have a cross-over episode? They are supposed to have gotten the idea for Route 66 from a Naked City episode called "Four Sweet Corners that starred George Maharis. Why not have the boys show up in New York and interact with the Naked City characters? This episode would have been an ideal cross- over. Maybe they didn't do it because that's where they came from and the boys are looking to see what everywhere else looks like.

It starts with the three of them laughing uproariously over a story Brennan is telling them. That's the last laughter. A young woman, Marva, (Susan Silo), bursts into the apartment to tell Chuck that a local gang, the "Missiles", is planning some kind of criminal activity. Chuck goes out to talk to them and, unwisely, accepts a challenge to compete in a game with the gang's leader, Packy, (Martin Sheen in his first television appearance), involving performing dangerous tricks along the edge of a rooftop, (which is where this gang hangs out). The result is that Chuck falls to his death. The police are called in, but to Buz's frustration, can do nothing as the incident is considered an "accident". There's a long line-up scene with a police captain and lieutenant who could have been Mike Parker and Adam Flint of "Naked City".

Buz finds out what the gang was planning: to "make an example" of their former leader, Johnny, who has left the gang to work in the building trade but who has maintained a relationship with Marva, a violation of gang rules. He goes to find Johnny, (symbolically atop a building much higher than the gang has ever been), leaving Marva with Tod back at Chuck's apartment. The gang invades the apartment, beats up Tod and chases after Marva. They corner her on a rooftop but Buz and Johnny, (James Caan in his third TV credit), show up in time to stop them.

Johnny and Packy then play the rooftop game, which Johnny invented and is better at. Packy loses his nerve as the degree of difficulty mounts and then finally chickens out and it beaten up by his own gang, who values the 'guts' to play such games more than the guts Johnny showed when he left the gang to join the adult world and work at a productive job every day.

This one is directed by Elliot Silverstein, who went on to direct "Cat Ballou" and "A Man Called Horse" but whose career then petered out for reasons that are unclear. He does a great job staging the rooftop challenges. (What these guys are doing is an extreme sport now. Check out "rooftop daredevils" on YouTube. Even Johnny would chicken out before doing what those guys do.)

Note: James Rosin's book on the series erroneously identifies Chuck Briner as "Chuck Brennan".

Memorable episode. The rooftop acrobatics on the edge of a 500-foot drop are near breath-taking. Reviewer rwint1611 is spot on— those who's-going-to-chicken-out-first sequences are minor masterpieces of staging and editing. There's just no substitute for real urban skyline as gritty backdrop. Then there's Martin Sheen, barely recognizable, doing a bravura turn as the giggly wacko gang leader. This is still early in his and James Caan's careers, but Sheen makes a lasting impression. Too bad he doesn't get higher billing, since he's is really the star. The story's mainly an excuse to get the rooftop acrobatics going. It's something about a girl (Silo) dumping Sheen for reformed Caan, and how social worker (Kamen) tries to smooth it all out. Basically, Todd and Buzz remain onlookers to the unfolding drama. Anyhow, it's the riveting visuals plus a wacko Sheen that lift this entry into the memorable. So catch it if you haven't already.