Route 66 Where Are the Sounds of Celli Brahms? (1960–1964) Online

The light-hearted tone of this episode recalls the Season 3 Classic, "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing." This time it's a duo of actors people probably didn't expect to see together again -- Horace MacMahon and Harry Bellaver. Naked City had ended its run the previous May and here were those trusty cops transferred from NYC's 65th Precinct to the Upper Midwest.

The opening is great - the grouchy PR Director (Bellaver) for the Miss Downtown Minneapolis beauty contest stops several cars crossing a bridge into the city to select the millionth car. Surprise -- the Corvette is the lucky winner visiting this year's Aquatennial (a real Minneapolis festival first held in 1940.) Linc's driving so he gets honored with the job of judge at the beauty contest.

One reason why the harassed PR man is so grumpy (as he tells Linc in a later scene) is that he never expected to be in publicity; he always wanted to be a cop. Linc tells him that's funny, he looks just like a cop and asks if he hasn't seen him before - a bit of dialog that will slip by anybody who's never seen Naked City (like me until I discovered it on ME TV a couple of months ago. Route 66 and The Untouchables I remember from elementary school days but I must have left Naked City to the grownups.)

Todd sleeps through the whole meeting on the bridge. When the guys arrive at the Sheraton-Ritz Todd has to be ready to work for acoustic engineer Tammy Grimes (obsessed, zany, and gorgeous in Chanel-like suits). She's trying to convince the President (the marvelously dour MacMahon) of an acoustical engineering firm looking for a new Vice President for his company that she's his woman.

Now they are suddenly in Minneapolis where Tod will have a job in a ritzy hotel while Linc will be stuck operating a jackhammer for a street repair gang. Why couldn't they swing a cushier job for Linc? No matter. He's driving when they enter the city and are stopped because he Linc is the millionth driver to cross a bridge during the city's 'Aquatennial' , a real celebration begun on the 100th anniversary of the city in 1956 and called "Aqua" to celebrate the many bodies of water nearby. The millionth driver automatically becomes a judge in the beauty contest that's part of the celebration. Linc falls for one of the plainer contestants and figures she could use the win to gain some confidence and have a high point in her life. But should he be influenced by that?

Tod's first assignment is to assist Tammy Grimes as an acoustical engineer hired by the head of the hotel to lower the level of noise in the hotel, which has long been a pet peeve to the head man. This story becomes another in the long line of career-orient females on the show who are unhappy because of their lack of a love-life. Tod, while getting worn out by the pace of her work, wears her down emotionally until she rebels and runs about making noise in every way she can, winding up in jail.

Both stories are light-weight and this episode consequently would not be memorable expect for the fact that Producers Herbert Leonard and Stirling Silliphant hired Horace McMahon and Harry Bellaver of their recently canceled other series, NAKED CITY, to play the hotel head and the publicity guy who handles Linc for the pageant. I also have the entire run of that series and it was good to see those two again. Linc even suggests to Bellaver that he looks like a cop and hasn't he seen him in New York City? Why didn't they ever do a cross-over episode? Todd and Buz were from New York City. Wouldn't they have come back to visit their old stomping grounds?