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The Best Episodes of Route 66 Season 1

Every episode of Route 66 Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Route 66 Season 1!

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Route 66 Season 1 Episode 28 - The Opponent
    8.1/10(127 votes)

    S1:E28

    A has-been boxer Johnny Copa is now throwing fights. Johnny trains Buz in boxing. Filming Location: Youngstown, Ohio

    Director:David Lowell Rich
    Writers:Leonard Freeman, Stirling Silliphant

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  2. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 30 - Incident on a Bridge
    8.1/10(125 votes)

    S1:E30

    Buz and Tod go to work for Volovich and live at his house. Two other boarders are courting Volovich's mute daughter. Filming Location: Cleveland, Ohio

    Director:David Lowell Rich
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  3. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 20 - Like a Motherless Child
    8.0/10(142 votes)

    S1:E20

    Tod and Buz pick up a small boy who has run away from an orphanage. Tod wants to return the boy but Buz, who has bad memories of an orphanage, refuses. The boys also get involved with showgirls. Filming Location: Reno, Fallon, and Carson City, Nevada

    Director:David Lowell Rich
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 23 - Most Vanquished, Most Victorious
    8.0/10(124 votes)

    S1:E23

    Tod's aunt Kitty asks Tod to find her daughter Carole. The boys find that she was living in a Los Angeles slum and has been killed. Filming Location: Los Angeles, California

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  5. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 29 - Welcome to Amity
    8.0/10(142 votes)

    S1:E29

    Joan Maslow wants to bury her mother in the cemetery outside of Amity. The entire community is determined to stop her. Filming Location: Amity, Ohio

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 22 - Eleven, the Hard Way
    7.9/10(124 votes)

    S1:E22

    The gown of Broken Knee hand their money over to famous gambler Sam Keep to gamble it in Reno. Filming Location: Reno and Broken Knee, Nevada

    Director:William A. Graham
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  7. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 17 - Fly Away Home (2)
    7.8/10(118 votes)

    S1:E17

    A farmer wants his crops dusted with sulfur, which is very dangerous to the pilots. However, the risk means more money to for the crop-dusting company. Filming Location: Phoenix, Arizona

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  8. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 24 - Dont Count Stars
    7.8/10(123 votes)

    S1:E24

    Tod and Buz meet a hotel owner Mike, who drinks and gambles. Mike is the guardian for his niece Linda, a little girl. Linda's executor wants to remove the child from her uncle, and she asks Tod and Buz for help. Filming Location: San Diego, Sands Hotel, California

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  9. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 26 - A Skill for Hunting
    7.8/10(116 votes)

    S1:E26

    Tod stops a poacher Hump Humphrey from killing a deer. Hump then shoots out the tires of Tod's car and later frames the boys for poaching. Filming Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico

    Director:David Lowell Rich
    Writer:Jack Turley

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  10. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 16 - Fly Away Home (1)
    7.7/10(134 votes)

    S1:E16

    Tod goes to work for the Windus Dusting Company as a crop duster. He meets Summers, a pilot. The company is losing money. Filming Location: Phoenix, Arizona

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  11. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 1 - Black November
    7.5/10(342 votes)

    S1:E1

    Tod's father dies leaving Tod the Corvette. Buz worked for Tod's father and the two decide to start driving. The Corvette breaks down in a small Mississippi town with some very nasty residents. The boys discover that the town hosted a POW camp during WW II and that the town boss had an escaped prisoner lynched when his son was killed in action. The boss plans to lynch Tod and Buz to keep the town's secret. Filming Location: Concord, Kentucky

    Director:Philip Leacock
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  12. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 4 - The Man on the Monkey Board
    7.5/10(188 votes)

    S1:E4

    Tod and Buz are working at a Louisana Gulf of Mexico off-shore oil-drilling tower. Lew Ayres plays a Nazi-hunter hunting an escaped Nazi on the drilling rig. Filming Location: Denage and Venice, Louisana

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  13. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 5 - The Strengthening Angels
    7.5/10(180 votes)

    S1:E5

    Tod and Buz give a lift to Lotti Montana, a migrant worker who is going to help pick the peach crop. As they approach the town of Sparrow Falls she begs them to drive through as quickly as possible. They take her to the Coronet Club and the Silver Dollar cafe. Sheriff Hingle keeps her from leaving town. The boys work with a revivalist. Filming Location: Needles, California

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  14. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 6 - Ten Drops of Water
    7.5/10(185 votes)

    S1:E6

    Vergil and Helen Page with their young brother Homer are owners of the family ranch. Fighting a desperate battle against drought they're too proud to accept Tod and Buz's offer to help. Filming Location: Kanab, Utah

    Director:Philip Leacock
    Writer:Howard Rodman

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  15. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 10 - The Beryllium Eater
    7.3/10(139 votes)

    S1:E10

    Jack McConkie makes a find of Beryllium, a rare ore. Mine operator Fred Durant insists that he sell his claim. The old man refuses and is found badly beaten. Filming Location: Eureka, Arizona

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 14 - Play It Glissando
    7.3/10(150 votes)

    S1:E14

    Tod and Buz watch a show at a local night club where trumpeter Gabe Johnson and his group are appearing. While driving away, they witness Jana Johnson, Gabe's wife, crash her car. She tells the boys that Gabe is insanely jealous and tried to kill her. The boys watch over her. Gabe shoots Tod but Tod tells the hospital it was an accident. When Jana goes back with Gabe, the boys realize that Jana will keep returning to Gabe no matter what. Filming Location: Malibu, California

    Director:Lewis Allen
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  17. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 12 - Sheba
    7.2/10(147 votes)

    S1:E12

    Laura Church is paroled from a Texas prison and prepares to take up a new life. Then she discovers that the man assigned as her advisor is none other than Woody Biggs, the rancher who sent her to jail in the first place. The boys work as cowboys. Filming Location: El Paso, Texas

    Director:William F. Claxton
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  18. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 25 - The Newborn
    7.2/10(118 votes)

    S1:E25

    Tod and Buz work on a ranch belonging to Frank Ivy. Frank's son dies leaving an Indian girl Kawna pregnant. Frank and Kawna's relatives fight over the baby. The boys arrange an ""adoption"" of the baby after the mother dies. Filming Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  19. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 13 - The Quick and the Dead
    7.1/10(133 votes)

    S1:E13

    Tod and Buz work at the Riverside race track for the Grand Prix stock-car races. They get involved with a family's problems, including whether the father should continue stock-car racing. Tod drives a racecar. Filming Location: Riverside Racetrack and Mission Inn, Riverside, California

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  20. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 19 - An Absence of Tears
    7.1/10(114 votes)

    S1:E19

    A blind widow listens for the voices of her dead husband's murderers. She asks Tod and Buz to buy her a pistol for self-protection. Filming Location: Hollywood, California

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  21. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 27 - Trap at Cordova
    7.1/10(120 votes)

    S1:E27

    Tod and Buz are kidnapped by New Mexican mountain townspeople who need a teacher. Tod addresses the New Mexico legislature about the culture of the people of Cordova and the need for teachers. Filming Location: Cordova, New Mexico

    Director:Arthur Hiller
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  22. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 3 - The Swan Bed
    7.0/10(176 votes)

    S1:E3

    Tod and Buz arrive in New Orleans during a parrot-fever epidemic. They meet a girl named Carrie Purcell and ask her out for a date. Carrie doesn't have money to afford nice clothes. Filming Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

    Director:Elliot Silverstein
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  23. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 7 - Three Sides
    7.0/10(172 votes)

    S1:E7

    The boys work on a ranch and encounter a rancher's son. Joey dances on a table. Filming Location: Grants Pass, Oregon

    Director:Philip Leacock
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  24. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 8 - Legacy for Lucia
    7.0/10(146 votes)

    S1:E8

    Tod and Buz are working as loggers in Oregon. They meet an Italian girl, Lucia Trapani, who has come from Sicily to buy a new Madonna for her church. She plans to do it by selling her only possessions. Filming Location: Merlin, Oregon

    Director:Philip Leacock
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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  25. Route 66 Season 1 Episode 2 - A Lance of Straw
    6.7/10(191 votes)

    S1:E2

    Shrimp boat captain Charlotte Duval hires Tod and Buz as a crew for her boat. Suitor Jean Boussard gets very jealous of the male crew members. Buz falls in love with the captain. Filming Location: Grand Isle, Louisiana

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Stirling Silliphant

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Season 1 Ratings Summary

"The Opponent" is the best rated episode of Route 66 season 1. It scored 8.1/10 from 127 votes. Directed by David Lowell Rich and written by Leonard Freeman, Stirling Silliphant, it aired on June 2, 1961.