When Tod’s father dies of a heart attack, the story line goes, Tod was left with his new Corvette and a failed business. Buz, who didn’t have an easy life, worked for Tod’s dad, who owned a shipping business in New York. But how did he get it?Īccording to the story line about the characters, Tod, the clean-cut college kid, was given a new Corvette by his father. If you see who’s driving the Corvette in every scene, you can figure out that it’s Tod’s car. Photo Credit:, 1962 Corvette in Fawn Beige The Corvette used in later episodes of filming. How did two drifters get their hands on a fancy Corvette? Afterward, the color was Fawn Beige, and finally Saddle Tan on the last Corvette in the show. The color for the pilot and early episodes was most likely Horizon Blue. Here’s what George Maharis (Buz) said: “It was light blue in the pilot and early episodes, and then it was beige for the run of the series….When they used the beige Corvette, that color absorbed more light and cast less reflection.” It had to work with the film crew’s lighting scheme.

There never was a red Corvette in the show…and there was a reason.īecause the show was in black and white, and to light the scenes properly when the guys were in the car, the Corvette’s color had to be neutral and not reflect too much light. Still, most people assume (and want to believe) that the car Tod and Buz cruised in was a Roman Red Corvette convertible. The show was never filmed in color, so no one ever saw a red Corvette on Route 66. *The original* sky blue Route 66 Corvette, the perfect shade of gray for TV

And even though the show is part of a long-ago era, you might still know a lot about their ride. Here are some facts about that third star of the show. In fact, the year the show debuted was the first year that Corvette sales topped 10,000 units. There were three main characters in the show: Buz Murdock, played by George Maharis, Tod Stiles, played by Martin Milner (later of Adam 12 fame), and the “third character,” as executive producer Herb Leonard and writer Sterling Silliphant referred to it, was the very fancy sports car they drove around in every episode. While some people were tuning in to the family comedies, detective shows or westerns of the day, there were kids, high-schoolers and college students tuned watching Route 66 on Friday nights, a show about two young guys in their 20s, setting out in their Corvette convertible to discover the world and themselves. Route 66 TV Theme Song: One chill, jazzy intro – we kinda want to play it on repeat.īut for all Corvette fans-especially those who love the classic Corvettes of the early 1960s-there’s nothing cooler than knowing the Corvette was on TV every Friday night.

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