A Wonderful Introduction to Route 66

James Rosin is author of Route 66: The Television Series (buy the book on his Website for $21.95, which is linked here; avoid Amazon.com, where used copies run for anywhere from $131 to $210!!!). In August 2009, he gave a wonderful talk to the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention about Route 66.

I'm posting both parts of his talk here, because it provides essential background information to the TV show. Newcomers and hardcore fans alike will learn a lot from watching these videos. His talk focuses on the history of Route 66 - how the show came to be, how it was cast, et cetera.

Unfortunately, the talk seems to get cut a bit short in Part 2. This is too bad, because it gets cut off where Rosin is talking about George Maharis leaving the show. Among fans of the show, there is some debate and discussion about why Maharis left the show and Rosin's history is so interesting that I was bummed out his talk got cut short.

Still, these videos are must-sees for the show's fans.

Even though Rosin has written a very useful guidebook to Route 66, his perspective and focus may differ slightly from mine in some areas, and my Blog will hopefully bring out some insights that are not in his book.

Still, I have tremendous respect for his take on Route 66. Like me, Rosin is a big fan of the show, and - also like me - he watched it growing up (although he watched it when it was originally on the air and I didn't).

Please buy his book, if you get a chance, because it's an ideal companion piece to the recently released series on DVD.