Route 66 (TV Series) Like a Motherless Child (1961) User Reviews

I didn't understand Todd's motives

[Christopher370 · 9/10 · 18 October 2023]

I've been watching these Route 66 episodes in order from the beginning and this episode was the first one that I really enjoyed. (Granted i'm a hard to please viewer!) I understood Buzz's angry feelings when Todd took the boy back to the orphanage but logically and legally it was something that had to be done. Even though I sided with Todd in the situation, because of Buzz's personal experience growing up in an orphanage I understood why he took his bags and went his own way afterwards.

After getting a job, he meets his trailer neighbor Hannah, a lonely, sad middle aged woman who gave up her son many years ago. Buzz is roughly the same age as her son would be and is a reminder of her loss. They quickly develop an interesting bond and I thought the scenes between the two of them were the best of the episode. I never heard of Sylvia Sidney before, but I really enjoyed her performance here as Hannah and now want to see her other stuff.

Todd arrives on the scene securing himself a job at the same place as Buzz. He and Buzz are still on the outs but are now tentatively communicating. Todd watches Buzz and Hannah and this is where I get confused. It appeared that Todd didn't approve of Buzz being around Hannah, because when he first came across her on his way to Buzz's trailer the evening before, I guess he realized she's a lady of the evening or at the very least, a loose woman.

I'm only assuming this because the meeting between Todd and Hannah was so brief and all she did was be a little rude to him in passing, but I guess her outfit and the way she talked and moved relayed to him what she was.

But still, I didn't understand why Todd seemed so concerned by that, or the friendship between Buzz and Hannah. There's a scene where he watches them like a hawk, but we aren't privy to what he's thinking. They were just friends as Buzz told him and Todd had no idea what their developing bond was even about, so what was his problem with it? Why did it apparently bother him enough to do what he eventually did?

Was Todd threatened by Buzz's budding friendship with someone else since they were still on the outs from their orphanage fight? Did he feel jealous? It's never really made clear just what motivated Todd to do what he did and I just think it was such a low and nasty thing to do.

He doesn't just tell Buzz that he suspects she's a "lady of the evening" (and even that's not made 100% clear in the episode so he's really still assuming) He has to actually take Buzz to the roadhouse where she apparently gets her customers, and shoves it right in his face with no prior warning, embarrassing the two of them in the process. How low can you be to do something like that to a friend? Buzz of course is hurt, but not by what Hannah is, but what Todd did to him and they fight it out in the parking lot....and then....they make up?! What?! You'd think something like this would tear them further apart.

It appears the message here is that Hannah being a lady of the evening, or loose woman was unworthy of Buzz's friendship and Todd the savior pulls Buzz safely back from her wanton clutches. I realize it was 1961 and these were the very conservative mores of society back then, but it's so archaic and silly watching it through 21st century eyes. I mean, so what if that's what she was? How on earth does that affect Buzz's platonic friendship with her? Or threatens Todd in any way? It's so weird.

I felt incredibly sad for Hannah afterwards because she was a really lovely woman under that hard, bitter exterior and Buzz empathized with that and felt she was worthy of his friendship...which she was.

Why Todd felt she wasn't worthy makes me think much less of his character now which is ironic because up till this point it was Buzz who usually got on my nerves with his annoying sarcasm and tendency to provoke fist fights with people all the time. Till now, I always felt Todd was the level headed one of the two.

But here I was now liking Buzz and not Todd anymore because I think he had no right to interfere in a relationship that he knew nothing about, and it really wasn't his place to do what he did at the roadhouse. And not only that, it was just downright mean.

I only wish it had a better ending and Buzz was able to say a proper goodbye to his friend because she deserved it and I wish Hannah had opened the door when Buzz knocked on her trailer before leaving, but I guess she was too embarrassed and ashamed to face him. It only made me even more angry at Todd for ruining that friendship the way he did out of his own jealousy or insecurity or whatever the heck his motivation was.

Was hurting and embarrassing both Hannah and Buzz like that really worth it just to get him away from her?

I liked the final scene where Buzz left the plant at her trailer before leaving. Even though she couldn't face him, the affectionate gesture let's her know that she was still considered a friend of his and I was glad for that. Shame on Todd though for metaphorically taking a knife and selfishly slicing through a very touching connection that was made between two lonely souls. He had no right to do that.

One of the Best

[dougdoepke · 9 July 2014]

Strong entry, from the exceptional acting to the rural poverty to the scenic mountain backdrops. Buzz and Todd split up because of Todd's insistence on returning an escaping orphan boy back to the orphanage. Instead Buzz has flashbacks to his own time as an orphan and strongly disapproves. So an angry Buzz takes his bulky suitcase and splits, with the rest of the hour getting them back together. And get a load of that god-forsaken highway where the guys pick up the orphan. No studio sets here. In fact, the producers do an excellent job of integrating the Nevada countryside into the story as a whole, from the aged orphanage to the seedy town to the tacky roadhouse. The cowboy atmosphere is about as authentic as any TV show of the time.

The entry is also distinguished by that fine actress from the 1930's, Sylvia Sidney. Here she essays poignantly a middle-age "experienced" woman stuck in the thankless job of keeping traveling showgirls in line. Her scenes with the equally poignant Buzz are little gems of unusual TV quality. Then too, the ending couldn't be more sensitively appropriate. If the episode has a flaw, it's not giving that colorful cowboy Ben Johnson more screen time. All in all, the 60-minutes is really a Sidney-Maharis showcase, along with the 1960's Nevada countryside, adding up to one of the series' strongest entries.

In the Top Three

[robwoodford-83390 · 10/10 · 12 August 2018]

This is near the top of the best episodes of the entire series. The topic is relevant, and the show remains fresh. This is of the few times Todd and Buz *completely* disagree, and both are right. "Like a Motherless Child" is some of the best work Martin Milner and George Maharis did together, while mostly acting separately. There are also notable performances by veteran actors Jack Weston and, especially, Sylvia Sidney. If you want to watch the series for its drama and start somewhere great, "Like a Motherless Child" is the perfect place.

Excellent acting, pacing, and ending.

[ronaldlevao · 10/10 · 21 November 2020]

Sylvia Sidney is a revelation--what a first-rate actor can do on a TV screen. (The whole cast is fine, but her melancholy, slightly drunk and inconsistent monologue, almost maudlin but ending in authentic regret, is a true highlight.) The show that probably bored me when I was 14 but now its sensitivity, even its emotional parking-lot fist fight, are stand outs. I agree with one reviewer: more Ben Johnson, and more cowboy ambiance, would have been welcome, but there was nothing to cut. Unlike several of the episodes, there was no padding to stretch out the hour. I'm relieved there was no "happy ending" to sell more motor oil or Ipana!

3/17/61: "Like a Motherless Child"

[schappe1 · 15 April 2015]

This is a very personal episode for Tod and Buz. It even results in their temporarily splitting up. They are driving along in good spirits when they encounter a child walking along an open road. They pick him up, intending to return him to his parents. At first they have some good-natured fun with him in the car. But things get deadly serious when they find that he escaped from an orphanage. Buz came from an orphanage and it was not a good place to be. He refuses to be a party to returning the child to his orphanage. Tod feels they have a responsibility to return him. No matter how bad it is, it's better than the kid being out on his own, (he seems to be about 10 and they picked him up in the desert). Strangely, Tod never asks Buz what his alternative plan would be. Instead they just argue angrily and Buz gets out of the car and leaves, hitch-hiking down the road.

Then the main story commences. Buz gets a job at a livestock auction and rents a small trailer next to that of the head of a group of showgirls, played by Sylvia Sydney. They strike up a friendship. And he becomes concerned with her emotional well-being, especially since the owner of the troupe, played by Jack Weston, is cruel to her. Meanwhile Tod gets a job at the same auction, (it's the only source of employment in the town), and tries to make-up with Buz. Tod finds out where Sylvia and the girls are working. It's presented in a mild fashion this being 1961 television. But it's obviously a dive where their primary product is sex appeal. Tod, with the morality of the times, decides that means that Sylvia is bad news for Buz and takes him to see the place, where Sylvia is entertaining patrons at the bar. Buz is repulsed by this but even moreso by Tod and they have a fight in the parking lot that ends with mutual exhaustion and a reconciliation. But Buz doesn't give up on Sylvia, breaking her down gently until she confesses that she's haunted by the fact that she gave up her only child year ago and has never had the opportunity to be a mother. This anticipates the ending of my favorite episode of the series, "The Mudnest" from Season 2.

James Rosin's book says that "Before leaving with Tod, Buz is pleased to find that Martin, (the boy they found), has found happiness at the orphanage." There's no scene depicting this in the episode on my DVD. It would have been a nice ending.

Superb TV drama

[lor_ · 31 October 2023]

This is a pivotal episode for "Route 66", as the series returns to its original premise of the boys on the road meeting and interacting with local examples of diverse Americana, this time ending up working at a cattle auction house in Fallon, Nevada, after more recently being in California.

It marks the first rift between Maharis and Milner, which causes their partnership to break up, as they violently disagree concerning the fate of a runaway boy picked up hitchhiking, but returned to his orphanage by Milner. Series story supervisor Howard Rodman's script deftly integrates a second story, with screen legend Sylvia Sidney wonderful as leader of a touring bus full of chorus girls, run tyrannically by a cast-against -type Jack Weston (!) who bonds with Maharis.

It's an emotionally dramatic experience, set solidly in what would become a couple generations later Taylor Sheridan TV country, and with an uncompromising ending that is memorable in itself.

Definitely a must in terms of bringing M & M to center stage after their winning roles as activists/observers on their Kerouac like trek across the country.