Where the Retreads Meet the Road

Daniel Cerone is mistaken when he writes that Route 66 “has become entombed beneath interstate freeway, leaving behind an arid landscape of boarded-up roadside cafes and dying gas stations” (“Highway 66 Revisited,” June 6).

Route 66 is still alive with more than 80% of the highway travelable and enjoyed by visitors from around the world. It crosses lands as diverse and dynamic as any in the country and offers a close-up of America. You can still get a meal at the Cozy Drive-In in Springfield, Ill., Barney’s Beanery in Hollywood or numerous cafes in between. Lucille Hamons will sell you gasoline in Oklahoma, as she has for more than 50 years.

Route 66 has not only survived but continues to attract interest. Annual celebrations take place in Flagstaff, Ariz., Santa Monica and other towns and cities along the famous highway. Associations and preservation groups exist in all eight states. It has inspired several books and a variety of related products.

I look forward to viewing the new television series and to my next trip down the two-lane. After 66 years, Route 66 is alive and kicking.

DAN HARLOW

Orange

Harlow is past president of the California Historic Route 66 Assn. and a partner in Route 66 Clothing and Goods, Santa Ana.

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The gods must be smiling upon me! Now that NBC is bringing back “Route 66,” it may give me a chance to sell my idea for “The New Adventures of Mister Ed”:

After losing his series, Ed finds himself a has-been at age 11. He turns to drink and drugs and enters the degrading world of animal pornography. When he hits bottom doing infomercials for mane-restoration spray, Ed discovers the Equine Survivors of Saddle Abuse.

Through therapy Ed realizes that he is a filly trapped in a stallion’s body. The heroic horse comes “out of the stable” and professes his love for Wilbur Post. Wilbur is equally enamored of Ed and they ride off into the sunset, hand in hoof, to discover America and its people.

I am hoping to submit this to the Fox network since it is named after an animal--and as you know, Mister Ed is a horse of course, of course.

BILL TURNER

Los Angeles

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I was hoping for a good year, but I am, er, tired of retreads! What’s next? Let’s skip ahead:

New series : “Route 666,” starring James Wilder as Butt-head Murdock and Dan Cortese as the Beavis, an interactive game show-drama about two contestants who watch their own adventures in “Route 66” reruns on a TV left by Martin Milner, who takes back the Corvette, drives to a library and is never heard from again.

Join in the hilarity as the boys trade twitticisms, battling for the remote and trying to make sense of the plot despite switching channels every seven seconds. The twist? The same show is on every channel!

The action climaxes when an angry studio audience mobs the set, exacting revenge when they give “Comet” Cortese a headache by tightening the knots in his bandanna, and creating a midseason spinoff: “The Mob Squad.”

RICK HAFFEY

Redondo Beach