Buz Murdock was a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 portrayed by actor George Maharis

George Maharis

George Maharis is an American actor who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series Route 66...

 on the 1960’s American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 prime-time dramatic television series Route 66

Route 66 (TV series)

Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...

. Buz was one of three main regular characters on the program, and his tenure lasted for two and a half of the program’s four seasons. It ended with Maharis’ departure from the show. All told, Buz appeared in 71 of the 116 original episodes.

Character history

Although Buz’s actual birth date is unknown, it was sometime around September 1937. He spent his early childhood in an orphanage, the St. Francis Home for Foundlings. Later, he grew up in the Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan

Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....

 section of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Buz’s troubled early youth led to his involvement in juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...

 and street gangs. However, Buz was eventually able to escape this life due to the intervention of two individuals. One was a dedicated social worker named Chuck Brennan. The other was a shipping company owner named Lee Stiles who gave Buz a job on one of his barges. Buz became close friends with his employer's Ivy League

Ivy League

The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

 son Tod

Tod Stiles

Tod Stiles was a fictional character portrayed by actor Martin Milner on the 1960’s American prime-time dramatic television series Route 66. Tod was one of three main regular characters on the program, and the only one to appear in all 116 episodes of the show's four seasons.-Character history:Tod...

 (portrayed by Martin Milner

Martin Milner

Martin Sam Milner is an American actor best known for his performances in two popular television series, Adam-12 and Route 66....

), who worked under Buz's supervision on a barge each summer. Following the death of the elder Stiles in 1960, it was revealed that he was bankrupt. Virtually his sole legacy to Tod was a brand new Chevrolet Corvette

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors that has been produced in six generations. The first model, a convertible, was designed by Harley Earl and introduced at the GM Motorama in 1953 as a concept show car. Myron Scott is credited for naming the car after...

. Buz and Tod then teamed up to seek their fortune, traveling throughout America and taking various odd jobs.

Some conflicting information is given over the course of the series concerning the circumstances surrounding Buz’s origin. In “The Mud Nest” he was said to have been left on the doorstep of an orphanage and to have never known who his real parents were. In that episode, he goes on a quest for his mother on the assumption that she is still alive. However, in an earlier episode, the previous season’s “Like a Motherless Child”, Buz stated that he knew for a fact that both his parents were dead.

After two years of adventuring with Tod, Buz briefly became ill with an unspecified malady. He missed the final four episodes of the second season. And, although he returned for the premiere of season three, after only a handful of episodes Buz would become ill and disappear from the show again, this time never to return. During the period of Buz’s absence, Tod travelled and had adventures on his own. He can often be seen in some of these episodes writing letters to and having one-way phone conversations with an unseen Buz who is said to be hospitalized. George Maharis continued to receive on-screen credit for these episodes although Buz does not appear in them. The last episode to feature Buz Murdock was “A Gift For a Warrior”, which originally aired on January 18, 1963 (although it was probably filmed much earlier in the season in relation to the order in which the episodes aired, the last full episode Maharis actually completed filming was "Hey Moth, Come Eat the Flame.") After this episode, the character of Buz Murdock was never so much as mentioned in the series again. Eventually the role of Tod's sidekick was taken up by the character of Lincoln Case

Lincoln Case

Lincoln Case was a fictional character portrayed by actor Glenn Corbett on the 1960s American prime-time drama Route 66. Linc was one of three main regular characters on the program. His tenure began midway through the show's third season, when he was written in as a replacement for the departed...

 (Glenn Corbett

Glenn Corbett

Glenn Corbett was an American actor best known for his role on CBS's adventure drama Route 66.-Acting career:...

), who finished out the remainder of the series.

In the short-lived sequel series to Route 66 which aired for just four episodes during the summer of 1993, Buz Murdock is established as the illegitimate father of the character Nick Lewis (portrayed by actor James Wilder). The premise of the more recent series is that Buz willed the car to Nick following Buz's death. However, this is inconsistent with the fact that it was Tod, not Buz, who was the owner of the car and that the two had parted ways long before the conclusion of the original series. Furthermore, many fans of the original series felt that it would have been grossly out of character for Buz as portrayed therein to knowingly abandon a son he had fathered, especially considering the trauma of Buz's own background as an orphan.

Personality Traits

Dark-featured Buz has a soft, handsome face which belies a fiery, intense nature and a rabid zest for life. Although he lacks the Ivy League

Ivy League

The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

 education of his close friend Tod, he is capable of being just as articulate, witty and intelligent. Despite his refinement, Buz is not above reverting to his rough past and using his fists when the occasion calls for it - and very rarely does he come out on the losing end of a scrap. He is a music aficionado with a particular taste for jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, as well as a fan of old-time movies with an encyclopedic knowledge. One of Buz’s most renowned characteristics that he displays during the course of the series is his penchant for going on inspired, poetic rants filled with righteous anger against people and situations that he feels are wrong or unjust. He displays just as much an eye for the ladies as his friend Tod. And while he doesn’t quite share Tod’s penchant for serious romances, he has had a few of those on occasion himself.

External links

• George Maharis IMDB page
• Route 66 (1960) episode list on epguides.com
• Route 66 (1993) episode list on epguides.com
• The Martin Milner Archives - fan site, with text of numerous articles about the series
• http://www.tviv.org/Route_66 - Route 66 on the TV-IV wiki