Take a few seconds to watch this clip below. It’ll look familiar, then you’ll see something you won’t expect:
OK … so roadies probably know that Dan Cortese and James Wilder co-starred in a short-lived television remake of “Route 66” in 1993. But those two aren’t Cortese or Wilder.
The description of the clip provides an explanation:
This Propaganda Films/Columbia Pictures Television remake of the Route 66 series of decades earlier originally starred Brent David Fraser, Andrew Lowery and Jennifer Rubin was written by Harley Peyton (Twin Peaks, Moon Ovewr Miami, Thomas Crown Affair 2) Directed by Michael Lehmann (Heathers, True Blood, Californication”. Two mismatched travelers on the open road. The original 1960 series starred Martin Milner, George Maharis and Glenn Corbett. This was filmed as a “Pilot Presentation” and was later remade again with Dan Cortese and James Wilder.
Fraser (the one with the long, dark hair) himself posted the excerpts from the “Route 66” remake. He said through his Twitter account that the pilot was filmed about 1992 (and the background music by Chris Whitley and Social Distortion fits). Fraser boasts dozens of television and movie credits, and he’s also a musician.
Here are a few more clips from that pilot episode, roughly in chronological order:
Fraser told me by Twitter that the pilot never aired. So you are seeing it for the first time.
“(The producer) liked the show but wanted bigger names,” Fraser wrote, “who at the time were dan cortese & james wilder. theirs aired & bombed.”
UPDATE: Fraser later said the pilot was 22 minutes long and also starred Rick Aiello.
brent david fraser (me) is playing the son of one of the original cast, george maharis i think. in the story, he left the corvette to me when he died.
-brent
The pilot’s dialogue is junk. The difference in quality between the original show and the pilot mirrors the general decline in quality in all the arts.