Route 66 jumps the shark with this tedious gimmick episode, significantly the first to OMIT entirely the iconic Corvette: Milner is accidentally slipped a mickey at a party and gives the viewers a preview of those Acid Trip psychedelic adventures so commonly filmed in the late '60s. It throws out the whole point of the series.
Most disturbing to me was not the holey camera angles, zooms and other schtick to simulate hallucinations, but the quick summoning of the cops by Doctor Murray Hamilton, who's been experimenting on this psycotropic drug; As we all know too well now, the cops shoot first and instead of questions stage a coverup later when dealing with innocent folks who are behaving crazily -though white bread Milner is in far less danger than a minority victim. However, on this show the cops only want to help him, treating Marty with kid gloves.
The one and only Sylvia Miles provides some sexploitation here as a piano player at a tiny cocktail lounge (with Al Lewis ever-smiling as the put-upon bartender) while Milner's one-man show drones on. I couldn't wait for Maharis to get the chance to also overact in a pretentious suicde-prevention climax and put me out of my viewing misery.
The show has none of the series' virtues: no human interest drama, no exposure of M & M to a weekly dose of a new bit of Americana and some unseen subculture thrust into the spotlight. A good old exploitation movie is fun to watch, but not this slumming edition of the usually highbrow Route 66.