Stirling Silliphant's pilot for "Route 66" takes place in the "Naked City", in an engrossing episode with some surprises. I was thrilled to see Irene Dailey in a leading role, having become an instant fan of hers some 50-plus years ago when I saw her starring, tough as nails, in Robert Aldrich's "The Grissom Gang".
She gets to tone it down here for some sentimentality as George Maharis's mom, anxious to welcome him home from the Army after a stint posted in Japan. SS has concocted a multi-faceted story about George's kid sister, wonderfully played by Rochelle Oliver (whose TV career unfortunately fizzled), who turns out to be a shoplifter. Franciscus arrests her and George is unsuccessful in trying some tough love on her to save her from the hoose-gow.
The "Route 66" angle has him partnered with pal from the army Robert Morris (who died before his role in "Route 66" was shot, replaced by Martin Milner, and the rest is history). They find Oliver's boss, surprisingly played as a real bad guy by Frank Sutton (later comedy was his niche), and Maharis quickly launches into his patented "Route 66" gimmick of starting a fist fight every week. The bittersweet ending is terrific, setting in motion the wanderlust "finding oneself" premise for Silliphant's "Route 66".
It is interesting to note that Robert Morris' character is named Lincoln, while Maharis's replacement on "Route 66" after he quit that series was Glenn Corbett portraying Linc, also an ex-soldier. The Morris/Maharis chemistry in "Naked City" this one time is terrific and would have been a quite different combination had Morris survived for "66" compared to the Maharis/Milner team.