User Reviews

Academy Award winning actor Rod Steiger guests in "Welcome to the Wedding" the eighth episode in season three of Route 66. Mr. Steiger's talents are not wasted as it is one of the darkest and most dramatic episodes in the entire series.

Portraying character Justin Lezama, a twice convicted murder, Steiger brings true menace to the part of a desperate convict seeking freedom in hopes he may, for once, feel something - anything. Lezama is demented having absolutely no conscience or emotions. He manipulates a transfer where he has a layover in Cleveland's central train station. Tod becomes a hapless victim/hostage as he is approached by the officer transporting Lezama, played by Ed Asner, to retrieve the prisoner's brother for a kind of humanitarian meeting during the layover. The ensuing hour, or so, is fraught with tension created by Steiger's truly cold and detached performance.

This is one of the better episodes of Route 66's crime based drama type vignettes directed by seasoned TV and film director George Sherman. Milner is in most every scene, but it is Steiger's performance, portraying what he calls a "monster", that shines (Maharris is along, but is seen sparingly). A must see episode.

Zap! We're back in the series old favorite venue, Cleveland, where Buz and Tod are attending a wedding. The maid of honor missed her train and Tod agrees to wait for her at the train station while the wedding waits for her to arrive. Overhearing this discussion is Ed Asner, (making his fourth appearance on the show and his second straight fatal one- he's also gotten killed twice on the same producer's "Naked City"), who is a police officer taking the dangerous convict Rod Steiger to a different prison. He's doing this alone, with Steiger handcuffed to him, (the way Richard Kimble would be handcuffed to Lt. Gerard a year later). Steiger wants his brother to come see him while they are waiting for their train and has convinced the dubious Asner that that is a good thing to do. But Asner is concerned that if they call the "brothers" number someone may come to spring Steiger, not the brother. He wants somebody to go to the brother's address and make sure that the person there actually is the brother, (using some ID info he's given) and bring him to the train station if he really is the brother. Tod at first wants no part of it until Steiger gives him a lecture on caring. Tod then agrees to go to the brother's address while he waiting for the maid of honor's train to come in, (he has 3 hours to kill).

The great problem of a road show like this is implant the hero(s) into the personal stories of the people they encounter. This surely has to be the most awkward way of doing this in the history of the show. Why not simply have Asner call the brother and Tod becomes the nearest potential hostage for Steiger after the shoot-out?

But it turns out to be a memorable show anyway. The 'brother' brings two guns with him, (unbeknowest to the naive Tod) and whips them out when he gets there, giving one to Steiger. In the resulting shoot- out, Asner is killed and the 'brother' is wounded. Steiger coldly finishes him off, then explains he has no brother. This guy was just an employee who played along with the scheme in order to get a share of some hidden money which Steiger will now not have to share. He now uses Tod as a hostage and chauffeur, making this the book-end episode to "Aren't You Surprised to See Me?", where David Wayne made Buz taking him around Dallas at gunpoint. Steiger even decides he wants to attend the wedding. Having been in jail since the age of 17, he's never been to a wedding. He's not a very welcome guest, telling the bride that death is inevitable. When he leaves with Tod, Buz wonders why and takes down their license plate, (they are in the brother/employee's car), resulting in a final confrontation with the police where Steiger basically invites them to kill him.

Steiger's performance, as strong a one as he's ever given, including all his movies, makes this episode. He plays a man who is calm but ruthless. He has no normal human feelings and knows it. He wants to feel something. He's always thought that getting out of prison into the outside world would be the answer but isn't and, per a note he left, that's the reason he decides on "suicide by cop". This is one of only three appearances on episodic TV for an actor famous for his movie performances, (he was in a Wagon Train- they also have a number of other appearances by movie types- and a Ben Casey). The role must have had a special appeal for him and he certainly makes a meal of it. Acting is reacting, they say and Martin Milner does a great job of playing his victim, defiant but wary, with no attempts at nervous humor and nothing to distract the audience's attention away from Steiger's powerful performance.