Route 66 - 3rd Season Release Takes a Longer Road; New Producer's Picks DVD for February Instead **UPDATED**

A few weeks ago, we reported that Roxbury Entertainment and distributor Infinity Entertaiment would release the 3rd Season of Route 66 on February 10th, according to a pre-order listing at Amazon. Since then the title has been changed there to show that it's actually "Season 3, Volume 1", indicating that Infinity is returning to their old system of half-season sets for this program (after switching to full-season sets for a Season 1 reissue and for Season 2).

Also, weirdly enough, Amazon added a 2nd pre-order listing for the same title, showing a new June 23rd release date for Route 66 - Season 3, Volume 1. That turns out to be the accurate date, we've been advises, and so we suggest that readers may want to move any pre-orders they made with the previous Amazon listing (above) to this new one. Customers should check directly with Amazon to be sure about what needs to happen with that.

Roxbury/Infinity still intends to go back to the well and bring another "R66" title out on February 10th, however: Route 66 - Producer's Picks will be a 2-DVD collection of 11 episodes, running approx. 560 minutes, that will cost $19.98 SRP. The studio has sent over all the details, which we have in their description below. At the bottom is both front and rear cover art for the Producer's Picks release:


[UPDATE: One of our readers, Chris Damon, wrote in to let us know that this upcoming Producer's Picks title seems to actually be a re-run of Roxbury's first-ever official DVD release of this program, prior to their distribution deal with Infinity. Chris notes that the 11 episodes on this release is identical to Route 66 - The Best of: Eleven Original Television Episodes. This now-discontinued release has a 2005 date on the cover art, Chris tells us, and notes that anyone who was lucky enough to get a copy of this old title has no need to purchase this new Producer's Picks re-release. Our thanks to him for the heads-up!]

Shift the new year into high gear with the ultimate road trip-right in your living room! Featuring 11 star-studded episodes from one of television's most pivotal classic dramas, Route 66: Producer's Picks revs onto DVD Feb. 10 from Infinity Entertainment Group.

Appearing in the Route 66 producer's pick of 11 favorite episodes are: Alan Alda, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Lorre, Suzanne Pleshette, James Caan, Stefanie Powers, Robert Duvall, Walter Matthau, Martin Sheen, Ronny Howard, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Redford and Tom Bosley, among others.

Included are the episodes: Play It Glissando (Jack Lord, Barbara Bostock), Eleven, the Hard Way (Walter Matthau), First Class Mouliak (Robert Redford, Martin Balsam), The Strengthening Angels (Suzanne Pleshette, Harry Townes), Birdcage on My Foot (Robert Duvall, Diana Millay), And the Cat Jumped Over the Moon (James Caan, Martin Sheen), You Never Had it so Good (Peter Graves, Patricia Barry), Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing (Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney, Jr.), Poor Little Kangaroo Rat (Leslie Nielsen, Ronny Howard), Soda Pop and Paper Flags (Alan Alda, Tom Bosley, Joseph Campanella) and A Cage in Search of a Bird (Stefanie Powers, Dan Duryea).

Route 66: Producer's Picks are digitally remastered from 35mm with the original aspect ratio of 4:3 (1.33:1) to preserve the program as closely as possible while maximizing picture and audio quality.