Herbert B. Leonard, a producer of television shows, including the acclaimed “Route 66,” died at the age of 84 on Saturday.

Here’s an obituary from the Los Angeles Times. (No story from the Associated Press yet; the Times must have had a scoop.) The Times had this to say about Leonard and his “Route 66″ connection:

Leonard’s most memorable series is “Route 66,” which ran on CBS from 1960 to 1964.

The show starred Martin Milner as the Yale-educated Tod Stiles and George Maharis as streetwise Buz Murdock: two young men meandering across America in an iconic Corvette. (Maharis was replaced by Glenn Corbett as Linc Case in the final season.)

Like “Naked City,” “Route 66″ was shot on location — in about 40 states — and frequently featured the writing of co-creator Stirling Silliphant.

[…] Leonard told The Times in 1993: “The stories were about something. They had a theme. They had a point. They had a human spirit. The guys were really testing their values against the people they met on the road.”

Here is an overview of Leonard’s career at the IMDB.com site.

Karen Funk Blocher also has done considerable research and interviews with the principals of “Route 66.” You can read these posts on her blog. The “In Fairness to George” entries are particularly illuminating.

Leonard is gone, Corbett died in 1993, and Milner is reportedly in poor health. Maharis, last I heard, was in relatively good shape. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating: Maharis left “Route 66″ under less-than-good terms, but I think it would be fine gesture to invite him to the Route 66 Festival and talk about the show and its legacy. If nothing else, it might serve as a balm to some of Maharis’ lingering bitter memories.

UPDATE: The Associated Press ran an obituary about Leonard on Friday night.

So did UPI.

The New York Times has one, too (free registration required).

This is video of Kari Simmons and Todd Lowry Ensemble, based in Albuquerque. They perform a jazzy version of Bobby Troup’s “Route 66,” and the footage is sprinkled with night images of that town’s Route 66 neon lights. Nice job.

Helped by Brian and Sarah Butko and their 2005 book “Roadside Giants,” USA Today lists the top 10 oversized roadside icons in America.

One of them is the Gemini Giant, which is part of the Launching Pad Drive-In restaurant on Route 66 in Wilmington, Ill.

Also, just a few miles from Route 66 in Inglewood, Calif., there is the giant doughnut above Randy’s Donuts.

The Butkos also inform me that they have another book coming out in May 2007, titled “Roadside Attractions.” You can pre-order it from Amazon.com here.

Here’s a Mother Road tour I didn’t hear about beforehand — the Lancia Club of Italy is touring Route 66 right now.

The Santa Fe New Mexican caught up with the group when it made its stop in New Mexico’s capital.

The Route 66 State Park near Eureka, Mo., is holding an open house from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at the visitors’ center. The park wants public comments and suggestions on how the grounds are run.

Route 66 author Shellee Graham will make a presentation about the defunct Coral Court Motel at 1 p.m. and show the documentary, “Built for Speed: The Coral Court Motel.”

The Independent in Masillon, Ohio, tells about Bill and Flo McKinney, who climbed on the back of a Kawasaki motorcycle and traveled 6,100 miles throughout America, including Route 66.

When they were hungry, they stopped at small retro diners along Route 66. When they were tired, they’d look for the cleanest motel room in town at the lowest price possible. […]

The article doesn’t say where the below encounter took place, but the description makes me certain it was Oatman, Ariz.

Along Route 66, in small, forgotten towns, burros ran wild through the nearly-deserted streets and caught Flo’s heart in the process.

“The burros, they were so cute,” Flo said. “I just wanted to take one home. (Bill) told me there was nowhere to put it, but I thought I could just hold a carrot and it would follow us.”

Also on Route 66, they passed old diners, “Ma and Pa” motels and forgotten little towns. One of those towns, Amboy, Calif., and all of its buildings was recently purchased by an entrepreneur. He is restoring it to the way it would have looked in the 1960s during its heyday, Bill said. […]

After the two weeks she spent traveling the country on her Kawasaki Voyager, Flo can’t wait to hop back on and do it all again.

“It’s an experience, it really is,” Flo said. “If you get the opportunity, do it. Even if it’s just you and your sister.”

In this lengthy interview with The Independent in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., hillbilly swing singer Wayne “The Train” Hancock again professes his love for the Mother Road.

Here are some excerpts:

“My thing is I try to stay off the interstates as much as I can. Each tour, I try to route us almost like a vacation. Going through any interesting spots or anything anybody wants to see, museums, whatnot. I take a lot of back roads so I get those good views.”

You said a few years ago you were taking tents along with you to camp out along the way. Do you still do that?

“Yeah, not tents, but we’d go out to campgrounds and cook steaks and stuff. Sometimes, they have cabins you can rent, or like the Wigwam Motel is a nice one to stay at because they have a grill, you can go out there and barbecue steaks in the summertime. It’s nice in that area out there, just make a vacation out of it. If you don’t do that, man, I would think after a while, if you don’t have a tour bus or something or really good drugs, it would probably drive you right out of your head. […]”

What about the bus don’t you like?

“Everything. I mainly don’t like it because it doesn’t seem to be people-friendly. How many times have you gone to see someone who actually had a tour bus and you went to see ’em after a show, walked right up to their bus and started talking to ’em?”

Kinda hard to get to.

“Yeah, because they’re on a tour bus. There’s other things about buses—you can’t take ’em down roads that aren’t made for buses. Like, I can do state parks. If I’m going south, going down 66, which is a fun drive for me, you can’t go thorough The Painted Desert in your tour bus. Lot of things you can’t do. […]”

I put out a record and I write a song about a town that I like, which is Tulsa. And I don’t want to say, “Take Me Back to Tulsa” [a Bob Wills hit], because that’s not my song. A lot of the old Route 66 runs through there. It’s just one of those towns that’s cool because of the history it’s got. It’s got cool people that live there and it’s a rockin’ town. When I go there, I have a great friggin’ time. I love Tulsa. And when we hit town, it swings hard. And so I was more or less writing about just being on the road.

Last spring, you may have watched a reality show on CMT called “Popularity Contest.” In it, 10 contestants from the big city were plopped down in the Route 66 town of Vega, Texas, to win over residents and vie for a $100,000 prize they would split with one Vega citizen.

The Chicago baseball scout, Alex Slattery, earned the most votes from Vega to become the town’s “newest resident” and take home $50,000. The New Jersey chef and restaurateur, Rory Schepisi, finished second and didn’t win anything.

But in the months since the so-called “reality” series, it’s fascinating to see how real life turns out. Slattery has made few visits to Vega since winning the grand prize. But the runner-up, Schepisi, sold her New Jersey restaurant, moved to Vega in January, has fallen in love with a local, and is building a new restaurant on Route 66.

“Even though I didn’t win the money, I kept my promise” to return to Vega, Rory Schepisi said from Vega in a phone interview. “I speak with a lot of people who would change their votes now.”

Schepisi is building her Boot Hill Saloon & Grill at the southeast corner of Route 66 and U.S. 385 in Vega. The building will have a restaurant on one side and an Old West-style tavern on the other.

She said Boot Hill will serve “American comfort food,” with 16-18 appetizers and entrees such as steak, chicken, pizza, seafood and vegetarian options. There will be a porch on three sides of the building for outdoor dining, and a fireplace. Schepisi said she hopes to open Boot Hill for a New Year’s Eve party, then have the business fully operational in February.

The saloon’s decor will be based on the long-defunct Wild West town of Tascosa, Texas, where Boys Ranch is now. Dot Leavitt of Dot’s Mini-Museum, which is on an old Route 66 alignment in Vega, is helping her decorate the saloon. Schepisi said it will feature live entertainment most Fridays.

Schepisi is friends with the Hickory Inn’s owners. To keep from competing with that longtime Route 66 restaurant, Schepisi said Boot Hill won’t open until 2 p.m. on weekdays, after the Hickory Inn’s regular hours. On weekends, Boot Hill will open at 10 a.m., including Sunday brunch. Boot Hill will be open until at least 10 p.m. seven days a week.

Schepisi once owned and operated the Bourbon Street restaurant in New Jersey, which now is the Cornerstone. “My family thinks I’ve lost my mind” for moving to Vega, she said.

So what attracted her to become a full-time Vega resident?

Schepisi said she enjoys the circle of friends she cultivated during “Popularity Contest” tapings. Having lived the rat race on both coasts, she also said her new friends’ lifestyles struck her as refreshing.

“It’s such a simple way of life,” Schepisi said. “It’s just a breath of fresh air.”

She also acknowledged she’s fallen in love with one of those Vega friends, Klay Waters, who trains quarterhorses and cutting horses.

Schepisi said one other thing attracted her to Vega.

“The skies out here are unbelievable,” she said. “The sunsets out here are to die for. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I’ve been told that Vega residents are thrilled that a nighttime restaurant is coming. The other eateries in Vega close early, are open sporadically, or are fast-food chains near the interstate.

I also think the restaurant, coupled with Schepisi’s energy, ambition and experience, will help Vega become more of a destination and give the town a shot in the arm. A good example of this is Dawn Welch and her successful Rock Cafe in Stroud, Okla.

The Rolla (Mo.) Daily News reports that although the course for the inaugural Tour of Missouri professional bicycling race in 2007 hasn’t been set, it appears that Rolla has a good shot at being one of the towns it will traverse.

The Tour of Missouri is expected to cover roughly 600 miles, and highlight urban as well as rural parts of the state. The six-day race will most likely start in the western part of Missouri around Kansas City and finish near St. Louis, according to race organizers who will start negotiating with potential start and finish cities immediately.

Morgan Bearden is working hard to make sure Rolla is one of the cities on that privileged list. He’s also been instrumental in mapping possible routes to and from Rolla for the riders.

“I have been working with the Tour of Missouri committee and have put together tentative plans to have the Tour of Missouri come through Rolla,” Bearden, who helps run several bike races in Rolla, said. “The Tour of Missouri will very likely have both a Springfield-to-Rolla and a Rolla-to-Jefferson City stage — one of the few, if not the only, Missouri city to have both a finish and start. Hopefully this draft schedule for the Tour of Missouri will survive through the final planning.”

Considering that Route 66 has been used for bicycle events in Rolla previously, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mother Road also is used for the Tour of Missouri.

I dunno if this video’s an official one from Depeche Mode, but the music certainly sounds like it.