Season 5 Episode 23: Route 666 (1)

The first half of the season 5 finale, and the episode that takes the Bundys out of Chicago entirely. Al has business in Los Angeles, a shoe convention, and his original intention is to go alone. The family talks their way into the trip, and so all four of them load into the car and set off across the country, singing their way through “99 Bottles of Beer” and mangling an old music hall song as they go. Bud wants to visit the Playboy Mansion. Kelly wants to see Garfield’s house, which she believes is a real place one can drive to. The car makes it as far as a nowhere town in New Mexico before it dies, and the Bundys find themselves stranded among a population consisting largely of ancient prospectors, two of whom have been out there so long that neither can remember with certainty which of them is named Zeke. While they wait for Marcy and Jefferson to wire them money, one of the old timers hands Al a map to a gold mine. Al, being Al, does not treat this as the obvious swindle it appears to be. He treats it as the break he has been owed since 1966, gets Jefferson on the phone, and talks him into financing the dig. By the end of the episode the Darcys have driven out to New Mexico and the whole group is panning for gold in the desert, which is where part one stops and leaves everybody.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: April 28, 1991
• Season and episode: Season 5, Episode 23
• Overall episode number: 103
• Written by: Katherine Green
• Directed by: Gerry Cohen
• Production note: Part one of the two part season 5 finale.
• Title note: A play on U.S. Route 66, which actually runs from Chicago to Santa Monica, crossed with 666. There was a real Route 666, but it ran through Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, and it was renumbered as U.S. Route 491 in 2003.

Guest Cast

• John Byner as the prospector
• Carmen Filpi as Codger #1
• Owen Bush as Codger #2
• Michael G. Moye as Young Zeke
• Buddy Matlock as the banjo player

Route 666 (1)

👉 Watch on Amazon Prime