YESTERDAY WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG--AND ON TV

Fox’s “Melrose Place” and MTV’s “The Real World” reflect what life is like for the twentysomething crowd of the ‘90s. Thirty years ago, though, young viewers got their kicks watching “Route 66.”

The groundbreaking series, which aired 1960-64 on CBS, followed the adventures of two young men who came from different backgrounds. Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. After his father’s death, he discovered most of the family money was gone. Buz Murdock (George Maharis) came from New York’s Hell’s Kitchen and had been employed by Tod’s father.

Just as the United States was at a crossroads--the Vietnam War, John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Watts riots were a few years down the road--so were Tod and Buz. They took off across the country in search of adventure and themselves.

The Vietnam War even crept into “Route 66” in the 1963 season when Linc Case (Glenn Corbett) took over as Tod’s traveling companion. Linc was a Vietnam War hero who had just returned to America and desperately needed to find his identity.

Far less serious and infinitely more trendy were Warner Bros.’s popular detective series “77 Sunset Strip” (ABC, 1958-64), “Hawaiian Eye” (ABC, 1959-62) and “Surfside Six” (ABC, 1960-62.)

These series mirrored what most of young America aspired to be: talented, beautiful, well-educated and smart.

“77 Sunset Strip” was the most successful of the genre. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. played detective Stu Bailey, a suave former OSS officer who had a Ph.D. in languages. Handsome Roger Smith was his partner, Jeff Spenser, a former undercover government agent with a law degree. Together, they handled cases out of their office at 77 Sunset Strip in Hollywood.

The series most popular character was Kookie (Edd Byrnes), a jive-talking parking attendant--sort of a James Dean with a sense of humor-- who worked next door at the fancy restaurant Dino’s. Kookie even inspired the hit song “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb,” which was sung by Connie Stevens, who played the bubbly singer-photographer Cricket Blake on “Hawaiian Eye.”

By the late ‘60s these shows were off the air. America was in despair. The Vietnam War was raging. College students were dropping out and demonstrating. In 1968, both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated.

For the most part, though, television still depicted a happy, wholesome world, even for young adults. That all changed on Sept. 24, 1968, when ABC premiered “The Mod Squad.”

Created by Aaron Spelling, whose company produces “Beverly Hills, 90210,” the dramatic series changed the face of television.

“The Mod Squad” was a trio of hippies who had dropped out of society and had brushes with the law. Their backgrounds were the flip side of “Ozzie and Harriet.” Pete (Michael Cole) had stolen a car after his parents kicked him out of their Beverly Hills mansion. Linc (Clarence Williams III) had been raised in Watts and was arrested during the 1965 rebellion. Julie (Peggy Lipton) was the daughter of a San Francisco prostitute who had run away from home and had been arrested for vagrancy.

On probation and trying to find their own identities, they were asked by Capt. Adam Greer (Tige Andrews) to infiltrate the counterculture and get the dirt on adult criminals who were abusing young Los Angelenos. The series, which reached No. 11 in the ratings during its third season, continued through 1973.