Movin’ On aired between 1974 to 1976 and it made truckers a household world
Movin’ On, was a TV show that spurred an era of Truckers and trucking aficionados Starring Claude Akins and Frank Converse (Back when leading actors were actually over 6′ tall), Movin’ On has a backdrop of gypsy truckers working in tandem so that they can haul without too much delay. (Gypsy truckers would drive contract to contract, with no real home base, hence gypsies). But really the show is about all their delays, as it shows how our heroes (not anti-heroes) figure out what to do (usually helping others) in the face of adversity while they crisscross America.
Merle Haggard sang the opening theme song
The actors of Movin’ On actually drive the rigs in the show; they were both licensed to do so. The pair are made up of Sonny Pruitt, a war veteran, blue-collar working man, who’s been trucking for decades, and Will Chandler, a younger college-educated, Vietnam protestor. Will’s previous experience was working for a trucking firm, who didn’t care much for the safety of their drivers or upkeep of their equipment. Hauling with an independent owner-operator like Sonny, is a whole different game.
Do it like Pruitt !
Do it like Pruitt became a popular slogan among truckers of the 1970s. Movin’ On encapsulates the capitalist and patriarchal society. College students/graduates today should watch this show to see the negative they attack overlaid by it’s positives in the context of the era, without the influence of their biased professors. The two men come from very different perspectives, but each has a desire to help those they can. They are hard-working men unafraid of a punch-up, true to their word, gentlemen to the ladies, hardworking and loyal. Not violent, racist, useless goons that the modern narrative would have you believe.
Season 2
