Highway Patrol (U.S. TV series)

Overview

Highway Patrol stars Broderick Crawford as Dan Mathews, the gruff and dedicated head of a police force in an unidentified Western state. A signature shot of the series is fedora-wearing Mathews barking rapid-fire dialogue into a radio microphone as he leans against the door of his black and white patrol car. Mathews growls "21-50 to headquarters" and the invariable response is "Headquarters by" (as in, standing by).

Ziv Television Productions was founded by Frederick Ziv in 1948. 21 years later. Ziv TV was a major producer of 1950s and early 1960s first-run syndicated series, including Bat Masterson, The Cisco Kid, Science Fiction Theater, Lock-Up, Sea Hunt and Ripcord.

Highway Patrol was created by Ziv in response to California Highway Patrol (CHP) wanting to be featured in a TV series. However, because ZIV felt the show needed to have a broader police scope than the real CHP, the generic show name was adopted. In the four years of its run, Highway Patrol would feature many actors who would later become successful stars in their own right, among them Stuart Whitman, Clint Eastwood, Robert Conrad, Larry Hagman, Barbara Eden, Paul Burke and Leonard Nimoy.

Highway Patrol premiered October 3, 1955 with "Prison Break", an episode filmed April 11–13, 1955. Ziv Television Programs produced 156 episodes spanning four TV seasons, 1955–1959. Episodes are generally fast-paced—notable considering how a typical episode was filmed: two days on location and one day at the studio. The budget for an episode ranged from $20,000 to $25,000, somewhat higher when a Bell 47 helicopter was used. Producer Frederic W. Ziv said the show moved fast to match Broderick Crawford's acting pace. Ziv said Highway Patrol introduced quick cutting to television, which started a new trend.

Highway Patrol is famous for its location shooting around the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley, then mostly rural. Other notable Los Angeles area locations include Griffith Park, and Bronson Canyon just above Hollywood. The show also filmed at railroad stations at Glendale, California, identified by a large sign, Santa Susana, California, and Chatsworth, California.

Unlike the California Highway Patrol, the agency featured in the TV series was more concerned with chasing criminals than enforcing driving laws. Local and county police officers were seldom if ever in evidence, only the Highway Patrol. With such a limited budget, there were very few car chases, crashes, and other motor mayhem that is more common in modern police dramas; scenes were often filmed on rural two-lane paved or dirt roads to save money and because Crawford's own driver's license was suspended for drunk driving. Excitement was mainly generated by Crawford's own rapid-fire, staccato delivery of his lines, frequent shootouts, and numerous plot contrivances in which time was a critical factor, such as a hostage death threat, the escape of a violent criminal, a train derailment, or other imminent catastrophe.

In the first two seasons the series received technical assistance from the California Highway Patrol. The patrol cars in early episodes are actual CHP vehicles with the show's car door emblem covering the CHP emblem (sometimes a real CHP star is briefly visible). For instance, the 1955 Buick Century two-door patrol car seen in early episodes was built exclusively for CHP. Eventually California Highway Patrol dropped its support, reportedly dissatisfied with how the show had evolved. At that point the show had to create its own patrol cars using non-police models, but still outfitted in CHP-style, distinctly subdued compared with many police agencies.

Officer uniforms are the CHP style of the day. In seasons one to three, the shoulder patch is essentially the CHP patch with "California" and "Eureka" (state motto) removed; the California bear and other California state seal elements are retained. In season four the show adopted a uniform patch that matches its patrol car emblem. Highway Patrol chief Dan Mathews usually wears a suit and fedora, but not to be undercover—he generally drives a black-and-white patrol car.

Art Gilmore's narration gives Highway Patrol a documentary feel, but several details are never mentioned. While described as a state police agency, the actual state is never stated. It is said to be a western state, and borders on Mexico, but only eastern state Rhode Island is small enough to allow Dan Mathews to regularly drive from headquarters to every crime scene in just minutes. Towns have simple names like "Midvale", though sometimes a real place name is used because of a prominent sign. In some episodes Mathews uses an unlabeled wall map that appears to be central-east Oregon, with the towns of Bend and Redmond on the map's left. Cars in the show are always described by color and model, but never by brand name: "blue coupe", "gray sedan". Cars have the black-on-yellow California license plate of the time, but with a piece of tape covering the name of the state (usually, but sometimes "California" is briefly visible). Episode "Mistaken Identity" did show a 1957 Illinois license plate in the opening scene.

A key element of the show is two-way radio communication among patrol cars and headquarters, with heavy use of police code "10-4" (meaning "acknowledged"). While 10-4 adds a feeling of authenticity, real police use many radio codes for brevity and clarity. The Highway Patrol show radio call signs are CHP-style, except California Highway Patrol uses the first part to indicate the geographic region/office. Dan Mathews unit "21-50" would be a CHP unit at office 21, which is in Napa County, California.

The show's theme is credited to Ray Llewellyn, a pseudonym for composer/conductor David Rose.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wrote five episodes, sometimes using the pseudonym "Robert Wesley". Future producer Quinn Martin is sound supervisor in the show's early years; style elements of "Highway Patrol" are evident in his later productions: (The Untouchables, The Fugitive, Barnaby Jones, The Invaders, The FBI and The Streets of San Francisco).

When asked why the popular show ended, Crawford said, "We ran out of crimes". Crawford reportedly had had his fill of the show's hectic TV schedule (two shows per week), which had caused him to drink more heavily than ever, and he had decided to leave Highway Patrol to make films in Europe. ZIV held up Crawford's ten per cent share of the show's gross (some 2 million dollars) until Crawford agreed to sign for a new ZIV pilot and TV show, King of Diamonds. After returning from Europe, Crawford signed his new contract with ZIV and would later star in King of Diamonds playing diamond insurance investigator John King. King of Diamonds lasted only one season before being cancelled in 1962.

Like most Ziv series, Highway Patrol repeats were syndicated for many years, sometimes with name Ten-4. In 2010, ThisTV began airing the series.

Episode closings

Similar to the contemporary ZIV Television action/adventure series, Sea Hunt, each episode ended with a gratitude from Broderick Crawford himself for watching and an invitation to view again next week. Highway Patrol's style was different, however, he would deliver an aphoristic comment on traffic safety, including these:

The style of these closings evolved slightly over time. In early episodes, Crawford promised next week's viewers a "different", "unusual", or "exciting" case; toward the end of the series this verbiage was dropped.

Actors

The only constant regular on Highway Patrol is star Broderick Crawford as Dan Mathews. Crawford won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1949 for All the King's Men. William Boyett became a regular in the 4th season as Sgt. Ken Williams. Boyett went on to play Sgt. MacDonald in Adam-12.

Another constant is the voice of Art Gilmore as the heard but unseen narrator. Gilmore narrated many movie trailers and was the announcer on The Red Skelton Show and had a recurring role as Joe Friday's commanding officer, Lieutenant and Captain in Dragnet, both the original late 50's version and the series' reprise in the late 1960s, and in Adam-12 and also had a recurring role as L.A.County Battalion Fire Chief Sorensen in Emergency! in the early and mid 70's.

The show does not feature other actors, but some appear several times, sometimes in different roles. A few actors appear somewhat regularly as officers, but often their character names are not stated, or they have different names in different episodes.

The names of actors with speaking roles are listed equally on a single screen at the end of the episode, many of whom later became famous.

Guest stars

In popular culture

Crawford makes a cameo in the 1977 episode "Hustle" of CHiPs, which is also about the California Highway Patrol. After chatting about Highway Patrol, Officer Baker says, tongue-in-cheek, "they don't make TV shows like that anymore."

To mark the 75th Anniversary of the CHP in 2004, Los Angeles City Council Member Tom LaBonge, District 4 (which includes parts of Hollywood) asked his 'Dollar a Year Man' Gary Goltz to come up with an idea. In response, Goltz came up with the 10-4 Day Parade which is held every October 4. Approximately 20 to 30 classic police cars from the CHP, LAPD, and many classic cop TV shows gather in front of The Los Angeles Fire Museum by Engine Company #27.

Show's availability

All the 156 episodes are now available on DVD from the 35mm masters. The rights to all the 156 episodes are held by Ziv Television Productions' successor United Artists Television under MGM Television and since late 2010 episodes are shown on its ThisTV, a network which features classic shows and movies. It also now appears on Decades. Some episodes of Highway Patrol have been provided online via [Hulu.com]. MGM Home Entertainment released the first season of Highway Patrol on DVD on August 11, 2010 via Amazon.com's CreateSpace program. This is a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Amazon.com. On April 2, 2013, TGG Direct released seasons 2, 3, and 4 on DVD. Most episodes are also available, for free, via YouTube.