The Rat Patrol

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This article is about the TV show. For the bicycle club, see Rat Patrol.

The Rat Patrol was an American TV program that aired on ABC during the 1966-1968 seasons. The show followed the exploits of four (three American and one British) Allied soldiers who were part of a long range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II. The show was inspired by and loosely modelled on the New Zealand/British/Rhodesian Long Range Desert Group, which used modified trucks armed with machine guns as their transport through the treacherous desert terrain. The title of the program refers to the nicknames given to some of the British forces in the North African campaign (Rats of Tobruk or Desert Rats).

1 Cast
2 Trivia
3 DVD release
4 External links

[edit] Cast

The four members of the allied patrol were:

Sgt. Sam Troy (Christopher George)
Sgt Jack Moffitt (Gary Raymond), the British member of the patrol
Pvt. Mark T. Hitchcock (Lawrence Casey), known as "Hitch"
Pvt. Tully Pettigrew (Justin Tarr)

Hauptmann (Captain) Hans Dietrich, an honorable German officer and the patrol's main opponent, was played by Eric Braeden (then known by his birthname, Hans Gudegast)

For a few episodes during the second season, the storyline required the temporary absence of Tully. Three different characters took turns rounding out the patrol until Tully returned. These characters were:

Peterson (Darwin Joston)
Andy (Mac McLaughlin)
Bo Randall (Bo Hopkins)

[edit] Trivia

A total of fifty-eight 30-minute episodes were produced.

The Rat Patrol was the first ABC war program to be broadcast in color.

Justin Tarr had a successful career as a hairstylist in Colorado before taking the role of Tully Pettigrew.

As a leverage tool against the actors asking for raises, after the first season, each major cast member was shown a separate prospective script in which he was killed in action.

As usual for low-cost productions, the German vehicles were actually portrayed by American Patton tanks, M7 Priest self-propelled guns, M3 Half-track and M35 2-1/2 ton cargo trucks painted in desert sand colors.

[edit] DVD release

Season 1 of The Rat Patrol was released by MGM on R1 DVD on January 31, 2006 and on R2 DVD on January 15, 2007. The four disc set contains 32 episodes.