| Highway Patrol | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Action/Crime drama |
| Starring | Broderick Crawford |
| Narrated by | Art Gilmore |
| Theme music composer | David Rose |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 156 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Frederick W. Ziv |
| Producer(s) | Vernon E. Clark Jack Herzberg Herbert L. Strock |
| Location(s) | California |
| Running time | 30 mins. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Syndicated |
| Original run | October 3, 1955 – September 1, 1959 |
Highway Patrol is a syndicated action crime drama series produced from 1955–1959.
Contents |
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 started by Frederic W. Ziv in the 1950s. In 1960 ZIV was acquired by United Artists, which later merged with MGM. ZIV was a major producer of 1950s TV series, including Bat Masterson, The Cisco Kid, Highway Patrol, Science Fiction Theater and Sea Hunt. 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, Bill Bixby, Barbara Eden, 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 range 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. Today the show provides a historic look at mid-50s California, cars, fashion (men wear fedoras), and lifestyle. For example, train travel is a common show element; the second-season episode "Hired Killer" prominently features the Chatsworth, California train station in its opening scene.[1] The show also filmed at railroad stations at Glendale, California (identified by a large sign) and Santa Susana, California.
While back lots were not used for exteriors, interior scenes were often filmed on sets at ZIV Studios, 7950 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Over the years the Highway Patrol office set changed several times, featuring rearranged activities, improved set decoration, and background actors (early episodes referred to Matthews coming to a Highway Patrol district office on an inspection visit and taking charge of a case).
Unlike the California Highway Patrol, the agency featured in the TV series was more concerned with chasing criminals than enforcing driving laws. WIth such limited budgets, there were very few car chases, crashes, and other motor mayhem than 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, which is the model police agency in several ways. 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 Buick Century 1955 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. Notably, CHP cars did not have roof lights, instead using only a solid-red driver-side spotlight in front, and a flashing-yellow light in the rear window; these are barely noticeable in the black-and-white TV show.
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, 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).
Gun handling is typical of TV shows of the time—unrealistic and sometimes absurd. Police officers often shoot from the hip, usually with amazing accuracy, even from moving cars and a helicopter. The Smith & Wesson six-round revolvers used by actor officers sometimes emit more than six shots without reloading.
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. (Some reports claim it was the call-sign of the CHP Commissioner of the time.) The show mixes a variety of CHP office prefixes; one episode has "21-50" working with "34-27" (CHP for San Francisco) and "36-32" (CHP for Red Bluff) to chase the bad guys around a single valley.
The show's brassy music made such an impact that it was featured on record albums of popular TV show themes, and released as a single (45) by various artists. The theme is credited to Ray Llewellyn, a pseudonym for composer/conductor David Rose (married to Judy Garland 1941-1945).
Highway Patrol was an international phenomenon, aired in 17 languages in 71 countries, including Argentina, Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, UK. The show spawned toys, games, costumes, comic books and fan clubs.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is credited with writing five episodes, sometimes using pseudonym "Robert Wesley". Future producer Quinn Martin is sound supervisor in the show's early years; style elements of "Highway Patrol" are evident his later productions: (The Untouchables, The Fugitive, Barnaby Jones, The FBI, The Streets of San Francisco).
Highway Patrol was produced for four TV seasons. ZIV reportedly desired a fifth season, but Crawford declined. He later starred in the ZIV series King of Diamonds playing diamond insurance investigator John King.
When asked why the popular show ended, Broderick Crawford said, "We ran out of crimes." In fact, Crawford 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.[2] 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.[2] 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.[2] 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.
Similar to another contemporary ZIV Television program, Sea Hunt, each episode ended with a thank-you from the star for watching and an invitation to view again next week. Highway Patrol's style was different, however, in that Crawford 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.
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.
Another constant is the voice of Art Gilmore as the never-seen narrator. Gilmore later played Lieutenant (later Captain) Moore on Adam-12.
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.
Actors appearing in the show include:
The rights to all 156 episodes are held by MGM Television and beginning late 2010, pristine quality episodes are shown on its ThisTV a network, which features classic shows and movies. ThisTV is broadcast by many local television stations on a subchannel, but subchannels are rarely carried on cable systems. In most cities, subchannels must be received using an antenna, which few viewers still have connected to their TVs.
Some episodes of Highway Patrol have been provided online via Hulu.com.
MGM Home Entertainment began offering the first season of Highway Patrol on DVD in 2010.[3] The show is provided via MGM's "Manufacture-on-demand" service where ordered copies are manufactured as needed using DVD-R discs.