Highway Patrol

Highway Patrol is a 1955 action crime series originally broadcast on the Ziv television network, concluding in 1959. Broderick Crawford stars as Dan Matthews, head man at the highway patrol, who fights crime from murder to excessive speeding on our highways. Crawford usually barks at officers to get him a '58 Buick Roadmaster or to get the bad guys. He is a mean, tough SOB and a macho man in an era when such men ruled the roost on American TV. No suspects demanding their 'rights' or politically correct sensitivities here. Screenwriters must have had to write 35 minutes worth of dialog for each 25 minute episode because Broderick Crawford's machine-gun paced deliveries leave Sergeant Joe Friday sounding like Forrest Gump. The show's opening sequence features a car quickly arriving at a highway patrol roadblock, and narrator Art Gilmore's preview of that evening's program. Also, Crawford returns at the end of the show to give sage advice, such as, 'Clowns should only be seen at the circus, not on the highway.' Rotating sergeants include future stars Paul Burke (Naked City, 12 O'clock High), Stuart Whitman (Cimarron Strip), along with character actors William Boyett (Adam-12) and Terry Frost (countless 50's westerns). MORE