The Automobile and American Life: The TV Show “Highway Patrol"

S1Ep27 Highway Patrol Motorcycle A with Clint Eastwood in Chatsworth

Thanks to Ed!!

Highway Patrol premiered October 3, 1955, with "Prison Break", an episode filmed April 11–13, 1955. Initial ratings were strong, the show running second only in ratings to I Love Lucy.  -- Ed 

Ziv Television Programs produced 156 episodes spanning four TV seasons, 1955–1959. 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, Leonard Nimoy, and Ruta Lee.

Episodes were generally fast paced, which is 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, and 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 was 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, as well as Bronson Canyon just above Hollywood.  In this series one certainly gets the feel for small town and rural California in the late 1950s.  Plus, of course, the hundreds of cars -- nearly all American-made and before the foreign invasion!

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 license was suspended for a period due to his drunk driving.  Seriously.

Excitement was mainly generated by Crawford's 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 (CHP). 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 the CHP. Eventually the California Highway Patrol dropped its support, reportedly dissatisfied with how the show evolved. The show then had to create its own patrol cars using non-police models, but 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 Matthews usually wears a suit (jacket always buttoned) and fedora hat.    

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 which borders on Mexico, but only eastern state Rhode Island is small enough to allow Dan Matthews 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 Matthews 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 body style, but never by brand name: "blue coupe", "gray sedan". Cars have the black-on-yellow California license plate of the time (so-called black plates), but with a piece of tape covering the name of the state (usually, but sometimes "California" is briefly visible). 

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 or office. Dan Matthews' unit "21-50" would be a CHP unit at office 21, which is in Napa County, California.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wrote five episodes, sometimes using the pseudonym "Robert Wesley". Future producer Quinn Martin was 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.