Genres
Networks
Highway Patrol
Overview
Highway Patrol was a syndicated, fictional police action series produced from 1955 to 1959, concerning the activities of the highway patrol and their leader, Dan Matthews (who held no rank). Although filmed in and around the Los Angeles area, the state setting for the stories was never identified, and city and street names were fictionalized.
Key Crew
Producer: Frederick Ziv
Top Cast
Broderick Crawford
Chief Dan Mathews
Art Gilmore
Narrator
Seasons
Season 1 (1955)
No overview available.
39 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: Prison Break / Road Block
1955-10-03A hardened criminal, whose personality belies his viciousness, escapes from prison, killing a guard. Dan Mathews swings into action, and as the man commits one ruthless act after another to break through the trap closing in on him, it becomes apparent that there's almost a personal conflict between the two men - that ends only when they meet face to face in the final scene.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 2: Machine Story Copter / Machine Napping Copter
1955-10-10An expensive, giant computer, one of the twentieth century wonders, which does a tremendous amount of administrative work in just hours, is ingeniously 'kidnapped' from an electronics company by two men. The firm's owner is told to get $100,000 from his bank at two o'clock the next day and wait for instructions. A helicopter chase helps Dan stop the men from collecting the ransom or getting away.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 3: Reckless Driving
1955-10-17Systematic traffic checks and increased patrols begin on a high accident freeway. Hoping to determine causes and cures, Dan questions drivers who get too many citations there. One man refuses to accept Dan's safety philosophy. When his license is suspended, his wife drives him to an important business meeting. En route, her eyeglasses break and he takes over at the wheel. Encountering a traffic check, he panics and flees, resulting in a severe accident in which his wife is critically injured. He learns the hard way - and too late - what Dan had earlier tried to impress upon him.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 4: Lookout
1955-10-24An uninvolved man happens to be in the company of two brothers who hold up a diner and kill its owner. Fearing the police and terrified of the vengeance he may expect from the criminals, he flees. As Dan searches for him, one man winds up dead, two critically wounded, and the man who a few short hours ago was an average law-abiding citizen is harried to the point where he is willing to shoot it cut with the police - until Dan manages to show the error of his ways.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 5: Gambling
1955-10-31Dan Mathews and his officers assist a county sheriff in closing down a club that offers illicit gambling.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 6: Hitchhiker
1955-11-07A series of fraudulent insurance claims is discovered after Dan Mathews and his officers learn that the "accidental" death of a migrant worker was actually a homicide.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 7: Desert Town
1955-11-14Episode 8: Radioactive
1955-11-21Episode 9: Reformed Criminal
Dan Mathews has reason to suspect the worst when a courier with a criminal record disappears with $31,000 after an automobile accident.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 10: Father Thief
Episode 11: Retired Gangster
Episode 12: Phony Insurance
Episode 13: Escort
Episode 14: Resort
Episode 15: Girl Bandit
Episode 16: Mountain Copter
Episode 17: Lie Detector
Episode 18: Scared Cop
Episode 19: Harbor Story
Episode 20: Hit And Run
Episode 21: Car Theft
1956-02-20Car thieves purchase wrecked vehicles and transfer the VIN plates to stolen ones in order to escape detection.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 22: Human Bomb
Episode 23: Plane Crash
Episode 24: Desert Copter
Episode 25: Plant Robbery
Episode 26: Released Convict
A patient parolee decides the time is finally right to attempt the recovery of $250,000 stolen in an armored car robbery.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 27: Motorcycle A
1956-04-02Two bikers (Clint Eastwood as 'Joe Keeley', John Compton as 'Nick West') ride stripped-down Harleys into town and stop at a cafe. They are shocked when the cafe owner (Jack Edwards as 'Bernie Sills') confronts them with a shotgun and orders them to leave. As his wife calls the Highway Patrol her husband provokes the bikers, until Nick takes the gun from Sills and punches him. The bikers jump on their bikes and roar out of town. When Sills learns his wife has called the law, he hides the gun and lies to the responding motorcycle cop, telling him the cyclists started the trouble. The cop takes off after the bikers, only to be struck and killed by a trucker who runs a red light. Broderick Crawford’s ‘Chief Dan Mathews’ quickly sorts truth from fiction and arrests the café owner for assaulting the bikers. A nice (albeit unlikely) twist on the ‘bad guy bikers’ trope!
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 28: Mental Patient
Episode 29: License Plates
1956-04-16An alert boy is able to give Dan Mathews information that provides a critical break in the pursuit of a recidivist thief.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 30: Hitchhiker Dies
Episode 31: Blast Area Copter
Episode 32: Anti-toxin
Episode 33: Dead Patrolman
1956-05-14A Highway Patrol officer is murdered while pursuing a car stolen from a lonely bookstore owner.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 34: Art Robbery
1956-05-21Two thieves attempt to steal valuable paintings and demand ransom of $500,000. but they are forced to commit murder when the plan goes awry.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 35: Runaway Boy
Episode 36: Taxi
Episode 37: Missing Witness
Episode 38: Prospector
1956-06-18A poor prospector arouses suspicion when he suddenly begins paying off long-standing debts from a large roll of new $100 bills.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 39: Christmas Story
Season 2 ()
No overview available.
39 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: The Search
After an elderly couple inadvertently help a murderous bank robber slip through a police road block, a restaurant manager spots the fugitive who uses the old folks to keep from getting caught.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 2: Kidnap Copter
Jerry Watts is the son of a millionaire and he's just been kidnapped and taken to an old shack high in the mountains. After a tip from a game warden brings the Highway Patrol, Jerry tries to escape to the officers, only to fall into a canyon severely injuring himself. The only way out is straight up.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 3: Trailer Story
Steve Talbot is a jewel thief who likes nice automobiles, and the Highway Patrol knows this. So Talbot flees capture after a job in an old junker. This gets him past the roadblocks but he soon is stranded on the side of the road. He hijacks a newly married couple pulling a trailer and Dan passes the trio through, not wanting harm to come to the civilians. But in passing the blockade, they unknowingly pick up a new rider.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 4: Fisherman's Luck
A car that was involved in an accident is stolen and later found again, and just happens to match the description of one used in a bank holdup. Putting two and two together, Dan speculates that this was the getaway car and it's occupants must have escaped on foot, which is near a posh resort.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 5: Magazine Writer
Reporter Sam Dalquist has gone missing. Dan has been looking for him because a two bit hood was found dead after getting a traffic citation driving Dalquist's car. The only lead Mathews has is that Dalquist was working on an exposé about a hood named Matlock and that may be where the writer will be found...dead or alive.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 6: Typhoid Carrier
Hank Dooley's daughter has just died from typhoid fever, and Dooley is now searching for his farm hand Len Frazier who is the one who infected her, complete with rifle in hand.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 7: Hot Rod
Dan enlists the help of the leader of a local hot rod car club to assist in finding two robbers who use a souped-up car to get away from the Highway Patrol after each job.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 8: Hot Cargo
Several criminals conspire to stage highway accidents prompting truck drivers to stop and help victims only to be assaulted and have their cargoes stolen. After discovering the hijackers are being tipped off by the owner of a roadside diner favored by truckers, Chief Mathews creates a ruse to force the crime ring into action with the hopes of capturing them.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 9: Oil Lease
1956-10-01An Army bazooka is stolen by two men who use it to capture the payroll from an oil drilling company.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 10: Ex Con
The life of an ex-con is never easy, especially when cellmates show up expecting favors. Al Baldwin is a reformed criminal but suddenly has unexpected guests who hide out at his house while plotting their next crime. When that holdup goes bad, the cons hold Al's wife hostage until Dan and the Highway Patrol come to the rescue.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 11: Motel Robbery
Episode 12: Stolen Car Ring
Episode 13: Escaped Mental Patient
Episode 14: Armored Car
Episode 15: Migrant Workers
Episode 16: Ranch Copter
1957-01-21A woman suspects her husband is trying to kill her. Iris: Virginia Dale. George: Douglas Henderson. Mathews: Broderick Crawford. Ted: Robert Cavendish.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 17: Amnesia
Episode 18: Statute of Limitations
1957-02-04Mathews tries to prove the guilt of three holdup men---before the statute of limitations runs out. Mathews: Broderick Crawford. Eddie: Bing Russell. Wyatt: Mike Regan.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 19: Resident Officer
Episode 20: Psycho
Episode 21: Counterfeit
Mathews and the Highway Patrol investigate a rash of forged payroll-check cashings affecting merchants in and around Los Angeles.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 22: Suspected Cop
Episode 23: Trojan Horse
Episode 24: Female Hitchhiker
Episode 25: Nitro
Episode 26: Motorcycle B
Episode 27: Officer's Wife
Episode 28: Stripped Cars
Two brothers hijack a new-car carrier, planning to sell the cars to get cash to purchase a farm. When the driver dies from injuries sustained in the hijacking, they make a panic-stricken attempt to dispose of the evidence.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 29: Convict's Wife
Episode 30: Reformation
1957-04-29An ex-con wants to return money stolen in an armed robbery, but his erstwhile partner has other ideas.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 31: Stolen Plane Copter
1957-05-06Two convicts steal an airplane to escape from prison.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 32: Gem Robbery
Episode 33: Wounded
Episode 34: Fake Cop
1957-05-27One member of a three-person holdup team impersonates a Highway Patrol officer in order to deceive robbery victims into thinking that they need not notify the Patrol themselves.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 35: Double Cross
Episode 36: Narcotics
Episode 37: Hired Killer
Episode 38: Hostage Copter
Episode 39: Rabies
Season 3 ()
No overview available.
39 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: Hypo Bandit
Episode 2: Efficiency Secretary
Episode 3: Temptation
Episode 4: Safecracker
Episode 5: Mistaken Identity
Episode 6: Hostage Family Copter
Episode 7: The Sniper
Episode 8: Hot Dust
Episode 9: Witness Wife
1957-12-03Mathews tries flushing out two gunmen who are holding a farmer and his wife hostage. Mathews: Broderick Crawford. Ruttman: Tom Holland. Collins: Robert Swan. Martin: Ted Lehman. Jane: Gail Gregg.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 10: Dead Hunter
1957-12-10Mathews investigates a businessman's accidental death. Mathews: Broderick Crawford. Foster: Joe Haworth. Tom: Pierre Watkins.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 11: Convicted Innocent
Episode 12: Chain Store
Episode 13: Double Death
Episode 14: Hideout
Episode 15: Mother's March
Episode 16: Slain Cabby
Episode 17: Insulin
Episode 18: The Seventh Green
Episode 19: Foster Child
Episode 20: Lady Bandts
Episode 21: Revenge
Episode 22: Tear Gas Copter
Episode 23: Deaf Mute
Episode 24: Hit and Run
Episode 25: Fear
Episode 26: Careless Cop
Episode 27: Policewoman
Episode 28: The Truckers
Episode 29: Cedit Card
Episode 30: Psycho Killer
1958-04-28A mentally disturbed man murders women who seek husbands through "Lonely Hearts" clubs.
Runtime: 28 minEpisode 31: Suicide
Episode 32: Phoney Cop
Episode 33: The Judge
Episode 34: Dan's Vacation
Episode 35: Explosives
Episode 36: Hostage Officer
Episode 37: Double Copter
Episode 38: Dan Sick
Episode 39: Reward
Season 4 ()
No overview available.
39 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: Frightened Witness
Episode 2: Hostage
Episode 3: Family Affair
Episode 4: Transmitter Danger
Episode 5: Gamblng Story
Episode 6: Train Copter
Episode 7: Portrait of Death
Episode 8: Train Robbery
Episode 9: Deadly Diamonds
Episode 10: Blood Money
Episode 11: False Confession
Episode 12: Confidence Game
Episode 13: Split Robbery
Episode 14: The Trap
Episode 15: Expose
Episode 16: Breath of a Child
Episode 17: Narcotcs Racket
Episode 18: Copter Cave-In
Episode 19: Gem Robbery
Episode 20: Mexican Chase
Episode 21: Framed Cop
Episode 22: The Collector
Episode 23: Revenge
Episode 24: Brave Boy
Episode 25: Diversion Robbery
Episode 26: Cargo Hijack
Episode 27: Hitchhiker
Episode 28: llegal Entry
Episode 29: Killer on the Run
Episode 30: Prisoner Exchange Copter
Episode 31: Dan Hostage
Episode 32: Woman Escapes
Episode 33: Auto Press
Episode 34: Express Delivery
Episode 35: Desperate Men
Episode 36: Confession
Episode 37: Detour to Death
Episode 38: Fire
Episode 39: Bank Messenger
Season 5 ()
No overview available.
0 episodes
