Lew Landers
Director
Highway Patrol (1955)
Season 1
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.
Released Oct. 3, 1955
Episode 28 min
2+
Keywords: tmdb.police, tmdb.militia, tmdb.missing-person, tmdb.criminal-investigation, tmdb.1950s, tmdb.state-highway-patrol, tmdb.chief-of-patrol + 35 more, tmdb.children-in-danger, tmdb.highway-patrolmen, tmdb.police-women, imdb.squad-car, imdb.car, imdb.highway-patrol, imdb.radio, imdb.manhunt, imdb.rural-setting, imdb.traffic-policeman, imdb.american-police-officer, imdb.patrol-car, imdb.law-enforcement, imdb.road-traffic, imdb.man-in-uniform, imdb.car-phone, imdb.police-procedural-crime, imdb.cop-drama, imdb.patrolman, imdb.police-procedural, imdb.illegal-border-crossing, imdb.crossing-the-border, imdb.two-word-title, imdb.hijacker, imdb.robber, imdb.smuggler, imdb.united-states-mexico-border, imdb.american-west, imdb.two-way-radio-communication, imdb.radio-communication, imdb.illegally-crossing-the-border, imdb.male-protagonist, imdb.1950s, imdb.highway-patrolman, imdb.two-way-radio
Watch Providers: Philo
Production Companies: Ziv Television Programs
Network: Syndication
Country: United States
Languages:
English
S1E1 - Prison Break / Road Block
A 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.
Oct. 3, 1955, midnight
S1E2 - Machine Story Copter / Machine Napping Copter
An 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.
Oct. 10, 1955, midnight
S1E3 - Reckless Driving
Systematic 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.
Oct. 17, 1955, midnight
S1E4 - Lookout
An 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.
Oct. 24, 1955, midnight
S1E5 - Gambling
Dan Mathews and his officers assist a county sheriff in closing down a club that offers illicit gambling.
Oct. 31, 1955, midnight
S1E6 - Hitchhiker
A 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.
Nov. 7, 1955, midnight
S1E7 - Desert Town
None
Nov. 14, 1955, midnight
S1E8 - Radioactive
None
Nov. 21, 1955, midnight
S1E9 - 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.
Nov. 28, 1955, midnight
S1E10 - Father Thief
None
Dec. 5, 1955, midnight
S1E11 - Retired Gangster
None
Dec. 12, 1955, midnight
S1E12 - Phony Insurance
None
Dec. 19, 1955, midnight
S1E13 - Escort
None
Dec. 26, 1955, midnight
S1E14 - Resort
None
Jan. 2, 1956, midnight
S1E15 - Girl Bandit
None
Jan. 9, 1956, midnight
S1E16 - Mountain Copter
None
Jan. 16, 1956, midnight
S1E17 - Lie Detector
None
Jan. 23, 1956, midnight
S1E18 - Scared Cop
None
Jan. 30, 1956, midnight
S1E19 - Harbor Story
None
Feb. 6, 1956, midnight
S1E20 - Hit And Run
Dan Mathews must cope with a family's effort to protect an emotionally fragile young woman who fled after striking a pedestrian with her car.
Feb. 13, 1956, midnight
S1E21 - Car Theft
Car thieves purchase wrecked vehicles and transfer the VIN plates to stolen ones in order to escape detection.
Feb. 20, 1956, midnight
S1E22 - Human Bomb
None
Feb. 27, 1956, midnight
S1E23 - Plane Crash
None
March 5, 1956, midnight
S1E24 - Desert Copter
None
March 12, 1956, midnight
S1E25 - Plant Robbery
None
March 19, 1956, midnight
S1E26 - Released Convict
A patient parolee decides the time is finally right to attempt the recovery of $250,000 stolen in an armored car robbery.
March 26, 1956, midnight
S1E27 - Motorcycle A
Two 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!
April 2, 1956, midnight
S1E28 - Mental Patient
None
April 9, 1956, midnight
S1E29 - License Plates
An alert boy is able to give Dan Mathews information that provides a critical break in the pursuit of a recidivist thief.
April 16, 1956, midnight
S1E30 - Hitchhiker Dies
None
April 23, 1956, midnight
S1E31 - Blast Area Copter
None
April 30, 1956, midnight
S1E32 - Anti-toxin
None
May 7, 1956, midnight
S1E33 - Dead Patrolman
A Highway Patrol officer is murdered while pursuing a car stolen from a lonely bookstore owner.
May 14, 1956, midnight
S1E34 - Art Robbery
Two thieves attempt to steal valuable paintings and demand ransom of $500,000. but they are forced to commit murder when the plan goes awry.
May 21, 1956, midnight
S1E35 - Runaway Boy
None
May 28, 1956, midnight
S1E36 - Taxi
None
June 4, 1956, midnight
S1E37 - Missing Witness
None
June 11, 1956, midnight
S1E38 - Prospector
A poor prospector arouses suspicion when he suddenly begins paying off long-standing debts from a large roll of new $100 bills.
June 18, 1956, midnight
S1E39 - Christmas Story
None
June 25, 1956, midnight
Syndication
28 min/ep
4368 min
Oct. 3, 1955
June 29, 1959, midnight
Ended
TV-G / 2+
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