Highway Patrol 1955-59

[Eric H]

I love this show, been watching the DVD's this last week.

The plots are absurd mostly but I love the Los Angeles and surrounding area location filming, it's fun to try finding them on Google.

Also the vehicles shown, there are loads of classic cars in this show, they are often more interesting than the plot.

One episode shows a TV Shop called Chroma TV Service, this would have been a real shop since they didn't film on a Studio Lot.

It was next to Saticoy Liquor, there are still a number of places called Saticoy Liquor so I haven't been able to pin down the location.

[snelson903]

i watch that show just about every morning ,its on at 5:00 a.m. on [ThisTV ] i like seeing the old cars ,and how the store's and towns use to be .it brings back memories how America once was, people were alot different then.

[Paul Knaack]

I like that show too. I usually wach an episode a night on Hulu. Police cars in early shows were 55 Buick Century's then later 55 Mercs also a few 55 Oldsmobiles.

[Sandy G]

Broderick Crawford...

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Broderick Crawford...

From what I've read he was probably tanked in many of the scenes.
He could sure spit out his lines in machine gun fashion though, a really great actor for a particular type of character.

It's surprising he lived another thirty years after Highway Patrol started, he looked like he was on deaths door in 55!

[Sandy G]

Webb Wilder did a great tribute song to him on one of his albums..

[Dave A]

10-4!

[Dangler]

21-50 bye.

[Electronic M]

The car in the right picture is a 1940 Oldsmobile. I'd recognize that grille anywhere. Definitely one of the more unique grille designs of the 40's.

[Geoff Bourquin]

I have watched a few episodes lately on RTV or THIS or something. It really is fun to see the way our nation looked back then. And those cars, and their fins and chrome. Wow. It reminds me of when I was a kid. Well, I came along at the end of that show but still brings back memories

[Eric H]

Being a native Californian my favorite part of watching Highway Patrol is trying to find current views of the shooting locations on Google Maps.

The episode I watched tonight featured an old Cafe on Highway 118 near Chatsworth, the name of the place was Cabin Cafe, and that was likely the real name of the place since they often didn't bother to disguise where they were shooting, although they did black out the first two digits of the address (20852 Devonshire).

I was just able to make out the Name on the street sign as De Soto Ave, the cross street was Hwy 118 or as it was known back then Devonshire avenue.

Here are the pictures of then and now, the Cafe directly behind Broderick Crawford was located somewhere between where the Burger King and the Shell Station are now. The 57 Ford is parked roughly where the driveway to the 76 station is in the picture, give or take a little for development.

[Eric H]

I also like how they use the same cars over and over.
They used a 50 ford Convertible in this episode and then they used it again in the very next episode. The 57 Ford is in quite a number of episodes.
Other cars make repeat appearances too over the season.
the 1940 Oldsmobile in the first post was used again in another episode some time later.

[Eric H]

Here they are back at Headquarters, the communications equipment seems to consist of some model of Hallicrafters radio in a plywood cabinet.

I don't know what the tall thing with the meters and the speaker in the door actually was but the local thrift had a couple of those cabinets a while back.
It looks like it has a Motorola logo at the top under the meters.

[mstaton]

Most shows filmed outside had the same cars in almost every episode. Adam 12 was really bad for that. They kept using the same white over gold '67 Mustang in almost every episode either parked in the background, driving by and Pete was driving it as his personal vehicle in a few episodes. The Rockford files always used a blue Vega and several Cadillacs(series 75's for the bad guys) and a cream colored Nova

[kramden66]

cops that listen to shortwave , saw the same hallicrafters in 50's dragnet episodes , still good stuff , entertaining unlike the yawn of todays programs