Highway Patrol

Season 51955

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.

Overview Episodes Photos Download

39 Episodes

E01 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.

October 3, 1955

E02 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.

October 10, 1955

E03 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.

October 17, 1955

E04 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.

October 24, 1955

E05 Gambling

Dan Mathews and his officers assist a county sheriff in closing down a club that offers illicit gambling.

October 31, 1955

E06 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.

November 7, 1955

E07 Desert Town

November 14, 1955

E08 Radioactive

November 21, 1955

E09 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.

E10 Father Thief

E11 Retired Gangster

E12 Phony Insurance

E13 Escort

E14 Resort

E15 Girl Bandit

E16 Mountain Copter

E17 Lie Detector

E18 Scared Cop

E19 Harbor Story

E20 Hit And Run

E21 Car Theft

Car thieves purchase wrecked vehicles and transfer the VIN plates to stolen ones in order to escape detection.

February 20, 1956

E22 Human Bomb

E23 Plane Crash

E24 Desert Copter

E25 Plant Robbery

E26 Released Convict

A patient parolee decides the time is finally right to attempt the recovery of $250,000 stolen in an armored car robbery.

E27 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

E28 Mental Patient

E29 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

E30 Hitchhiker Dies

E31 Blast Area Copter

E32 Anti-toxin

E33 Dead Patrolman

A Highway Patrol officer is murdered while pursuing a car stolen from a lonely bookstore owner.

May 14, 1956

E34 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

E35 Runaway Boy

E36 Taxi

E37 Missing Witness

E38 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

Highway Patrol

E01 Prison Break / Road Block

E02 Machine Story Copter / Machine Napping Copter

E03 Reckless Driving

E04 Lookout

E05 Gambling

E06 Hitchhiker

E07 Desert Town

E08 Radioactive

E09 Reformed Criminal

E10 Father Thief

E11 Retired Gangster

E12 Phony Insurance

E13 Escort

E14 Resort

E15 Girl Bandit

E16 Mountain Copter

E17 Lie Detector

E18 Scared Cop

E19 Harbor Story

E20 Hit And Run

E21 Car Theft

E22 Human Bomb

E23 Plane Crash

E24 Desert Copter

E25 Plant Robbery

E26 Released Convict

E27 Motorcycle A

E28 Mental Patient

E29 License Plates

E30 Hitchhiker Dies

E31 Blast Area Copter

E32 Anti-toxin

E33 Dead Patrolman

E34 Art Robbery

E35 Runaway Boy

E36 Taxi

E37 Missing Witness

E38 Prospector

E39 Christmas Story

Blue Lights

The Monkees

Breaking Bad

Game of Thrones

Arcane

Secret Invasion

3 Body Problem

Friends

Chernobyl

The IT Crowd

The Mandalorian

INVINCIBLE

The Expanse

Justice League

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Stranger Things

Shōgun

Love, Death & Robots

Wednesday

The Walking Dead

E01 Prison Break / Road Block

E02 Machine Story Copter / Machine Napping Copter

E03 Reckless Driving

E04 Lookout

E05 Gambling

E06 Hitchhiker

E07 Desert Town

E08 Radioactive

E09 Reformed Criminal

E10 Father Thief

E11 Retired Gangster

E12 Phony Insurance

E13 Escort

E14 Resort

E15 Girl Bandit

E16 Mountain Copter

E17 Lie Detector

E18 Scared Cop

E19 Harbor Story

E20 Hit And Run