The Rat Patrol

I remember watching this show on the air in the 60's as a child. It was a highlight of the week. There are comments made that this show is not very authentic. Of course it is not authentic. It is just for entertainment. It has the same qualities as a Western where the hero shoots all the bad guys using the gun that shoots 100 rounds without reloading. I laughed so hard when I saw the episode when Troy throws a tiny vile of ether at a German truck about half a block and the truck blows up. Or the times that they will karate chop someone with one blow and that person is "out". That is cartoon style but who cares. It is still great entertainment.

I hate it when people take a show like Rat Patrol, and try to show how smart they are when it comes to being a critic. It wasn't intended to win awards, or be a dramatic masterpiece. One of these reviews used the term escapism, like that single fact makes this show a disgrace. Well, that happens to be why I love this show, and many others from the the 50's, 60's, and 70's. This was before the loosely used term "reality TV", was even close to being thought of. I like to turn on the TV and be entertained by a simple show, that knows it's there to entertain me and take me away for awhile.As a kid I used to stay up until mid-night in the late 70's to watch Rat Patrol. I grew up in the D/FW(Texas) area, and this used to come on after the local Saturday Night Wrestling. And I had a little 13in. black&white TV. I loved it. And now I have both sets of DVD's and I'm over joyed that it's in color! So long live the Rat Patrol!!!

I grew up watching Rat Patrol. Great series. I don't know how many plastic machine guns me and my buds went through pretending we were Rat Patrol. Had to have been a lot! I'm just cracking up over some of the serious comments. Yea it makes the Nazi's look bad just like Hogans Heros. And yes the story's are simple and sometimes outrageous. Gee Wiz! Get a grip! Can't wait to hear your reviews of the original Batman not being real police work and unfair to penguins.

To disagree with a previous post, The Rat Patrol was filmed in color. As a mater of fact, the tag before the show aired showed a background of the two jeeps roaring through the desert with The Rat Patrol -- In Color superimposed on the shot. Being that it was filmed in 1966-1968, color was one of the selling points of the series -- hence all those wonderful shots of military half tracks and trucks blowing up in huge fireballs. (Combat was aired in black and white. ) As for the show itself, it wasn't so bad. Sure, some of the scripts were kind of escapist. However, there were several episodes that were well done. One involved Sergeant Jack Moffitt (Gary Raymond) coming to grips with the death of his brother; other episode teamed the Rat Patrol up with the Germans a couple of times. Once they had to save a little girl who fell into a well, and another time Americans and Germans had to fend off an Arab tribe attacking them in some kind of old ruins in the middle of the desert.

Anyway, point being the show was escapist, but is still on the air today. WGN in Chicago airs the show sometimes and other outlets air it, too.

Rarely shown today in syndication, Rat Patrol was a pretty entertaining series, focusing on a small group of British and US soldiers in North Africa during the Second World War. Most episodes dealt with a raid of some kind the patrol would undertake, though often the small raids became larger battles against the Germans (particularly Captain Dietrich and his unit). While you could tell it was produced by Hollywood, the desert environment as well as the great uniforms, vehicles, weapons, and sets gave the series an air of authenticity. While the writing level may have been low in a number of episodes, the action definitely makes up for it, and the actors do well with their limited dramatic scenes. Well worth seeing for anyone interested in World War Two.