The Rat Patrol

The Rat Patrol
"In Color" title
Created by	Tom Gries
Starring	Christopher George Gary Raymond Lawrence P. Casey Justin Tarr Hans Gudegast
Country of origin	USA
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	58
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Mirisch-Rich Television Productions Tom Gries Productions Inc United Artists Television
Distributor	MGM Television Peter Rodgers Organization
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	September 12, 1966 – March 18, 1968

The Rat Patrol is an American action and adventure television series that aired on ABC between 1966 and 1968. The show follows the exploits of four Allied soldiers — three Americans and one Englishman — who are part of a long-range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II. Their mission: "to attack, harass and wreak havoc on Field Marshal Rommel's vaunted Afrika Korps".

The show was inspired by and loosely modelled on David Stirling's British Special Air Service (SAS), which used modified Jeeps armed with machine guns as their transport through the treacherous desert terrain, and Popski's Private Army, there were no similar American units at the time. The title of the program refers to the nicknames given to some of the British Commonwealth forces in the North African campaign (Rats of Tobruk or Desert Rats). Consequently, at the time of the original telecast, many British viewers took offense at the dominance of American characters on the program, the result being that the show was pulled from the BBC after six episodes. (The series was later shown on British satellite television in the 1990s.) In addition, the opening episode presented the trio of American actors outnumbering the token British, Sergeant Jack Moffitt, who asks permission to "brew up", and English public school attempt to educate his American ally on the virtues of a cup of tea.

While the premise for the show might be the SAS, the show itself models parts of the movie The Desert Rats (1953). The 30-minute time constraint limited the show's story-line to a formulaic plot: the weekly masculine contest between the characters Troy and Dietrich, mirroring "cowboys" and "Indians" and substituting Allies and Germans. The show first aired on 12 September 1966; its final season aired beginning 16 September 1968. Despite its many historical inconsistencies, the show achieved successful ratings at a time when military shows were in decline because of public disaffection with the Vietnam War