Update from my previous review after getting the series on DVD.
The Rat Patrol is a 1960s television show that was more comic book action than war drama, meant to appeal to teenage boys and young men at the time. I would watch this growing up in the 1970s. WGN would play it on the weekends as a filler and whenever I was channel surfing and ran across it I would watch. Later on I jumped at the DVD for purchase as I relieved my teenage television years. At only 30 minutes an episode often times the situation was joined in progress or narration would speed up the stories. The stories were mostly ridiculous with the entire war or at least battle based on the actions of 4 enlisted soldiers. Occasionally there was an officer involved but it was very infrequent much like the TV show Combat!, an obvious TV ploy to appeal to the general population. This show would get negative feedback when sold to the British and Australian markets for being so unbelievable with little involvement of any British or Australian soldiers. Inappropriate cultural appropriation also hurt the show overseas. The show's title has the word "Rat" in it which was the name of the ANZAC soldiers who held on to a besieged Tobruk "The Desert Rats." Also, star Christopher George is an American GI wearing a bush hat like an Australian soldier would and not an American helmet. Often the heroes will enter an enemy camp and obliterate it or take prisoners without any casualties. Sometimes the heroes would be shot but be OK by next week. Often they would fight head on with armored vehicles in their unarmored jeeps and win with just their machine guns. With all of this lack of realism, the show's makers could have extended its run longer than 2 seasons by offering some weapon improvements. My favorite suggestion is to have exploding bullets, followed by rocket launchers and as a really special treat have a special fighter plane circling them to be used only as a last resort. The overhead fighter could have a special call sign like Desert Bat or something. As a child I loved the grotesque amount of violence and death and as an adult now I like it for the same reasons except now it's to laugh at how silly this show is. If you are looking for comic book war action, the Rat Patrol is a good choice, too bad they took their show too seriously though as it could have evolved into more fun. 7 of 10. -------------------------------------------------------------- Nov 1, 2006 thoughts: I just bought season one set on MGM DVD. I got it today along with two other shows that I've watched before but had to have likes Linus needs his blanket (for comfort, I know its there if I need it, lol). Anyway, this was the one I popped in of the three I just HAD to see this show again. I would watch Rat Patrol (In Color!) probably during the early 70's (I was born in 1963 so you do the math), and THE ONLY part I remember is the introduction with the jeeps flying off of dunes. About that scene, I hope there was an experienced chiropractor there as those stunt guys in the back definitely got whiplash! So I just finished the first two episodes (I haven't checked but I'm sure the first in the DVD set was actually the first aired on TV). My thoughts going in were well this is going to be VERY cartoonish and I'm going to laugh at how ridiculous this is. Well I did chuckle a good bit, in the first episode the jeeps fly higher than in the intro! The one guy is hanging on for dear life and must have wrenched his shoulder the way he landed while still holding the 50 cal, strong dude for sure. The hardware used in the show is a mix of Vietnam era stuff and WW2 stuff, I guess whatever Spain had, lol. In the pilot they are using 50 cal guns but in the second they have 30 cal's. This show was made only 20 years after WW2 ended, the advances made in real life weaponry in so short a time is truly amazing isn't it? Anyway, one reviewer said that they never get even a scratch, well in the "pilot" one of the dude's gets killed, in the second episode one guy gets shrapnel in his gut, in both of those episodes the jeeps get damaged or destroyed, so I thought that was cool. This show is the antithesis of the A-Team (where NO ONE dies). In this show there are plenty of dead people, thankfully they are all Nazi soldiers, lol. Oh the second episode The Life Against Death Raid, has one super super hot chick in it, I looked her up here on IMDb and she was miss 1962 Austria, gotta love that. I liked the way in the first episode where it showed the Bedouin Arabs aiding the Nazi's, in todays PC world they'd probably be portrayed as neutrals. If you love the Rat Patrol like I do, you need to check out the movie "Play Dirty" with Michael Caine, it's like an R rated Rat Patrol. In that movie they machine gun the Arabs they run into so they don't warn the Nazi's, hard core. The Rat Patrol was the type of TV that Senator and Presidential nominee John Kerry described as creating a nation of monsters, which is total BS. The much more known show that compares is Combat!, a show that probably took itself too seriously, I would hate that show because they never showed any progress over the years it was always the guys in France, it could have been so much better. At least Rat Patrol knew where it was coming from, lots of bullets, tanks, explosions, jeeps, guns, and a cold beer and hot chick at the end, a guys fantasy for sure. The DVD set is lean and mean, its cheaply priced so don't expect any extra's (I don't think there are any) but its cheap and in a small package which for space reasons is a big plus. Highly recommended for fans.
The Rat Patrol is a 1960s television show that was more comic book action than war drama, meant to appeal to teenage boys and young men at the time. I would watch this growing up in the 1970s. WGN would play it on the weekends as a filler and whenever I was channel surfing and ran across it I would watch. Later on I jumped at the DVD for purchase as I relieved my teenage television years. At only 30 minutes an episode often times the situation was joined in progress or narration would speed up the stories. The stories were mostly ridiculous with the entire war or at least battle based on the actions of 4 enlisted soldiers. Occasionally there was an officer involved but it was very infrequent much like the TV show Combat!, an obvious TV ploy to appeal to the general population. This show would get negative feedback when sold to the British and Australian markets for being so unbelievable with little involvement of any British or Australian soldiers. Inappropriate cultural appropriation also hurt the show overseas. The show's title has the word "Rat" in it which was the name of the ANZAC soldiers who held on to a besieged Tobruk "The Desert Rats." Also, star Christopher George is an American GI wearing a bush hat like an Australian soldier would and not an American helmet. Often the heroes will enter an enemy camp and obliterate it or take prisoners without any casualties. Sometimes the heroes would be shot but be OK by next week. Often they would fight head on with armored vehicles in their unarmored jeeps and win with just their machine guns. With all of this lack of realism, the show's makers could have extended its run longer than 2 seasons by offering some weapon improvements. My favorite suggestion is to have exploding bullets, followed by rocket launchers and as a really special treat have a special fighter plane circling them to be used only as a last resort. The overhead fighter could have a special call sign like Desert Bat or something. As a child I loved the grotesque amount of violence and death and as an adult now I like it for the same reasons except now it's to laugh at how silly this show is. If you are looking for comic book war action, the Rat Patrol is a good choice, too bad they took their show too seriously though as it could have evolved into more fun. 7 of 10. -------------------------------------------------------------- Nov 1, 2006 thoughts: I just bought season one set on MGM DVD. I got it today along with two other shows that I've watched before but had to have likes Linus needs his blanket (for comfort, I know its there if I need it, lol). Anyway, this was the one I popped in of the three I just HAD to see this show again. I would watch Rat Patrol (In Color!) probably during the early 70's (I was born in 1963 so you do the math), and THE ONLY part I remember is the introduction with the jeeps flying off of dunes. About that scene, I hope there was an experienced chiropractor there as those stunt guys in the back definitely got whiplash! So I just finished the first two episodes (I haven't checked but I'm sure the first in the DVD set was actually the first aired on TV). My thoughts going in were well this is going to be VERY cartoonish and I'm going to laugh at how ridiculous this is. Well I did chuckle a good bit, in the first episode the jeeps fly higher than in the intro! The one guy is hanging on for dear life and must have wrenched his shoulder the way he landed while still holding the 50 cal, strong dude for sure. The hardware used in the show is a mix of Vietnam era stuff and WW2 stuff, I guess whatever Spain had, lol. In the pilot they are using 50 cal guns but in the second they have 30 cal's. This show was made only 20 years after WW2 ended, the advances made in real life weaponry in so short a time is truly amazing isn't it? Anyway, one reviewer said that they never get even a scratch, well in the "pilot" one of the dude's gets killed, in the second episode one guy gets shrapnel in his gut, in both of those episodes the jeeps get damaged or destroyed, so I thought that was cool. This show is the antithesis of the A-Team (where NO ONE dies). In this show there are plenty of dead people, thankfully they are all Nazi soldiers, lol. Oh the second episode The Life Against Death Raid, has one super super hot chick in it, I looked her up here on IMDb and she was miss 1962 Austria, gotta love that. I liked the way in the first episode where it showed the Bedouin Arabs aiding the Nazi's, in todays PC world they'd probably be portrayed as neutrals. If you love the Rat Patrol like I do, you need to check out the movie "Play Dirty" with Michael Caine, it's like an R rated Rat Patrol. In that movie they machine gun the Arabs they run into so they don't warn the Nazi's, hard core. The Rat Patrol was the type of TV that Senator and Presidential nominee John Kerry described as creating a nation of monsters, which is total BS. The much more known show that compares is Combat!, a show that probably took itself too seriously, I would hate that show because they never showed any progress over the years it was always the guys in France, it could have been so much better. At least Rat Patrol knew where it was coming from, lots of bullets, tanks, explosions, jeeps, guns, and a cold beer and hot chick at the end, a guys fantasy for sure. The DVD set is lean and mean, its cheaply priced so don't expect any extra's (I don't think there are any) but its cheap and in a small package which for space reasons is a big plus. Highly recommended for fans.