Shark Bytes

Misfits...Nah.......Gay? almost certainly darlinks.....

I lurved the way they punched German ass every week! Lucky boys...

This was an exciting show, but made a boo-boo.

In the show, the good guys ride around in jeeps with machine guns.

The real group they represent, the Long Range Desert Patrol, did their thing in half-tracks.

WHOOPS!!!

Man, what is it not to love about this show?! It even separated itself from WWII newsreels, so as not to get confused, by listing itself In Color on the opening credits. I was a kid but thought it was cool that they did that. What is the World's record for outsmarting a German Afrika Corp. Unit? Hitler would have personally flown down to Tunisia and executed that outfit. It was hilarious. Also watching the machine gunners almost getting flung off the backs of the jeeps was kewl. Trivia, Christopher George actually "died" on this program and didn't know it! He was somewhat injured in one jeep accident when in rolled over and onto his chest. He sustained some tissue damage to his heart and died unfortunately later in 1983. Of a heart attack.

I posted "never jumped" because the minute anyone saw the jeeps jumping over the sand dunes in a WWII version of The Super Bowl of Motocross, it should have tipped them off to code "suspend reality now"...and so it went. Easily-noticed historical accuracies and physical/tactical impossibilities abounded on the show (Yeah, I know, bullets ricocheting off sand, etc, etc). So? It was meant, from the get-go, to be escapist macho entertainment at a time in history where WWII-based movies and TV shows were fairly popular. The theme music was great, too, both in the beginning and during the show. Yeah, I too had a toy Rat Patrol jeep I got for Christmas and I watched the show when I was very young, then later in the early 70s in syndication. With or without competition from Laugh-In, the show would have breathed its last before too long simply from having worn out the novelty premise (jumping jeeps/desert guerillas harassing a superior force, single-handedly) it had from the beginning. Even as many years as it's been since I've seen the show, I distinctly remember that RP was getting weaker in season two (I could tell the difference between the seasons' repeats because the last season's opening had gun sounds in it)....

'Rat' ruled! I loved the opening with that jump over the sand dune. The missions were outrageous, but with Christopher George leading them they couldn't fail. I now like it twice as much knowing it was filmed in Almeria,Spain (home of many Italian Westerns). they used many of the same locations.

This show strayed far from reality and one could see it was a bit ridiculous that 4 soldiers could knock off 100 krauts every week but we are supposed to be talking about entertainment. This fit the bill as good entertainment in that a lot of action was packed into a half hour. This was only on for two seasons so it didn't get a chance to go downhill. Unless one feels this was too ridiculous to watch in the first place.

The Rat Patrol was truly ridiculous...and so cool that it was wonderful. My father always wondered why they were driving jeeps in the desert as they so vulnerable to sand damage. The British used '36 Chev trucks. Besides, it seemed to make more sense to send a few Hawker Hurricanes in and finish the job from the sky. But who cares? It was fun, and it had the British soldier as an equal partner to the Americans, something that rarely happened in the otherwise excellent Combat. Cool show!

aah,the rat patrol.four maverick misfits(did you ever wonder if they were all kicked out of their own outfits because they were gay) flying over sand dunes hanging on to 50. caliber machine guns. actually,this was my favorite show when it was on.how could any red blooded american not love a show with four studs all in different headgear (what symbolism!) roam the desert every week kicking kraut ass!

Loved it! When I was five or six I got the GI Joe jeep with the machine gun and Joe in his desert uniform...I still have it today. It goes in my grave with me. Rat Patrol ruled! Only bad thing was it was only on two seasons.

Jumped as soon as it aired - although there may be a realistic episode that I don't remember. Even as a kid I thought this was harebrained. Every episode involved two jeeps armed with nothing more powerful than .30 and .50 cal MGs taking on tanks in broad daylight and in the open and boatloads of Krauts with automatic weapons at ranges of about 50 feet! Miraculously, the tanks would explode(!) but not a single Rat would get more than scratched from the combined return fire of about 50 members of the "crack" Afrika Korps. The fact that all but one of the guys were Americans when the story was so obviously based on British units like the Long Range Desert Group and Popski's Private Army added insult to injury! Fortunately, the "Rats" were fighting the dumbest German troops this side of "Garrison's Gorillas". I can suspend a certain amount of disbelief in the interest of artistic license but not this much!!

This is one of the greatest war shows of all time. I wish it was still in reruns today!

I think the show ruled! Just a fun desert warfare show for its time. Unbelievable sure but yet fun, I even read all the paper backs!

What a great F-Bombing show!!! Cruising around the sand in a Jeep hanging onto a 50 cal? Life don't get any better than that!! Unless of course you're doing that with that little Elian Gonzales puke in your sites.

This show jumped the shark the day it was aired. Truly an insult to anyone who has ever been in the military. Mercifully, it only aired two seasons.

Only two seasons for this run, there wasn't enough time for this show to jump