sgttom I first saw the Rat Patrol when I borrowed season 2 from my Uncle. To put it in plane words, I don't really like the show at all. Why don't I like it? Most of the plots are weak. They are resolved way to easily. Even though they are often assigned challenging missions 90% of the time they pull through quite easily. The acting is OK, Troy however bothers me. His character isn't consistent. He'll lay down hard on his men but when it comes to himself he often does what he tells his men not too. I think his sternness or tough guy attitude is somewhat fake. And I am just personally annoyed by him too some extent. Well then there's Moffitt, he is much better then Troy, in my opinion a much better actor. The only flaw I have with him is his bad jokes get annoying at times. Tully and Hitch are OK. Dietrich is in my opinion the best part of the show. His character amuses me. He is perfect for the, bad guy who is not so bad, character he plays. The one thing that really ruins the show is; Captain Dietrich, who seems to be an intelligent man, is defeated again and again by the Rat Patrol. The show would be much more amusing if The two enemies had more challenging battles, where both would have to use there heads instead of the Rat Patrol super-manning through all their challenges and slaughtering their stupid Nazi counterparts. As for authenticity well it is poor. The uniforms have the WWII Look and are OK for most people but as a Reenactor I can pick them apart. First off the tan uniforms they wear in each episode would not be worn in combat. They look like Summer Khaki Dress Fatigues. The proper uniform would be Olive Drab Wool pants and shirts. Troy wears some kind of tall jack boot. Tully and Hitch wear German Low Quarter boots, with British Gators, and Moffitt wear US rough outs. Well all the US guys should be wearing low boots and leggings and Moffitt should be wearing low boots and gators. The worst thing of all is the bazaar guns they carry in the First season. They seem to be some kind of MP40 or MP41 with a custom wooden stock, and with a weird looking barrel added on. I think the Rat Patrol would be much better if they had done these three things: Made them into 45 minute episodes so the Plot could develop more. Strengthen the tension between Troy and Dietrich. Get rid of most of the Jeep battles and have more Guerrilla, Sabator type fighting. Yes I know a big part of the Show was the Jeep battles but they are just a bit corny. The German bullets just seem to completely miss the Rat Patrol's jeeps completely every time. Also I don't think a 50 cal machine gun can blow up a Half Track. My little brothers like it but it just doesn't take it for me.

verbusen 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.

shanakin I am a child of the seventies having grown up in and around the time and as a kid I can remember this being on in the afternoon and played on Saturday afternoon's. Two of my earliest best friends in this world were named Korey and Coy and we would watch this with great enthusiasm being only age 7 to 9 years old. My father at the time owned a jeep and after the show aired we would go outside and play the Rat Patrol. I always seemed to pick Tully to play because he always drove the jeep and we would spend an hour or two just making up our own adventures as we went along. My memories of this are quite strong when I still watch this series as it reflects a time when I had no worries in the world. I am not a violent person because of this series even for all the explosions and gun play it just makes feel good to watch it and because of that it truly is one of my favorite series of all time.

yenlo Each episodes title had the word Raid in it. This show rode in on the heels of the highly popular COMBAT. However it sadly lacked the excitement and interesting story lines that Combat had. The same U.S. and British guys fought the same German Afrika Corp guy week in and week out. Sometimes they all teamed up with each other. I remember buying a few Dell comic books the show generated. The stories in those weren't any better.