**SPOILERS** Not for what you might think, though. This episode does indeed involve a hitchhiker, but the rest of the story is nothing at all like the description listed by IMDb. The bad guy in this case is a murderous store owner who tries to collect on worker's (whether migrant or local) death benefits. Mathews and CHP get involved when an insurance company files a complaint with them on theses benefits. There the similarity ends.
This is one of the first episodes, and the cars they use show it. They have several makes of patrol cars, including a two door sedan, and Dan Mathews is even driving a normally marked Patrol Car rather than an unmarked prowl car, like he has in later episodes.
As usual, Broderick Crawford is brusque, fast talking, and unapologetically non politically correct. I liked the series when I was a little kid, and this is the second running of these stories on very late night METV. They are a fresh look at how T.V. handled these dramas in that time; I like them, still, for different reasons, though.
They get the bad guy, and his acting is just really good as he tries to get out of what they caught him red-handed committing. Robert Emhardt plays the complete snake in this one, and magnificently so. The way they directed and shot these episodes absolutely demanded top notch acting, and they got it in almost every show. Because it is on AFTER 77 Sunset Strip, I'll probably try to stay awake for "77", too. No guarantees, though.
This is one of the first episodes, and the cars they use show it. They have several makes of patrol cars, including a two door sedan, and Dan Mathews is even driving a normally marked Patrol Car rather than an unmarked prowl car, like he has in later episodes.
As usual, Broderick Crawford is brusque, fast talking, and unapologetically non politically correct. I liked the series when I was a little kid, and this is the second running of these stories on very late night METV. They are a fresh look at how T.V. handled these dramas in that time; I like them, still, for different reasons, though.
They get the bad guy, and his acting is just really good as he tries to get out of what they caught him red-handed committing. Robert Emhardt plays the complete snake in this one, and magnificently so. The way they directed and shot these episodes absolutely demanded top notch acting, and they got it in almost every show. Because it is on AFTER 77 Sunset Strip, I'll probably try to stay awake for "77", too. No guarantees, though.