Real Stories of the Highway Patrol

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Real Stories Of The Highway Patrol is a half-hour syndicated television series which ran in the United States for six seasons from March 22, 1993^[1] to June 29, 1998 for a total of 780 episodes,^[2] capitalizing on the success of "real-life" police series such as Cops. Production companies were Mark Massari Productions, and Leap Off Productions, and was distributed by Genesis Entertainment, New World International, and later New World/Genesis Distribution. The show described as Cops meets America's Most Wanted.

Format[]

The series revolved around the stories of highway patrol officers and state police from across the country, who would give commentary on a particularly difficult (or sometimes, comedic) arrest they made. At times, the officer's work caused them grievous injury and a subsequent commendation from their department. Each crime and subsequent arrest was adapted for the viewing audiences, though some segments were shot in a traditional multiple-camera setup, rather than emulating the single-camera cinéma vérité style of COPS.

The series was hosted by Maury Hannigan, who at the time was Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol.

In popular culture[]

• The show was spoofed in a segment of the 2000 movie The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
• A similarity of the show was a segment featured in the Beavis and Butt-Head episode "Dream On" called True Stories of the Highway Patrol.
• In 1994, Saturday Night Live parodied the show as Real Stories of the Arkansas Highway Patrol, and featured John Goodman.
• In the first episode of King of the Hill, a character claims that her mother's arrest was filmed on Real Stories of the Highway Patrol.
• In 1998, Ben Stiller parodied Real Stories of the Highway Patrol on Saturday Night Live. Darrell Hammond portrayed host Maury Hannigan when he sported a mustache.
• In the 1998 Leslie Nielsen comedy Wrongfully Accused, host Hannigan appears in a cameo (along with America's Most Wanted host John Walsh) in which he asks Nielsen's character Ryan Harrison, who's trying to make a getaway, if he has any "Real Stories" he'd like to tell.

See also[]

• World's Wildest Police Videos

References[]

External links[]

• Real Stories of the Highway Patrol at IMDb
• Real Stories of the Highway Patrol show on aol.com