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Archived: 14 December 2000

From the West Coast Rats: Blues Beans and Spam. Yum. Don't have time to read the entire episode synopsis guide? The West Coast Rats have assembled a handy series-at-a-glance list. Also, from the West Coast Rats: 'Twas The Night Before the Convoy -- Or, Visit From Four Rats.

The Rat Patrol Viewing Game: It's something like a drinking game, but since one should never drink and drive a jeep, we've substituted M&Ms.

GEBU The Great Eastern Brew Up (and the woman who never was?) East Coast Rats meet for tea and espionage, and no one gets hurt.

Gary Raymond's filmography page has been updated with his current performance, the lead in a short-run production of Finian's Rainbow at the Fortune Theatre, Covent Garden.

The RAT PATROL theme song ... lyrics? The fearless leader of the Yahoo Club has expressed a desire to reopen this contest to win interesting (if not actually particularly valuable) prizes. Check this spot for more information. Oh, let's be honest: there is no further information. We dare you to create lyrics to go along with that rousing theme, opening or closing version. We double dare you. The West Coast Rats keep threatening they'll write something.

poster: Spain "Turn-of-the-century London is a city at war with itself: A war between the classes and the sexes, where women are beginning to fight for their rights..."

The most recent news we have on Love Lies Bleeding, a film about Jack the Ripper starring a member of the third generation of Raymonds in acting, Emily, (and also featuring Faye Dunaway, Malcolm McDowell, and Wayne Rogers) is already a bit old. The film, which completed production in Budapest last autumn, has been sold by Village Roadshow Pictures for distribution in Germany, Spain, Scandinavia, Portugal, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. Whether or not we'll ever see it in the States and Canada is still a mystery. Hopefully, a film with such an interesting cast will at least appear in art houses or on video. A web-search turns up a few additional informational links in Spain and New Zealand.

Spanish-language links: A (lukewarm) Review | Production Summary

The Washington Post has been doing moments in history: 6 June - 55th Anniversary of D-Day: the AP article on D-Day. 13 May: the surrender of the German army in North Africa.


Archived: 26 March 1999
Time for Hans Gudegast's (Eric Braeden's) birthday again. Somehow we always manage to remember this one -- April 3rd.

Suddenly, Last Summer, with Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Gary Raymond, will be airing on the Turner Classic Movies channel this Saturday, 27 March, at 6 pm Eastern.

Jan's episode reviews and ratings are being added to the Episode Guide and Shameless Ratings System. If you want to know how many lines Tully had or how gullible Dietrich was that week, this is the place to find out. We've also recently listened to soundtracks from three of Gary Raymond's musical theatre appearances.

Shameless Promotion Segment: Robin's grandfather has written a book. He's 82 years old and has worked incredibly hard for several years putting together a wonderful memoir of his World War II experience. It's truly a delightful story, much less about combat than it is about the personal and about the people he met -- Princess Elizabeth, Marlene Dietrich, and General Patton, among others. (I think of it as somewhere between Catch 22 and Saving Private Ryan.) We're very proud of him and want his book to do well, so we're putting the word out about it. This book would make a great gift! It's called Cranking Up a Fine War and it can be found on Barnes and Noble online, or you can read more about it here.

Keep that V-Mail coming... It has been great to hear from so many fans of this and other 60s WWII series. If you have any questions, filmography updates, or anything else to contribute, send us e-mail or post it on the message board. We've been busily adding to the GR filmography and are working on some more film reviews. We hope soon to have more details on the other filmographies, too. Also: a few updated links in Mobilization.

Character Bios: all the information the show gives us -- plus the lowdown on our lads', uhm, nicks and scratches. Rate the episodes! We've added a little survey to the Episode Guide. (Season 1 only, so far.) You can view the whole tally here.

A Rat Patrol Club has been started on Yahoo! We hope it will be a good place for interested fans to hang out and that it will attract new fans who aren't aware of the mailing list or this web site. If it attracts enough members, regular chats and events will be scheduled. You may have to join Yahoo! but we hear that's easy to do...just go to Yahoo! and join up.

Less new: Essays inspired by the current rebroadcast on Canada's History Television: Rat Patrol: From the Beginning (a belated appreciation), and a sociologist and fellow fan shares his musings on The Rat Patrol.


Archived: 12 September 1998

1. Rat Patrol to air in Canada
Thanks to listmember Anna: On History Television (Canada's answer to The History Channel) The Rat Patrol is about to start airing again after a too-long absence. It's on at noon, 6:30 p.m. and at 3:00 a.m. Here's what the History Television web site says about it:

Rat Patrol

Program Description:

A dramatic action-adventure series, Rat Patrol follows the mission of a daring battle unit in the North African theatre of war. Three reckless Americans and a reserved Englishman make up this elite crew of rugged and rowdy fighting men with the task of attacking and demoralizing Hitler's elite Afrika Korps.
Visit the History Television web site here or here.

2. What we'll all be doing Monday night
Guess what? According to the Young and the Restless message board on Delphi, Eric Braeden is a guest on Politically Incorrect on ABC, Monday, September 14.

3. Key to the City
"When he didn't show up at the Emmys, Eric Braeden's absence was noted in the press. When he didn't show up at the annual Young and the Restless fan club event, tongues started wagging again. That's why it's important to note that Eric didn't diss fans, he was out of the country. In fact, he was in Braedenburg, Germany receiving the key to the city. Eric started his acting career as Hans Gudegast, his given name. He changed his stage name to Braeden to honor the community where his family was from in Germany. Now, they've made Eric an honorary citizen and returned the favor." (source: Delphi Young and the Restless message board)


Past Sightings on the Web

Prof. Michael Marino has an essay on the "errors" of Saving Private Ryan on the Film & History Web site. Other commentators bring The Rat Patrol into the discussion--sort of.


" Before ['Saving Private Ryan'], we'd shy away from anything World War II. War dramas are expensive, and it's been so long since one worked. I mean, how many years has it been since The Rat Patrol?"
-- unidentified TV-studio president, Sept. 26-Oct. 2 1998 TV Guide


" Compare these figures with those of Seinfeld. So far this year it has a rating of 20.2. This means a smaller proportion of the country watches Seinfeld than watched Who's the Boss in 1988.... Go back further in time, and you'll find that shows like The Rat Patrol and Tony Orlando and Dawn had ratings of about 20. Thus the breadth of Seinfeld's audience is not at all exceptional. By this measure, it would be as logical to treat the end of Night Court as a cultural cataclysm."
-- James Collins, Goodbye Already: As the Seinfeld hoopla hits an annoying crescendo, historical perspective is in order, Time Online


"I was 7 years old in 1964. The media at that time was everything. I knew what time it was by what was on TV.... So, we were the first generation that watched television from the moment we got home from school to the moment we went to bed. 'It's Sunday night, so I'm going to watch Ed Sullivan,' or 'Hey, The Rat Patrol is on, so I'm not going anywhere.'" -- Tom Hanks, Sun Newspapers interview


People Online Investigates: Lynda Day George



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