The Rat Patrol ran from 1966–1968 and built the kind of audience that still talks about it — a 7/10 TMDB score is the lasting evidence. Streaming catalogues shift constantly, so use TV Butler below to find out exactly where it is available in your region right now. Every episode of its run is worth tracking down. With 20 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is no cult obscurity — it is a mainstream audience that found something genuinely good. The series format has produced a lot of memorable television, but The Rat Patrol sits at the top end of it. Search TV Butler by title and it will find you the fastest route to watching in your country, regardless of which platform has it.

Originally commissioned by ABC, The Rat Patrol quickly became exactly the kind of show that viewers rearrange their evenings for. The exploits of four Allied soldiers — three Americans and one Englishman — who are part of a long-range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II. Their mission: "to attack, harass and wreak havoc on Field Marshal Rommel's vaunted Afrika Korps". The series ran for 2 seasons (1966–1968), building a story that gave its audience time to invest properly. The action sequences are expensive-looking without drawing attention to their own budget — they serve the story rather than interrupting it. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

The series you put on to unwind and find yourself sitting forward in your seat twenty minutes in. The run is exactly the right length — it gets in, does what it came to do, and gets out. Action television that earns its sequences through narrative investment is always more satisfying than spectacle designed to distract from weak storytelling, and The Rat Patrol understands the distinction. If Knight Rider is already on your list of favourites, the tonal similarities are real — though The Rat Patrol goes its own direction once you get past the setup. The audience it has built over time is the honest signal of quality.