One thing I never could figure about “Highway Patrol” was, at the end of each episode, Broderick Crawford would give a little speech about safe driving on the set and in the character of Dan Mathews, even shuffling papers or hanging up the phone, but would end the spiel with “this is Broderick Crawford saying, see you next week”. It was like “I’m Broderick Crawford, actor, but I also do real police work.
‘Sea Hunt’, with Lloyd Bridges, would have the same sort of thing at the end of their shows.
Broderick Crawford lost his drivers license and had to film his driving in the studio’s back lot.
Broderick always wore a suit and tie. Everybody else dressed like a patrolman in a uniform. If Broderick hadn’t made it in acting, he could have been a world champion speed talker.
Those “end tags” were something of a motif with Ziv productions. I think most of them did it for a while... “Sea Hunt,” “Dr. Christian,” “Mr. District Attorney,” and such.
Not too much different than having the actors doing sponsor spots in similar-era network shows. But the Ziv shows were mostly made-for-syndication, so they didn’t have uniform sponsors.