Gomer never did go to Vietnam

bkoganbing

For five seasons Gomer Pyle kept us all amused with his bumbling country boy antics to the distress of his sergeant Vince Carter. With the Vietnam War going on one does not have to speculate about why Pyle was kept stateside.

Although several other people flirted in and out of Gomer Pyle it was a two person show. Sweet lovable Gomer who managed to keep that innocent naivete through basic training with Frank Sutton and then later on when contrary to all realism Carter and Pyle stayed together even after basic training.

Jim Nabors who even got in a song or two over the run of the show with that operatic baritone was in the title role, carrying over from the Andy Griffith Show where he was a gas jockey. Sutton eventually got tired of training him and kind of took him under his wing. Still Pyle would get in and out of trouble each episode and Sgt. Carter's ulcer would grow.

After 5 seasons Gomer Pyle came to an end. I suspect with a lot of real Marines coming home in body bags, the antics of a lovable bumbling Marine just weren't cutting it.

In real life Pyle would have washed out in two weeks.

score 5/10

bkoganbing 26 August 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3532606/