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Phil Silvers featured in the show now universally known as 'Bilko', after the character he played, a wisecracking, gambling sergeant in the US Army. A long-running situation comedy from the early years of television, it still stands up as exceptionally funny today.
Over 143 episodes, Sgt Ernest Bilko plotted, schemed, and stumbled over his lines (this was live television, after all). The pauses and the ad libs add to the genius of this series, viewed five decades later. It also made a star of Silvers, who up to this point had been a comedian, actor, and singer (he was Gene Kelly's pal in 'Cover Girl', for example) - although following Bilko, he never really found a suitable starring role again.
In 1996, a misguided attempt to bring Bilko to the big screen, starring Steve Martin, failed, possibly because the character really could only be played by one man. Original episodes still air regularly over the world, and a collection of episodes (sadly only a fraction of the ones available) were released on DVD for the 50th anniversary of the show.
score 8/10
didi-5 1 December 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2166925/ |
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12-10-2020 03:22:06