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The 138 half-hour episodes and the one-hour pilot of the service comedy "McHale's Navy" were originally broadcast on ABC from 1962-1966. Although not as well known today as "Hogan's Heroes" (1965-1971 on CBS), it was a precursor and inspiration for that show. Unlike the 1950's peacetime world of Sgt. Bilko ("The Phil Silvers' Show"), these two shows were based on the inherently amusing idea that although WWII was in progress, those involved could still enjoy themselves. While Colonel Hogan and his men operated out of a POW camp in Europe, McHale and his P.T. boat crew were based on an island in the South Pacific. P.T. (pocket torpedo) boats were quite the rage in the early 1960's because of accounts of President Kennedy's WWII service aboard one. The series was given a further boast when Kennedy's exploits were profiled in "PT-109" (1963).
McHale (Ernest Borgnine) choose the island because it is isolated from the area's main Naval base and his main adversary Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn), whose unexplained nickname is "Old Lead Bottom". Binghamton is the Colonel Klink of the series although in this case he and McHale are supposed to be on the same side. McHale and his crew are allowed to stay on the island because it allows them to respond faster to threats from their mutual adversary, the Japanese Navy.
While Colonels Hall and Klink actually seem to like Bilko and Hogan, Binghamton clearly dislikes and resents McHale. The main sources of comedy are the futile attempts of Binghamton and his obsequious subaltern Elroy Carpenter to discredit and discipline McHale and his crew. Of course McHale's crew provides them plenty of opportunities, while their combat performance is excellent their off-duty time is spent on a variety of unauthorized activities.
Only two members of McHale's crew are particularly noteworthy. The bumbling and naïve Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) and money grubbing schemer Lester Gruber (Carl Ballantine), a character loosely based on Ray Walston's Luther Billis in "South Pacific" (1958). Conway was clearly the show's greatest asset.
Season Three was the weakest of the four seasons. By this point the writers were obviously running out of original ideas and in desperation resorted to showcasing Fugi Kobiaji (Yoshio Yoda), an escaped POW. Fugi was a pacifist Japanese sailor being sheltered by the P.T. 109 crew on their island. He had been an "extremely minor character" in the earlier seasons for a lot of good reasons (insert Pearl Harbor here) and whatever comedy potential the idea once had was not well served by the expansion of his screen time.
The series improved a bit in its next and final season when the crew was shifted to the European front and began operating in Italy. Season Four was a classic case of "something so bad that it was almost good", as there was a perverse charm to these surreal episodes which had absolutely no connection with reality.
The series also spawned two feature films, "McHale's Navy" (1964) and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force" (1965).
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
score 7/10
aimless-46 23 March 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1845009/ |
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8-11-2020 11:39:12