Reviews

McHale's Navy was one of those shows one would watch, even if the plots were usually silly, because one couldn't but laugh at the predictable outcomes. Tim Conway's comedic genius became apparent in the Carol Burnett Show several years after this show went off the air. Ernest Borgnine went far from type, playing a scheming conniver and doing it perfectly; and Bob Hastings played the eternally put-upon aide to Captain Wallace B. ("Old Leadbottom") Binghamton...who'd been awarded a Purple Heart after having been shot in the behind in prior service. Binghamton was portrayed by Joe Flynn, an incredibly-underappreciated comic talent who'd toiled around Hollywood for years in minor bit parts. His big break was landing the part of Frank, the perpetually-unemployed (and proud of it) brother-in-law to Joey Bishop.

In the meantime, Ed Montagne and Si Rose were putting together a sitcom featuring a group of Navy misfits who were relentlessly tormented by their base captain. Casting the captain was a challenge. He was to be a short-fused, hot-tempered and perpetually exasperated officer. They considered actors such as Marty Engels and even Danny Thomas, without being sold on anyone. Enter Joey Bishop...his show's cast had been heavily re-worked, partly because Flynn got most of the laughs. He was let go just when the cast of McHale's Navy had been finalized, and when Montagne and Rose got wind of it they called Flynn in for a screen test. The rest, as is said, was history. Flynn was the perfect Captain Binghamton. Thanks, Joey!

In the 1960s and '70s, comedy record albums were as popular as music albums. George Carlin, Cheech & Chong and Rodney Dangerfield were just a few of the big names making comedy records. There were two others, though, who fit the political satire mold. Vaughn Meader was known for his dead-on (no pun intended) vocal impression of John Kennedy, president of the USA in the early '60s; and Richard M. Dixon - that's right, DIXON - who not only had Nixon's mannerisms and speech quirks down pat (again, no pun intended) but who also bore an eerie physical resemblance to Mr. Nixon. When Nixon won the 1968 presidential election, Dixon saw a gold mine. He even changed his name legally to play up the resemblance. Both men found their comedy careers come to a screeching halt, one by virtue of an assassination and the other a resignation from office.

This production was one of those silly half-hour shows, but the last few minutes for me were funny. The unspoken references to the PT-109 (Kennedy's command) and that horrible Boston Brahmin accent Kennedy affected, which Conway barely brought off, ended an otherwise stupid show. Congresswoman Clark must have been from Great Barrington or Lee. She was blessedly free of the eastern Massachusetts accent most outlanders assume is statewide. (yes, I'm from western Mass.)

My mom's older brother had the unfortunate distinction - shared by too many GIs, jarheads, flyboys and sailors - of having been taken prisoner and endured POW camp existence during both WWII and the Korean War. He rarely spoke of his trials but did once compare his time in a WWII Luftstalag as fair (the Germans' conditions were almost as miserable as those of the Allied POWS) with those in a North Korean POW camp, which he described as savage. My uncle (6'4" and 220 lb or so) returned from that hell barely weighing 100 lb.

Why I related all this, is for that one sadistic, pitiful yet hilarious scene wherein Sefton (William Holden) had bartered who-knows-what for one fresh egg from the Germans - which he slowly and deliberately fried atop the woodstove in the barracks. He ate it slowly, in front of the other POWS who'd gathered 'round to just SMELL the egg cooking. I wonder how many returned military guys could relate to that!

I remember seeing this show in the early 1970s when it first aired. Watching it a second time last evening (3-3-2024) only brought back and reinforced my fifty-year-old reactions to the performances of all of the characters. Cleavon Little and Demond Wilson were cringeworthy as the juke-jiving, overacting black thieves (think Jimmie Walker in "Good Times") and Rob Reiner wasn't far behind with his treacly, over-compensating white 1970s liberal persona who would bend over backwards to show compassion. "I know what you've gone through??" - who did he think he was kidding? I was just a teenager in the early '70s but even I knew condescension when I saw it.

I give this a 7 only because I thought Jean Stapleton was a riot, singing that ear-piercing "song."

I gave this a 3/10 rating only for seeing the delectable Linda Lawson when the show started. Had I known how maudlin the story would progress to its inevitable, silly and tragicomic end it would have been 1/10 - if only because I wouldn't have been able to give it a rating lower than THAT. I was waiting for Steve Reeves to fly in and rescue everyone. Now, since I seem to be the only reviewer not able to leave a succinct review, I shall regale you all by repeating it.

I gave this a 3/10 rating only for seeing the delectable Linda Lawson when the show started. Had I known how maudlin the story would progress to its inevitable, silly and tragicomic end it would have been 1/10 - if only because I wouldn't have been able to give it a rating lower than THAT. I was waiting for Steve Reeves to fly in and rescue everyone. I gave this a 3/10 rating only for seeing the delectable Linda Lawson when the show started. Had I known how maudlin the story would progress to its inevitable, silly and tragicomic end it would have been 1/10 - if only because I wouldn't have been able to give it a rating lower than THAT. I was waiting for Steve Reeves to fly in and rescue everyone.

Where do I begin? Many elements of this show can be taken in two or more ways. The most obvious conundrum for me is Patricia Barry's role and presence. She appeared three times on Perry Mason; it's difficult to find a more beautiful woman capable of playing such lying, slimy characters. She uses people in her orbit the way a car mechanic uses his tools. Once they've served their purpose, they're put away until the next time. (If you think Dorine Hopkins was psychotic, wait two seasons for Eva Belter to make her demonic appearance.) The hook of an older woman being wooed by a younger man is nothing these days. I had a very satisfying relationship for several years with a woman 13 years my senior, myself, and she turned guys' heads when she was 50 years old. Karl Held makes his first of a number of appearances as David Gideon, the know-it-all kid who Mason repeatedly puts in his place as a tyro. There were rumbles around Hollywood that William Hopper was considering his departure from the series (probably spread by his mom, Hedda Hopper) and that Held was possibly his replacement. He was gone when the producers realized he had all the charisma of Albert Gore, and came to satisfactory terms with Hopper instead. Lastly, the business of entering and exiting vehicles from the curbside door is simply explained...for years, California had a statute on the books forbidding the use of the driver's door on a public way, for safety reasons. It had nothing to do with a one- or three-camera shooting.

I want to say this episode was a good watch, but too many things just got under my skin.

I've had trouble keeping up with the twists and turns and dead-end plot leads. The cast, however, was excellent. John Holland played up to his slimy character portrayals, whether in Perry Mason or other presentations; and Robert Harris plays his scheming, devious best as Claude Demay. To me, though, the really best character portrayal was that of Paula Raymond. How any actress could be burdened with those awful late 1950s-early '60s fashions and unflattering hairstyles and, nevertheless, still have her beauty show through speaks volumes about how good-looking she was. She added depth to the limitations of her character, which isn't as easy to do as one would assume. Ray Kellogg played is typical Texan with a bit of humor, too. Learning Voss's true killer was a twist, but not a real surprise. All in all, a good watch.

I enjoyed this presentation very much, and gave it 8/10. My reason for posting a review, frankly, is to register my incredulity regarding the previous reviewer's post. I rarely criticize another reviewer's post, but this time I must do so. I will give him/her the benefit of the doubt, and assume he/she is blind and had his/her seeing-eye dog type his/her review for him/her.

Matlock ran even longer (by one season) than Griffith's early '60s smash hit "The Andy Griffith Show." That may have been because a TV series ran to 26-30 episodes per season, as opposed to the 39-40 episodes twenty years prior (albeit those were 30-minute shows, as opposed to Matlock's 60 minutes.) At any rate, Matlock logged 181 shows over nine seasons with the title character's name always spelled "Matlock." It boggles my mind that the reviewer - with all of that help - STILL manages to mis-spell his name as MADLOCK. Please, pay attention to details. I have a knee-jerk reaction both to stupidity and ignorance. To mis-spell a name once shows ignorance; to do so multiple times shows stupidity or sloth.

Back to the show in question - it's so nice to see Julie Sommars redux. She and Griffith seemed to show some smoldering chemistry between them in every show they shared.

We've got a trifecta going in this presentation! In addition to Terry Becker (D. A. Everett Ransome) we are treated to the town miser, Richard Hale as Robert Tepper; and John Dennis as Deputy Sheriff Ward Lewis. Becker's had a few good roles when he could keep himself under control, but here he indulges in histrionics of the first order. Simply put, Becker was Francis from "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" before Mark Holton portrayed Francis twenty-five years later. Shrill, obnoxious loudmouth Becker (a minor-league Dennis Patrick for whom Becker could pass as a brother) got on my nerves after almost six seconds' exposure to him. Hale and Dennis don't know where THEIR brake pedals are, either. It's a credit to the writers and director that this presentation keeps the viewers' interest, right to the end of the show.

Parker Fennelly, "Titus Moody" of Fred Allen's "Allen's Alley" repute - and the voice of Pepperidge Farms Bakery commercials from the 1960s and '70s ("Pepridge Fahms remembahs!") was one of those voices everyone knew and whose face few people saw. He bore a striking resemblance to Percy Kilbride of the famed Ma & Pa Kettle movie franchise, and assumed Kilbride's starring role in the last Kettle movie when Kilbride died before production started. I would recognize Fennelly's voice a mile away; it's the Ellsworth/Friendship/Bucksport/Mt. Desert Island central Maine Coast accent and dialect. (Most of my dad's mother's ancestors are from that area, and it's so easy to slip into it from my western Massachusetts way of speaking.) He's that same type of actor as Arthur Hunnicutt in the two Bonanza presentations featuring Obie and Walter...low-key and screamingly funny. Mr. Fennelly takes a shovel pass from the writers and runs it 80 yards for a score. I'm not much on posting reviews for the most part, but this definitely is worth the watch. I enjoyed it and recommend it to any and all.

Warner Bros. Studios hit a home run with the Maverick franchise; it was so good, it survived the departure of James Garner after the third season and soldiered on with Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly, no slouch of an actor, himself) and his cousin Beauregarde Maverick (Roger Moore... no saint here, and yes - that's how the writers spelled Beau's name, with two "Es." ) The delectable Ruta Lee appears as a saloon singer, not that it has anything to do with the plot. Even the producers seemed to realize this offering was a stinker and cast her for eye candy only. Leo Gordon and Kelly worked well together, but couldn't save this from going down for the third time. Jay Novello does NOT present himself as a Mexican bandit, but more as a Hollywood Mexican bandit stereotype. All things considered, this episode was forgettable.

If y'all grew up with the original TV series and its surrealistic humor, take a pass on this production...better yet, watch it once to just to learn one can't bring back the past. There's none of the off-the-wall humor of the TV series. Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor) has to work hard to deliver stupid lines. Even Arnold Ziffel is phoning in his performance...although this Arnold is probably the tenth-great grandpig of the original. (Where's Cynthia, the basset hound??)

I watched this mainly to see if it was any good. There's two hours of my life I'll never recover.

Now, even though I've seen one-sentence reviews, I have to post 600 characters to put up mine. Thank the IMDB people for such discrimination.

I saw John Cleese and Steve Martin mentioned in the credits, when wondering whether or not to give it a whirl. I managed to make it almost five minutes into this re-boot of the original franchise. There's five minutes of my life I can never recover. While Cleese is a riot - even when he pulls a Tim Conway, or a Jack Benny, Jack Webb or even Johnny Carson, all of whom were masters of the non-plussed stare and extended non-speech - and, while Steve Martin is a master of slapstick and silliness on the level of the Three Stooges - they work well together. This STILL isn't enough to save this tepid movie premise...let alone the execrable performances of the supporting cast. Peter Sellers was a once-in-a-lifetime comic talent. Herbert Lom (Dreyfus) was the perfect comic foil, who with Sellers helped each other to be greater than the sum of their contributions.

Sorry, this doesn't cut it. After a few minutes I found a rerun of Green Acres which was ten times as funny.

In an episode from the previous season, Bubba Skinner was attached to the LAPD from Sparta to help track down and crack a California-Mississippi criminal enterprise. These guys played for keeps, and didn't let people get in their way of doing "business." At the end of that Season Four episode, there were a lot of loose ends untied.

This episode from the following Season Five attempted to tie up all those loose ends. Pat Day (Debra Stipe), while not particularly beautiful or even pretty, is insanely attractive...and she and Bubba very quickly pick up their romance from where they left off from the previous season's show - and the Vietnamese teenager whose life Bubba was charged with, to make sure he made it to court alive to testify against a truly vile character, quickly renewed his friendship/hero-worship for Skinner. Pat Day wasted no time renewing her romance with Skinner, either. Finding the bad seed deep inside LAPD, who was doing his/her level best to eliminate witnesses to the court case against the mob was a chore and a half. It was so satisfying to see that clown put on ice so that the wheels of justice could grind to their inevitable conclusion. Seeing that slimeball Atty. Epp from Sparta finally be exposed certainly was no disappointment, either.

I can't help but get the feeling that this show (and its predecessor, as well) were written and produced as a hidden pilot to spin Alan Autry and Debra Stipe off into their own series based in La-La Land. If so, I'm glad it wasn't picked up by any of the networks. Autry was a mainstay in Sparta's story arc...in L. A. he'd have been a fish out of water.

J. K. Campbell - while turning in a reasonably decent performance here as Jack Berlin - just ain't Ed Wingate, that vaguely disturbing, hilarious Inspector Clouseau-like FBI gumshoe of other shows. ("I am...the wind!") In other scenes, we see Ben Matlock (Andy Griffith) doing a late-night refrigerator raid in the kitchen of the health spa he and Michelle Thomas (Nancy Stafford) are staying at while investigating the murder of exercise trainer Christie Huntley (Michelle Zeitlin). She was offed, ostensibly, by the wife of a man purportedly having had an extramarital fling with her; but, as Matlock is defending her, we know she's not guilty. Sooo...whodunit?

To me, anything with both John Dehner and Strother Martin is an almost must-watch. This presentation, about a former high-wire walker regaining not just his confidence but his self-respect is definitely worth the watch. Complicating this effort are the shenanigans of two crooked gamblers, as well as the paid services of a saloon waitress, who are determined not to lose their bet money. Paladin contributes his typical assistance to thwart the bad guys.

Correcting an earlier review which said the radio version of HGWT was on the air "just a few years earlier," the TV series debuted in September of 1957. The radio series was a spin-off, debuting in November of 1958 - an unusual reversal of the prevalent practice of the early 1950s as TV became the dominant entertainment medium rather than radio.

For its first five years, HGWT rivalled Maverick as a quirky, offbeat yet thoughtful Western-themed series. Mr. Boone wanted to end the series after five years, going out on top...but NOOOO, the producers talked him into a sixth and final season wherein he obviously did what little he had to do to put out episode after episode - and it shows. Some productions approached those of previous seasons; this one was preposterous. Bill Schallert and Bethel Leslie as Chinese ethnic nationals?? Give me a break. (Philip Ahn and Nobu Atsumi McCarthy would have been a casting home run.) The story line was tedious, the acting lame and the epilogue predictable. It's been suspected by some Hollywood higher-ups that Mr. Boone sabotaged Season Six out of sheer spite - he was kept from doing other projects for a year merely from the unnecessary prolongation of HGWT. After viewing this presentation, I wouldn't dispute the conjecture.

While not one of the more prolific reviewers on the IMDB forum, I do post a review when it's warranted. This is one of those times, mainly because of the participation of one of my three favorite actresses from the 1960s and '70s - Elaine DeVry, Terri Garr and Kathie Browne. In another review of one of another show's episodes ("Wink of an Eye" from the Star Trek original series [S3, E11] as Deela or from the Bonanza pentateuch as Adam Cartwright's desired, Laura) I referred to Ms. Browne as "delectable." This is a perfect example of her range, skill and beauty. Here, she runs the full gamut from witch to femme fatale, doing both superbly. While she was great with Harry Carey, Jr., she excelled with Richard Boone. The three of them turned an otherwise predictable, mundane plot into a very well-done half-hour's production. Tom Hennesy adds a bit of comic foil to the proceedings. While there are some episodes I've forborn watching after five or six times, I never tire of this one. Well worth the watch.

Most episodes are serious, some even disturbing. This one has a serious theme, with a secondary theme that's hilarious - that of Bubba being the "father" of an abandoned baby left at his door. ("No one who knows me would leave a baby with me!") As well, Bubba's the target of merciless kidding from everyone else in SPD, as well as Mrs. Tibbs, the orphanage manager to where the baby was brought, Bubba's landlady, the whorehouse madam on the outskirts of the county, and probably a few others I missed. Parker in particular is a riot, bordering on vicious. (Given the torment Parker has borne from Bubba in previous shows, I'd say it was justified!) The ending was somewhat melancholy, as are most of the shows in this production...so it fits right in. Well worth the watch.

Another reviewer mentioned her dislike of Warren Frost's character, Billy Lewis. Billy is Ben Matlock's Nemesis. He's everything he accuses Matlock of being...scrimy, cheap, duplicitous, vengeful and conniving. Matlock IS cheap in the sense he won't pay someone to do what he (thinks he) can do himself, often with hilarious results. I love Billy's character. If God was the vengeful type, Billy Lewis would have been God's revenge on Ben Matlock. An added bonus was the occasional appearance of Kathleen Freeman as Lucy Lewis, Billy's viper of a sister with whom he shared 40 miserable years back home in Mount Harlan.

This series was very successful for its first five seasons, and Richard Boone had planned to go out on a high note when the fifth season was completed. For whatever reason, the producers decided otherwise and coerced Boone into a sixth season.

This, then, is one of the resultant shows from that last season. To say that Boone "phoned it in" would be an understatement. Rather than a fine slow-roasted prime rib, medium-rare all the way through, we got sausage. Lawrence Dobkin and Joanna Barnes couldn't save this mis-directed mismash of a production. Such a pity, as it could very well have been far better presented had anyones' hearts actually been into doing so. I enjoyed most every episode from the first five seasons, but watching any of them from Season Six is laborious and they're best forgotten. Unless one is a diehard Boone fan, these are best forgotten.

Jack Webb was known for squared-away, economical production and for the most part his instincts were spot-on (except for his prediliction for the color orange...yeeeech). One actor who'd have made this show a slam-dunk would have been the tall, gaunt, 150-pound malefactor...JAMES GRIFFITH! I doubt he'd have acted for scale, but he'd have been perfect.

Otherwise, a solid entry in the Dragnet pantheon.

This is probably one of the best DVD episodes, if not THE best. It's certainly over-the-top, but in a good and funny way. Most people like the cascading walnuts out of the closet, but for me - the best scene was Rob telling Laura over the phone "I still have my thumbs, and you can't do much about that!" - to which she just laughs in response...and a not-very-cheery laugh, at that.

The only show's episode which even comes close to this one is the final episode of Newhart, in which at the end Dick awakens next to his wife after a particularly disturbing nightmare. (Or IS it Dick?)

This is the Cancel Culture if ever I saw it. I've seen Leonard Stone in dozens of Westerns as well as several Perry Mason shows. He never fails to play a slimeball of the first order - and he certainly doesn't disappoint here, either. To show his students how hip he is, he completely stomps on the rights of anyone with opinions different from his...and indoctrinates his students in the bargain. "Carl," the low-rent pot pusher who Joe Friday arrests, is no better.

Friday has far more patience than I would have had under these circumstances. It was also gratifying to see some of the students stick up for him. Quite a moving episode.