"They're coming here!" - A panicked Colonel Hall (Paul Ford) when a government committee announces that it plans on visiting a base that is "drab.unrecognized.practically asleep"
The Phil Silvers Show: 50th Anniversary Edition DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In the early 1950s, Milton Berle was an almost unstoppable force on television. Other shows, like I Love Lucy, may have garnered higher ratings, but Uncle Miltie ruled his timeslot. It must have seemed like suicide, then, when CBS scheduled the new sitcom You'll Never Get Rich against the second half of Berle's show during the 1955-56 season. Within four weeks, the little sitcom that could bested Berle in the ratings, was moved to the top of the hour, and was renamed The Phil Silvers Show after its star. (The series would undergo yet another title change to Sergeant Bilko when it went into syndication after its network run.)
Silvers stars as Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko, platoon leader of the motor pool at Fort Baxter in Roseville, Kansas. Bilko can salute you with one hand and pick your pocket with the other. He is the post's resident con artist, hosting craps and poker games, taking bets on anything his devious mind can think up, and operating other money-making schemes with the help of Captain Rocco Barbella (Harvey Lembeck, Beach Blanket Bingo) and Corporal Henshaw (Allan Melvin, The Brady Bunch). Especially susceptible to Bilko's "charms" are the members of his platoon, including laconic Private Sam Fender (Herbie Faye, The Michele Lee Show), slovenly Private Duane Doberman (Maurice Gosfield, Top Cat), slightly dense Private Dino Paperelli (Billy Sands, McHale's Navy), and firecracker Private Zimmerman (Mickey Freeman). Colonel John Hall (Paul Ford) tries to rein in the gambling, but with Bilko running bingo games during study periods and starting a pool to bet on how many days Barbella will be confined to quarters after being caught gambling, it proves to be a difficult task.
Bilko may be a master of the scam, but his soft heart often leads him to lose in the end. In the series' first episode, "New Recruits," Bilko loses the platoon's money at poker when the game's other players outsmart him with a well-positioned mirror. Bilko vows revenge, but he can't get his hands on any money.until he's put in charge of a group of new recruits, each with a pocketful of money from home. He begins thinking of ways he can get their money, but is shocked when the new recruits ask him to hold their money so that they can use it for a vacation later on. Touched by the fact that the men trust him, he can't bring himself to use their money at a poker rematch, even if it is a guaranteed win.
In "Doberman's Sister," Private Doberman's sister plans on attending Family Day, and base rules stipulate that all female visitors must be set up on a date with a soldier for the festivities. No one dares volunteer to take out Doberman's sister out of fear that she'll be as ugly as he is. Bilko tricks Zimmerman into saying yes by telling him that it's a proven fact that the uglier the brother, the prettier the sister. Soon everyone wants to date the sister.including Bilko, who starts to actually believe his own poppycock theory.
The episodes in this collection feature several standouts that include appearances by guest actors that would go on to become famous in their own shows. Fred Gwynne (The Munsters) appears as "The Stomach," an eating champion in whom Bilko sees as a ringer in the barracks eating contest ("The Eating Contest"). Charlotte Rae (The Facts of Life) guests as a captain's wife who gives a lecture on classical music as a deterrent to gambling. None of the men want to attend.until Bilko starts taking bets on how many times she'll adjust her girdle during her speech ("The Twitch"). Dick Van Dyke (The Dick Van Dyke Show) plays the "Hillbilly Whiz," a Southerner whose skills at chucking rocks leads Bilko to recruit him as pitcher for both the platoon's losing baseball team and the New York Yankees. Yankees-affiliated cameos in this episode include Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, and Red Barber. Other episodes feature guest spots by Julie Newmar (Batman), Alan Alda (M*A*S*H), Larry Storch (F-Troop), and Al Lewis (The Munsters).
Beneath all the wackiness, The Phil Silvers Show is actually quite subversive. It gently mocks the Army and the government before it became "cool" to do so. Many episodes center on the ineffectualness of the Army and government officials. Of course, the show often does this in crazy ways. In "The Court Martial," the top brass at Fort Baxter decide that they will set a record for inducting the most new recruits in the shortest amount of time. Corners are cut, which is how Zippo the chimp (AKA Harry Speakup) ends up in the Army. When the mistake is discovered, they can't simply show Zippo the door because then there will be a discrepancy in the paperwork that has already been sent to Washington, so it is decided that they'll court martial him instead, with Bilko as his council. This episode is hilarious, and besides - who can resist a chimp on roller skates?
The Phil Silvers Show was created by Nat Hiken, who was also the show's head writer. The series won the Emmy for "Best Comedy Writing" in each of its four seasons on the air. Hiken would go on to create Car 54, Where Are You? which featured several Silvers veterans.
The episodes in The Phil Silvers Show: 50th Anniversary Edition include "New Recruits," "The WAC," "The Horse," "The Eating Contest," "Bivouac," "The Twitch," "The Investigation," "The Revolutionary War," "The Court Martial," "The Con Men," "A Mess Sergeant Can't Win," "Doberman's Sister," "Bilko's Tax Trouble," "The Big Scandal," "Hillbilly Whiz," "Bilko the Art Lover," "Bilko Joins the Navy," and "Weekend Colonel."
The eighteen episodes that make up the 50th Anniversary Edition are divided onto three discs. Each disc is decorated with a picture of Silvers on a set of dog tags. The discs are housed in three slim, clear keepcases. The back covers include episode titles, plot synopses, and original airdates. The double-sided coversheets show through to the insides of the cases. The interiors feature a camouflage design. The keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which showcases Silvers, Melvin, and Gosfield.
The static menus are easy to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or pick an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes are divided into chapters.
