 This is the SF Productions podcast network There were some great shows back then. Wait a minute, look at this. It's called a VC. See, back before all the video was put directly in the computer memory in the comnet, people used to tape shows. Let me see. There's a tape on the idiot. Let me hook this up here and let me see what we got. Damn radiation. Back with us to the 60s and 70s, the dwelling place of the lost generation. An era whose heroes, role models, and very lives were molded and formed by weekly installments of favorite television programs. Welcome to the place your parents didn't understand. Welcome to the vast wasteland. Welcome home. Welcome to another exciting episode of Vast Wasteland. I'm your host Mark Schmidbar along with Woodward Neal and Marty Wiley. We're here to talk about 60s and 70s television. And tonight, it's War Comedy! Yes, War Comedy is tonight on Vast Wasteland. And before we run right into all the exciting stuff we've got on, we just want to give you a couple notes. First off, we're now on regular schedules. This is our second show of our regular season here. And our schedule, of course, is Tuesdays. We're on at 6 p.m., Wednesdays at 10 p.m., and Thursdays at 3 p.m. And if for some reason you actually want to write in to Vast Wasteland, I don't know why. But if you would, you want to write in to box 151526, Columbus, Ohio, 4-3-2-1-5, care of Vast Wasteland. All right. And now, on to Woodward with his first point for the evening. Well, by going during the 60s especially, I guess there were probably more war programs in there were in the 70s because we had things like, oh gosh, we had combat, we had the rap patrol, we had Garrison's guerrillas. Remember any of these shows? They were really on. They weren't funny. Well, that's true. Those weren't funny. These were the serious shows. I have the first war comedy as Mikhail's Navy in 1962. Okay. I have to debate that. But this has got to have definitely a asterisk beside it because it technically is not a 60s show. The Gold Silver show, you'll never get rich. Sergeant Bilko. That's right. Yes. Well, we would have seen it in reruns maybe. Right. But I didn't. Okay. Well. So Mikhail's Navy is like the first one. That would be the next one. Which is just like set off a rash of a Seagomer pilot and started in a 64, Hogan's Hero 65, F Troop in 65. Right. We've got, there's one in there. We have No Time for Sgt. This was a, now this was a, technically pretty much a real ripoff by I'm trying to remember which network showed it because it was a play and it was a movie both starring Andy Griffith. And then of course Andy Griffith basically took the whole concept and made it into Gomer Pile. And it's the same basic show, you know, but this show is being shown on another network opposite Andy Griffith on the schedule. It was just basically a Gomer Pile type ripoff because it started the same season as Gomer Pile. And it's, if you've ever seen Gomer Pile, you've seen No Time for Sgt. It's the same show. If you've ever seen Mikhail's Navy, you've seen Sgt. Boko. Why? There's a, every once in a while there was actually a little bit of drama and they actually did something. And just hanging around the motor pole and ripping people off. They actually did something. And Mikhail's Navy once in a while. Now who got, I remember when I was a kid, I got confused when Mikhail's Navy moved from the islands, from the Pacific. Italy. That's right. I couldn't figure out what all the Japanese people turned into Italians. They just, I don't know, they decided, well, the ratings are starting to drop. Maybe we could try something to get the thing going. I was a little kid. Well, then you wouldn't be able to figure it out. Anyways, we got the, right off, again, the Phil Silver show. You'll Never Get Rich. Sgt. Boko had about eight different titles. I don't know why. Keep changing the title, people who watch it to see a new show. It actually started back in 55 and went on until 59, but I'm sure it was on and reruns. In fact, I saw a reference to it all the way into 63 on the regular schedule back when the network actually showed reruns of old shows in their prime time. This is like before its indication. There's really not again. Beauty and the CBS. Well, that's not that. It's a rerun. Yeah, it's a rerun. From two years ago. So, of course, it started careers of such famous people as, let's see, Joey Ross. Hey, remember him? No, not really. And I'm trying to remember some people, other people on there. There were some big time people on there. Wasn't Fred Gwynne on the Phil Silver show at some point? Yeah, I think so. I don't see him on here, but I'm sure he was. I'm absolutely sure he was. He was like just a one-walk-on kind of deal. But I'm sure, of course, Fred Gwynne later to become Urban Munster. And go on Car 54, too, probably around that time. Well, I found out something interesting with Larry Hovis from Hogan's Heroes. Yes. Before he did Hogan's Heroes, he did the Gormor Paul show as Larry. On Hogan's Heroes, his name was Sergeant Carter. Oh, weird. Well, I thought it was him. That is. So the question is, is Sergeant Carter from Hogan's Heroes and Sergeant Carter from... Incarnation. No, they're related, because technically that was World War II. Sergeant Carter came back after the war, had a kid, and he was actually Sergeant Carter from Hogan's Heroes, not from Gormor Pile. That could technically be, you know? There's a concept. It's a little stretching it, actually a lot stretching it, but... Stretching a lot, yeah. But it could be. Anyways, we're here to probe your mind. We're here to make you think. That's right. It's a not-provoking show. It's not just TV. It's an adventure. It's infotainment. Okay, so that was, You'll Never Get Rich, Hill Silver, Sergeant Milko, whatever. That was McHale's Navy, which we already did a couple of things about. It's him Conway. Yeah, I don't know how that happened, but... He was on McHale's Navy, and then everything he did after that ran 13 weeks until he hit Carol Burnett's show. Yep. And of course, as Captain Binghamton, the famous, the infamous Joe Flynn. Yeah, yeah. Yes, he is. Yeah. Nice ladies. Sergeant's coming to pull it. Was that Sergeant Carter from Gormor Pile? No, Sergeant Carter didn't drown in that swimming pool. Somebody did. Yes, it might have been him, but he... That's the Beach Boys, isn't it? I don't think it was... Natalie Wood. It could be anybody. She was a guest appearance. That's true. Yeah, wait a minute. We're just zipping through these here. We got, McHale's Navy had a lot of people in it, including Gavin McLeod as Joseph Happy Haynes. It's been going on for two years. That's funny. Look at that. This guy never had here. I don't think he ever had here. He was born without air. He is born bald, darling. I don't know if we can... I don't know if we can see this or not, but he... Well, he has... Never had air. Our word for it. He has just the same amount of air as he has today. This was like 30 years ago. Yes, true. It is darker. It's much darker. It's much darker. It's Captain Stupid. It's Captain Stupid. That's Captain Stupid. It's Captain Stupid. Oh, my. So we had... Oh, let's see. But it was just a very strange show due to the fact that they tried for a while to be Sergeant Bilko, and then they tried for a while to be Hogan-Zeros. I don't know if... Before Hogan was even around there. Right, exactly. So we had McHale's Navy, and then we had no time for sergeants, which we already mentioned. And then we went on to Gomer Pyle, USMC. Goalie! Surprise, surprise, surprise. 1964 to 1970. Amazing. Amazing. How many years this show was on the air, considering the incredibly low quality of the show. Yeah. It was amazing. And Duke, his friend Duke, played by Ronnie Schell. Yes, Duke, too. Sergeant Carter. He had girlfriends like Bunny and Poovie. Miss Bunny. New and Poovie. Ah, gosh, what a show. And again, people just left and right. Larry Hovis, as we mentioned, playing Larry. What's his first season? William Christopher, later to become Farmer K. Unmashed, as Private Lester Hummel. Yeah. And of course, also, later to become... Donald Hollinger. Donald Hollinger, thank you. Ted Bessel. Frankie Lombardi. One season. Kind of hard to consider. Not hard to consider Ted Bessel or Hardcore Italian somehow. Frankie Lombardi. Kind of hard to consider. Goomer Pyle is a Hardcore Leatherneck Marine. Oh, well, yeah. Most of these shows you pretty much had to stretch the old... break the old rules of common sense. Okay, well, let's talk about F Troop. Because it does qualify as a war comment. Yes, it certainly does. Oh, yeah, well, it was a war comment. Oh, yeah, well, the civil war was here when quite accidentally played by non-Native American. Don Rickles as an Indian. You got it. Basically, anybody who was hanging around the studio as an Indian, they just... I'm sure a lot of the Native American tribes were probably, like, protesting this show most of the time. It was... It was certainly... Henry Gibson was on. He played the little character Rongo. Rongo? He was the biggest cavalryman. And when he was there, things went worse even worse than they did when Ken Berry was... And that's just all the time. Oh, my. So we had, of course, the famous Larry Storch. Larry Storch later to go on to... Cartoon voices. Cartoon voices. Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker. Right, they both just kind of... What is the Saturday morning type stuff? Forrest Tucker, I mean, they went on to be the first Ghostbusters. The original Ghostbusters. Exactly. The Ghostbusters, that one. The fake gorilla. Well, the guy in the gorilla suit was somebody famous, too, on that show. Yeah, he went on. It was Rick Baker. Because Rick Baker did the best gorillas in TV and went on to movies. And by golly, he's still doing gorillas. And gorilla, he's just Mr. Makeup. We had The biggest. Well, wait a minute, we have one more before we go into the biggest. The wackiest ship in the army. That one ran about six months ago. This was back when all shows never... All shows went 26 weeks, even if it was a really bad show. So, let's see, this was the wackiest ship. Now, this was, I mean, this is a really lame premise. Yeah, here we go. The spring of 42 only months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, New Zealand, presented to the United States the Kiwi, a 70-year-old twin-masted schooner, obsolete and badly in need of repairs. The ship was staffed with a token crew while the U.S. Navy tried to figure out what to do with it. Okay. But they found out it's really useful because it can't be picked up on a radar. It doesn't make noise so Sonar doesn't pick it up so they can sneak into places. No one notices a schooner coming by, but... No, I didn't notice the ship. What's that schooner going over there? It's the Kiwi. We don't have to worry about that. It couldn't be the U.S. no. Never, ever. When would I go for something that cheap? Amazing, this was on for an entire season. Well, if you think about it, Hogan's Heroes was pretty far-fetched. We're prisoners of war and we're having a great time. What was a great deal? We've got a French chef, we've got comedy, they had a steam bath and the thing I always wondered, now this is why I thought Hogan's Heroes was dumb. Why didn't they just leave? They did all the time. No, but they were under orders. Invaluable spies. Exactly, they were under orders by the Allies. They could do a million times more good there. Well, why? I say I'm dead. It's a great deal. It's like you're there, you get to out with the Germans, you've got this great life underground, if you want to have it. You can just hang out down there and put your Dalsunals on that show. He was nuker. At least not on the show, not on the show. Survey says! You've got Hogan who's doing the Captain Kirk thing. He's always sneaking out and going after the Fraw lines or any other French resistance for anybody. Why would Hogan want to leave? Especially him, because it's like if he went back to Britain, he'd have to compete with all the other British guys for all the babes. There, it's like a bunch of old German guys and him, you know? Exactly, he's like a great deal for him. Right, prisoner of war time me up. I don't know, I just thought why don't they just leave and just leave? They never explained this, but you almost have to figure that they engineered getting Clink and Schultz at this camp. You know? It's like we really need I really don't think, again, this was not something that was ever spelled out, but in my opinion it wasn't a situation where they just happened to be there, let's set them up for this. I think from day one it's like you will parachute out here and lose your plane so you will go to this camp and we have got this idiot Clink guy that we've managed to engineer to get into running this camp and you can do all this great stuff there. You know? Okay, well let's go into the biggest ones. What I think is the biggest war comedy. Okay, sure. Oh sure. Because it wasn't just funny, but I don't know I liked it better than any of the others. Well see, you had more of a story here. Well see, to me there are two eras to it there's a good era and the era that's the dumb era and the era of the dumb era appears the instant B.J. shows up right there. The whole plot line is kind of like But if you look at it, Mash kind of followed the way trends were going here. Oh yeah, exactly. It's like when Trapper and Hawkeye were together they were just chasing all the nurses and everything. Here comes after Trapper leaves goes back to his family. I wouldn't take him back. Yes. And that's kind of like a trend that was going on supposedly in this country. That's the idea. I heard about it, but I didn't actually experience it. Yeah, that's the thing. It did follow the mores and the values of the country as it went but it just wasn't funny afterwards. No, it started making a statement. It really got away from Korea and kind of got into issues that were really related to Vietnam. Oh sure. You know, it's like you're supposed to be at comedy. To me, this was the first show that really started the whole, well all in the family in a way but Mash started the idea of a very special episode of something. We're funny, but we got to make a statement. The serial comedy then. We have to be very... The warmity. Yeah, the warmity or the dramedy. The horrible stage of U.S. broadcasting. I just winced at the whole concept. It's like, if I want to watch a drama, I'll watch a drama. If I want to watch a comedy, I want to watch a comedy. It's like life. If it's like life, I don't want to watch it on TV. Exactly. Why watch life if you're going to... You live life. You watch TV to get away from that. If I want to go enjoy life, I'll go live life. Oh well. Did you notice on Mash when McLean Stephenson's character Henry was killed? McLean Stephenson kind of died too. It's like the next time it's Hillel Larry and they hug up on him and that was that. Yeah, his whole career just pretty much belly flopped after that. They did more than kill him on that show. And G.W. Bailey became a standard on Mash. He was Rizzo. He was the travel voice of carpool sergeant guy who was sleeping under the cars finding a way to get out of things. But now he's popped up on St. Elsewhere movie. He does those police academy movies. He really took off. Okay, I've got one that Wilbert doesn't remember. I don't know if you remember it or not. I think I was the only person to watch this show for all few months at last. It was called Roll Out. I don't remember it as just I didn't watch it much. I remember a reference to it and that's about it. It had Garrett Morris on it. Garrett Morris? Wow. Hilly Hicks. I don't even remember this. Ed Bagley, Julian Jr. was even in it. It was about a motor company in France whose job was to get supplies to the front. They were running the same time as Mash and I think they kind of meant to be like Mash with a mostly black cast but it only like lasted a few months. I've got Stu Gillum, Hilly Hicks, Mel Stewart, Val Vissoglio, Ed Bagley Jr., Garrett Morris, Darrow Agus, Rod Guest, Theodore Wilson, Penny Stanton. Goodness. Set in France during World War II, Roll Out was the story of men in the 50-50th trucking company, the Red Ball Express an army trucking unit that managed to get supplies through to the troops at the front despite any and all problems. Well, I watched it and it was funny. Yeah. But how long was it on? It was on from October to January 1974. October 73 to December 73. Yeah. And then January 74, just a little while. Well, as we know the length of how long the show on was indicated how good the show was. This is true. It was a really good show, too good for television and so it was gone. Well, this was a good show. Okay. Not too good for TV. I mean, you know, Garrett Morris went on to went on to Saturday Night, Darrow Agus went on to Friday. Friday's. Yeah, got it. Ed Bagley Jr. went on to say of late night humor type television were both on the same show. Okay. Well, then we go on to C.P.O. Sharky. We're going to have to end with C.P.O. Sharky. Well, let's see the because C.P.O. Sharky, this is basically if you remember this, it was basically just a concept to stick Don Rickles in. And Don Rickles played himself as this guy. He ran around and basically basically just yeah, that's his act. This is mean and nasty. Yeah, that's his act. He's been successful for years being mean and nasty and rude to people. That must have been a show with a great leading because I remember watching it. It was another Friday Night show like Chico and the Man or something. That's what I was going to say, Chico and the Man was around there somewhere. Of course, you know, I watched it. Oh, yeah, you couldn't miss Chico and the Man. I love Chico. So you got that pretty much nobody of that time. Nope. Look at the second time. Nobody's career. Nobody's career whatsoever. David Landisburg. David Landisburg. C.P.O. Sharky. David Landisburg. You know him. I think you're thinking. You're thinking the wrong guy. I don't think Steve Landisburg. Yeah, not the same guy. Because that was actually going on the same time. Yeah. I saw that myself. No, it's Steve Landisburg. Maybe he's a brother. Richard Beauchamp. Oh, yeah. Richard Beauchamp. Who can forget? Richard Beauchamp. Richard Beauchamp. Oh, it's a nice name. Sounds like a character or soap opera, but it's a nice name. Okay, then. We go right on to Operation Petticoat. Oh, man. This was 77 to 79. Amazing how long this was on the air. From what I can see here, it looks like they just They had a handsome man on. Little came on and off. Little spurts every once in a while. Because they kept changing the concept, bringing it back in. Kept bringing it in for repairs. Rebuilt the whole show. Went for a couple months. Died again. Originally starring John Aston. Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie Lee Curtis was in it. From what I saw on here, the reason Jamie Lee Curtis is in it is because the film version of Operation Petticoat starred Kerry Grant and Tony Curtis. Okay. And that's the only reason she's in there. Because then she was like the screamer in the Halloween movie, the first two Halloween movies. She was the screamer in that. She had no other real career or anything. Whoa! Jim Varney's in here. Hey, Varney. You know what I mean? Randolph Mantuz. Joanne Flug. That's true. She was even on M.A.S.H. I think sometimes she was. One of the many nurses. They always had many nurses named Rachel and Nurse Baker. It's like standard nurse names. Now if you don't remember Operation Petticoat, you're not missing anything. You're not missing much. But let me just go through it real quick. The deal is this Navy submarine is they bring it in and it's given to this young commander and it's in horrible condition. And so they're out there and they paint it with this pink undercoating really completed. Really painted. However, there's a Jap attack and they got to run out and defend in this pink submarine. And for some reason I'm not really sure. I can't really see the Navy saying hey, this is a good idea. Why don't you just leave it pink? So that's the whole deal. It's a pink submarine going around the country. Around the ocean. And the other deal was they had to fly. They'd be on a submarine other than this was the Fred Silverman era. Because it's a TV show. Right. Then it was just the emergency of the whole thing. They just got called out right away. They stayed on there. They'd be on there in the first place though. Maybe they were taking a tour. The three hour tour. Well, let's see. Do we have any other shows? I really don't think there were any more. If there were, they just lasted that long. In and out. It was just too late. Of course, we had some other people who made some famous guest shots on other shows. We had from Hogan's Heroes Colonel Crittenden also, of course, Dr. Bombay. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! The same guy. Incredible. And just as incompetent on both shows. I think incompetency was his trademark. I play incompetent British guys on shows. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Maybe he was in real life. Well, we don't know. Paul Lynn did F-True. Paul Lynn did F-True. He did a lot of shows. He did a lot of voices for cartoons. Sure. Too many things. He's dead now. It happens to people when they get old. They were all my friends, but they died. Anything. Let's see. What else do we have? Well, darn it. I think we're... How much time do we got on this wonderful... Oh! Just in time. We're just about ready to wrap this wonderful sucker up. Just about ready to wrap this wonderful sucker up. Well, next time two weeks from now if you tune into this exact same time you'll see an exciting show on cartoons. Cartoons. I'm not sure what kind of cartoons. Just cartoons. There were lots of cartoons during the 60s and 70s. We're going to have a big lot of cartoon shows. You can expect that. This will just be the first one of them. This will just be the first one of them. Anyways. That's about all we have. Remember, we're on Tuesdays at six, and then Thursdays at three. We're just all over the place here. You just can't get away from us. For all of us here at Bass Wasteland we'll see you next time!