American Militarism on the Small Screen

Anna Froula, Stacy Takacs, Anna Froula, Stacy Takacs

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317402886
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Televisión

Anna Froula is Associate Professor of Film Studies in the Department of English at East Carolina University, USA

Stacy Takacs is Associate Professor and Director of American Studies at Oklahoma State University, USA

Part I
World War II on the Small Screen

1 “Bilko’s Bombers”

Anti-Militarism in the Era of the “New Look”

Lisa M. Mundey

As the Army platoon shuffled into their barracks to change out of their baseball uniforms and back into fatigues, Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko (Phil Silvers) poured out his disapproval. “There they are, ‘Bilko’s Bombers.’ Oh, this is a proud day,” he declares sarcastically, “Twenty-four to nothin’! Say, we’re lucky at that. The score could have been much worse. Fortunately, they called the game at the end of the fifth inning! Bilko’s Bombers?” the master sergeant questions incredulously. “Bilko’s Misguided Missiles! This is a day that will live in infamy,” Bilko pronounces, echoing the famous words President Franklin D. Roosevelt uttered after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. While the soldiers offer excuses for their poor performance, Bilko cannot help but focus on his own reputation: “Well, it’s probably all over the post by now. Motor Platoon nothing, WAC [Women’s Army Corps] typists twenty-four!” The men lost to the women soldiers at baseball! How could Bilko survive the humiliation? And more importantly, how could he get his men to improve enough to make good on the $50 bet he placed on the next game against fellow male soldiers?¹

The Phil Silvers Show (CBS, 1955–1959) follows the exploits of the clever, fast-talking, con-artist Master Sergeant Bilko. As a career noncommissioned officer (NCO) who finds a home in the peacetime Army in command of a motor platoon at fictional Fort Baxter, Kansas, Bilko launches countless get-rich-quick plans, which invariably fall apart. Whereas circumstances often turn against Bilko and his plans, his own conscience won’t let him go too far either. Bilko’s right-hand men are Corporals Henshaw (Allan Melvin) and Barbella (Harvey Lembeck), who help run Bilko’s schemes and keep the motor platoon running. Often Bilko’s fellow master sergeants, Sowici (Harry Clark), Ritzik (Joe E. Ross), Grover (Jimmy Little), and Pendleton (Ned Glass) fall victim to his plots. Bilko easily manipulates post commander Colonel Hall (Paul Ford) in pursuit of his schemes, and his flattery has Mrs. Nell Hall (Hope Sansberry), the colonel’s wife, wrapped around his finger. Bilko’s platoon is rounded out by Privates Paparelli (Billy Sands), Zimmerman (Mickey Freeman), and Doberman (Maurice Gosfield).² Often referred to as Sergeant Bilko after its lead character, The Phil Silvers Show inaugurated a nearly 30-year run of military television comedies, which more often than not used the military as a vehicle for laughs.

Notably, the series regularly included women and African-American characters. WAC Master Sergeant Joan Hogan (Elisabeth Fraser) appeared as recurring character, and African-American soldiers routinely appeared in the platoon, as WACs and even as a master sergeant. These characters reflected the reality that the military did include women and had integrated racially; nonetheless, it was rare to see any black characters on television in the 1950s. Some of the black soldiers had speaking parts as well. Indeed, the integration of the series “offended certain Southern stations carrying the program,” and one advertiser “requested that the black actors be removed.”³ To the show’s credit, the producers and lead actor refused to do so, and the black characters remained (albeit in marginal roles).⁴

The Phil Silvers Show reflects a continuation of America’s anti-militarist tradition by refusing to take the regular military seriously, undermining authority, portraying part-time citizen-soldiers as more effective than active-duty regulars and depicting the uneasy relationship between regulars and civilians. There is also an occasional episode that features the “battle of the sexes” between the male soldiers and female WACs. Bilko runs the platoon in rather unmilitary ways and takes advantage of the bureaucracy to further his schemes at every chance. Bilko also tries to fleece his soldiers to fund his gambling. The series focuses on enlisted personnel rather than officers, giving Americans an anti-authoritarian and “working-class” view of the Army. Although Bilko’s rank gave him power within the platoon, he regularly turned the tables on all the authority figures on post, particularly by manipulating the post commander. Fictional Ft. Baxter echoes the real-life complications of having a regular garrison set among a civilian population, where the civilians love having the economic boost of an Army post but do not much like soldiers hanging around.

The Phil Silvers Show originated out of a performance by Silvers on February 6, 1954, for a live audience that included President Dwight Eisenhower, Vice President Richard Nixon, and CBS vice-president for programming, Hubbell Robinson. After witnessing Silvers’ quick wit, Robinson paired the actor with Nat Hiken, a well-established writer and producer who had worked with radio comedian Fred Allen, the early TV star Milton Berle, and Martha Raye on her variety show. After brainstorming, Silvers initially rejected the idea of playing an Army con artist, thinking it was too close to material already performed by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in their comedy film Buck Privates (1941). Although Hiken and Silvers presented the network with several options, including Silvers as a baseball manager or stockbroker, CBS executives chose the Army premise.⁵

CBS’s selection of a military comedy stood in contrast with what American audiences were seeing on the silver screen. By 1955, the most popular military movies were rather dark dramas, including From Here to Eternity (1953), where fellow soldiers mistreat the main character who is killed by friendly fire at the end; The Caine Mutiny (1954), about a paranoid captain whose crew takes control of the ship and faces a court martial for doing so; and The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), a Korean War film that questions the war and ends with the senseless death of the protagonist and beloved supporting characters.⁶ Nevertheless, a comedy series certainly fit with the more upbeat and popular television variety programs like The Jackie Gleason Show (CBS, 1952–1959) and other sitcoms, such as I Love Lucy (CBS, 1951–1957). Of course, there was always the appeal of the built-in audience of veterans, reservists, National Guardsmen, and active duty service personnel.⁷

Hiken drew on his own military experience as well as entertainment industry shenanigans for the comedy premises for the new show. Inducted into the Army Air Forces in September 1943, Hiken served as a publicist for the service during World War II.⁸ His unconventional wartime service did not even require him to leave New York City, where he received permission to continue writing for Fred Allen. As Hiken’s biographer, David Everitt, explains, “The absurdity of his distinctly unmilitary military service was not lost on Nat.”⁹

Hiken created a fictitious Army post in Kansas named Ft. Baxter, based, in part, on Ft. Dix, New Jersey.¹⁰ The show’s sets were apparently so realistic that actor Mickey Freeman, who played Private Zimmerman, recalled “you would often find an actor taking a nap in one of the bunks.”¹¹ Hiken did not want his Ft. Baxter to be perfect, however, so he insisted that the soldiers appear disheveled.¹² No one encapsulated the sad sack soldier more than Private Duane Doberman. As Freeman describes him, Doberman was “a loser, a slovenly fat man who shuffled rather than walked, a man who mumbled rather than talked.”¹³ Doberman was nearly as popular as Bilko, and actor Maurice Gosfield received fan mail to rival that of Phil Silvers.¹⁴

Like I Love Lucy, The Phil Silvers Show was filmed initially in front of a live studio audience. The stress of recording live strained the crew, so they shifted to a different technique to get real audience reactions. Crew members took two episodes of the program at a time to an Army post, where “the projectionist would show the episodes while specially placed microphones would pick up the soldiers’ responses.” The laughter on the soundtrack came from soldiers themselves. In fact, “sometimes there was so much laughter that canned material had to be substituted so that the dialogue would not be drowned out.”¹⁵ The series clearly resonated with the built-in audience of GIs, and it turned out to be just as funny for civilians.

Audience reaction, particularly with respect to viewership, indicates whether a series appeals to the cultural sensibilities of a broad audience, and this series proved popular with everyone. The Phil Silvers Show shot up the television rating charts. Around 23 million Americans tuned in to watch the show each week, “attracting legions of fans from every demographic group including women and children.”¹⁶ Daniel Czitrom asserts that the show “had universal appeal because everyone could identify with the burlesque of authority, particularly in that most disciplined of institutions, the army” and that audiences enjoyed Bilko’s attempts “at beating authority in all its guises.”¹⁷ According to Edward Montagne, who helped produce the series, President Eisenhower, a professional soldier who had been the actual Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied forces during World War II, was a fan of the show. Professional media reviewers also responded favorably, including Jack Gould from The New York Times. The show even found an appreciative audience in Great Britain.¹⁸

Individual opinions concerning The Phil Silvers Show ranged from positive comments about “funny Army life” to complaints about the gambling and exploitation of the soldiers. Some veterans in the audience grumbled that the depiction of the Army was unrealistic.¹⁹ While most of the soldiers who were recorded on the laugh track clearly enjoyed the humor, one officer denounced Bilko as “a four-flusher, a sharpie, a cad who exploits an oafish colonel and an element of tramps, no-goods, and semi-criminals doing nothing all day.”²⁰ Given that most men in the Army were short-time enlistees or draftees, they clearly brought civilian attitudes with them into the service. Nonetheless, one would expect that some military professionals wanted to see the services respected, not spoofed, and so disliked the comedy. There were similar reactions of military professionals to the popular newspaper comic strip Beetle Bailey (Mort Walker, 1950-present) and comic strip and comic book Sad Sack (created by George Baker, in newspaper syndication 1944–1957), which also regularly poked fun at the regular Army.²¹

Whereas high audience ratings assured the continuation of The Phil Silvers Show beyond a single season, the industry also showered the series with honors. In 1955, Phil Silvers won Emmys for best actor and best comedian, and Nat Hiken picked up awards for best comedy series, best director, and, with his co-authors, best writing. Lightning struck again as The Phil Silvers Show won best series and best comedy writing at both the 1956 and 1957 Emmy Awards. In 1956, Silvers and Ford each received a nomination for “best comedian and best supporting actor, respectively,” while Gosfield was nominated for best supporting actor for the 1958–1959 season.²²

Facing burnout, series creator Nat Hiken left The Phil Silvers Show in May 1957. The program largely retained its signature comedy after Hiken’s departure and aired for two additional years, wrapping up on June 17, 1959. Although there had been a slight dip in the show’s ratings, the reason the series ended had to do with issues of sponsorship.²³ Because “sponsors and shows were closely coupled in the public’s mind,” explains Everitt, no other company wanted to compete with sponsor Camel cigarettes to help underwrite the series. Unfortunately for the cast, Camel did not want to cover the entire cost of the show either, so the network canceled it.²⁴

The Phil Silvers Show aired during a military build-up in the United States, which deviated from traditional American defense policy limiting the size of the active duty force during pe...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction Living Room Wars
• Part I World War II on the Small Screen
• Part II Korea and Vietnam on the Small Screen
• Part III Contemporary Conflicts on the Small Screen
• List of Contributors
• Index