| The Phil Silvers Show | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | You'll Never Get Rich Sergeant Bilko Bilko |
| Created by | Nat Hiken |
| Directed by | Nat Hiken Al De Caprio Charles Friedman |
| Starring | Phil Silvers |
| Theme music composer | John Strauss |
| Composer | John Strauss |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 144 (1 pilot and 1 special)(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producers | Nat Hiken Edward J. Montagne |
| Running time | 30 minutes (per episode, including commercials) |
| Production company | The CBS Television Network |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 20, 1955 (1955-09-20) – September 11, 1959 (1959-09-11) |
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titledYou'll Never Get Rich, is an Americansitcom which ran on theCBS Television Network from 1955 to 1959. A pilot titled "Audition Show" was made in 1955, but it was never broadcast. 143 other episodes were broadcast – all half-an-hour long except for a 1959 one-hour live special.[1] The series starredPhil Silvers asMaster Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of theUnited States Army.
The series was created byNat Hiken and won three consecutiveEmmy Awards for Best Comedy Series. The show is sometimes titledSergeant Bilko or simplyBilko inreruns, and it is very often referred to by these names, both on-screen and by viewers. The show's success transformed Silvers from a journeyman comedian into a star; and writer-producer Hiken from a highly regarded behind-the-scenes comedy writer into a publicly recognized creator.
By 1955, the American television business was already moving westward toLos Angeles, but Nat Hiken insisted on filming the series inNew York City. He believed this location was more conducive to comedic creativity and the show's humor. Early episodes were filmed at Dumont's television center in New York City – now home toWNYW-TV – with later episodes shot at theCBS "Hi Brown" Studios[2] inChelsea, Manhattan.
Most of the series was filmed to simulate a live performance. The actors memorized their lines and performed the scenes in sequence before a studio audience. Thus, there are occasional flubs and awkward pauses. ActorPaul Ford, playing Bilko's commanding officer, was notorious for forgetting his lines; when he would get a blank expression on his face, Silvers and the rest of the cast would improvise something to save the scene, like "Oh, you remember, Colonel, the top brass is coming..." At that point, Ford would pick up where he left off.
Creator Nat Hiken wrote or co-wrote 70 of the first 71 episodes, missing only episode 70 (the second-season finale.) He left the show after that season. In the fourth season, the writing staff includedNeil Simon, who wrote or co-wrote 20 episodes, including the series finale. Future Columbia Pictures VP and theatrical agent Harvey Orkin, later known as a regular onNot So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, was among the writers who were recognized with the Emmy Award for Best Comedy Writing in 1956.[3][4]
Later episodes were filmed in California. ProducerMike Todd, making a guest appearance, insisted that his show should be filmed like a movie, out of sequence. The cast and crew tried it and soon found that Todd's way was easier. Production continued in this manner until the series ended in 1959.
The fact that Silvers and Hiken were both sports fans inspired some of the character names. Bilko was named afterSteve Bilko, a minor league baseball player (it also had the connotation, tobilk someone). Cpl Barbella was named after middleweight boxing championRocky Graziano (whose birth name was Rocco Barbella). Pvt Paparelli was named after the baseball umpireJoe Paparella. According to Silvers, Pvt Doberman was so named because actorMaurice Gosfield resembled adoberman pinscher.[5]
The series was originally set in Fort Baxter, a sleepy, unremarkableU.S. Army post in the fictional town of Roseville,Kansas. It was centered on the soldiers of the Fort Baxter motor pool under Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko. Bilko and his men seemed to spend little time performing their duties: Bilko in particular spent most of his time trying to wheedle money through various get-rich-quick scams and promotions, or to find ways to get others to do his work for him.
While Bilko's soldiers regularly helped him with his schemes, they were just as likely to become "pigeons" in one. Nevertheless, Bilko exhibited an odd paternalism toward his victims, and he would doggedly shield them from all outside antagonists. The sergeant's attitude toward his men has been described thus: "They werehis men and if anyone was going to take them, it was going to be him and only him."[6] Through it all, the platoon was generally loyal to Bilko, despite their wariness of his crafty nature, and they would depend on him to get them out of any military misfortune. If one of his boys was treated unfairly or was cheated in any way, Bilko always helped the injured party, using the same psychological guile and chicanery he used to outwit his suckers. This benevolent side of Bilko was toned down in the series's later seasons (with scripts, significantly, by different writers); Bilko became strictly mercenary, willing to swindleanyone for a fast buck.
Bilko's swindles were usually directed toward (or behind the back of) Col. John T. Hall, the overmatched and beleaguered post commander who had early in his career been nicknamed "Melon Head". Despite his flaws and weaknesses, Col. Hall would get the best of Bilko just often enough to establish his credentials as a wary and vigilant adversary. The colonel would frequently be shown looking out his window, worried without explanation or evidence, simply because he knew that Bilko was out theresomewhere, planning something. The colonel's wife, Nell (Hope Sansberry), had only the kindest thoughts toward Bilko, who would shamelessly flatter her whenever he met her.
Bilko and Hall were not always adversaries. In an episode entitled "The Court Martial" (1956), Bilko tries to assist the colonel in setting a speed record for inducting new recruits, which accidentally results in a private's pet chimpanzee being enrolled. The animal's failure to answer when addressed by the phrase "Hurry! Speak Up!" is soon misheard and interpreted as being his name, "Harry Speakup", continuing the error and the imposture. Harry passes the medical and psychiatric exams, receives a uniform, and is formally sworn in. With the superior officers in a panic, Bilko saves the day by orchestrating an honorable discharge for the chimpanzee.[7]
The show's setting changed with the fourth season, when the men of Fort Baxter were reassigned toCamp Fremont inCalifornia. This mass transfer was explained in storyline as being orchestrated by Bilko, who had discovered a map showing a gold deposit near the abandoned army post. One reason for the change from Kansas was so that the series could more plausibly bring in guest stars from nearby Hollywood, such asDean Martin,Mickey Rooney,Diana Dors andLucille Ball. Silvers played himself in one hourlong episode.
Bilko's right-hand men were Cpl. Rocco Barbella (Harvey Lembeck) and Cpl. Steve Henshaw (Allan Melvin), and his long-suffering superior was Col. John T. Hall (Paul Ford). Bilko's motorpool platoon includedHerbie Faye (a former burlesque crony of Silvers) as Cpl. Sam Fender,Maurice Gosfield as Pvt. Duane Doberman,Billy Sands as Pvt. Dino Paparelli,Mickey Freeman as diminutive Pvt. Fielding Zimmerman,Tige Andrews (billed under his given name, Tiger Andrews) as Pvt. Gander,Jack Healy as the tough-talking Pvt. Mullen,Maurice Brenner as Pvt. Irving Fleischman,Karl Lukas as Pvt. Stash Kadowski, former middleweight boxerWalter Cartier as botany fiend Pvt. Claude Dillingham (in season one),Bernie Fein as Pvt. Gomez,P.Jay Sidney as Pvt. Palmer andTerry Carter as Pvt. Sugarman. Sidney and Carter (andBillie Allen, who played WAC Billie) were African American and regularly appeared in the series at a time when American society (and television) was largely segregated. The Army was desegregated under President Harry Truman.
Other recurring characters included Hope Sansberry as Mrs. Hall,Harry Clark as camp cook Sgt. Stanley Sowici; after Clark's death the role of cook was played by burlesque comicJoe E. Ross as Sgt. Rupert Ritzik;Beatrice Pons as loud-mouthed Mrs. Ritzik,Ned Glass as quartermaster Sgt. Andy Pendleton, Jimmy Little as Sgt. Francis Grover,Nicholas Saunders as Hall's adjutant Captain Barker, andJohn Gibson as an unnamed Chaplain that Sgt. Bilko addressed as "Padre". Some episodes gave Bilko a romantic interest,Elisabeth Fraser as Sgt. Joan Hogan.
The series frequently featured so many secondary cast members, with so many speaking parts, that the show ultimately became too expensive to sustain. It was this factor more than any significant decline in ratings that led to the show's demise in 1959. The show was nominated forEmmy Awards for both Comedy Writing and Best Series in all four of its seasons, winning both awards in 1956, 1957, and 1958. The series received nine other nominations during its run, with Silvers winning one individual Emmy for his performance and Nat Hiken winning one for direction. As Silvers later recalled, "We went out at our height."
Guest stars includedAlan Alda,Bea Arthur,Orson Bean,Peggy Cass,Dick Cavett,Arthur Duncan,Constance Ford,Eric Fleming,Dodie Goodman,Fred Gwynne,Bob Hastings,Paul Lynde,Julie Newmar,Tom Poston,Charlotte Rae,Paul Reed,Darryl Richard,Mark Rydell,Suzanne Storrs andDick Van Dyke, then near the beginning of their careers. Later episodes used a wealth of veteran Hollywood character actors, includingHarold Huber,Margaret Hamilton,Marjorie Gateson,Natalie Schafer andFrank Albertson.
George Kennedy was the show'sUS Armytechnical adviser; he had roles as a military policeman in several episodes.
In theseries finale, "Weekend Colonel", Bilko discovers a short-order cook named Charlie Clusterman who is the exact double of Colonel Hall. Bilko hires the cook to impersonate the colonel, so he can cheat the other officers in a bogus charity effort. The real Colonel Hall learns of the scam, and Bilko, Henshaw, and Barbella end up being locked in the guardhouse. As Colonel Hall looks at his prisoners on a newly installedclosed-circuit TV system, he quips: "It's a wonderful show, and as long as I'm the sponsor, it will never be cancelled." The camera cuts to Bilko and his henchmen finally behind bars. Bilko waves to the camera and says, "Th-th-that's all, folks!"
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| Pilot | Unaired | |||
| 1 | 34 | September 20, 1955 (1955-09-20) | May 15, 1956 (1956-05-15) | |
| 2 | 36 | September 18, 1956 (1956-09-18) | June 11, 1957 (1957-06-11) | |
| 3 | 37 | September 17, 1957 (1957-09-17) | June 27, 1958 (1958-06-27) | |
| 4 | 35 | September 26, 1958 (1958-09-26) | June 19, 1959 (1959-06-19) | |
| Special | January 23, 1959 (1959-01-23) | |||
Following the show's cancellation,CBS shortsightedly sold the rights toNBC: the rival network immediately aired reruns five days a week to great financial returns. Some of the show's other actors were recruited by "Bilko" producer Edward J. Montagne to appear in Nat Hiken's follow-up sitcomCar 54, Where Are You? and inMcHale's Navy.
Silvers was able to parody, or play off, his enduring Bilko persona for the rest of his career. In 1963–1964, he starred inThe New Phil Silvers Show, which attempted to transplant his mercenary character to a factory setting, but the result proved unpopular. Silvers frequently guest-starred onThe Beverly Hillbillies as a character called Honest John. He also played unscrupulous Broadway producer Harold Hecuba on an episode ofGilligan's Island, stealing the castaways' concept for a musical version ofHamlet. In an episode ofThe Lucy Show, Silvers was a demanding efficiency expert; at one point, Lucy's boss Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon), remarks that Silvers reminds him of a sergeant he used to know. Silvers also portrayed greedy connivers in various movies, such asIt's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), in which Paul Ford had a supporting role as a colonel, though they shared no scenes, andA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). The British filmFollow That Camel (1967) cast him as a scheming sergeant, this time in theFrench Foreign Legion.
The originalYou'll Never Get Rich program, which was filmed inblack-and-white, was widely rerun into the 1970s. The increasing prevalence ofcolor television rendered it and many similar programs less marketable than they had been previously. The series reemerged in the late 1980s on the fledgling cable channelComedy Central, then again onNick at Nite for a short time during the 1990s (serving as charter programming forTV Land in 1996), andMeTV. In theUnited Kingdom the show enjoyed intermittent showings for many years, finally being broadcast on theBBC Two channel in 2004. Currently, it can be seen onDecades TV (a network broadcast on secondary television channels in many markets, and a sister channel to Me-TV, withCBS Television Stations owning the network with the owner of Me-TV,Weigel Broadcasting).
The Bilko persona was borrowed by theHanna-Barbera animation studio for its television cartoon seriesTop Cat, which drew on elements fromThe Phil Silvers Show.Maurice Gosfield from the original platoon voicedBenny the Ball.Hokey Wolf was another Hanna-Barbera production that borrowed heavily fromThe Phil Silvers Show. The episode ofThe Flintstones that introducedDino gave the pet dinosaur a Sgt. Bilko-styled voice and character. After this atypical debut, Dino never spoke again. Another episode recruitedFred Flintstone andBarney Rubble into the army, where they were conned by an unnamed Bilko-like character into becoming astronaut test pilots.
The filmThe Manchurian Candidate (1962) used the names of several people associated withSgt Bilko for the members of a Korean War patrol – Cpl Allan Melvin, Pvt Silvers, Pvt Hiken, and Pvt Lembeck.[9] The characters also appear in the novelThe Manchurian Candidate, which has been plagued with multiple assertions ofplagiarism.
In 1987, a British tourist visitedTibet wearing a Phil Silvers "Sgt Bilko" T-shirt. Chinese soldiers attempted to rip it off her because they thought the picture was theDalai Lama.[10]
Larry David, creator and star ofCurb Your Enthusiasm, has calledThe Phil Silvers Show his favorite television show.[11]
From June 1957 to April 1960,DC Comics published a Sergeant Bilkocomic book which lasted 18 issues and a Sergeant Bilko's Private Doberman series that lasted 11 issues.[12] Most of the covers and inside artwork were byBob Oksner.
| Season | Position |
|---|---|
| 1955–1956 | #30 |
| 1956–1957 | #23 |
| 1957–1958 | not in the top 30 |
| 1958–1959 | not in the top 30 |
The series was shown weekly onBBC Television during its original run from 20 April 1957 onwards, in varying timeslots, with the final first-run episode "Weekend Colonel" airing on 15 January 1961.[13] The series returned in repeats on BBC Television (laterBBC1) from June 1961 to March 1967, after which it was absent from the screen until April 1973, when it returned in a late-night timeslot (although listed inRadio Times asSergeant Bilko/Bilko), becoming a staple of BBC1's post-11pm late-night schedule throughout the 1970s and 1980s, usually appearing immediately prior to the channel's signoff (before BBC One, as the channel was now rendered, became a 24-hour broadcaster in November 1997). The series was moved to an early evening timeslot onBBC2, beginning a repeat run of all four seasons in broadcast order from 7 November 1984. This repeat run continued through to 22 November 1991, at which point the BBC had aired all available episodes. Episodes continued to be shown, although no longer in their original broadcast order, from 1993 to 2004, with the BBC's last broadcast episode, "Bilko and the Flying Saucers", appearing on 5 November 2004.[13]
The UK publicationRadio Times Guide to Comedy rankedThe Phil Silvers Show as its top TV sitcom in 2003.[14]
Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko appeared on the B.B.C'sTommy Trinder seriesThe Trinder Box during June 1959. TheRadio Times of 12 June 1959 had a full cover photo of Phil Silvers as Bilko.[15]
In May 2006,CBS DVD released a 50th anniversary collection entitledThe Phil Silvers Show: 50th Anniversary Edition. The three-disc set features 18 episodes from the series.[16]
On July 27, 2010,CBS DVD (distributed byParamount) released the first season ofThe Phil Silvers Show on DVD in Region 1 format.[17] A region 2 release followed on September 6 of the same year.
On August 5, 2014, it was announced thatShout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1 and would releaseSgt. Bilko -The Phil Silvers Show: The Complete Series on November 4, 2014.[18]
In 2015, they began releasing individual season sets, season 2 was released on April 28, 2015[19] followed by season 3 on August 4, 2015.[20] The fourth and final season was released on November 17, 2015.[21]
In Region 2, Mediumrare Entertainment has acquired the rights in the UK and releasedSgt. Bilko – The Phil Silvers Show: - Complete Collection on DVD on September 22, 2014.[22]
| DVD Name | Regular Episodes | Release dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 (UK) | |||
| The First Season | 34 | July 27, 2010 | September 6, 2010 | |
| The Second Season | 36 | April 28, 2015 | N/A | |
| The Third Season | 37 | August 4, 2015 | N/A | |
| The Fourth Season | 35 | November 17, 2015 | N/A | |
| The Complete Series | 142 | November 4, 2014 | September 22, 2014 | |
The Phil Silvers Show was the basis of a critically and commercially unsuccessful movie,Sgt. Bilko (1996), starringSteve Martin as Bilko,Dan Aykroyd as Colonel Hall,Max Casella as Paparelli, and Eric Edwards as Doberman, with Phil Silvers' daughter, Cathy Silvers, as Lt. Monday. The plot centers around an investigation into wrongdoings in Fort Baxter by Major Thorn (played byPhil Hartman), an old rival of Bilko's, who will stop at nothing to get the better of Bilko.
