McHale's Navy [TV series] (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

15) "The Captain Steals a Cook"-Leave it to Gruber to spoil a good thing. He's been selling Fuji's Polynesian food to Navy personnel on Taratupa, and life gets complicated when Binghamton places an order for a dinner he's serving for a visiting admiral.

16) "The Ensign Gets a Zero"-Parker at the machine gun is a lot like Barney Fife with a handgun. You don't want to be around. Here, thinking Parker is an ace, Binghamton bets Parker can outshoot a rival's best.

17) "The Big Raffle"-A French girl helps the men raise money for Christy and Lt. Winters' first child.

18) "One of Our Engines is Missing"-McHale and his crew plot to find new engines for the PT-73, while Binghamton plots to ship them out to a new location. Of interest here is that Ted Knight guests and gets to spend time with Gavin McLeod, whom he'll work with later on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

19) "The Natives Get Restless"-The title says it all. Binghamton angers the locals again, and has to smooth things over before a VIP visits.

20) "The Confidence Game"-Parker thinks the crew doesn't respect him, and it's up to everyone to pump him up again.

21) "Six Pounds from Paradise"-This is kind of like getting Al Capone on tax evasion. Failing at everything else, Binghamton tries to fatten up the already portly McHale so he'll flunk the physical and be shipped out of his command to a desk job somewhere.

22) "Washing Machine Charlie"-If this sounds an awful lot like "Five O'Clock Charlie," the "M*A*S*H" episode about an enemy flier who makes predictable token bombing runs at the same hour each day, it gets even weirder. Mike Farrell, who would go on to star in "M*A*S*H," guests in this episode!

23) "Nippon Nancy Calling"-Parker has to spy on McHale at Binghamton's orders after a Nippon Nancy broadcast reveals some information.

24) "One Enchanted Weekend"-Parker is sweet on the daughter of a French planter, but Binghamton won't give him permission to visit. Will that stop him?

25) "The Mothers of PT-73"-When McHale's crew plans a shindig for the fleet, things get complicated when the event falls on Mother's Day.

26) "H.M.S. 73"-Binghamton tries this time to get McHale stationed as liaison officer to the British Navy in Australia.

27) "A Wreath for McHale"-Binghamton conducts a memorial service after he thinks McHale and his crew were killed in action off Kalakai.

28) "Portrait of a Peerless Leader"-Binghamton decides he can get McHale out of his life by having him transferred to teach at a PT-Boat training facility . . . far, far away.

29) "Instant Democracy"-Once more, Binghamton's plan to discredit and rid himself of McHale falls short. He needs McHale's help to get Chief Urulu's people to enlarge the Taratupa airstrip.

30) "Camera, Action, Panic"-"Laugh-In's" Arte Johnson guests in this episode about a combat photographer who has to film a PT-Boat crew in action (didn't we see one like this already?).

31) "Alias Captain Binghamton"-A Binghamton look-alike is assigned to McHale's men, and they're convinced it's really him or a spy for the captain.

32) "Parents Anonymous"-First a POW, now a war orphan. McHale and his men adopt Kim Su after a hospital ship strands her on the island.

33) "McHale's Millions"-The crew of the PT-73 find four million dollars in the wreckage of a Japanese plane. Thinking it counterfeit, Gruber starts trading it for trinkets . . . and about passes out when he discovers the money was real.

34) "The Hillbillies of PT-73"-Binghamton descends upon McHale's Island with a visiting Congressman, and is embarrassed about the tour until the Congressman tells him how much the atmosphere reminds him of home.

35) "The Monster of McHale's Island"-An emergency landing drops the spoiled-brat son of an admiral in McHale's lap.

36) "Uncle Admiral"-Binghamton learns that Parker is related to a Vice Admiral Parker (Harry Von Zell), and has him reassigned as his aide. Poor Carpenter.

Video:
The black-and-white picture quality varies considerably from episode to episode. Many are washed out because of too much light, while others have a slight graininess and flickers of dirt and imperfections. And in the case of the pilot, there's a moment when the picture pinches together in distortion, the way a film would look when it got caught briefly in the sprocket as it was being played. It's certainly not of the same quality as "The Dick Van Dyke Show" or other sitcoms from the era, though "McHale's Navy Season One" isn't so bad that it's detracts too much. But you do notice it from time to time, especially when the uniforms look bright, as if there was too much flash used on a still photograph. "McHale's Navy" is presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
The audio is also no great shakes, and like the video, it varies, sometimes within an episode. There's modulation in the Mono soundtrack's tone and volume, with moments where it sounds muffled, and other times when the sound seems flat or brassy. There obviously wasn't much clean-up work done, but like the video it's not so bad that it makes the show unwatchable.

Extras:
There's one extra, "The Crew Reunion," in which Borgnine, Conway, Hastings, Ballantine, and Edson Stroll sit in an L-shape on chairs and a couch, with Ballantine slumping down and mouthing an unlit cigar, and Conway doing much of the talking. There are a few reveals, but mostly it's a stroll down memory lane for these guys, who seem glad to be reunited after 40 years. Each episode of "McHale's Navy" began, "Somewhere in the South Pacific, 1943," and in cute fashion this special begins, "Somewhere in Los Angeles, 2007." A few odd and awkward moments: Hastings says how Stroll asked him if he was gay when they first met, and you can see he's still annoyed by it, while another awkward moment results when the conversation turns into a tribute to Borgnine. While many such shows would have people looking to say what a cutting-edge sitcom it was, it's interesting to hear these guys say how "McHale's Navy" had such broad appeal because "We were doin' jokes that people had done, seen, or heard before." Maybe that lent another degree of comfort to a show that could have fallen flat on its face for trying to milk a war for humor.

Bottom Line:
"McHale's Navy" debuted two years after "The Andy Griffith Show," and what a treat it was for audiences to have both Tim Conway and Don Knotts working sitcoms at the same time. Eventually, of course, Disney would bring them together for such films as "The Apple Dumpling Gang," but it really worked best to have each one playing opposite a much wiser straight man. It was all as silly as "Gilligan's Island" would be, and just as predictable from episode to episode. But it entertained because the cast was entertaining, and the situations were just enough to allow them to do their thing. Then too, you have to give credit to "McHale's Navy" for blazing the trail for a show like "M*A*S*H" to succeed. They proved it was possible to laugh in the middle of a war.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---