Roll Out is an American sitcom

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 that aired Friday evenings on CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 during the 1973-1974 television season

1973-74 United States network television schedule

This was the television schedule on all three networks for the fall season beginning in September 1973. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with a few exceptions, such as Monday Night Football....

. Starring nightclub comedian Stu Gilliam and Hilly Hicks

Hilly Hicks

Hilly Gene Hicks is an American character actor, born May 4, 1950 in Los Angeles, California.-Biography:The role for which Hicks is perhaps best known is Lewis Moore in the TV mini-series Roots...

, and featuring Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed Begley, Jr.

Edward James "Ed" Begley, Jr. is an American actor and environmentalist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He is best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich, on the television series St...

 and Garrett Morris

Garrett Morris

Garrett Gonzalez Morris is an American comedian and actor from New Orleans. He was part of the original cast of the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live, appearing from 1975 to 1980.-Early life and career:...

, the series was set in France during World War II and was loosely based on the 1952 film Red Ball Express

Red Ball Express (film)

Red Ball Express is a 1952 World War II war film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Jeff Chandler. The film is based on the real Red Ball Express convoys that took place after the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944...

.

Actor Jimmy Lydon

Jimmy Lydon

Jimmy Lydon is an American movie actor and television producer, whose career in the entertainment industry began as a teenage actor in the 1930s....

, familiar as a juvenile lead in the 1940s, was cast as an Army captain. His character's name was Henry Aldrich: the same name he used in Paramount's comedy features of the forties.

Synopsis

In an effort to cash in on the success of M*A*S*H, CBS decided to air another Army comedy. Instead of Army medics, Roll Out highlighted the pratfalls of the supply drivers of the 5050th Quartermaster Trucking Company of the U.S. Third Army's Red Ball Express, whose staff was mainly African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

. The series attempted to use the World War II setting as a commentary on race relations, just as M*A*S*H's Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

 setting was also a commentary on the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

.

The show aired opposite ABC's

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 sitcom, The Odd Couple

The Odd Couple (TV series)

The Odd Couple is a television situation comedy broadcast from September 24, 1970 to July 4, 1975 on ABC. It starred Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison. It was based upon the play of the same name, which was written by Neil Simon.Felix and Oscar are two divorced men....

. Subsequently, Roll Out failed to win its timeslot and was canceled after one season. It was replaced on January 11, 1974, by the 13-week Dirty Sally

Dirty Sally

Dirty Sally is a short-lived comedy-drama Western series which ran on CBS from January 11 until April 5, 1974. The program was a spin-off of a two-part 1971 episode of Gunsmoke in which Sally nursed a young gunfighter back to health.-Synopsis:...

, a half-hour western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 starring Jeanette Nolan

Jeanette Nolan

Jeanette Nolan was an American radio, film and television actress. Nolan was nominated for four Emmy Awards.-Early life:...

 and Dack Rambo

Dack Rambo

Norman Jay Rambeau , professionally known as Dack Rambo, was an American actor, most notable for appearing as Walter Brennan's grandson Jeff in the ABC series The Guns of Will Sonnett, as Steve Jacobi in All My Children, as cousin Jack Ewing on CBS's Dallas, and as Grant Harrison on the NBC soap...

.

Cast

Actor	Role
Stu Gilliam	Corporal Carter "Sweet" Williams
Hilly Hicks Hilly Hicks Hilly Gene Hicks is an American character actor, born May 4, 1950 in Los Angeles, California.-Biography:The role for which Hicks is perhaps best known is Lewis Moore in the TV mini-series Roots...	Private First Class Jed Brooks
Ed Begley, Jr. Ed Begley, Jr. Edward James "Ed" Begley, Jr. is an American actor and environmentalist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He is best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich, on the television series St...	Lieutenant Robert Chapman
Garrett Morris Garrett Morris Garrett Gonzalez Morris is an American comedian and actor from New Orleans. He was part of the original cast of the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live, appearing from 1975 to 1980.-Early life and career:...	Wheels Dawson
Mel Stewart Mel Stewart Milton "Mel" Stewart was an American character actor, television director, and musician who appeared in numerous films and television shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for playing Henry Jefferson on the popular television series All in the Family...	Sergeant B.J. Bryant
Jimmy Lydon Jimmy Lydon Jimmy Lydon is an American movie actor and television producer, whose career in the entertainment industry began as a teenage actor in the 1930s....	Captain Henry Aldrich
Teddy Wilson Theodore Wilson Theodore "Teddy" Wilson was an American character actor best known for his recurring role as Sweet Daddy Williams on the CBS sitcom Good Times.-Career:...	High Strung
Rob Gist	Phone Booth
Darrow Igus	Jersey Hampton
Val Bisoglio	Captain Rocco Calvelli
Sam Laws	Sergeant Grease
Penny Santon	Madame Delacourt
Dana Brady	Dominique Delacourt

Episodes

Series #	Season #	Title	Notes	Original air date
1	1	Pilot	We meet the men of the "Red Ball Express" a mostly black Army transportation unit based in WWII France. In the debut episode we see how Sweet honors a fellow driver's his last wish by organizing a New Orleans-style funeral.	October 5, 1973
2	2	"Sunday, Sweet Sunday"	Sweet accepts Jed's invitation for a Sunday drive to church, but Sweet does not plan to go to church.	October 12, 1973
3	3	"Dark Victory"	Sweet and Jed accept a volunteer mission and stand a good chance to return as heroes, if they survive.	October 19, 1973
4	4	"Strange Bedfellows"	As part of a contest, Sweet gets a chance to travel to Paris.	October 26, 1973
5	5	"Dear Rocco"	When the mail truck explodes, Captain Calvelli receives only half of a "Dear John" letter, but that is enough to him crazy.	November 2, 1973
6	6	"Sweet Millions"	Sweet finds a bag of 100 dollar bills in a hollow tree and everyone else is miffed by his new affluent attitude.	November 16, 1973
7	7	"Members of the Wedding"	The drivers are tasked with delivering a gift to a General's wedding, but the job is tougher than they originally thought.	November 23, 1973
8	8	"The Paper Caper"	Sweet and the boys are turned into unlikely safe crackers.	November 30, 1973
9	9	"No Wages-All Fear"	Sweet's "high-living, always-jiving" attitude drives Jed crazy.	December 14, 1973
10	10	"Christmas the '44"	The Company's Christmas looks pretty gloomy until a bunch of orphans come into their lives.	December 21, 1973
11	11	"Honor Truck"	When Sweet realizes that the winner of "honor truck" will win a pass to Paris, nothing, including fair play, will stop him from winning.	December 28, 1973
12	12	"Didn't He Ramble?"	Sweet gets a honorable discharge after he sprains his ankle.	January 4, 1974