The Phil Silvers Show
Encyclopedia
The Phil Silvers Show (originally titled You'll Never Get Rich) is a comedy television series which ran on CBS
from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers
as Master Sergeant
Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army
.
The series was created and largely written by Nat Hiken
, and won three consecutive Emmy Award
s for Best Comedy Series. The show is sometimes titled Sergeant Bilko or simply Bilko in reruns, and 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.
, but Nat Hiken insisted on filming the series in New York City
, believing it to be more conducive to the creativity and humor. Early episodes were filmed at Dumont's television center in New York City (now home to WNYW-TV), with later episodes shot at the CBS "Hi Brown" Studios
in Chelsea, Manhattan
.
Most of the series was photographed to simulate a live performance. The actors memorized their lines, as in a play, and performed the scenes in sequence before a studio audience. Thus, there are occasional flubs and awkward pauses. Actor Paul 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, and the audience would respond by laughing.
This method of filming changed when impresario Mike Todd
made a guest appearance and refused to memorize the script. He insisted on the episode being filmed like a Hollywood movie, one scene at a time, and out of sequence. Silvers and the crew found Todd's way was faster, cheaper and less demanding for the actors, so the series changed over to this new policy. The finished films were screened for live audiences, whose responses were recorded and added to the soundtracks.
) and Cpl. Steve Henshaw (Allan Melvin
), and his long-suffering superior was Col. John T. Hall (Paul Ford). The large supporting cast included Herbie Faye
(a former burlesque crony of Silvers') as Pvt. Sam Fender, Maurice Gosfield
as the slovenly Pvt. Duane Doberman, Joe E. Ross
as camp cook Sgt. Rupert Ritzik, Beatrice Pons
as loud-mouthed Mrs. Ritzik, Billy Sands
as Pvt. Dino Paparelli, Jimmy Little as Sgt. Francis Grover, and Mickey Freeman
as diminutive Pvt. Fielding Zimmerman. Other characters included Jack Healy
as the tough-talking Pvt. Mullin, Ned Glass
as quartermaster Sgt. Andy Pendleton, and former boxer Walter Cartier
as botany fiend Pvt. Claude Dillingham. 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 notable decline in ratings which led to the show's demise in 1959. Though The Phil Silvers Show was never a huge ratings magnet, it was considered the top television comedy of its time. The show was Emmy Award
-nominated 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 included Dick Van Dyke
, Eric Fleming
, Fred Gwynne
, Alan Alda
, Paul Reed
, Suzanne Storrs
, Darry Richard
, and Paul Lynde
, then near the beginning of their careers. Later episodes used a wealth of veteran Hollywood character actors, including Harold Huber
, Marjorie Gateson
, and Frank Albertson
.
, and centred on the soldiers of the Fort Baxter motor pool under Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko. However, Bilko and his men seemed to spend very little time actually 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. Bilko and his men wore the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 69th Division, then a training division at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
His soldiers regularly helped Bilko with his schemes, but were just as often Bilko's "pigeons" ripe for the plucking. Nevertheless, Bilko exhibited an odd paternalism toward his victims, and would doggedly shield them from all outside antagonists. The sergeant's attitude toward his men has been described thus: "They were his men and if anyone was going to take them, it was going to be him and only him." Through it all, the platoon was generally loyal to Bilko despite their wariness of his crafty nature, and would depend on him to get them out of any military misfortune or outside mistreatment. In such circumstances, Bilko would employ the same psychological guile and chicanery he always used to outwit his suckers, but for good purposes.
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 enough to establish his credentials as a wary and vigilant adversary. The colonel would often be shown looking fretfully out his window, worried without explanation or evidence, simply because he knew that Bilko was out there somewhere, planning something. The colonel's wife, Nell (Hope Sansberry), had only the kindest thoughts toward Bilko, who would shamelessly flatter her whenever he saw her.
The show's setting changed with the fourth season, when the men of Fort Baxter were reassigned to Camp Fremont
in California
. This mass transfer was explained in storyline as being the inadvertent result of a Bilko con gone wrong. In reality, creator Hiken had departed, and it was an easy excuse to move the production to California and fill the episodes with celebrity guest appearances from nearby Hollywood. The show, however, was still filed in New York.
Sgt. Bilko's service number
- RA 15042699 - indicated that he had enlisted in the Army sometime after 1940 from one of four states: Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio or West Virginia. According to the series he enlisted in 1941. Coincidentially, Phil Silvers co-starred in a 1941 film You're in the Army Now
where he enlists in the US Army.
, "Weekend Colonel," Bilko discovers a short-order cook 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 away in the guardhouse. As Colonel Hall looks at his prisoners on a newly installed closed-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
!" So ended the series.
shortsightedly sold the films to NBC
, which 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 followup sitcom Car 54, Where Are You?
, and in McHale's Navy
.
Silvers was able to play off his durable Bilko persona for the rest of his career. In 1963, he starred in The New Phil Silvers Show
, which attempted to transplant his mercenary character to a factory setting, but the result proved unpopular. Silvers frequently guest-starred on Buddy Ebsen
's The Beverly Hillbillies
as a character called Honest John. He also played an unscrupulous Broadway producer on an episode of Gilligan's Island
who stole the castaways' concept for a musical version of Hamlet
. In an episode of The 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, notably It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
(in which Ford had a supporting role, interestingly enough as a colonel, though they shared no scenes) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
. The British film Follow That Camel
cast him as a scheming sergeant (this time in the French Foreign Legion
).
The original You'll Never Get Rich program, which was filmed in black-and-white
, was widely rerun into the 1970s. The advent of color 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 channel Comedy Central
, then again on Nick at Nite
for a short time during the 1990s (serving as charter programming for TV Land
in 1996).
animation studio for its television cartoon series Top Cat
, which drew on elements from The Phil Silvers Show. Maurice Gosfield
from the original platoon voiced Benny the Ball. Hokey Wolf
was another Hanna-Barbera production that borrowed heavily from The Phil Silvers Show. The episode of The Flintstones
that introduced Dino
gave the pet dinosaur a Sgt. Bilko-styled voice and character. After this atypical debut, Dino never spoke again. Another episode recruited Fred Flintstone
and Barney Rubble
into the army, where they were conned by an unnamed Bilko-like character into becoming astronaut test pilots.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
used the names of several people associated with Sgt. Bilko for the members of a Korean War patrol such as Cpl Allan Melvin, Pvt Silvers, Pvt Hiken, and Pvt Lembeck.
In 1987 a British tourist visiting Tibet
was wearing a Phil Silvers Sgt Bilko T-Shirt that Chinese soldiers attempted to rip off her as they thought the image of Sgt Bilko was the Dalai Lama
.
's post-11pm late-night schedule throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, appearing up to several times per week immediately prior to the channel's signoff (before BBC1 became a 24-hour broadcaster in November 1997). During the 1990s, the series moved to BBC Two
, where it often held a late-night slot, as well as runs during the daytime programmes and even occasionally in an early evening slot.
, starring Steve Martin
as Bilko, Dan Aykroyd
as Colonel Hall, Max Casella
as Paparelli, and Eric Edwards as Doberman. The plot centers around an investigation into wrongdoings in Fort Baxter by Major Thorn, an old rival of Bilko's, who will stop at nothing to best Bilko.
On July 27, 2010, CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount
) released the first season of The Phil Silvers Show on DVD in Region 1 format. A region 2 release followed on September 6th of the same year.
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...
from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
as Master Sergeant
Master Sergeant
A master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in some armed forces.-Israel Defense Forces:Rav samal rishoninsignia IDF...
Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
.
The series was created and largely written by Nat Hiken
Nat Hiken
Nat Hiken was an American television writer, producer, and songwriter who rose to prominence in the 1950s.-Biography:...
, and won three consecutive Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s for Best Comedy Series. The show is sometimes titled Sergeant Bilko or simply Bilko in reruns, and 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.
Production
By 1955, the American television business was already moving westward to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, but Nat Hiken insisted on filming the series in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, believing it to be more conducive to the creativity and humor. Early episodes were filmed at Dumont's television center in New York City (now home to WNYW-TV), with later episodes shot at the CBS "Hi Brown" Studios
Chelsea Studios
Chelsea Studios is a television studio and sound stage at 221 West 26th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.-History:The building was originally an armory that was home to Ninth Mounted Calvary which moved to 14th Street in 1914....
in Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
.
Most of the series was photographed to simulate a live performance. The actors memorized their lines, as in a play, and performed the scenes in sequence before a studio audience. Thus, there are occasional flubs and awkward pauses. Actor Paul 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, and the audience would respond by laughing.
This method of filming changed when impresario Mike Todd
Mike Todd
Michael Todd was an American theatre and film producer, best known for his 1956 production of Around the World in Eighty Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture...
made a guest appearance and refused to memorize the script. He insisted on the episode being filmed like a Hollywood movie, one scene at a time, and out of sequence. Silvers and the crew found Todd's way was faster, cheaper and less demanding for the actors, so the series changed over to this new policy. The finished films were screened for live audiences, whose responses were recorded and added to the soundtracks.
Cast
Bilko's right-hand men were Cpl. Rocco Barbella (Harvey LembeckHarvey Lembeck
Harvey Lembeck was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the beach party movie series during the 1960s...
) and Cpl. Steve Henshaw (Allan Melvin
Allan Melvin
Allan Melvin was an American character actor who appeared in several television shows, including the roles of Corporal Henshaw on The Phil Silvers Show; Alice's boyfriend Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch; and Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner on All in the Family and Archie Bunker's...
), and his long-suffering superior was Col. John T. Hall (Paul Ford). The large supporting cast included Herbie Faye
Herbie Faye
Herbie Faye was an American actor who appeared in both of Phil Silvers's CBS television series, The Phil Silvers Show and The New Phil Silvers Show ....
(a former burlesque crony of Silvers') as Pvt. Sam Fender, Maurice Gosfield
Maurice Gosfield
Maurice Lionel Gosfield was an American comic actor, most famous for his portrayal of Private Duane Doberman on the 1950s sitcom You'll Never Get Rich .'Maury' Gosfield was born in New York in 1913, but was raised in Philadelphia and later in Evanston, Illinois...
as the slovenly Pvt. Duane Doberman, Joe E. Ross
Joe E. Ross
Joe E. Ross was an American actor known for his trademark "Ooh! Ooh!" exclamation, which he used in many of his roles. He starred in such TV sitcoms as The Phil Silvers Show and Car 54, Where Are You?.-Career:...
as camp cook Sgt. Rupert Ritzik, Beatrice Pons
Beatrice Pons
Beatrice Pons was an American stage, television and film actress, best-known for her recurring television roles on Sgt. Bilko and Car 54, Where Are You?...
as loud-mouthed Mrs. Ritzik, Billy Sands
Billy Sands
Billy Sands was an American character actor who appeared as a regular on The Phil Silvers Show as Pvt Dino Papparelli and was a regular on McHale's Navy as Tinker...
as Pvt. Dino Paparelli, Jimmy Little as Sgt. Francis Grover, and Mickey Freeman
Mickey Freeman
Mickey Freeman was an American character actor who appeared as a regular on The Phil Silvers Show as Pvt. Fielding Zimmerman....
as diminutive Pvt. Fielding Zimmerman. Other characters included Jack Healy
Jack Healy
Jack Healy was an American actor. He was best known as Pvt. Mullen in The Phil Silvers Show....
as the tough-talking Pvt. Mullin, Ned Glass
Ned Glass
Ned Glass was an American character actor who appeared in more than eighty films and on television more than one hundred times, frequently playing nervous, cowardly or weasely characters...
as quartermaster Sgt. Andy Pendleton, and former boxer Walter Cartier
Walter Cartier
Walter Cartier was a professional boxer turned actor, originally from the Bronx in New York City, New York.He became a professional boxer after World War II. Film director Stanley Kubrick's first film, Day of the Fight , featured Cartier and his twin brother, Vincent...
as botany fiend Pvt. Claude Dillingham. Some episodes gave Bilko a romantic interest, Elisabeth Fraser
Elisabeth Fraser
Elisabeth Fraser , was a television, film and stage actress, best known for playing brassy blondes.Born as Elisabeth Fraser Jonker in Brooklyn, New York, Fraser began her acting career six weeks after graduating high school; she was cast as the ingenue in the Broadway production of There Shall Be...
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 notable decline in ratings which led to the show's demise in 1959. Though The Phil Silvers Show was never a huge ratings magnet, it was considered the top television comedy of its time. The show was Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-nominated 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 included Dick Van Dyke
Dick Van Dyke
Richard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer with a career spanning six decades. He is the older brother of Jerry Van Dyke, and father of Barry Van Dyke...
, Eric Fleming
Eric Fleming
Eric Fleming was an American actor, known primarily for his role as Gil Favor in the long running CBS television series Rawhide.-Early life:...
, Fred Gwynne
Fred Gwynne
Frederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...
, Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
, Paul Reed
Paul Reed (actor)
Paul Reed was born Sidney Kahn and was an American actor known for his trademark "slow burn", which he made famous in his role as Captain Paul Block on Car 54, Where Are You?....
, Suzanne Storrs
Suzanne Storrs
Suzanne Storrs was a former Miss Utah and an American television actress who appeared in sixteen different television series between 1954 and 1961, usually as the beautiful leading lady, including Maverick with James Garner , Wanted Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen , Sugarfoot Suzanne Storrs...
, Darry Richard
Darryl Richard (actor)
Darryl Richard , is a former child actor who appeared on television from 1955 until 1966...
, and Paul Lynde
Paul Lynde
Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...
, then near the beginning of their careers. Later episodes used a wealth of veteran Hollywood character actors, including Harold Huber
Harold Huber
Harold Huber was an American actor who appeared on film, radio and television.-Early life:Huber was born Harold Joseph Huberman in the Bronx to Joseph Huberman and "Mammie" Glassberg, Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russia, who had arrived in the United States as infants. His father was the...
, Marjorie Gateson
Marjorie Gateson
Marjorie Augusta Gateson , was a character actress in Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s....
, and Frank Albertson
Frank Albertson
Frank Albertson was an American character actor who made his debut in a minor part in Hollywood at age 13....
.
Premise
The series was originally set in Fort Baxter, a sleepy, unremarkable U.S. Army post in the fictional town of Roseville, KansasKansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, and centred on the soldiers of the Fort Baxter motor pool under Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko. However, Bilko and his men seemed to spend very little time actually 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. Bilko and his men wore the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 69th Division, then a training division at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
His soldiers regularly helped Bilko with his schemes, but were just as often Bilko's "pigeons" ripe for the plucking. Nevertheless, Bilko exhibited an odd paternalism toward his victims, and would doggedly shield them from all outside antagonists. The sergeant's attitude toward his men has been described thus: "They were his men and if anyone was going to take them, it was going to be him and only him." Through it all, the platoon was generally loyal to Bilko despite their wariness of his crafty nature, and would depend on him to get them out of any military misfortune or outside mistreatment. In such circumstances, Bilko would employ the same psychological guile and chicanery he always used to outwit his suckers, but for good purposes.
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 enough to establish his credentials as a wary and vigilant adversary. The colonel would often be shown looking fretfully out his window, worried without explanation or evidence, simply because he knew that Bilko was out there somewhere, planning something. The colonel's wife, Nell (Hope Sansberry), had only the kindest thoughts toward Bilko, who would shamelessly flatter her whenever he saw her.
The show's setting changed with the fourth season, when the men of Fort Baxter were reassigned to Camp Fremont
Camp Fremont
Camp Fremont was a World War I-era military base located near Palo Alto, California. Construction started in July, 1917 and the post closed in September, 1919.-Location:...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. This mass transfer was explained in storyline as being the inadvertent result of a Bilko con gone wrong. In reality, creator Hiken had departed, and it was an easy excuse to move the production to California and fill the episodes with celebrity guest appearances from nearby Hollywood. The show, however, was still filed in New York.
Sgt. Bilko's service number
Service number (United States Army)
Service numbers were used by the United States Army from 1918 until 1969. Prior to this time, the Army relied on muster rolls as a means of indexing enlisted service members while officers were usually listed on yearly rolls maintained by the United States War Department...
- RA 15042699 - indicated that he had enlisted in the Army sometime after 1940 from one of four states: Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio or West Virginia. According to the series he enlisted in 1941. Coincidentially, Phil Silvers co-starred in a 1941 film You're in the Army Now
You're in the Army Now
You're in the Army Now is a 1941 comedy film starring Jimmy Durante, Phil Silvers, Jane Wyman, and Regis Toomey.It featured the longest kiss in film, lasting three minutes and six seconds until Elena Undone beat it by eighteen seconds.- Cast :...
where he enlists in the US Army.
Finale
In the series finaleSeries finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
, "Weekend Colonel," Bilko discovers a short-order cook 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 away in the guardhouse. As Colonel Hall looks at his prisoners on a newly installed closed-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
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
!" So ended the series.
Aftermath
Following the show's cancellation, CBSCBS
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...
shortsightedly sold the films to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, which 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 followup sitcom Car 54, Where Are You?
Car 54, Where Are You?
Car 54, Where Are You? is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from 1961 to 1963. Episodes had various directors, the most recognized being Al De Caprio. Stanley Prager and Nat Hiken also directed several episodes. Most of its filming was on location in The Bronx, and at Biograph...
, and in McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...
.
Silvers was able to play off his durable Bilko persona for the rest of his career. In 1963, he starred in The New Phil Silvers Show
The New Phil Silvers Show
The New Phil Silvers Show is an American situation comedy starring comedian Phil Silvers which aired thirty episodes on CBS from September 28, 1963, to April 25, 1964, under the sponsorship of General Foods.-Synopsis:...
, which attempted to transplant his mercenary character to a factory setting, but the result proved unpopular. Silvers frequently guest-starred on Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
's The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....
as a character called Honest John. He also played an unscrupulous Broadway producer on an episode of Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island is an American television series created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz and originally produced by United Artists Television. The situation comedy series featured Bob Denver; Alan Hale, Jr.; Jim Backus; Natalie Schafer; Tina Louise; Russell Johnson; and Dawn Wells. It aired for...
who stole the castaways' concept for a musical version of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
. In an episode of The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
, Silvers was a demanding efficiency expert; at one point, Lucy's boss Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, The Lucy Show...
), remarks that Silvers reminds him of a sergeant he used to know. Silvers also portrayed greedy connivers in various movies, notably It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 in stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers...
(in which Ford had a supporting role, interestingly enough as a colonel, though they shared no scenes) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart....
. The British film Follow That Camel
Follow That Camel
Follow That Camel is the fourteenth Carry On film and was released in 1967. Like its predecessor Don't Lose Your Head, it does not have the words "Carry On" in its original title...
cast him as a scheming sergeant (this time in the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
).
The original You'll Never Get Rich program, which was filmed in black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
, was widely rerun into the 1970s. The advent of color television
Color television
Color television is part of the history of television, the technology of television and practices associated with television's transmission of moving images in color video....
rendered it and many similar programs less marketable than they had been previously. The series reemerged in the late 1980s on the fledgling cable channel Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
, then again on Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite is the nighttime Cable network that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon on Sundays from 8.p.m.-7.am., Monday through Fridays from 9 p.m.-7 a.m. and Saturdays from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. . Though it shares channel space with Nickelodeon, A.C. Nielsen Co...
for a short time during the 1990s (serving as charter programming for TV Land
TV Land
TV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...
in 1996).
Legacy
The Bilko persona was borrowed by the Hanna-BarberaHanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
animation studio for its television cartoon series Top Cat
Top Cat
Top Cat is a Hanna-Barbera prime time animated television series which ran from September 27, 1961 to April 18, 1962 for a run of 30 episodes on the ABC network. Reruns are played on Cartoon Network's classic animation network Boomerang.-History:...
, which drew on elements from The Phil Silvers Show. Maurice Gosfield
Maurice Gosfield
Maurice Lionel Gosfield was an American comic actor, most famous for his portrayal of Private Duane Doberman on the 1950s sitcom You'll Never Get Rich .'Maury' Gosfield was born in New York in 1913, but was raised in Philadelphia and later in Evanston, Illinois...
from the original platoon voiced Benny the Ball. Hokey Wolf
Hokey Wolf
Hokey Wolf is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon about the adventures of a con-artist wolf who is always trying to cheat his way into the simple life...
was another Hanna-Barbera production that borrowed heavily from The Phil Silvers Show. The episode of The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
that introduced Dino
Dino (The Flintstones)
Dino is a fictional character featured in the Hanna-Barbera animated television series The Flintstones, and its TV spinoffs and feature films. He is a pet dinosaur of the series' main characters, Fred and Wilma Flintstone. In the show, he is a metaphorical pet dog, and exhibits the characteristics...
gave the pet dinosaur a Sgt. Bilko-styled voice and character. After this atypical debut, Dino never spoke again. Another episode recruited Fred Flintstone
Fred Flintstone
Frederick Joseph “Fred” Flintstone, also known as Fred W. Flintstone or Frederick J. Flintstone, is the protagonist of the animated sitcom The Flintstones, which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960-66. He is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles...
and Barney Rubble
Barney Rubble
Bernard "Barney" Rubble is the deuteragonist of the television animated series The Flintstones. He is the diminutive blonde-haired caveman husband of Betty Rubble and father of Bamm-Bamm Rubble...
into the army, where they were conned by an unnamed Bilko-like character into becoming astronaut test pilots.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
used the names of several people associated with Sgt. Bilko for the members of a Korean War patrol such as Cpl Allan Melvin, Pvt Silvers, Pvt Hiken, and Pvt Lembeck.
In 1987 a British tourist visiting Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
was wearing a Phil Silvers Sgt Bilko T-Shirt that Chinese soldiers attempted to rip off her as they thought the image of Sgt Bilko was the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
.
UK reception
The series was a staple of BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
's post-11pm late-night schedule throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, appearing up to several times per week immediately prior to the channel's signoff (before BBC1 became a 24-hour broadcaster in November 1997). During the 1990s, the series moved to BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, where it often held a late-night slot, as well as runs during the daytime programmes and even occasionally in an early evening slot.
Film
In 1996, The Phil Silvers Show was the basis of a critically and commercially unsuccessful movie, Sgt. BilkoSgt. Bilko (film)
Sgt. Bilko is a 1996 comedy film directed by Jonathan Lynn and written by Andy Breckman. It is an adaptation of the 1950s television series The Phil Silvers Show .-Plot:...
, starring Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
as Bilko, Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
as Colonel Hall, Max Casella
Max Casella
Max Casella is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series The Sopranos, Doogie Howser, M.D., and as the voice of Daxter in the Jak and Daxter video game series.-Life and career:...
as Paparelli, and Eric Edwards as Doberman. The plot centers around an investigation into wrongdoings in Fort Baxter by Major Thorn, an old rival of Bilko's, who will stop at nothing to best Bilko.
Ratings
| Season | Position |
|---|---|
| 1955-1956 | #30 |
| 1956-1957 | #23 |
| 1957-1958 | not in the top 30 |
| 1958-1959 | not in the top 30 |
DVD releases
In May 2006, CBS DVD released a 50th anniversary collection entitled The Phil Silvers Show: 50th Anniverary Edition. The 3-disc set features 18 episodes from the series.On July 27, 2010, CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount
Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video founded in late 1975.-History:...
) released the first season of The Phil Silvers Show on DVD in Region 1 format. A region 2 release followed on September 6th of the same year.
| | DVD Name | | Episodes | | Release dates | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 * | ||||
| The First Season | 34 | July 27, 2010 | September 6, 2010 | ||
- Region 2 release date refers to the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
market only.