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In the first episode entitled "An Ensign fo McHale" Binghamton points to a map of ] and the surrounding ocean areas. He indicates that the Japanese are all around New Zealand and that the Taraputa is located immediately below New Zealand's South Island. Although Japanese submarines and even sometimes German U-Boats were a threat to shipping in and out of New Zealand, the Japanese never seriously threatened New Zealand or controlled areas near New Zealand. The only American military forces stationed in New Zealand were only stationed on New Zealand's North Island and there would have been very little reason for the U.S. Navy to have a military base at the south end of New Zealand. A map of the area around ] in the ] hung on Binghamton's office wall just behind his desk and would infer Taratupa's fictional location. In the first episode entitled "An Ensign fo McHale" Binghamton points to a map of ] and the surrounding ocean areas. He indicates that the Japanese are all around New Zealand and that the Taraputa is located immediately below New Zealand's South Island. Although Japanese submarines and even sometimes German U-Boats were a threat to shipping in and out of New Zealand, the Japanese never seriously threatened New Zealand or controlled areas near New Zealand. The only American military forces stationed in New Zealand were only stationed on New Zealand's North Island and there would have been very little reason for the U.S. Navy to have a military base at the south end of New Zealand. A map of the area around ] in the ] hung on Binghamton's office wall just behind his desk and would infer Taratupa's fictional location.

Despite the fact that during World War II the front line constantly moved forward and the crew is together about three years, the show is based on only two locations one on a fictional island in the South Pacific and the other in a fictional town in liberated Italy.

In the final year of the show the entire crew and ship are transferred from the South Pacific Threatre to the European Threatre. While it was not uncommon for larger vessels to be transferred from one theatre to the other it would have been rather strange to take the time and go through the expense to transfer small vessels like PT Boats as well as the entire crew.

The show depicts Japanese submarines and German U-Boats trying to hit the PT 73 with a torpedo. PT Boats were too fast and maneuverable to be hit by a torpedo all that easily. The more likely scenario would involve the submarine or U-Boat surfacing and then shelling the PT Boat with its large gun.


In the episode entitled "The Comrades of 73" (with ] as Russian Commander Krasni) the United States and the ] are portrayed as allies in the Pacific Theater. However, in 1943–1944 during which the series is set, this was incorrect. The Soviet Union did not declare war against Japan until August 8, 1945—two days after the U.S. dropped the first ] on ]. In the episode entitled "The Comrades of 73" (with ] as Russian Commander Krasni) the United States and the ] are portrayed as allies in the Pacific Theater. However, in 1943–1944 during which the series is set, this was incorrect. The Soviet Union did not declare war against Japan until August 8, 1945—two days after the U.S. dropped the first ] on ].

Revision as of 11:36, 19 November 2013

This article is about the television series. For the 1997 film, see McHale's Navy (film). 1962 American TV series or program
McHale's Navy
StarringErnest Borgnine
Tim Conway
Joe Flynn
Gary Vinson
Carl Ballantine
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes138 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time25–26 minutes
Production companySto-Rev-Co Productions
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseOctober 11, 1962 (1962-10-11) –
April 12, 1966 (1966-04-12)

McHale's Navy is an American sitcom that aired 138 half-hour episodes over four seasons, from October 11, 1962, to April 12, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated from an hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962. Universal commissioned the colorization of the series in the 1980s for syndication in hope of reviving its popularity.

Seven Against the Sea (1962)

Academy Award-winning dramatic actor Ernest Borgnine as McHale first appeared as the lead character in a one-shot drama called Seven Against the Sea, which aired as an episode of Alcoa Presents in 1962, an ABC dramatic anthology also known as Fred Astaire's Premiere Theatre and hosted by Fred Astaire, who introduced television audiences to the Quinton McHale character.

Plot

During World War II, Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale (Borgnine) is the commanding officer (CO) of the U.S. Navy PT boat, PT-73, stationed at the Pacific island base Taratupa. In the late spring of 1942, the Japanese heavily bomb the island, destroying the base. Only 18 of 150 Naval Aviators and Marines on the base survive. With Japanese patrols in the region too heavy for a Navy rescue mission, McHale and his men survive by hiding on the island. Assisted by the native tribes whom they befriend, the sailors live a pleasant island existence. After months of leisurely life, strait-laced, by-the-book Annapolis graduate Lieutenant Durham (Ron Foster) parachutes onto the island. His job is to assume duties as McHale's executive officer (XO) and help him get the base on Taratupa back into action.

Ron Foster as Lieutenant Durham and Ernest Borgnine as McHale from Seven Against the Sea, 1962.

Durham faces an uphill battle: The men have gone native. One man has started a native laundry service, and McHale operates a still, making moonshine for the men and the natives. In addition, McHale is friendly with the native chief and even bathes with him. When Durham informs McHale of his orders, McHale refuses to follow them. It is clear that while McHale is as loyal as any American, following the devastation the Japanese rendered on the island attack, he is reluctant to risk losing more men. His concern now is for their survival until they can be rescued, which creates friction between Durham and McHale.

When they get word that a Marine battalion is pinned on a beach, and an enemy cruiser is planning to attack the beachhead in the morning, McHale's attitude changes. McHale is ordered to use all their boats to protect the beachhead and the Marines; but McHale has no boats, since the Japanese sank them all. However, McHale manages to capture a Japanese PT boat patrolling the island. Surprising the men and Durham, McHale does not plan to use the boat to evacuate his men or the Marine battalion. Instead, he will attack and destroy the Japanese cruiser. He estimates that since they are on a Japanese boat, flying a Japanese flag, that they can move in and torpedo the cruiser twice and send it to the bottom.

Seven Against the Sea is available for public viewing at the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio) in New York City and Los Angeles.

Cast

  • Ernest Borgnine as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale
  • Ron Foster as Lieutenant Durham
  • William Bramley as Boatswain Gallagher

Response

This episode of an early dramatic anthology series received respectable ratings and ABC ordered a series. However, the series it wanted was significantly different in tone from the pilot.

In an interview in Cinema Retro magazine, Ernest Borgnine said the show was meant as a vehicle for Ron Foster, who was to be contracted to Universal Pictures, but that did not work out.

Producer Jennings Lang recalled the film Destination Gobi inspiring a half-hour comedy with the Borgnine character's PT boat. Coincidentally, the lead character in Destination Gobi, played by Richard Widmark, was named McHale.

McHale's Navy (1962–1966)

This wacky service comedy series was set in the Pacific theatre of World War II—for the last season the setting changed to the European theater in Italy—and focused on the looney crew of PT-73, wily boys with crazy antics, led by Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale, played by Ernest Borgnine.

The producer, Edward J. Montagne, had enjoyed success with The Phil Silvers Show (1955–1959), a military comedy about an opportunistic non-commissioned officer and his loyal platoon putting loony things over on the camp commander. While the pilot had been dramatic, with overtones of Henry Fonda's introspective Mister Roberts, Montagne turned the "McHale" project into "Bilko in the Navy", and recruited Bilko actors and writers. However, unlike The Phil Silvers Show which was set in peacetime, McHale's Navy was set during World War II although much of what takes place is as if it were peacetime with the crew permanently stationed in one location and concerns about peacetime duties rather than fighting a war.

If Borgnine had misgivings about the show's new direction, he hid them and played straight-man to the comedians around him. At the time of the series, then- President John F. Kennedy was known as the wartime commander of PT-109. A popular book, PT 109: John F. Kennedy in WWII by Robert J. Donovan came out the previous year, and PT-109 was sometimes slyly referenced in a few episodes relating to a young commissioned PT-boat officer.

Plot

The basic plot revolves around McHale's crew's wacky schemes to make money, get girls and have a ball, and the efforts of Captain Binghamton (McHale's superior) to rid himself of the PT-73 crew. Despite their scheming, conniving, often lazy and unmilitary ways, McHale's crew are always successful in combat in the end. The entire show is based on only two locations, one in the South Pacific at a fictional base called Taratupa (the inferred location is in the Solomon Islands) and an equally fictional town in Italy called Voltafiore. While in the South Pacific McHale's crew lives on "McHale's Island" which is described as across the bay from Taratupa. It keeps them away from the main base where they were free to carry out their antics and even occasionally fight the war. Although they are forever getting into trouble they often unwittingly get out of trouble.

Characters

Ernest Borgnine as Commander McHale.

Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale (Ernest Borgnine) is a former captain of a tramp steamer who is familiar with the South Pacific and is especially knowledgeable about the islands and natives around Taratupa which often helps him in combat situations and makes him a favorite with the admirals (Borgnine actually served in the U.S. Navy during World War II). Like his crew he is unmilitary in many ways but always a strong and competent leader who is very protective of his crew. He speaks Japanese, Italian and local Polynesian dialects. He often calls his crew "schlachmeisters" and goofballs. His catchphrases are "Knock it off you guys" and when trying to come up with an excuse a rapid "Well a, well a, well a". Although he very often bellows at them and tries to put his foot down, he loves his crew too much to be all that hard on them. When the crew is in Italy, McHale's knowledge of Italian serves him quite well (Borgnine's parents were from Italy). In a dual role Borgnine played his lookalike Italian cousin, Giuseppe, who doesn't speak English in "Giuseppe McHale" and "The Return of Giuseppe".

McHale's second-in-command is Ensign Charles Parker (Tim Conway), referred to by McHale as "Chuck" and by the crew as "Mister Parker" (in the United States Navy, officers ranking from Warrant Officer to Lieutenant Commander who are not commanding are often referred to as "Mister"). Tim Conway's passive, naive, mildly gung-ho bungler often succeeds in spite of clownish ineptitude (a theme that was career-defining). Like Conway, Mister Parker is from Chagrin Falls, Ohio. However, he is too much of a klutz to command too much respect and many of the episodes involve Parker getting into trouble because of his bumbling and ineptitude such as accidentally firing depth charges or shooting down allied aircraft. Even before becoming a member of McHale's crew, Ensign Parker's personnel file is a laundry list of major foul ups including crashing a Destroyer Escort into a dock. Parker's catch phrase is "Gee, I love that kind of talk" and he loves to cite naval regulations which he knows by heart. In the episode entitled "The Great Impersonation," Mister Parker impersonates British General Smythe-Pelly (Conway in a dual role) in Noumea, New Caledonia (where he dodges assassins) while the actual general leads an invasion against Japanese forces. In another Conway dual role Mister Parker impersonates Admiral Chester "Rockpile" Beaty in "The Seven Faces of Ensign Parker". From time-to-time, Mister Parker is called upon to fool Captain Binghamton with a voice impersonation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

McHale's perpetually frustrated commander is Captain Wallace Burton Binghamton (Joe Flynn), known behind his back as "Old Leadbottom" (a nickname he received from a bullet wound to the posterior), but in the first episode (An Ensign For McHale) calls himself "Square Rig Binghamton". He is constantly trying to "get the goods" on "McHale and his pirates" in order to send them to prison or get them transferred. And he comes close in almost every episode only to have McHale's crew get out of trouble, usually either by having some kind of military success, such as sinking an enemy sub or capturing some prisoners, or through some form of blackmail such as telling the Admiral what really happened. When he isn't complaining about McHale and his crew to his superiors Binghamton constantly tries to impress superior officers, VIPs or people with connections for personal gain, which usually backfires making him look foolish. Binghamton is cantankerous and cross. He often dreams of a promotion to Admiral or occasionally military glory, but is far too inept, cowardly and a bit of a goof himself. His job before the war was as the manager of a yacht club on Long Island Sound and the editor of a yachting magazine. He is a Naval Reservist. The one time Binghamton leads the PT-73 into battle he only succeeds in sinking an enemy truck on land with a torpedo (a gag used in the Cary Grant movie Operation Petticoat). His catchphrases are, "What in the name of the Blue Pacific" or "What in the name of Nimitz (or Halsey)?" (as when he sees gambling or native dancing girls on McHale's Island), and "What is it, wha', wha', wha', what?!" (usually in reponse to McHale's "Well a, Well a, Well a"). A running gag has a frustrated Binghamton turning to the camera, breaking the fourth wall, and saying, "I could just scream!", "Why me? Why is it always me?" or "Somebody up there hates me!"

Binghamton's aide is the sycophantic Lieutenant Elroy Carpenter (Bob Hastings, a Bilko veteran), who is almost as much of a bumbler as Parker and, like Parker, tries to be military but isn't taken too seriously by anyone. Also like Parker, he is slow on the uptake and doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. McHale calls him "Carpy" for short. Early in the first season, Lt. Carpenter commanded a PT boat, the 107, but soon drifted into less responsibility.

Actor and comic magician Carl Ballantine was con man and torpedoman Lester Gruber, whose get-rich-quick schemes often got the crew in trouble. Gruber hails from Brooklyn, New York and frequently references the Dodgers and Ebbets Field. Motor Machinist Mate Harrison "Tinker" Bell was played by Billy Sands ("Pvt. Paparelli" on Bilko). Gavin MacLeod (later of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Love Boat) played crew member Seaman Joseph "Happy" Haines. MacLeod left the series before its final season.

Besides Borgnine, actors from the dramatic show who worked in the series were Gary Vinson as Quartermaster George "Christy" Christopher, who becomes a devoted family man from San Diego, California; Edson Stroll as Gunner's Mate Virgil Edwards, the handsome well built lover boy, and John Wright as Radioman Willy Moss, a good-natured Southerner from Tennessee who operates the crew's still (a carryover from the original dramatic pilot). In the first season, the crew are on equal footing, but in later seasons, a "pecking order" is established with Gruber at the head.

The most unusual character is a Japanese POW named Fuji Kobiaji (Yoshio Yoda), who becomes a de facto comrade whom the PT-73 crew keep hidden from Binghamton and almost everyone outside of McHale's crew. However, in one episode as well as in the feature McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, his name is given as Takeo Fujiwara. In exchange for being given a home and not sent to a POW camp Fuji gladly serves as houseboy and cook. Keeping Fuji from Captain Binghamton and others is a running gag, with wacky consequences throughout the series. For example Fuji is passed off as a Polynesian chief in the first episode (An Ensign For McHale) and when the show is set in Italy he is passed off as a member of the 442nd Japanese-American Regiment to avoid detection by Binghamton. Fuji's catchphrase is the Yiddish phrase "Oy vey" which is funny in itself when spoken by someone with a Japanese accent.

Sometimes the crewmen wear crazy disguises to carry out elaborate schemes. When McHale needs to stage a phony Japanese attack, Fuji, along with Gruber, Bell and/or Parker, dress up in Japanese uniforms using Gruber's war souvenirs, which he is forever trying to sell. In several of the episodes in the South Pacific the crew dresses up to look like "native savages" with Gruber playing the part of a witchdoctor. When a situation calls for disguise as a woman, it is usually Tinker or Mister Parker who dress in drag.

Many of the episodes in the South Pacific involve interactions with native islanders. The most colorful is Polynesian chief and witchdoctor, Pali Urulu (Jacques Aubuchon), who is as shifty and scheming as McHale and his men. When McHale and the crew are in Urulu's village, the chief displays a portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; when the Japanese troops arrive, Urulu turns it over to reveal a portrait of Japanese Emperor Hirohito. In the episode entitled "We Do The Voodoo" Urulu uses his powers to put a curse on Binghamton who then has a streak of bad luck. Another shifty character is "Big Frenchy" (George Kennedy) who is a businessman from New Caledonia (a role George Kennedy also played in the movie McHale's Navy).

The final season saw a total change of scenery as Binghamton, Carpenter and the entire PT-73 crew, along with Fuji who hid in the 73 as it was being transported, move to the liberated Italian theater. Moneymaking schemes of the wacky semi crooked Mayor Mario Lugatto (Jay Novello) and the looney antics of citizens of the coastal city of Voltafiore (where Binghamton is the Military Governor) introduce many more plot twists. While Binghamton and Carpenter live in the city hall, McHale and his men bivouac in tents on the beach. In time they stumble on an abandoned wine cellar where Fuji had been hiding and it becomes their secret underground hideout (complete with telescope and fancy furnishings) which of course Binghamton nearly discovers several times. Colonel Douglas Harrigan (Henry Beckman) of the U.S. Army is, as the overall military commander of the area, Binghamton's superior and a thorn in Binghamton's side. A schemer, Harrigan is sometimes on McHale's side, sometimes on Binghamton's side, or plays one against the other—whatever suits his purposes.

More Information

The first episode entitled "An Ensign For McHale" involves Ensign Parker's assignment to McHale's crew after they already had gone through several ensigns who couldn't put up with their unmilitary, slovenly and insubordinate ways. Parker is given one week by Binghamton to reform the crew or be given the worst reassignment possible. At first the crew treats Parker as badly as they treated the other ensigns, but after McHale sees Parker has integrity he decides to help Parker out by having his crew be much more like regular Navy.

In "McHale the Desk Commando" McHale learns what a tough job it is when he once replaces Binghamton as base commander of Taratupa so Binghamton wouldn't have to face tough-as-nails Admiral "Iron Pants" Rafferty (Philip Ober), who was inspecting naval installations (an episode with a young Raquel Welch as Lt. Wilson). In a sequel movie, McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, the only time Binghamton betters the PT-73 crew is when he orders them to jump off a dock.

Ensign Parker enjoys the sights at "McHale's Paradise Hotel" - (Barbara Lyon & Tim Conway)

Sometimes Binghamton uses legitimate means to try to get rid of McHale and/or his crew (although usually in an underhanded way). In "All Chiefs and No Indians" Binghamton tries to get the whole crew promoted to Chief Petty Officers so they will be split up and reassigned. When they deliberatly fail the exams after they found out what Binghamton is up to Binghamton gives them all passing grades anyway. Another example is in the episode entitled "Little Red Riding Doctor" in which Don Knotts is Army psychiatrist Lt. Pratt who Binghamton tries to con into believing McHale's crew is suffering a terrible case of combat fatigue and should be sent back to the States.

In "The Missing Link" Marlo Thomas played Binghamton's niece, Cynthia Prentice, who takes an interest in Ensign Parker although it turned out entirely for anthropological reasons. In "Camera, Action, Panic" Artie Johnson played Cameraman Sweeney who is making a movie of the PT-73 crew in action. In "Is There a Doctor in the Hut" Bernie Kopell (who starred with Gavin MacLeod on The Love Boat) played Colonel Pryer who is the obnoxious manager of the movie star Rita Howard played by Lisa Seagram. In "Hello McHale? Colonna!" McHale arranges for comic Jerry Colonna to do an unscheduled Special Services show. Ted Knight played Admiral "Go-Go" Granger in episodes "The Fountain of Youth" and One of Our Engines is Missing".

McHale's sometime love interest is a Navy nurse, Molly Turner (Bilko's Jane Dulo), who is always trying to romantically catch the ever elusive McHale. Parker's love interest is a French girl from New Caledonia, Yvette Gerard, played by Claudine Longet (who also played an almost identical character, Andrea Bouchard, in the movie McHale's Navy). In the episode entitled "36-24-73" there are hints of a relationship developing between Mister Parker and by-the-book female Ensign Sandra Collins (Maura McGiveney) after he sternly corrects her about what sections certain regulations are in (they then talk about what regulations are their favorites). Along with other WAVES clad in bathing suits she provides valuable (albeit totally unwitting) assistance in capturing a German U-Boat when the U-Boat captain runs the U-Boat aground trying to get a better look.

The two movies McHale's Navy and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (both in color), have the same basic plot scheme as the show and in many ways were merely extensions of the show. Both movies give fans a chance to see McHale's Navy in color.

At the end of the fourth season in 1966 low ratings and repetitive story lines brought McHale's Navy to an end.

Historical Inaccuracies

Like most comical shows about war there are bound to be at least some historical inaccuracies. And despite this, the series was known as being fairly historically accurate, at least more so than the series F Troop.

In the first episode entitled "An Ensign fo McHale" Binghamton points to a map of New Zealand and the surrounding ocean areas. He indicates that the Japanese are all around New Zealand and that the Taraputa is located immediately below New Zealand's South Island. Although Japanese submarines and even sometimes German U-Boats were a threat to shipping in and out of New Zealand, the Japanese never seriously threatened New Zealand or controlled areas near New Zealand. The only American military forces stationed in New Zealand were only stationed on New Zealand's North Island and there would have been very little reason for the U.S. Navy to have a military base at the south end of New Zealand. A map of the area around Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands hung on Binghamton's office wall just behind his desk and would infer Taratupa's fictional location.

Despite the fact that during World War II the front line constantly moved forward and the crew is together about three years, the show is based on only two locations one on a fictional island in the South Pacific and the other in a fictional town in liberated Italy.

In the final year of the show the entire crew and ship are transferred from the South Pacific Threatre to the European Threatre. While it was not uncommon for larger vessels to be transferred from one theatre to the other it would have been rather strange to take the time and go through the expense to transfer small vessels like PT Boats as well as the entire crew.

The show depicts Japanese submarines and German U-Boats trying to hit the PT 73 with a torpedo. PT Boats were too fast and maneuverable to be hit by a torpedo all that easily. The more likely scenario would involve the submarine or U-Boat surfacing and then shelling the PT Boat with its large gun.

In the episode entitled "The Comrades of 73" (with Sue Ane Langdon as Russian Commander Krasni) the United States and the Soviet Union are portrayed as allies in the Pacific Theater. However, in 1943–1944 during which the series is set, this was incorrect. The Soviet Union did not declare war against Japan until August 8, 1945—two days after the U.S. dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima.

Although the show is set during World War II, women on the show do not have hairdstyles common during the war, but rather have hairstyles common during the early 1960's when the show was produced.

Cast

Except where noted, the actors appeared on the show in every season:

Carl Ballantine as Lester Gruber

Dual roles

In several episodes, principal actors played dual roles, including:

  • Ernest Borgnine, who played McHale's look-alike Italian cousin, Giuseppe, in "Giuseppe McHale" and "The Return of Giuseppe".
  • Joe Flynn, who played Seaman Herbert Smoot in "Alias Captain Binghamton".
  • Tim Conway, who played British General Smythe-Pelly in "The Great Impersonation" and Admiral Chester "Rockpile" Beaty in "The Seven Faces of Ensign Parker".

Production

The Pacific Ocean naval base stood on the back lot of Universal Studios. For years after the show went off the air, the sets were an attraction on the studio tour. The portion of the Universal Studios tour involving Bruce the Shark attacking the tourist tram takes place on McHale's Lagoon, according to the tour guides.

There were three PT-73 boats. One was for shots at sea and two were converted 63-foot World War II Army Air Force Sea Rescue boats based at Universal Studios. The vessel used in filming the PT-73 underway was a 72-foot type II Vosper MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat), a British design built in the U.S. for export to Russia. The war ended in August 1945 before the boat, the number of which was PT-694, was sent to the Soviet Union. The boat was purchased by Howard Hughes for a chase boat for the only flight of his Spruce Goose aircraft. The boat was sold to the studio—as there were few PT boats in existence—and liberties were taken in reconfiguring it to look like a PT boat (machine gun turrets were added to both sides of the pilot house, and a mainmast was added aft of mid-hull). Shots of the crew aboard the PT-73 were staged on a full-scale mock-up at Universal.

PT-73's final appearance was in the 1970s show Emergency! ("Quicker Than the Eye", season 4, episode 8, aired: 11/9 1974). Station 51 was dispatched to a movie studio to rescue a man trapped beneath a boat. The boat in question was being moved from one end of the studio to another by truck and wooden supports holding it had broken and trapped a man underneath. "PT-73" is visible on the bow, appearing as if the numbers had been removed, but an image of them remained. The boat was missing the pilot house, masts, and depth charges.

PT-73 was sold to the mayor of Hawthorne, California, Hal Crozer, and converted to a sport fishing boat. In 1992, the boat was destroyed when it broke from its mooring near Santa Barbara and washed up on the beach during a storm.

The actual PT-73 was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13, which saw service in the Aleutians and in the Southwest Pacific theater. The actual PT-73 did not have an illustrious combat record. On January 15, 1945, it ran aground, and was destroyed to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Spinoff

Producer Edward Montagne set up a female version of McHale's Navy entitled Broadside, which ran for 32 episodes in the 1964–1965 ABC season. In place of the PT crew were a group of WAVES led by Lt j.g. Anne Morgan (Kathleen Nolan) consisting of Joan Staley, Sheila James, Lois Roberts and Jimmy Boyd (as a male with a female name), up against Binghamton type Captain Edward Andrews and his Lt Carpenter clone George Furth. Furth guest starred in an episode of McHale's Navy entitled, "Dart Gun Wedding". Dick Sargent provided a love interest for Nolan. Although not an actual spinoff Tim Conway and Joe Flynn teamed up in rather similar roles in The Tim Conway Show which lasted only 12 episodes in 1970 (see Tim Conway).

Theatrical films

There were two feature film spin-offs based on the series: McHale's Navy (1964) and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965). The cast appeared in both films, with the exception of Borgnine and Ballantine in the latter film; Borgnine was not available due to schedule conflicts with the filming of The Flight of the Phoenix; it is not known why Ballantine was absent. To beef up the crew, Gavin MacLeod, who left the series, returned for this appearance. In a Cinema Retro interview, Borgnine said the producer Edward Montagne wanted to make the film cheaply, without him and would not show him the script.

Both films were extended-length episodes of the series, without laugh tracks. While both did well at the box office, the latter film was not as successful and was derided by critics as being too excessive in its use of slapstick comedy, though others praised it for satirizing of military incompetence (after a typical screw-up, the Japanese POW Fuji sighs, "Beats me how they beating us."). William Lederer, who co-authored the second film with John Fenton Murray, used scenes lifted directly from his comic novel, All the Ships at Sea. Unlike the television series, both movies were filmed in Technicolor.

McHale's Navy (1964) earned an estimated $2,250,000 in North American rentals. McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force took in $1,500,000.

In 1997 a sequel was released, starring Tom Arnold as McHale's US Naval Academy graduate son, which showed the PT-73 and its crew operating in a modern, post-World War II setting in the Caribbean. Borgnine has a cameo appearance as the senior McHale, commanding rear admiral of what appears to be the United States Naval Special Warfare Command and going by the code name "Cobra."

DVD releases

Shout! Factory has released all four seasons of McHale's Navy on DVD in Region 1. In Australia, Madman Entertainment has released all 4 seasons on DVD. Madman Entertainment had released the first three season in Australia on August 3, 2009 in Slimline packaging replacing the original releases which, were box sets. In June 2011, a Slimline packaged set of Season 4 was seen in Big W stores in Australia in Region 4, however, there are no details on the item being available elsewhere.

DVD Name Ep # Release dates
Region 1 Region 4
Season 1 36 March 20, 2007 August 16, 2007
Season 2 36 September 11, 2007 November 8, 2007
Season 3 36 March 18, 2008 August 6, 2008
Season 4 30 November 18, 2008 May 20, 2009

References

Notes
  1. "Seven Against the Sea". IMDB. April 3, 1962. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  2. p.50 Call Me Ernie Part Two Cinema Retro Vol#5 Issue #14
  3. McHale's Navy (1964)
  4. Interview of Hal Crozer given to American Parol Boats Museum, June 1991
  5. Silverstone, Paul H. (1968). U.S. Warships of World War II. Doubleday. p. 258.
  6. PT Boats, Inc. "PT Boat Squadron — RONs 11–15". Retrieved April 21, 2007.
  7. PT Boats, Inc. "PT Boat Data — PT Boats placed in U.S. Navy service". Retrieved April 21, 2007.
  8. Cinema Retro interview
  9. "Big Rental Pictures of 1964", Variety, 6 January 1965 p 39. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to distributors not total gross.
  10. "Top Grossers of 1965", Variety, 5 January 1966 p 36

External links

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