This is a somewhat limited genre, though there have been some quality dramas concerning war and its effects.
One of my favorites that was based on the effects of war was the fairly sort-lived Homefront. Excellent drama with compelling characters.
Growing up I enjoyed Combat (very adult themes) and 12 O:Clock High. For fun and adventure I liked the Rat Patrol, cool jeeps racing around the desert. Of more recent vintage, I thought China Beach was very well done.
What favorites do you have?
Do you have a favorite "Military" TV Show?
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cinemalover
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Do you have a favorite "Military" TV Show?
Last edited by cinemalover on January 14th, 2008, 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chris
The only bad movie is no movie at all.
The only bad movie is no movie at all.
I remember Twelve 0:Clock High and The Rat Patrol intros, but never watched the entire shows. Combat was the only dramatic military TV show I watched regularly.
The other military TV shows I watched and enjoyed regularly were The Phil Silvers Show (aka Sergeant Bilko), Hogan's Heroes, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and (blush) McHale's Navy.
The other military TV shows I watched and enjoyed regularly were The Phil Silvers Show (aka Sergeant Bilko), Hogan's Heroes, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and (blush) McHale's Navy.
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moira finnie
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There is and was only one military show worth my time: Combat, with good ensemble acting by all involved, but an outstanding--and unique--portrait of a weary dogface sergeant by Vic Morrow.
Other than David Janssen's exceptional work in The Fugitive, and to a lesser degree in Harry O, I've never seen any other actor in the television medium who built his character in such detail and with so much contradictory and implicitly truthful reality over the arc of the show.
One interesting aspect of Morrow's portrayal was that, as the audience learned a bit more about how Sgt. Saunders thought and his family background and former career, (I believe he once mentioned that he'd sold shoes prior to the war), Morrow managed to maintain a reserve of mystery about his character, avoiding making him become what might have been a tiresome or overexposed walking cliché.
It's a shame that Morrow couldn't have had more of a chance at a film career, but his work in this series inevitably overshadowed all the rest of his career. I realize that some good writing helped the quality of the program, (along with a determination on the part of the ensemble to triumph over some truly hackneyed scripts too), and terrific direction by, among others, Burt Kennedy, Robert Altman, Morrow himself, and several others.
No other show came close to this one, though a worthy competitor might have been the Quinn Martin (cue the kettle drums and ominous narration!) production 12 O'Clock High, which starred Robert Lansing. That is, it starred cranky, exhausted, real-looking Robert Lansing until they canned him, reportedly because he was a prickly guy, while publicly announcing they wanted someone "younger" in the part to appeal to that desirable youthful demographic--though what they got with Paul Burke was simply someone infinitely blander. In any case, Lansing did some good, realistic work as the fatalistic (and dramatically named) Gen. Frank Savage.
Now, I've a quite different reaction to The Rat Patrol than you guys seem to have had. I think that show was put on to attempt to attract the same audience as Combat, but the acting and writing seemed quite poor by comparison. I actually found myself liking that evil Nazi desert rat played by Eric Braeden better than our guys! Lemme amend that a bit: I liked the broadcast standards and practices version of a Nazi played by Braeden (who was sort of "evil-lite"). On reflection, I think I'd rather watch Sahara (1943) with Bogart, Dan Duryea, Rex Ingram, and assorted friends from all allied nations pour sand into the Nazi war machine in North Africa one more time.
Other than David Janssen's exceptional work in The Fugitive, and to a lesser degree in Harry O, I've never seen any other actor in the television medium who built his character in such detail and with so much contradictory and implicitly truthful reality over the arc of the show.
One interesting aspect of Morrow's portrayal was that, as the audience learned a bit more about how Sgt. Saunders thought and his family background and former career, (I believe he once mentioned that he'd sold shoes prior to the war), Morrow managed to maintain a reserve of mystery about his character, avoiding making him become what might have been a tiresome or overexposed walking cliché.
It's a shame that Morrow couldn't have had more of a chance at a film career, but his work in this series inevitably overshadowed all the rest of his career. I realize that some good writing helped the quality of the program, (along with a determination on the part of the ensemble to triumph over some truly hackneyed scripts too), and terrific direction by, among others, Burt Kennedy, Robert Altman, Morrow himself, and several others.
No other show came close to this one, though a worthy competitor might have been the Quinn Martin (cue the kettle drums and ominous narration!) production 12 O'Clock High, which starred Robert Lansing. That is, it starred cranky, exhausted, real-looking Robert Lansing until they canned him, reportedly because he was a prickly guy, while publicly announcing they wanted someone "younger" in the part to appeal to that desirable youthful demographic--though what they got with Paul Burke was simply someone infinitely blander. In any case, Lansing did some good, realistic work as the fatalistic (and dramatically named) Gen. Frank Savage.
Now, I've a quite different reaction to The Rat Patrol than you guys seem to have had. I think that show was put on to attempt to attract the same audience as Combat, but the acting and writing seemed quite poor by comparison. I actually found myself liking that evil Nazi desert rat played by Eric Braeden better than our guys! Lemme amend that a bit: I liked the broadcast standards and practices version of a Nazi played by Braeden (who was sort of "evil-lite"). On reflection, I think I'd rather watch Sahara (1943) with Bogart, Dan Duryea, Rex Ingram, and assorted friends from all allied nations pour sand into the Nazi war machine in North Africa one more time.
When I was in Kindergarten, "Combat" was all the rage with us boys. I never watched it then, but I caught up to it in reruns when I was in 6th and 7th grade. Those were good stories, and I'm surprised at how well I remember some episodes, such as the one in which Saunders wakes up and finds himself in German uniform, or the one in which they take an English-speaking German soldier prisoner (and i'd bet money that had some influence on "Saving Private Ryan.")
Does anyone remember a British TV show "Secret Army" from the early 80s. A&E showed it for a while, and it popped up on the Akron PBS station. it was about a resistance network in Belgium trying to smuggle shot-down Allied personnel past the Germans. It was very sophisticated and complex. (Of course, this could be because I discovered the third season before I found the first season.)
Does anyone remember a British TV show "Secret Army" from the early 80s. A&E showed it for a while, and it popped up on the Akron PBS station. it was about a resistance network in Belgium trying to smuggle shot-down Allied personnel past the Germans. It was very sophisticated and complex. (Of course, this could be because I discovered the third season before I found the first season.)
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cinemalover
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Hi Mike,
I've never heard of Secret Army though it sounds interesting.
Over the weekend while I was trying to remember other milir=tary series that I had enjoyed the one that kept coming to mind was one that pretty much stunk. I love The Dirty Dozen as a film. It was exciting and a treat to watch over and over again. But when they tried to make it into a weekly series they dropped the ball, big time. Peee-yuuuu. Lee Marvin would've kicked their backsides for this effort.
I've never heard of Secret Army though it sounds interesting.
Over the weekend while I was trying to remember other milir=tary series that I had enjoyed the one that kept coming to mind was one that pretty much stunk. I love The Dirty Dozen as a film. It was exciting and a treat to watch over and over again. But when they tried to make it into a weekly series they dropped the ball, big time. Peee-yuuuu. Lee Marvin would've kicked their backsides for this effort.
Chris
The only bad movie is no movie at all.
The only bad movie is no movie at all.
I suppose I should mention "Band of Brothers," which was very good and pretty faithful to the Stephen Ambrose book. Except for the "Bastogne" epiosde, in which the doc has a doomed affair with a French nurse, which was not in the book and felt like a rip off of every WWII ETO movie ever. Apart from that lapse, "Band of Brothers" really impressed me, although seeing it on History Channel every time I flipped the channel past it cost it some of its luster.
The BoB episode in which the Americans are trying to push the Germans out of the Bulge has an incident in which a junior officer screws up very badly. In a lot of ways, it (and the details in Ambrose's book that didn't make it into the episode) reminded me a bit of the Aldrich film "Attack!" (except that nobody shot the offending officer.) Does anyone know if this was based on the same real incident that "Attack! was based on?
The BoB episode in which the Americans are trying to push the Germans out of the Bulge has an incident in which a junior officer screws up very badly. In a lot of ways, it (and the details in Ambrose's book that didn't make it into the episode) reminded me a bit of the Aldrich film "Attack!" (except that nobody shot the offending officer.) Does anyone know if this was based on the same real incident that "Attack! was based on?
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moira finnie
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I've never seen Secret Army, though it sounds very intriguing. As a matter of fact, I never really saw Combat until about 4 years ago when the Encore Action Channel started showing it!?
Has anyone ever seen The Colditz Story (1955) (a corker of a movie with one of MrsL's "faves" John Mills...just kidding, Anne!!) or the English series from the '70s called Colditz?
It's based (loosely in some cases) on some of the events described in "Colditz and the Latter Days" by Pat Reid, about a fortress where the hard-core, mostly British POWs were kept in Germany, and what a cast of characters they were. The real guys even constructed a plane within the bowels of the castle that they hoped to sail to freedom in, though I don't believe it worked in reality. This would be ideal for the History Channel or the History International Channel, don't you think?
Has anyone ever seen The Colditz Story (1955) (a corker of a movie with one of MrsL's "faves" John Mills...just kidding, Anne!!) or the English series from the '70s called Colditz?
It's based (loosely in some cases) on some of the events described in "Colditz and the Latter Days" by Pat Reid, about a fortress where the hard-core, mostly British POWs were kept in Germany, and what a cast of characters they were. The real guys even constructed a plane within the bowels of the castle that they hoped to sail to freedom in, though I don't believe it worked in reality. This would be ideal for the History Channel or the History International Channel, don't you think?