Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion was a half-hour black-and-white television series about the French Foreign Legion starring Buster Crabbe in the title role. Crabbe's real-life son Cullen Crabbe played the Legion mascot, with cowboy sidekick Fuzzy Knight playing himself as Legion comedy relief. The series premiered on NBC on 13 February 1955 and ended its first run with the 65th episode shown on 7 December 1957. It was shown for many years in syndication on American television under the title Foreign Legionnaire.
Navy Log is an American drama anthology series that initially aired for one season on CBS. It relates the greatest survival war stories in the history of the United States Navy. This series premiered on September 20, 1955, but the following year, it was moved to ABC, where it aired until September 25, 1958. The program aired for a total of three seasons and 102 episodes.
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titled You'll Never Get Rich, was a sitcom 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 Awards 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.
Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers is a television series broadcast in the United States by NBC during its 1956-57 season.
In a period in which much of the programming on U.S. television consisted of Westerns, Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers could best be described as an "Eastern". It consisted of the adventures of a fictional regiment of the famed real-life cavalry of the British Indian Army. The leading characters were the 77th's officers: the commander, Colonel Standish and two of his lieutenants, William Storm and Michael Rhodes. Rhodes was portrayed as a Canadian, purportedly because the actor portraying him, a native of New Jersey, could not be coached to produce a credible British accent.
Behind Closed Doors is an American drama series set during the Cold War hosted by and occasionally starring Bruce Gordon in the role of Commander Matson. The series, which aired on NBC from October 2, 1958, to April 9, 1959, focuses, among other themes, on how the former Soviet Union stole American missile secrets and proposes steps to prevent further espionage. Behind Closed Doors is based on the files and experiences of Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias, who offers comments at the end of each segment.
Behind Closed Doors, a Screen Gems production, replaced Jackie Cooper's sitcom The People's Choice, followed the NBC quiz show, Twenty-One, and preceded the The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show. Its competition was The Pat Boone Chevy Show on ABC and Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater western anthology series on CBS.
Hennesey is an American military sitcom/drama television series with Jackie Cooper in the title role that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1962.
Cooper played a United States Navy physician, Lt. Charles J. "Chick" Hennesey, with Abby Dalton as Navy nurse Lt. Martha Hale. In the story line, they are assigned to the hospital at the U.S. Naval Station in San Diego, California.
Gunslinger was a Western television series starring Tony Young that aired on the CBS television network from February 9 until May 18, 1961 on Thursdays from 9 to 10 p.m. EST. The series theme song was sung by Frankie Laine.
Young played Cord, a young gunfighter who works undercover for the local army garrison commander, acting as a secret law enforcement agent in the territory. The series lasted for only twelve episodes.
Gunslinger was the successor to Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater.
Don't Call Me Charlie is a short-lived American sitcom that aired on NBC during the 1962-1963 TV season on Friday night from 9:30 pm to 10:00 pm est. Created by Don McGuire, the 18-episode series starred Josh Peine, Linda Lawson, John Hubbard, Arte Johnson, Penny Santon, Cully Richards, Louise Glenn, and Alan Napier.
Ensign O'Toole is a military comedy that aired on NBC from September 23, 1962, to May 5, 1963, with 31-year-old Dean Jones in the title role of a nonchalant United States Navy ensign during the early 1960s. Jones, born in 1931 in Alabama and a Navy veteran of the Korean War, played an officer aboard the fictional U.S. Navy destroyer USS Appleby, which roamed the Pacific Ocean.
McKeever and the Colonel is an American situation comedy that was broadcast on NBC television in the United States from 1962-1963. Its setting was a Westfield military academy. Dick Powell's Four Star Television produced the series.
Gary McKeever was the name of a student who was the lead of the series, whilst the Colonel in the title referred to the school commandant who was constantly at loggerheads with McKeever.
Jackie Coogan played Sgt. Barnes, a soldier at the school who was sympathetic to McKeever. The program also starred character actor John McGiver.
The guest stars included Walter Coy, formerly the host of the NBC anthology series Frontier.
Combat! is an American television program that originally aired on ABC from 1962 until 1967. The show covered the grim lives of a squad of American soldiers fighting the Germans in France during World War II. The program starred Rick Jason as platoon leader Second Lieutenant Gil Hanley and Vic Morrow as Sergeant "Chip" Saunders.
The Lieutenant is an American television series, the first created by Gene Roddenberry. It aired on NBC on Saturday evenings in the 1963–1964 television schedule. It was produced by Arena Productions, one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most successful in-house production companies of the 1960s. Situated at Camp Pendleton, the West Coast base of the U.S. Marine Corps, The Lieutenant focuses on the men of the Corps in peace time with a Cold War backdrop. The title character is Second Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice, a rifle platoon leader and one of the training instructors at Camp Pendleton. An hour-long drama, The Lieutenant explores the lives of enlisted Marines and general officers alike.
The series was released on DVD in two half-season sets by the Warner Archive Collection on August 14, 2012.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy Griffith Show on May 18, 1964. The show ran for five seasons and a total of 150 episodes. In 2006, CBS Home Entertainment began releasing the series on DVD. The final season was released in November 2008.
The series was created by Aaron Ruben, who also produced the show with Sheldon Leonard and Ronald Jacobs. Filmed and set in California, it stars Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle, a naive but good-natured gas-station attendant from the town of Mayberry, North Carolina, who enlists in the United States Marine Corps. Frank Sutton plays Gomer's high-octane, short-fused Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter, and Ronnie Schell plays Gomer's friend Gilbert "Duke" Slater. Allan Melvin played in the recurring role of Gunnery Sergeant Carter's rival, Sergeant Charley Hacker. The series never discussed nor addressed the then-current Vietnam War, instead focusing on the relationship between Gomer and Sergeant Carter. The show retained high ratings throughout its run.
Court Martial is an ITC Entertainment and Roncom Productions co-production crime drama television series set during World War II. The series details the investigations of a Judge Advocate General's office. It aired for one 26-episode season from September 5, 1965 to April 4,1695 on London's Associated Television (ATV). Twenty episodes were shown on ABC in the United States between April 8 and September 2, 1966.
The series had its genesis in a two-part episode of NBC's Kraft Suspense Theatre, "The Case Against Paul Ryker", which was later re-edited into a 1968 theatrical feature, Sergeant Ryker.
The series won the1966 British Society of Film and Television TV award for Best Dramatic Series.
Mona McCluskey is an American sitcom that aired on NBC as part of its 1965-1966 schedule. The series stars Juliet Prowse in the title role, and aired from September 16, 1965 to April 14, 1966.
Convoy is a 13-episode American television show set during World War II that appeared on NBC for the 1965–1966 television season.
The series starred John Gavin as Commander Dan Talbot of the US Navy destroyer escort "DD181" and John Larch as civilian merchant Captain Ben Foster of the cargo ship "Flagship", who were involved with the convoy ships and their escorts that help to transport food, supplies and war materials across the Atlantic during the Battle of the Atlantic. The series also featured Linden Chiles as Steve Kirk and James T. Callahan, formerly of ABC's Wendy and Me sitcom, in the role of Lieutenant O'Connell. Among the guest stars were Dennis Hopper, Jack Palance, Barbara Rush, James Doohan, Leslie Nielsen, Horst Ebersberg, Harold Gould, and Jeremy Slate.
Convoy was one of the last NBC series in black and white; the use of stock footage made color impossible. As a result, several NBC affiliates refused to clear the program, which consequently failed to climb out of the 'bottom 10' in the Nielsen ratings. The program premiered on September 17, 1965, and the last episode aired on December 10.
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to July 4, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. Bob Crane starred as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, coordinating an international crew of Allied prisoners running a Special Operations group from the camp. Werner Klemperer played Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the commandant of the camp, and John Banner was the inept sergeant-of-the-guard, Hans Schultz.
The series was popular during its six-season run. In 2013, creators Bernard Fein through his estate and Albert S. Ruddy acquired the sequel and other separate rights to Hogan's Heroes from Mark Cuban through arbitration and a movie based on the show has been planned.
The Wackiest Ship in the Army is an American comedy series that aired for one season on NBC between September 19, 1965, and April 17, 1966. Produced by Harry Ackerman and Herbert Hirschman, the series is loosely based on the 1960 film starring Jack Lemmon and Ricky Nelson.
Jericho is an American espionage series set during World War II. The series stars John Leyton, Don Francks and Marino Masé as secret agents, and aired on CBS from September 1966, to January 1967.
