Customer Reviews

McHale's Navy: Season Four

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The phrase "shape up or ship out" holds a lot of water this season for Lt. Commander Quinton McHale and his fun-lovin' PT 73 crew of goof-offs and gamblers who were transferred to Italy for the show's final 30 episodes in McHale's Navy - Season Four!

After 3 seasons set on the South Pacific island of Taratupa, "McHale and his pirates" are reassigned to duty near the town of Voltafiore where they run afoul the shady Mayor Lugatto (Jay Novello) while continuing to oppose blustery Captain Binghamton and his jittery aide Lt. Carpenter, who are joined this season by Colonel Harrigan (Henry Beckham) and General Bronson (Simon Scott).

Also joining in on Season Four's capers, schemes and hijinks is local Dino Barone (Dick Wilson). As with co-star Tim Conway in Season Three, star Ernest Borgnine also gets to pull double duty this season in a [recurring] dual role as Guiseppe, McHale's Italian lookalike cousin in "Guiseppe McHale" and "The Return of Guiseppe".

Guest stars include Jackie Joseph (The Little Shop of Horrors, Josie and the Pussycats), Pat Harrington Jr. (One Day At a Time, The Inspector) and legendary Don Knotts (The Andy Griffith Show, Three's Company).

McHale's Navy, with 138 episodes aired over four seasons (1962-1966), is one of television's longer-lasting military comedies and a classic B&W sitcom favorite of generations of viewers. Today you can preserve this classic B&W series in pristine DVD format.

The Shout! Factory release of McHale's Navy - Season Four is a 5-disc (750 min.) set featuring all 30 episodes in Full Frame (1.33:1) video and English mono audio. Here are the episodes and how the discs will be configured, plus original airdates:

Disc 1:
"War, Italian Style" (9/14/1965)
"The Bathtub Thief" (9/21/1965)
"Marriage, McHale Style" (9/28/1965)
"Guiseppe McHale" (10/5/1965)
"A Nip in Time" (10/12/1965)
"Piazza Bighamtoni" (10/19/1965)

Disc 2:
"The Bald-Headed Contessa" (10/26/1965)
"Voltafiore Fish-Fry" (11/2/1965)
"A Wine Cellar Is Not a Home" (11/9/1965)
"Vino, Vino, Who's Got the Vino?" (11/16/1965)
"The McHale Opera Company" (11/23/1965)
"The Good Luck Fountain" (11/30/1965)

Disc 3:
"Blitzkrieg at McHale's Beach" (12/7/1965)
"Reunion for PT 73" (12/14/1965)
"The Return of Guiseppe" (12/21/1965)
"The Boy Scouts of 73" (12/28/1965)
"Fire in the Liquor Locker" (1/4/1966)
"The Fugitive Ensign" (1/11/1966)

Disc 4:
"The Wacky WAC" (1/18/1966)
"La Dolce 73" (1/25/1966)
"McHale's Country Club Caper" (2/8/1966)
"Secret Chimp 007" (2/15/1966)
"36-24-73" (2/22/1966)
"My Son, the Skipper" (3/1/1966)

Disc 5:
"Little Red Riding Doctor" (3/8/1966)
"Who Was That German I Saw You With?" (3/15/1966)
"The McHale Grand Prix" (3/22/1966)
"An Ensign's Best Friend" (3/29/1966)
"Binghamton, at 20 Paces" (4/5/1966)
"Wally for Congress" (4/12/1966)

While I'm saddened that this will be the last set released of this classic show I'm also glad that we got the entire series, and that it was handled well by Shout! Factory. No editing, no missing episodes, no replaced musical scores, no altering of the original format to ruin the buyer's experience. Just a classic TV show presented here as it originally aired over 40 years ago - the way DVD sets should be done!
This was always my favorite show as a kid growing up and seeing it again after all these years has been alot of fun. It holds up well too. Good nostalgic memories, good laughs, and good clean fun for the whole family. Young and old alike can sit down together and enjoy this show.
As others on here have stated the only disappointment for me was the two McHale's Navy feature films were not a part of this final set as a bonus feature. I too had hoped they would be. When the entire series is released in one boxed set it would be nice if they could include them as well. Just to make it all complete.
On a more personal note it's nice that Ernest Borgnine, now in his 90's and the oldest living recipient of The Oscar award, has lived to see his show successfully released and preserved for future generations to enjoy. God bless him and Tim Conway and the rest of the crew who've entertained us and made us laugh all these years.

"McHale's Navy must be saved!" was the battle cry that emanated from ABC executives in 1965. ABC was perennially the doormat of network television in the sixties. They had few successful shows & McHale's Navy was one of them. Plummeting ratings for the show (a natural occurrence) had executives in a pensive mood; they had Ernest Borgnine, an Academy Award winner, % they wanted to keep him. So the producers of McHale's Navy decided that changes were necessary in order to bolster ratings.

They decided they would move the entire PT squadron from Taratupa in the Pacific to Voltafiore, Italy. This would allow Borgnine to use his Italian speaking skills also. Even Fuji moved with them as a stowaway which was very lamely explained. Since everyone loved to see Binghamton get it in the end more connivers were added to the cast so that Wally would get it from all ends. Added to the cast were Mayor Mario Lugatto (Jay Novello) & Col. Harrigan (Henry Beckman) who would cause more grief for Binghamton, one from the local population & the other from the U.S.Army. The problem with these additions was that the crew of the PT 73 became less featured & that had to hurt. By mid-season Jay Novello was gone. The producers did retain most, if not all, the writers that penned the scripts. Hollingsworth Morse was brought back to direct all 30 episodes of season 4.

Alas, McHale's Navy could not be saved. How many different ways can you run a con on the same bumbling C.O.? Even Borgnine was given an alter ego for two episodes in which he portrayed his "twin" Italian cousin, Giuseppe. It was all to no avail as McHale's Navy sailed away into the sunset of canceled television series. But the good news is, we fans, now have all four seasons of a classic, funny series. Shout Factory has done an excellent job in restoring these episodes so that they can be enjoyed once again by we old fans & show them off to a younger generation who will never experience a more innocent time than we did nor television cluttered with the graphic violence & innuendos (the "s" word).

My wife and I enjoy watching this series in the evenings. A truly funny series.

I am glad to finally have all four seasons of the show. I loved to watch it when I was younger and now I can watch it anytime I want to.

I purchased this DVD set for my Husband ,and he has been enjoying it tremendously.It arrived quickly and exactly as promised.I would definitely use this merchant again.

McHale's Navy has always been one of my favourites since the show was first released on television. It was to return for many years as a 'repeat' however always managed to hold prime time viewing slots in Australia.

This last thirty episodes of the final season sees the PT-73 and crew move to the town of Voltafiore, in Italy. Along with Captain Binghamton, Lieutenant Carpenter and, of course, Fuji, who hides on the 73 boat as it is shipped to its new theatre of operations.

With the shift to the Italian front brings a new cast of characters who enter the McHale-Binghamton conflict; Mayor Mario Lugatto and Colonel Harrigan are the two main adversaries of both McHale and Binghamton and seem to side with whoever is more beneficial to their cause. Colonel Harrigan is always trying to get one over on Captain Binghamton, especially when General Bronson is present. Meanwhile, Mayor Lugatto, has a number of schemes he trys out when the time is seemingly right to pull a fast one on the US Navy. A great episode is the one with guest star Don Knotts, as an Army psychiatrist, who is conned by Captain Binghamton into believing the crew of the 73 are all kooks so they can be shipped out.

The move to Italy was not really explained but was supposed to give the writers new ideas for the show, so the notes to Season Four explain; however it didn't seem quite the same show. Another strange part of this final series was how the show just finished with no real dramatic ending, like the end of the war in Italy, for example...It just stopped with a final episode-'Wally for Congress'.

Despite these shortfalls, I still enjoyed every episode in this final season and commend it to anyone who is a fan of McHale's Navy.

Now, if we can just get the people responsible to put both the movies on DVD, that will see all of our McHale's Navy entertainment on the one format and keep us contented for many hours and many years to come.

I am enjoying this Final Season. Just GREAT. I was in the Navy in WW2 and enjoy this spoof of Navy Life.

I enjoy seein the old series of McHale's Navy. I wish that they had some of the out takes of the series on the DVD's, as I'm told they were good.

This is the last season of a wonderful tv series I watched everytime it was on. I'm so happy to have the whole series now. It is really a great show and I would recommend it to anyone that likes comedy. It's a must have series.