Customer Reviews

McHale's Navy - Season Two

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Climb aboard and set a course for laughter as Lt. Commander McHale and the crew of PT 73 return with 36 more light-hearted romp on the Pacific episodes in McHale's Navy - Season Two!

Still at odds with authority, skipper McHale (Ernest Borgnine), Ensign Parker (Tim Conway), and the fun-lovin' crew of PT 73 continue to oppose blustery Capt. Binghamton (Joe Flynn) and his jittery aide Lt. Carpenter (Bob Hastings) with hilarious results. Whether helping one friend get a letter out to his girl from a Japanese compound ("A Letter for Fuji") or helping another to hear his child say her first words via ham radio using a confiscated enemy radio ("A Da-Da For Christy"), the teamwork and camaraderie McHale and his men display in the episodes remain among my favorite aspects of the show.

Joining in on the schemes and hijinks this season in a recurring role is Ernest Borgnine's Dirty Dozen co-star George Kennedy as Big Frenchy, an old acquaintance of McHale who gives the crew a run for their money when it comes to running cons. Other guest stars include Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Arte Johnson (Laugh-In), Allan Melvin (The Brady Bunch), Olan Soule (The Adventures of Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder), and Mike Farrell of TV's other long-running military comedy M*A*S*H.

Digitally restored and remastered by Shout! Factory, McHale's Navy - Season Two is a 5-disc (930 min.) set featuring all 36 episodes in Full Frame (1.33:1) video and English mono, plus the following Special Features: "Ernest Borgnine Remembers" and "Tim Conway Remembers" - Featurettes have the actors reflecting on their roles in McHale's Navy and looking back at the real-life military careers that inspired their characters. Here are how the discs will be configured, plus original airdates:

Disc 1:
"The Day the War Stood Still" (9/17/1963)
"The Binghamton Murder Plot" (9/24/1963)
"McHale and his Schweinhunds" (10/1//1963)
"Is There a Doctor in the Hut" (10/8/1963)
"To Binghamton With Love" (10/15/1963)
"Have Kimono, Will Travel" (10/22/1963)
"Today I Am a Man!" (10/29/1963)

Disc 2:
"Jolly Wally" (11/5/1963)
"Scuttlebutt" (11/12/1963)
"The August Teahouse of Quint McHale" (11/19/1963)
"French Leave For McHale" (11/26/1963)
"The Happy Sleepwalker" (12/3/1963)
"A Letter For Fuji" (12/10/1963)
"My Ensign, The Lawyer" (12/17/1963)

Disc 3:
"Orange Blossom For McHale" (12/24/1963)
"Creature From McHale's Lagoon" (12/31/1963)
"A Medal For Parker" (1/7/1964)
"The Balloon Goes Up" (1/14/1964)
"Who'll Buy My Sarongs?" (1/21/1964)
"Evil-Eye Parker" (1/28/1964)
"The Great Impersonation" (2/4/1964)
"Urulu's Paradise West" (2/11/1964)

Disc 4:
"Dear Diary" (2/18/1964)
"Babette Go Home" (2/25/1964)
"The Novocain Mutiny (3/3/1964)
"Stars Over Taratupa" (3/10/1964)
"Comrades of PT-73" (3/17/1964)
"Return of Big Frenchy" (3/24/1964)
"Alias PT-73" (3/31/1964)

Disc 5:
"The Rage of Taratupa" (4/7/1964)
"Ensign Parker, E.S.P." (4/14/1964)
"The McHale Mob" (4/21/1964)
"Carpenter in Command" (4/28/1964)
"Marryin' Chuck" (5/5/1964)
"The Dart Gun Wedding" (5/12/1964)
"A Da-Da For Christy" (5/19/1964)

In the second season, the producers of this show figured out where success for the show was to be found--and it shows in the opening credits: Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn) and Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) are featured right after McHale. Even though McHale is supposedly the star character, it's really Parker who carries this show. Binghamton is only slightly less important. The interplay between these two makes for a very funny show. I've almost busted a gut several times watching these two idiots! The others of McHale's group are now assigned a pecking order, with Gruber, who probaby could have carried the show by himself, becoming the lead navy-man. Happy (Gavin MacLeod) is mercifully relegated to low man on the totem pole (doesn't he leave the show in a year or two?). This is good, clean family fun and it's a riot. Get it and enjoy.
BTW, I have had no problems with the production value. Sound and picture have been great. Can hardly wait for season three.

I picked up the first season of the series because I had never seen it but had enjoyed seeing the McHale's Navy movies time after time in syndication while growing up. The series started a little slowly (I guess they all do, though, with the actors finding their characters...), but after the fourth episode I didn't see Tim Conway, Earnest Borgnine, or any of the actors anymore. Instead I saw Ensign Parker, Quentin McHale, Gruber, Christy, Tinker, Vern, and all the rest of them. The sweet art of farce is certainly missing from much of today's TV (except for perhaps Arrested Development and one or two other notable modern comedies) and it was nice to sit back and laugh at some good old fashioned schtick!

I panicked a little when I realized that, after zipping through four of the five discs, I had only one DVD of joy left before I ran out of episodes. I hadn't realized that the 1st season set I'd picked up was the ONLY season released thus far!!! For the last few months I've been doing random searches for "McHale's Navy" in hopes that news would break that the second season would be released soon. What a relief that the next season will soon be out!

Shout Factory's transfers of these episodes are among the most clear and defined I have seen. I have a CRT projector tv that creates a 96" diagonal picture (fed by a VGA video cable from a HTPC) and as far as I could see, there was NO grain, no washed out areas, and quite a range of brightness in the images. I'm sure Shout did some luminance and contrast correction on the digital files after the transfer. What is really nice, however, is that they seem to have used a light touch and done just enough to sharpen the image without going overboard with filters or superfluous manipulations.

In short, I have loved every episode of every disc of the first season. It has nearly killed me to ration my viewing of new episodes to one a week or one every two weeks in order to draw out the pleasure of the newness until the next season is released (I still have not viewed the last two episodes...but have nearly gone mad!). Rest assured, however, I will be in line to be the first to get the Season Two set and every set that Shout Factory releases thereafter!

Great to see these in DVD format. I have carried these around with me on travels and nothing beats unwinding after a hard day, with a few laughs from LTCOMDR McHale and his crew of 'water rats'; as they get involved in more madcap escapades that involve raising the ire of Captain Binghamtom and his servile aid Lieutenant Carpenter.

This set also contains separate interviews with Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway, as they recount their time with the McHale's Navy series.

If you enjoyed Season One, you've got to get Season Two!

I bought this as a gift for my dad, but I remember it from when I was a kid and it was a riot. I remember hearing my dad laugh so loud at it.

Welcome back to the second season of one the better comedy shows of the 1960s.This five DVD set takes us from 1963 to 1964.And the laughs are a plenty with Ernest Borgnine as Quentin McHale,Joe Flynn as 'old leadbottom',Capt.Binghamton and Tim Conway playing Ensign Parker.Bob Hastings also played an underrated role as Lt.Carpenter.I always felt sorry for him as Binghamtons' number two.There never was a more underappreciated bootlicker than he.
So well were the characters played by Joe Flynn and Tim Conway received by the public that they were now a part of the opening credits.The credits would expand even more in future seasons.Axel Stordahl tweaked the music ever so slightly and gave it a bit more umphh.The scripts continued to get better and were played to the hilt by all.Much slapstick and related humour abound in these episodes,much of it going to Tim Conway and his Stan Laurel-like character.It usually was either centered around Conway or inadvertantly directed from Conway towards Binghamton.Anyway it went it was always hilarious to watch.
Technically this set has its' share of problems though.The first ep here starts off with terrible sound.The music is like listening to something coming out a long hollow tube.Furthermore other eps just past this are slighly out of sync with the film and their voices.I don't know why this couldn't be corrected.Strangley enough there is a short clip of an ep shown in the Tim Conway interview and if you look closely the voice is way out of sync.But if you actually watch the ep it was taken from everything is fine(?).Also there are eps with some contrast problems.During the final Universal credits at the end of one ep particularly the credits cut out about half way through and go back to the main menu abruptly.This is a technical flaw made by the DVD makers not artifacts(as previously described) from the shows themselves.As you progress through the season(pretty much well into disc two)things do settle down but there are exceptions here and there.Take the first ep on Disc five.Near the beginning while Gruber talks to the crew a slight pixelation briefly occurs.The last two flaws mentioned are not artifacts from the films but just plain sloppy work on Shouts' part.It's the worst of the two seasons in so far as technical flaws go.
As I briefly mentioned there is a Tim Conway interview but also an Ernest Borgnine interview.Both are relatively short but it is nice to see these gents reminiscing.Although with Tim Conway anything near a serious interview is nearly impossible!
In conclusion there are some technical flaws in this set,some of which are inherent in the film themselves but others made through deficiencies in The Shout Factorys'work,so just beware as you watch them;which of course limited my rating.However Season two is even funnier and better than the first.Mchale is still scheming and Binghamton is still exhorting:"I could just scream!".It's good fun and good humour,for the entire family.

I have truly enjoyed season two of McHale's Navy. It is everything I had hoped for.

I always enjoyed the original TV series (although it is in black and white) but that's authentic, at least. Joe Flynn is truly irreplacable (sp?) as Capt. Wallace Binghamton and Tim Conway is always hilarious. I laugh out loud each and every time I watch the characters of McHale's Navy! It's a hoot!

MY HUSBAND GOT SEASON ONE OF MC HALE'S NAVY AND REALLY WANTED SEASON TWO.. AND HE WAS SO THRILLED THAT ON CHRISTMAS DAY THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE INTERESTING ON TV.. SO HE WATCHED ENDLESS HOURS MC HALE'S NAVY... THANK YOU VERY MUCH....

I would like to thank Shout for producing this DVD. I have waited years for McHale's Navy to be released. Has anyone heard when or if the third season will be released?