Customer Reviews

Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show - First Season

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The Phil Silvers show was one of the funniest comedies ever on TV and deserves a season-by-season release. The show originally ran from 1955-59, only four years, but had a whopping 143 episodes! A few years ago, Paramount released a 50th Anniversary Edition of the show (sometimes titled "Bilko" and sometimes "The Phil Silvers Show," though Wikipedia states the original title was "You'll Never Get Rich"). That earlier dvd collection only included 18 episodes selected from all 4 seasons, with most from the first season.

Most fans have wanted a season-by-season collection, and this release of Season One is a good step in that direction. (It would have been nice, as others have noted, if the manufacturer had included a "play all" viewing choice, but the picture quality is crisp.)

Please note: Ten episodes from this Season One set do overlap with the Sgt. Bilko - 50th Anniversary Edition (The Phil Silvers Show) earlier set, including the episodes New Recruits, The WAC, The Horse, The Eating Contest, Bivouac, the Twitch, the Investigation, The Revolutionary War, The Court Martial, and The Con Men. However, you're still getting 24 other episodes NOT on that earlier set, including the very funny The Empty Store, and others. It's worth buying the new set, though the Anniversary edition has more special features.

Here is a per disc list of contents:

Disc 1:
New Recruits (commentary by Allan Melvin)
The Empty Store
The WAC
The Horse
AWOL
The Boxer
Special Feature: The Lost Audition Show - never aired

Disc 2
The Hoodlum
Mardi Gras
The Eating Contest
The Centennial
Bivouac
The Singing Contest
The Twitch
Special Feature: Original Opening & Cast commercials

Disc 3
The Reunion
The Rich Kid
Hollywood
The Investigation
Kids in the Trailer
The Revolutionary War
The Transfer

Disc 4
The Rest Cure
Dinner at Sowici's
Army Memoirs
Miss America
The Court Martial (commentary by George Kennedy)
Furlough in New York
The Big Uranium Strike

Disc 5
Bilko and the Beast
Physical Check-up
Recruiting Sergeant
Hair
The Con Men
War Games
Bilko on Wall Street
Special Feature: "Lucy and the Efficiency Expert"

This Phil Silvers show was well written and well acted, with some very funny improvised moments. (The series creator Nat Hiken should be given a lot of credit for creating a quality show that just wasn't the same after he left.)

In this first season you have the episode titled "The Court Martial." Normally, that would sound like a serious subject. Not for Bilko. It seems the army wants to improve their timing and efficiency in processing new recruits. Unfortunately, one of the new recruits is a monkey. This is an episode that can't be described, but must be seen. And if you can get through it without laughing uncontrollably, then you need to see a doctor to see if your sense of humor was removed without your consent.

What is great about the Phil Silvers show is that even when the situations get insane, the humor never talks down to the audience. And Bilko, despite all his schemes, can never finally let his men down. (Except perhaps in the fourth season, done without Hiken, which is not the best.) This is also a show that had an integrated cast--a rarity then--and early TV appearances of Dick Van Dyke and others. The show started the career of actor George Kennedy.

Buy this set and encourage the manufacturer to put out the other 3 seasons on dvd. This show is unbelievably funny, with humor that isn't dated, and deserves to be enjoyed for generations. Silvers was a comedy genius.

This set has English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired. As someone with bad hearing, I find that information vital whenever I buy a DVD these days.

Of all the TV comedies I ever saw, this one has to be the best. Not even Lucy or The Honeymooners, the two other great series from the golden age of US sitcom, came anywhere near it. Maybe it hit me at an impressionable age; maybe I missed some other great series; maybe they showed only the best episodes here (Melbourne, Australia, the early 1960s). But the pleasure that I've had from watching this long-awaited set of the first season has proven to me at least that Sgt Bilko really is the best. For anyone who wants proof of the genius of Phil Silvers, I'd suggest they try the episode where Bilko goes to bring back a Hungarian private who's gone AWOL. The story is practically non-existent and the dialogue is forgettable, but from the moment when Bilko enters the house of the celebrating Hungarians, the laughs just keep on coming. Phil Silvers was an amazing performer.

One question though. Is there anyone out there under the age of 40 who enjoys Bilko? I'd hate to think he has no young fans.

Two things that never go out of fashion are honesty and class, and honestly this show is class, real class. Its popularity has been especially enduring in Britain, where it is still shown occasionally by the BBC. The series was rerun on late Sunday nights around the early 80's, just before BBC1's signoff; despite this, the viewing audience was as large as 8 million.
I purchased the 50th anniversary edition and I will still purchase this.
Phil Silvers is a master of comic timing, all those years in vaudeville show through in his marvellous comic creation, Master Sergeant Earnest Bilko.
34 classic episodes on 5 discs, and bearing in mind the age of this show I'm amazed they managed to find a lot of extras too.
Ten episodes from this season are also on the 50th Annivesary Edition!
BUT- twenty four are not! bargain.

Trivia:- There were four seasons of Bilko, 1955-59, 143 episodes in total.
After season three they moved from Fort Baxter, Kansas to Camp Fremont, California.
Production did move from New York to California.
Creator Nat Hiken left when they moved it from New York, two years later he created, "Car 54 where are you?".
In the 1980's a British tourist was nearly arrested when a Chinese soldier thought the man depicted on her Sgt. Bilko T-shirt was the Dalai Lama.
I think Bilko would have liked that.

When one watches the Phil Silvers Show,one cannot help but ask who else but Phil Silvers could ever have successfully pulled off such a brilliant characterization of one Sgt.Ernest T.Bilko?I cannot honestly think of any actor then extant who had the moxy and energy coupled with such an innate ability for ad libbing than Silvers had who could have.He was creator Nat Hiken's first and best choice for the role.
This is the first season of "The Phil Silvers Show",for a short time known as "You'll Never Get Rich",with eps spanning from Sept.20/55 to May 15/56.The opening credits are the syndication animated titles which show a group of soldiers walking on with the shows title card ,Bilko barking orders,the group marching off,then Doberman appearing with an upside down card only to be righted by Bilko shouting again.However the original titles,bumpers and end credits ARE included in this five single DVD set which are a delight to see.Also included are numerous commentaries,show related commercials(sponsors were the life blood of /50s TV),the so called "lost"audition show and an ep from the /60s Lucy Show with Phil Silvers as an efficiency expert.Silvers was SO good at his character that ever after,it seemed,everyone wanted to see him playing Bilko in some way,shape or form.Just watch him in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and you'll see Ernest T.in full swing there,just dressed of course in Roman garb instead of combat fatigues.
The show featured a bevy of great supporting cast members,among them Harvey Lembeck as Corp.Barbella(who would soon gather another following as the aged biker in the Frankie and Annette films),stalwart and talented Allan Melvin as Corp.Henshaw,Herby Faye as Pvt.Fender,Maurice Gosfield as the slovenly Pvt.Doberman,Billy Sands as Pvt.Papparelli,Harry Clark as Sgt.Sowicki,and the irrepressible John Ford as the hard done by Colonel Hall.It has been said that Ford would often forget his lines and Silvers would,without missing a beat,say a line that would twig Ford to remembering or just say his line for him.You can see many an ad lib by Silvers but one most obvious one is in"The New Recruit" where a monkey is inducted into the army,despite Bilko's attempts to stop it.At the court martial where Bilko is the simians counsel,his client suddenly dashes over to a corner and Bilko says something to the effect that he thinks his client is trying to contact his congressman.It's hilarious stuff and this and so many other instances are there for all to see.
Also visible are little bloopers.One quite visible one,and I'll let you try and find the ep yourself,is where Sgt.Sowicki leaves the scene by going out a doorway.The camera then switches angles and Harry Clark is quite visible standing behind the scenery watching the proceedings for quite a bit of time.Someone must have told him as he suddenly moves away.
Now this show was NOT the ratings Goliath you may have been led to believe it was.Sure it won around nine well deserved Emmys during its tenure on CBS but it never reached more than into the top 25 and that was in its second season.Mind you I do have a BIG problem with the so-called "ratings" system at the best of times and this concept was in its infancy in the /50s,its accuracy was dodgy at the best of times and it was/is most unrepresentative of the viewing public as a whole at ANY time.
Having said that however the shows writing I believe was much better in the first two years,especially in so far as the Bilko character goes.For the first while Bilko was certainly portrayed as the conman he would always be but at least he was shown to have the best interests of his platoon at heart.Later they(the writing staff)turned him into more of a self-centred hustler and I found that aspect of the character the least sustainable on any long term basis.Another small detail is the fact of sustaining such a high energy character on a weekly basis.It is a credit to Silvers professionalism that he was able,for the most part,to pull it off but there are times even Silvers can't overcome the poorer scripts,and the shows would fall flat;and hard.That also became more the norm than the exception as the series wore on.I think these factors,more so than the normal spin that the show went off the air because of the cost of such a large cast,are more the causes of the shows demise than any other.I thought so in 1959 and I still think so today.
Technically speaking this set has NOT been remastered and while generally speaking the eps look pretty good I must say that a good remastering from the original elements should have been on the cards for this truly iconic tv show.Paul Brownstein who put this package together( and quite a few others for various companies-kind of a gun-for-hire)got his first big break in that end with the mega packaging and transfer of the Dick Van Dyke series;which by the way were also in great need of remastering but weren't.Brownstein seems to be good at getting the extras together which fans love but for some reason he stays away from any remastering,which frankly I do not get.In this set not only are some of the prints very,very grainy and with blemishes,quite a few have been printed too close in.To see this take note at the end of each ep of just how many that you can clearly see the final year of release on(1955,1956,etc).If they are cut off partially or completely then new prints should have been made.As mentioned there are some nice extras but this doesn't make up for this lack of remastering.But then again cost is always the big concern and more often than not the consumer gets cut the most.
In conclusion despite this sets non-remastering it is still in pretty good shape(we all have seen worse)and the extras Mr.Brownstein has added are as welcome as pay day.This is the series in one of its' best years with Phil Silvers in his penultimate role as the fast talking con man sergeant of Fort Baxter,Kansas;with a heart.The laughs come at break neck speed and Silvers is well supported with a cast of great second bananas on hand to assist him.This is one of 1950's television's better shows and I'm glad to see its final release to DVD.

I thought they would never release this show. My father and I watched it when it first came out in 1955.
We thought it was the funniest of any of the comedy shows of that era, and I still do.
This is one show all of the family can watch.
Hope they release the rest of them.

they pull me back in. This is one of the funniest shows ever and Phil Silvers is excellent as Master Sgt Ernie Bilko. And the supporting characters such as Ritzik, Doberman and Colonel Hall (as the straight man) complement Bilko nicely. I remember staying up and watching this on WOR-TV in NYC in the late 70's and early 80's. Some episodes came out on VHS and also the 50th Anniversary DVD release were better than nothing but nothing beats a season set, hopefully eventually leading to the complete series release. Other shows from this era such as The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy may have more fame but this show is not only just as funny (funnier) but also wittier and more cleverly written than most from this era.

Outstanding series. Phil Silvers was absolutely brilliant! The humor stands up very well, indeed. The sooner they get Season 2 out, the sooner they can get my money. ;-)

DVD executive producer Paul Brownstein gave himself credit on this set and the earlier 50th Anniversary Sgt. Bilko collection. But where's the name of the comedic genius behind "You'll Never Get Rich" and "Car 54, Where Are You?" Nat Hiken was a major force in American radio and television comedy. His name should not be erased from one of his greatest, most enduring creations.

I did not know Bilko season one was released on dvd and saw it by change in the store on 8/4/10. I bought the last copy they had. I found it interesting that they had one of those big security tags on it that wraps all the way around the case. Is Bilko in such high demand that people are stealing it?

I viewed the first dvd prior to writing this review and I can tell you that the video and audio quality is perfect. It's like watching broadcast TV.

Buy it. You won't be disappointed. This is classic tv at it's finest.

Five stars so far, let's keep it that way for the greatest TV comedy. My thoughts have been more or less summed up by others already but I wonder how many of you have a copy of Bilko: The Fort Baxter Story?

Published in England in 1985 and as far as I know the only Bilko book. Particularly interesting because it has a listing of every show, writers, air date and a plot synopsis. Also included is a Bilko A to Z and chapters on the background to the CBS show. Black and white program stills are scattered throughout the pages.

The book is still available at reasonable prices if you search the net and I've upload a few pages from the book. Click 'customer images' under the DVD cover.

Best episode in the first series? I'll go for The Court Martial (aired March 6 1956) where Zippo the chimp gets inducted. Comedy can't get any better than this.