Customer Reviews

Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show-50th Anniversary Edition

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From TV's Golden Age comes this vastly underrated sitcom with the brilliant Phil Silvers in the role of Sergeant Bilko, a conniving motor pool sergeant in peace time Middle America. He has at his his beck and call a platoon of fiercely loyal privates and a duo of devoted corporals played by Harvey Lembeck and Allan Melvin (the latter of whom provides an audio introduction for each episode on the DVD). Bilko's primary foil is Colonel Hall who is wonderfully portrayed by the avuncular Paul Ford. But Bilko and his crazy cadre will take on all comers, be they a visiting Senate investigative committee, crooked gamblers or a new strictly-by-the-book officer.
Bilko is the classic comic anti-hero. Whether his best laid planes pay off or not (and those of you familiar with sitcoms of the 50's and 60's know all about get-rich-quick schemes) the laughs are a sure thing. All this comedy and it comes sans the scatological references and overuse of sex that are mar today's TV fare.
The hallmark of Silver's comic brilliance is that you often now what's coming but its funny just the same. Bilko was the perfect vehicle for him with its wonderful writing and deep supporting cast (where did they ever find Maurice Gosfield?)
This DVD presentation is long overdue but worth the wait. In addition to the fine prints of these shows comes such special features are vintage commercials, Silvers' Emmy victories at the 1956 version of that TV award show and the obligatory talking heads from today.
Whether you remember the shows from their initial airings, or grew up with scattered reruns as I did or are brand new to Bilko, this DVD set will, like Phil Silvers, not disappoint.

This should have been the first season of Sgt. Bilko (not the Steve Martin movie) show starring Phil Silvers. But the folks at Paramount got cold feet about releasing Bilko with season sets. So what we're left with as an introduction is a sampler of 21 episodes from the four seasons (there were 142 episodes made). Seeing how you rarely catch Phil Silvers on TV anymore, it's still important to have in the collection next to the Hogan's Heroes boxsets. Although you could also put this next to the Beach Party films since it features that man who would go on to become Eric Von Zipper. And don't forget Phil's animated tribute "Top Cat."

the bonus elements do have me excited.
Ed Sullivan Show (scene from episode on show a week before premiere of series)
Emmy Awards (some of them, not all - 56/57) acceptance speeches
Dick Cavet Show with Jack Benny
Promos for Sgt Bilko movie on Nick @ Night
Phil Hartman does his intros for Nick @ Night
Friar's Stag Roast for Humphry Bogart (by Phil Silvers)
Commentary from Allan Melvin (Henshaw)
Episode intros by Allan Melvin
Commentary by Dick Van Dyke
Commentary George Kennedy (army technical advisor)
2 Commentary tracks with Larry Storch (guest star) and Mickey Freeman (Zimmerman) together
Tony Randall and Jack Klugman remember Bilko on TV land promo
Original Network Opening (Camel cigarettes presents), as well as cigarette commercials with cast
Cast on Phil Silvers special "Phil Silvers on Broadway"
Promo for "The New Phil Silvers Show"
Phil's final TV interview with Sonny Fox
Bilko Growl - Phil's last record (single song)
Lost Bilko audition film

I guess if you're a fan of old black & white TV shows you're gonna have to go through this, but "You'll Never Get Rich" was one of the biggest TV hits of the 50s, every bit as big as "the Honeymooners" or "I Love Lucy", but the owners of the show (I guess that's CBS video) don't feel secure in offering a complete run without first putting out this sampler to see how Sgt. Bilko will sell.

I think as far as it goes, it's a great set; but even as a sampler there aren't enough episodes--only 18. The selections are uniformly good--every show on here is a gem, but I think there should have been at least 30-36 programs offered in this, as a "best of" set.

The extras are also neat. My biggest complaint is that my two all time favorite episodes ain't here: the one with THE BEAST, featuring the famous HARVEY from the Honeymooners as a brash bully who comes new to Ft. Baxter and pushes his way into Bilko's enterprises; and the episode where Col. Hall hires a professional card shark to masquerade as an ordinary soldier and beat Bilko at his own game (with hilarious consequences). Hopefully these will be in the next "sample" set, or, better yet, CBS will com e out with a complete season-by-season Bilko.

In the mean time, this is the best we have and it ain't bad. I would also encourage all Bilko fans to buy it as this may show CBS that a complete Bilko would be a profitable offering. The idea that F-Troop, an amusing show, but a second-rate knock-off of Bilko, is being offered complete, but Bilko ain't, is a travesty.

The early 1950's saw a lot of great comedy TV shows (besides Lucy) that really had audiences begging for more. As my family laughed and applauded the antics of Joan Davis, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers and others, I always looked on in wonderment. That's all a toddler can do: enjoy the opening title theme music, and then watch the show, understanding none of it and not getting a single joke.
A lot of these shows are on DVD now and I'm getting a chance to go back and see what all the fun was about. Watching the Phil Silvers Show, I now realize what I was missing. This show rox!
Dear Paramount/CBS video, Your 3-disc set of Sgt. Bilko is great; the sound and picture are superb and the extras are fun Fun FUN! So THIS is the kind of great quality film you have languishing in your vaults? And you're just letting it SIT there? For shame! I promise you, if you release all the shows in boxed sets, one season at a time, I won't be able to order them FAST enough. And believe me, I'm not the only one who feels that way!

So, yet another random "collection" instead of the complete seasons, huh? Testing the waters again, are we, studio execs? Well... TENSHUN!

We want the WHOLE tamale, boys! That's right, Phil Silvers was an American original - the Top Banana, baby! He deserves the full treatment - deluxe all the way! All the seasons, all the episodes, in all their crowning glory! Otherwise, forget it! Now go out there, you fancy studio dudes, and do it over again properly!

Hey UP!

In one of those good news-bad news scenarios, the real Sergeant Bilko - the original Phil Silvers Show - has finally made it onto DVD in time for its 50th anniversary, but Paramount have definitely erred on the side of caution with the treatment.

Not that Sergeant Bilko - The Phil Silvers Show 50th Anniversary Edition isn't a good presentation: it is, with more extras than you could realistically expect from a show this old, including the unseen 33-minute pilot episode when the show was still going to be called You'll Never Get Rich, vintage interviews, audio commentaries (including one by George Kennedy, who began his screen career as the army's advisor and sometime extra on the show) and much, much more. But rather than opting for a season-by-season release, Paramount have gone for a 'Best of' three-disc set. With a show as strong as Bilko, that ensures that a lot of great episodes are missing (including one of the greatest, The Empty Store, as well as Mardi Gras, Hollywood, The Rest Cure, Bilko and the Beast, The Song of the Motor Pool and Bilko's Perfect Day), and, even worse, it also means that this is probably all we'll ever get. And boycotting this release will only drive sales figures down even further until the chance of a full release is even more remote.

It's a good overview of the show from first to last episode, and some of the episdes are 100%-proof classics, like The Twitch (where Bilko runs a nationwide book on how many times a lecturer brought in to stop the men from gambling will compulsively twitch), The Court Martial (the one where a chimp on rollerskates is inducted into the army as Private Harry Speakup, coming third in the intelligence test in the process!) and The Eating Contest. But it just ain't nearly enough for a show with such a consistent standard of great writing, outrageously anarchic satire and some brilliant improvisation from Phil Silvers... More, please, and soon - that's an order!

Look, funny is funny. These gems from a fondly cherished show from my childhood are still great all these 50+ years later. With only a slight reference to topicality, these shows were written to be laugh-out-loud funny (which they are, more often than not) and were performed by actor/comedians who came up through nightclubs & Burlesque and knew both timing and attitude.

Phil Silvers was a master at fast-paced delivery and his timing is exquisite. His conniving MSgt Ernie Bilko is such a classic character he has become an archetype. (I knew two MSgts in Germany that really did have their own dice table in their barracks rooms and ran a 24/7 poker casino and could get you literally ANYTHING, for a price.)

Matching Phil Silvers, and in his own way just as funny, is Paul Ford's befuddled Col. Hall. His slow, often bewildered delivery is the perfect foil to Silver's staccato riffs. Ford often has the killer line, and the show wouldn't have been the same without him.

Likewise the supporting cast of Bilko's worshipful Cpls Henshaw and Barbella, and the motley, misfit platoon of losers (Zimmerman, Papperelli, and the inimitable Doberman) are all first rate, and contribute their comedic gifts in various episodes. And then there is (in the later shows) Joe E. Ross's great Mess Sgt Ritzik and his harridan of a wife. Unfortunately they are only in a couple of episodes here, but I recall many of the funniest in the series involved Grover & Ritzik ("I knew it!") forever getting skinned by Bilko while Ritzik's wife had a fit and fell through it.

The guest character actors (Fred Gwynne, Alan Alda, Dick Van Dyke, Larry Storch, Murray Hamilton etc.) often went on to greater glory. Dick Van Dyke's episode is especially good, and I was hoping the Fred Gwynne episode was where he had "Boids in his head" from memorizing a bird book while on duty in some remote outpost and Bilko gets him on a quiz show, but this one is when he was "The Stomach"... it's pretty good too. And the induction and Courts Martial of private Harry Speakup (the chimp) is absolutely hysterical.

From the occasional muffed line, you can tell these shows were filmed as if in live performance, and the professionalism of the cast is everywhere present. This is comedy written simply for the joy of laughing at human foibles as seen by the elaborate and usually backfiring schemes of a master con-man and the shlubs around him. Funny is funny, and these are all that.

I have just purchased the 50th Anniversary Show. This set is a must buy. They certainly have rolled out the red carpet. There are 18 episodes, plus lots of extras spread over three disks from the four years that this series aired. My favourites from this set are "The Con Men", "The Revolutionary War", "Bilko's Tax Trouble" and "The Investigation". The extras are great too! I enjoyed watching the Emmy awards, the cast on "Phil Silvers on Broadway" and "The Dick Cavett Show" with Silvers and Jack Benny. There is also "The Lost Audition" show which was filmed in 16mm kinescope. I now hope they release the entire 142 episodes. Great value!

I bought Sgt. Bilko as a Father's Day present for it was my dad's favorite show in the early fifties. He always talked about it as I was growing up and now at 32 I was happy to sit down with him a finally see an episode. I loved it. Phil Silvers is funny and witty. I really was surprised that after all the years it is still enjoyable to watch and doesn't seem dated. I thought it was better than a lot of the sit com reruns of my generation.

An early landmark in television comedy makes its DVD bow. The "Sgt. Bilko" set features 18 classic shows from the 1955-59 series, with a wealth of extras thrown in for good measure. Phil Silvers was at the top of his game in this timeless vehicle - surrounded by a terrific supporting cast (including Paul Ford, Harvey Lembeck, Allan Melvin and the inimitable Maurice Gosfield). Hopefully, more Bilko episodes will be released in the not-too-distant future.