Sunday, June 5, 2011

Combat featuring Shecky Greene (1962)

3 comments:

L'Atalante said...

This was the pilot episode, which was played far more lightly than the series that followed. Saunders and Hanley are romantic rivals in the Quirt/Flagg tradition, while the aftermath of Normandy has a Abbott and Costello feel that trivializes the reality of the war. The atmosphere was significantly darker once the show went into regular production, Robert Altman directing some striking episodes that set the tone for the series as a whole.

L'Atalante said...

I should add that the pilot was left so wildly out of synch with the Combat! that followed that it was only shown months after the premiere... they dumped it on the week of Christmas when as few people as possible were watching.

Sheldon Leonard did the same thing with the pilot of I, Spy, which was again far different from the regular show (Scott was Killy's valet or something).

greg6363 said...

Leave it to Robert Altman to direct episodes of a war series that conveyed anti-war messages throughout the story and this was years before MASH. The producers didn't know what hit them. A true iconoclast.