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The Phil Silvers Show
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The Phil Silvers Show (originally titled You'll Never Get Rich) was a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for a total of 143 episodes (including a 1959 special). The series starred Phil Silvers as master sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army, service number 15042699.
The series was created and largely written by Nat Hiken, and won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Comedy Series.
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The Phil Silvers Show (originally titled You'll Never Get Rich) was a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for a total of 143 episodes (including a 1959 special). The series starred Phil Silvers as master sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army, service number 15042699.
The series was created and largely written by Nat Hiken, and won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Comedy Series. The show is sometimes titled Sergeant Bilko or simply Bilko in reruns, and is very often referred to by these names, both on-screen and by viewers. The show's success transformed Silvers from a journeyman comedian into a star, and writer-producer Hiken from a highly-regarded behind-the-scenes comedy writer into a publicly recognized creator.
Production
By 1955, the American television business was already moving westward to Los Angeles, but Nat Hiken insisted on filming the series in New York City, believing it to be more conducive to the creativity and humor. Early episodes were filmed at Dumont's television center in New York City (now home to WNYW-5), with later episodes shot at the CBS "Hi Brown" Studios in the Chelsea, Manhattan.
Most of the series was photographed to simulate a live performance. The actors memorized their lines, as in a play, and performed the scenes in sequence before a studio audience. Thus, there are occasional flubs and awkward pauses. This method of filming changed when impresario Mike Todd made a guest appearance and refused to memorize the script. He insisted on the episode being filmed like a Hollywood movie, one scene at a time, and out of sequence. Silvers and the crew found that Todd's way was faster, cheaper, and was less demanding for the actors, so the series changed over to this new policy. The finished films were screened for a live audience, whose response was recorded and added to the soundtracks.
Cast
Bilko's right-hand men were Cpl. Rocco Barbella (Harvey Lembeck) and Cpl. Steve Henshaw (Allan Melvin). The large supporting cast included Herbie Faye (a former burlesque crony of Silvers') as Pvt. Sam Fender, Maurice Gosfield as the slovenly Pvt. Duane Doberman, Joe E. Ross as camp cook Sgt. Rupert Ritzik, Beatrice Pons as loud-mouthed Mrs. Ritzik, Billy Sands as Pvt. Dino Paparelli, Jimmy Little as Sgt. Francis Grover, Mickey Freeman as diminutive Pvt. Fielding Zimmerman, Jack Healy as the tough-talking Pvt. Mullen, Ned Glass as quartermaster Sgt. Andy Pendleton, and former boxer Walter Cartier as botany fiend Pvt. Claude Dillingham. Some episodes gave Bilko a romantic interest (Elizabeth Fraser as Sgt. Joan Hogan). The series frequently featured so many secondary cast members, with so many speaking parts, that the show ultimately became too expensive to sustain. It was this factor, and not any decline in ratings, that led to the show's demise in 1959. As Silvers later recalled, "We went out at our height."
Paul Ford (Col. Hall) was notorious for forgetting his lines and when he would get a blank expression on his face, Silvers and the rest of the cast knew that they had to do something. They would then say something to the effect of "Oh you remember Colonel, the top brass is coming.." At that point, Ford would pick up where he left off and the audience would respond by laughing. In the series, Col. Hall was a graduate of West Point. Proudly he had a portrait of General of the Armies John J. Pershing on his wall
Guest stars included Dick Van Dyke, Eric Fleming, Fred Gwynne, Alan Alda, Paul Reed and Paul Lynde, then near the beginning of their careers. Later episodes used a wealth of veteran Hollywood character actors, including Harold Huber, Marjorie Gateson, and Frank Albertson, to name a few.
Plot
The series was originally set in Fort Baxter, a sleepy, unremarkable U.S. Army base in the fictional town of Roseville, Kansas. Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko spends most of his time trying to wheedle money through various get-rich-quick scams and promotions, his soldiers regularly helped Bilko with his schemes, but were just as often Bilko's "pigeons" ripe for the plucking. Bilko exhibited an odd paternalism towards his victims, and would doggedly shield them from all outside antagonists. The sergeant's attitude toward his men has been described thus: "They were his men and if anyone was going to take them, it was going to be him and only him". Through it all, the platoon was fiercely loyal to Bilko, and would depend on him to get them out of any military misfortune.
Bilko's swindles were usually directed toward (or behind the back of) Col. John T. Hall (Paul Ford), the overmatched and beleaguered post commander who had early in his career been nicknamed "Melon Head." Despite his flaws and weaknesses, Col. Hall would get the best of Bilko just enough to establish his credentials as a wary and vigilant adversary. The colonel would often be shown looking fretfully out his window, worried without explanation or evidence, simply because he knew that Bilko was out there somewhere, planning something. The colonel's wife, Nell (Hope Sansberry), had only the kindest thoughts toward Bilko, who would shamelessly flatter her whenever he saw her.
The show's setting changed with the fourth season, when the men of Fort Baxter were reassigned to Camp Fremont in California.This mass transfer was explained in storyline as being the inadvertent result of a Bilko con gone wrong. In reality, creator Hiken had departed, and it was an easy excuse to move the production to California and fill the episodes with celebrity guest appearances from nearby Hollywood.
The earlier episodes depicted Ernie Bilko as an easygoing "operator" angered by any injustice to someone he knows. Using guile and mind games against the villains, he steps in to defend the injured party and right the wrong. Later episodes (significantly, by different writers) overlooked Bilko's righteous side, and painted the character as strictly mercenary, willing to swindle anyone for a fast buck.
Finale
In the series finale, "Weekend Colonel," Bilko discovers a short-order cook who is the exact double of Colonel Hall. Bilko hires the cook to impersonate the colonel, so he can cheat the other officers in a bogus charity effort. The real Colonel Hall learns of the scam, and Bilko, Henshaw, and Barbella end up being locked away in the guardhouse. As Colonel Hall looks at his prisoners on a newly installed closed-circuit TV system, he quips: "It's a wonderful show, and as long as I'm the sponsor, it will never be cancelled." The camera cuts to Bilko and his henchmen finally behind bars. Bilko waves to the camera and says, "Th-th-that's all, folks!" So ended the series.
Impact
- Following the show's cancellation, CBS shortsightedly sold the films to NBC, which immediately aired reruns five days a week to great financial returns.
- In later years, Silvers frequently played off his durable Bilko persona. In 1963, he starred in The New Phil Silvers Show; the series attempted to transplant his mercenary character to a factory setting, but the result proved unpopular. Among the numerous co-stars on the revised program were Elena Verdugo, Sandy Descher, and Ronnie Dapo.
- Some of the show's other actors were recruited by "Bilko" producer Edward J. Montagne to appear in the sitcoms, Car 54, Where Are You?,created by Nat Hiken, and McHale's Navy.
- The program, which was filmed in black-and-white, was widely rerun into the 1970s. The advent of color television rendered it and many similar programs less marketable than they had been previously. The series was rerun on Nick at Nite during the 1990s. Its popularity was especially enduring in Britain, where it is still shown occasionally by the BBC. The series was weekly repeated on late Sunday nights in Britain around the early 80's, despite being the final scheduled programme by BBC1, the viewing audience was as large as 8 million. In May 2006, 18 of the show's 143 episodes were compiled into a three DVD 50th anniversary collection.
- The Hanna-Barbera television cartoon series Top Cat drew on elements from The Phil Silvers Show. Maurice Gosfield from the original platoon, voiced Benny the Ball. That series, just as with Bilko, was very popular in the UK.
Adaptations
Film
In 1996, The Phil Silvers Show was the basis of a critically and commercially unsuccessful movie, Sgt. Bilko, starring Steve Martin as Bilko, Dan Aykroyd as Colonel Hall, Max Casella as Paparelli, and Eric Edwards as Doberman. The plot centres around an investigation into wrongdoings in Fort Baxter by Major Thorn, an old rival of Bilko's, who will stop at nothing to best Bilko.
Ratings
| Season | Position |
|---|
| 1955-1956 | #30 | | 1956-1957 | #23 | | 1957-1958 | not in the top 30 | | 1958-1959 | not in the top 30 |
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