Sgt. Bilko – The Phil
Silvers Show (aka You’ll Never
Get Rich): 50th Anniversary Edition
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Episodes: B
Though it was a huge hit in its time, You’ll Never Get
Rich/The Phil Silvers Show never had the phenomenal syndicated TV
rerun success of the other 1950s classics it shared the Golden Age of
Television with. In recent years,
however, a new wave of appreciation has begun to take hold. The great Steve Martin tried to take over
the lead role Silvers made legendary in the 1996 feature film revival Sgt.
Bilko that never worked. More
ironic though is that the show’s get rich quick schemes did surface in Hanna
Barbera’s 1960s animated classic that was the equal of The Flintstones
and The Jetsons any day of the week, was a transplant of Sgt. Bilko
and their best animal comedy of that decade: Top Cat. Now, in their continuing series of classic
TV on DVD releases, Paramount/CBS has issued Sgt. Bilko – The Phil Silvers
Show: 50th Anniversary Edition with a 3 DVD set.
Starting with the first episode, the set tracks the
series’ four season by offering 18 key episodes from the 143 shows made and
shown from 1955 to 1959. The show holds
up well, though one wonders why it was never syndicated. Having a leader like Bilko and his
underlings being lazy, never volunteering for anything, trying to make money by
any means and being wacky did not match what was going on in Vietnam and that
likely killed later immediate success.
Nat Hiken created the show and much of it is still funny, even if you
are not on the floor in pain from laughing.
Other key cast members you might recognize from their
later work includes Harvey Lembeck, Herbie Fay, Paul Ford, Maurice Gosfield
(who did the voice of Benny The Ball on Top Cat), Billy Sands, comic
legend Joe E. Brown and the great comic character actor Allan Melvin. Melvin went on to other memorable supporting
actor roles in TV classics like Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Brady Bunch,
All In The Family and did many animated cartoon & live-action children’s
show voices himself.
The 1.33 X 1 image was shot in black and white film, and
once again, we have another classic CBS TV series (like I Love Lucy, Twilight
Zone and Have Gun Will Travel) in exceptional condition and despite
some grain, look amazing for their age.
The shows have not been seen much, so the materials being left alone and
preserved properly for the most part have yielded this fine quality
playback. William J. Miller was the
cinematographer throughout and the fine work speaks for itself. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also very
clean and clear for its age, shaming monophonic films from the same time period
into the 1970s for fidelity.
Extras are many, including opening comments on each show
by Allan Melvin himself, the late Phil Hartman’s Nick @ Nite network intros,
Hartman joining with Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd reflecting on the show as
their feature revival arrives in theaters, the entire 16mm kinescope version of
the pilot that never airedArtmanHa
and is strikingly similar to the final filmed version, a clip of the cast being
introduced on The Ed Sullivan Show, the hat trick of Emmy wins for the
show in 1956 in a montage clip, a Jack
Benny/Phil Silvers join appearance on The Dick Cavett Show (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) that is not on the Cavett Comic Legends set
where Silvers explains that they were cancelled at their height for monetary
reasons and should be released in its entirety sometime, audio of Silvers
roasting Humphrey Bogart in 1955, select audio commentaries by name actors you
likely do know, original opening for the show, original commercials, gag still,
stills section, Tony Randall & jack Klugman on TV Land commenting on
camera about the show, 1957 Emmy clip, Silvers on Broadway clip, 1959 Pontiac
commercial, Bilko Growl audio clip, 1963 promo clip for The New Phil
Silvers Show and Phil’s TV last interview.
That is a nice selection of extras that will stun fans and
gives a great appreciation of just how successful it really was. More hit military comedies followed like Hogan’s
Heroes (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and the
still-to-be-released-on-DVD Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and all on CBS. However, Pyle was a syndicated hit
that has mysteriously disappeared. Some
people never found military comedies funny, but these were smart enough to be
hits and Sgt. Bilko was ahead of its time for better and maybe a little
worse. However, Sgt. Bilko is a
rich show thanks to some amazing writing and launched many of the medium’s key
talents.
- Nicholas Sheffo
