Today is Veteran's Day! In observation of this day, I'm watching episodes of the only four World War series I used to follow as a youngster back in the 1960s.
My top Number One favorite was COMBAT!
Starring Vic Morrow as Sgt. Chip Saunders and Rick Jason as Lt. Gil Hanley it also featured as regular members of their squad, Jack Hogan as Kirby, Dick Peabody as Little John, Pierre Jalbert as Caje, Tom Lowell as Billy, Steven Rogers as Doc # 1 and Conlan Carter as Doc # 2.
Who can forget the immortal phrase: "Checkmate King 2, This Is White Rook, Over"?
THE RAT PATROL was another great favorite of mine, and since each episode was only half an hour long, you could be sure the action was going to be non-stop! The show starred Christopher George, Gary Raymond, Lawrence Casey, Justin Tarr and Hans Gudegast (later known as Eric Braeden) as German Captain Dietrich, who never won a battle against these four soldiers.
GARRISON'S GORILLAS was inspired by the successful 1967 Lee Marvin movie, THE DIRTY DOZEN and starred Ron Harper and Cesare Danova along with Rudy Solari, Brendon Boone and Christopher Cary.
The misadventures of a PT Boat crew in the South Pacific, McHALE'S NAVY was a very funny comedy show with a distinguished cast of performers headed by Ernest Borgnine and featuring newcomer Tim Conway along with Joe Flynn, Carl Ballantine, Gavin MacLeod, Yoshio Yoda, Edson Stroll, Billy Sands, Gay Vinson, John Wright and (not pictured) Bob Hastings.
These are the only war themed shows I enjoyed watching during those years although, of course, there were a few others more like TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH, COURT MARTIAL, CONVOY, JERICHO, NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS, HOGAN'S HEROES and THE GALLANT MEN but I didn't care much for those.
Whatever the case may be, war TV shows generally speaking, were never as popular as Westerns, Sitcoms, Private Detectives, Crime or Sci-Fi series so it seems to me that the usually moderate ratings explain why these type of programs were so scarce during those days.
