The 60th Anniversary of McHale's Navy

It was sixty years ago today, on October 11 1962, that McHale's Navy debuted on ABC. At a time when ABC trailed behind both CBS and NBC in the ratings, McHale's Navy was one of their more successful sitcoms. It ultimately ran for four seasons. McHale's Navy starred Ernest Borgnine as Lt. Commander Quinton McHale, commander of the U.S. Navy PT boat PT-73 in the South Pacific during World War II. Stationed on a small island opposite Taratupa where they saw little in the way of action, Lt. Commander McHale and his men spent more time dreaming up money making schemes than fighting the Japanese. It was for this reason McHale often found himself at odds with his commanding officer, Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn), who is always trying to get enough evidence on McHale and his men to put them in the brig permanently. If McHale's Navy sounds a bit like The Phil Silvers Show (AKA Sgt. Bilko), it should be kept in mind that it was produced by Edward J. Montagne, who had been a producer on The Phil Silvers Show.

It might surprise many to learn that the sitcom McHale's Navy actually originated as a very serious, World War II drama that had aired as an episode of Alcoa Premiere. The episode, "Seven Against the Sea," aired on April 3 1962 and starred Ernest Borgnine as Quentin McHale, the commander of PT-73 in the South Pacific during World War II. The relative peace that McHale and his men had been enjoying is disrupted by the arrival of a new executive officer,  Durham (Ron Foster), whose job it it is to get the base back to fighting the war. Naturally McHale and Durham clash, until word comes that a battalion of United States Marines are under siege. While "Seven Against the Sea" had some humour, it was firmly a drama and had a very serious tone for the most part.

Reportedly, "Seven Against the Sea" was a pilot for a show to be titled McHale's Men, although in later interviews Ernest Borgnine has said that Durham was to be the main character on the show. The point may have been moot, as "Seven Against the Sea" sparked little interest at Revue Productions. It was Jennings Lang, Vice President of MCA TV Limited (the parent of Revue) who suggested that instead the show be done as a situation comedy. Ultimately, McHale's Navy would retain only two members of the cast of "Seven Against the Sea." Aside from Ernest Borgnine as Lt. Commander McHale, it also kept Gary Vinson as George "Christy" Christopher, the quartermaster on the PT-73, and John Wrighat as radio man Willy Moss, a Southerner who also operated their still.

The rest of the cast of McHale's Navy would be entirely different from "Seven Against the Sea." Joe Flynn joined the show as Captain Biunghamton. Also joining the show was Bob Hastings, as Lt. Carpenter, Captain Binghamton's assistant who is utterly incompetent despite trying to do everything by the book. Tim Conway joined the show as McHale's second in command, Ensign Charles Parker. Mr. Parker was naive, more than a bit bashful, and utterly mild mannered. He also tended to be inept. While Parker is hardly a good officer, he is so likeable that the crew of the PT-109 take measures to protect him.

The rest of McHale's crew is rounded out by a diverse group of personalities. Lester Gruber (Carl Ballantine) was the PT-79's torpedo mate, an amateur magician and con man who is always concocting money making schemes that nearly get them put in the brig. The crew was rounded out by Machinist Mate Harrison James "Tinker" Bell (Billy Sands), Gunner's Mate Virgil Edwards (Edson Stroll), and Seaman Joseph "Happy" Haines (Gavin MacLeod). Staying with McHale and his crew is Fujiwara "Fuji" Takeo Kobiashi, a Japanese naval seaman and prisoner of war who had deserted from the Japanese Imperial Navy. He has no loyalty to the Japanese military and is entirely faithful to the crew of PT-79. They in turn hide him from Captain Binghamton and any other military officers (both American and Japanese).

McHale's Navy did respectably well in the ratings, particularly for a show on third rated ABC. For it second season it ranked no. 22 for the year in the Nielsens. For its third season it ranked at no. 29 for the season. Over all, McHale's Navy would be successful to have two feature films spun off from it. The first was McHale's Navy (1964), released at the end of the second season. In the film the crew of the PT-79 find themselves deep in debut after Gruber's horse betting scheme doesn't pan out and Ensign Parker destroys both the cargo and dock belonging to a rich businessman. Ernest Borgnine would be absent for the second film, McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965) because of filming on Flight of the Phoenix (1965). In the film, after switching uniforms with a U.S. Air Force officer, Parker is mistaken for an Air Force officer. Aside from Ernest Borgnine, most of the cast appears in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, except for Carl Ballanine as Gruber.

McHale's Navy underwent very little in the way of cast changes. Of McHale's crew, only Gavin MacLeod left. He departed from the series at the end of the second season to appear in the movie The Sand Pebbles (1966). The show featured several recurring characters, including Roy Roberts as Admiral Rogers, Jane Dulo as Nurse Nancy Turner, and Henry Beckman as Colonel Harrigan.

While McHale's Navy underwent very little in the way of cast changes, in its fourth season it entirely changed its location. The crew of PT-79, as well as Captain Binghamton and Lt. Carpenter, were all transferred to the fictional Italian town of Voltafiore. In an interview in 1965 with TV Guide writer Peter Bogdanovich (yes,the one who would become a movie director), producer Si Rose said, "After three years in the Pacific, we thought the Allied and Japanese forces had had enough of McHale. You know, new enemy, new relationships, a new dimension for McHale."

As it was, the move perhaps turned out to be a bad idea for the show. After ranking in the top thirty for the past two seasons, ratings for McHale's Navy dropped low enough that it was cancelled at the end of its fourth season. Of course, things did not help that it aired opposite The Red Skelton Hour on CBS and Dr. Kildare on NBC.

McHale's Navy was gone, but hardly forgotten. It proved to be a success in syndication. The entire run of the show has also been released on DVD and it is available on streaming. In 1997 a film very loosely based on the TV series McHale's Navy was released, with Tom Arnold as Lt. Commander McHale. McHale's Navy (1997) received overwhelming negative reviews (on Rotten Tomatoes it boasts a rating of 3% based on 29 reviews) and it also bombed at the box office.

McHale's Navy was very much a product of its time. To a degree Fuji fits the stereotype of the passive, accommodating East Asian male.   Some of the other Japanese characters appearing on the show also conformed to stereotypes. It was not unusual for McHale and his crew to refer to the Japanese as "Nips," today considered an ethnic slur (here it must be pointed out that it appears in movies about World War II of the time). The native islanders are also often stereotypes of the sort often seen on Gilligan's Island. Although a good deal of progress had been seen in the previous decades, the Sixties were still a time when ethnic stereotypes were often seen on American television.

Regardless, McHale's Navy would have a lasting impact on the career of Tim Conway, even though he is better known for The Carol Burnett Show today. It was McHale's Navy that first brought him to prominence and gave him his first role in a feature film, reprising the role of Ensign Parker in the two McHale's Navy movies. The short-lived sitcom The Tim Conway Show re-teamed Tim Conway and Joe Flynn as co-owners of a charter plane company. Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway would later provide the voices of superheroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy on the animated TV series SpongeBob Squarepants.

Today McHale's Navy does not necessarily count among the best known sitcoms. It is perhaps best remembered as a vehicle for Ernest Borgnine, up until that time an actor in feature films. Even so, it stands as one of ABC's few successes in the early Sixties and it remains a very funny sitcom. In 1963 both Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway would be nominated for Emmy Awards. Although it is not as well remembered as it once was, McHale's Navy remains one of the better comedies to emerge from the early Sixties.