The ever-popular Ernest Borgnine, one of the all-time great "regular guy" stars, anchored McHale's Navy, a cheerful, rambunctious '60s sitcom set in the South Pacific during World War II. By its second season, the show had perfected its formula (a formula already lifted wholesale from The Phil Silvers Show): Lt. Commander McHale (Borgnine) and the scrappy crew of his PT boat (including Tim Conway, later of The Carol Burnett Show, as bumbling Ensign Parker and Gavin MacLeod, later to helm The Love Boat, as seaman "Happy" Haines) scheme, swindle, and romance their way through the war, avoiding the enemy whenever possible, and making life miserable for their petty, tyrannical commanding officer, Capt. Binghamton (Joe Flynn, later to appear in numerous Disney live-action movies like The Love Bug and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes). Though some episodes reflected real world issues of the 1960s (for example, Ensign Parker feels less of a man when a pretty nurse turns out to be better than him at pretty much everything), by and large the show existed in a bubble of slapstick and classic vaudeville schtick--and the show's fans wouldn't want it any other way. Despite the backdrop of WWII, McHale's Navy aimed young. McHale and his crew are basically a gang of rascally kids getting away with pranks and defying the adult authority figures around them. Though the guys routinely pursue nurses, their "dates" amount to little more than stolen kisses and light petting--compared to the leering Hogan's Heroes, McHale's Navy is strangely prepubescent. Of course, this innocence is much of the show's charm, and makes the occasional Asian and Pacific Islander stereotypes a little easier to take (though it's worth noting that the Japanese characters on the show were always played by Japanese actors, something not common at the time). In addition to the original 36 episodes aired in 1963-64, McHale's Navy: Season Two features brief interviews with Borgnine and Conway (regrettably, Flynn died in 1974). The fairly bland Borgnine interview has at least one good anecdote, but the Conway interview is charming throughout. --Bret Fetzer
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