Bilko

[JSngry]

http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2009/04...ow-1957_09.html

[Jim R]

Yeah, the real deal. I thought the Steve Martin thing was okay, but...

Note to self: bookmark that damn site this time!!

(watch me forget again )

[Jazzmoose]

Mentioning Steve Martin in a thread about Sgt. Bilko is an unpardonable offense! And that goes double for threads about Inspector Clouseau!!

[JSngry]

Remember Larry's thread about sitcom directing & pacing & all that? Well, this is one to study, I'd tink.

[JohnJ]

I love Bilko, never fails to make me laugh! I must check what is available on DVD.

Btw, I believe that Phil Silvers wrote the lyrics to "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" while visiting Sinatra with Jimmy Van Heusen

[AllenLowe]

I love the ORIGINAL, best tv show ever - and btw, Annie Gossfield, the new music composer, is the niece of Maurice Gossfield, who played Doberman -

yes, Silver wrote those lyrics; his autobiography, in which he details Sinatra's Jekyl/Hyde personality, is quite interesting -

Edited April 10, 2009 by AllenLowe

[Aggie87]

Mentioning Steve Martin in a thread about Sgt. Bilko is an unpardonable offense! And that goes double for threads about Inspector Clouseau!!

There was a time back in the 70's and early 80's where Steve Martin was genuinely funny and creative (IMO).

The one that plays Inspector Clouseau sure ain't.

[Larry Kart]

An e-mail I sent this morning that might as well go here, too:

[bilko] was one of my favorite shows at the time. In addidtion to Bilko himself, Pvt. Doberman especially fascinated me. I think that was for at least three reasons -- Maurice Grofield was very good in the part, but I was kind of appalled /fascinated that a man who liked and acted like that had chosen a life in which the way he looked and acted was put on display. Finally, of course, there was the fact that in real life (and IIRC to some extent in the show, at times), this display of "lowness" (for want of a better term) led to success. How about a version of Kafka's "Metamorphosis" with Grofield/Doberman playing the guy who wakes up transformed into a dung beetle?

On the other hand, well-played though the part probably was, I recall not having a taste for the work of Joe E. Ross as the mess sergeant, nor for his battles with his wife. By contrast, I found the battles between Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca playing husband and wife on TV to be revealing and hilarous. (I saw Coca do a Neil Simon play at a local dinner theater in the late '70s or early '80s; she was at least as funny as she had been on TV.) The reactions we have when we're kids or adolescents to TV shows are a virtual Rorschach test.

P.S. Wikipedia: "Phil Silvers ... in his 1973 autobiography, said of Grofield that he had a pomposity and condescension off-screen, behaving 'like Clark Gable playing a fat man.'"

[AllenLowe]

that's the bio I read years ago - he describes Gossfield as deluded and with a self-image as a "star."

I love Joe E Ross (sgt. Ritzik?), btw - and he and the actress who played his wife did the same in Car 54 -

interestingly, my old girlfriend's sister knew the actress who played Ritzik's wife, who was a perpetual shrew on the show, and said that in real-life she was the complete opposite of her character -

Edited April 10, 2009 by AllenLowe

[Cliff Englewood]

He was a fuckin' legend, thanks for the reminder...

Great clip.

Phil Silvers in "An Evening at the Improv"

[Jim R]

Mentioning Steve Martin in a thread about Sgt. Bilko is an unpardonable offense! And that goes double for threads about Inspector Clouseau!!

There was a time back in the 70's and early 80's where Steve Martin was genuinely funny and creative (IMO).

The one that plays Inspector Clouseau sure ain't.

Bilko and Clouseau tributes aside (I haven't seen the Pink Panther film), I'll disagree that he ceased being funny in the early 80's (I mean, Planes, Trains and Automobiles was '87, and that's a classic in my book). He still kills on Letterman, he had maybe the funniest moment at this year's oscars show when paired with Tina Fey, and his closing monologue when he received the Mark Twain Prize a few years back was brilliant.

[BruceH]

I'm still a big fan of Steve Martin; I just would rather he hadn't done Bilko and Couseau. I thought he made an excellent Oscars host a few years back.

[Jazzmoose]

I wouldn't call myself a big fan of Martin, but I enjoyed his work before he began his quest to be the king of the remakes. Martin does not do himself any favors by setting himself up for comparison with Phil Silvers, Peter Sellers, or even Spencer Tracy. He should have stuck with building his own body of work.

[Jim R]

Mentioning Steve Martin in a thread about Sgt. Bilko is an unpardonable offense!

I wouldn't call myself a big fan of Martin...

Martin does not do himself any favors....

You mentioned him twice. Now who's being offensive?

=====

Another great clip with Bilko cast: Silvers special, 1960

Edited April 11, 2009 by Jim R

[Jazzmoose]

[Jim R]

[Dave Garrett]

I love Bilko, never fails to make me laugh! I must check what is available on DVD.

This is the one you want. It's a 3-disc compilation, and it's outstanding. Really wish they'd release additional sets, but so far that hasn't come to pass.

[fasstrack]

He was a fuckin' legend, thanks for the reminder...

Great clip.

Phil Silvers in "An Evening at the Improv"

As the great bard Johnny Carson might say 'that is funny, funny stuff'. That shtick with the clarinet and the piano going nuts reminded me of another youtube vid: Woody Allen sitting in w/the band on the old Dick Cavett show. He started playing a blues and kept stopping and making salacious faces, shaking his mop around, rolling his eyes like 'that was nothin'---wait til you hear this', then started again. Very funny, indeed. Edited April 11, 2009 by fasstrack

[JSngry]

btw, Annie Gossfield, the new music composer, is the niece of Maurice Gossfield, who played Doberman -

Annie's brother is Reuben Gosfield, aka Lucky Oceans, the long-time pedal steel player w/Asleep at The Wheel.

Annie's long-time partner Roger Kleier was a buddy of mine back at NT. When he and Annie met, it was obvious that he had found his soulmate. She talked about Reuben a fair bit, but hardly ever about her uncle. No matter, she was a delightful spirit, full of the spirit of the times and obviously a talent with whom to be reckoned.