Here are the episodes that are going to be on the Best of the Phil Silvers Show (Sgt. Bilko) Collection, which will be released this Tuesday.
Episodes from Season 1
- "New Recruits" (pilot episode: Bilko gets cleaned out in a poker game and has to find a way to get money to get back into the game)
- The WAC (WAC Sergeant Joan Horgan beats out Bilko for a jeep)
- "The Horse" (Bilko loses money on a horse, then buys the horse hoping to turn it into a winner)
- "The Eating Contest" (Bilko backs a new recruit for an eating contest, but finds that the guy can only eat when he's unhappy)
- "Bivouac" (the Colonel tries to outwit Bilko when he once again attempts to fake sick to get out of maneuvers)
- "The Twitch" (Bilko takes bets on how many times the Colonel's wife will do a nervous twitch)
- "The Investigation" (a Congressional Committee visits the camp)
- "The Revolutionary War" (Bilko tries to get a promotion on the basis that his ancestor may have been a hero of the Revolutionary war)
- "The Court Martial" (a monkey is accidentally inducted into the Army -- as "Private Harry Speakup" -- and the only way to get him out is to court-martial him)
- "The Con Men" (Bilko tries to con the con artists who swindled Private Doberman out of his money)
Episodes From Season 2
- "A Mess Sergeant Can't Win" (Bilko tries to keep Mess Sergeant Ritzik from leaving the Army)
- "Doberman's Sister" (Bilko fixes up Zimmerman with Doberman's sister)
- "Bilko's Tax Trouble" (Bilko gets audited)
- "The Big Scandal" (Bilko accidentally hypnotizes Doberman, and in his trance, Doberman confesses to the Colonel's wife that he's in love with her)
Episodes From Season 3
- "Hillbilly Whiz" (Bilko finds a hick who turns out to be the best pitcher the platoon's baseball team has ever had; guest star Dick Van Dyke)
- "Bilko the Art Lover" (Bilko stays in New York with an old friend who wants to be an artist; guest star Alan Alda)
Episodes From Season 4
- "Bilko Joins the Navy" (Bilko... uh... joins the Navy)
- "Weekend Colonel" (the final episode of the show: Bilko finds someone to pose as Colonel Hall)
As you can see, the vast majority of the episodes in the set are from the first two seasons; after that, the creator/showrunner Nat Hiken left the show, and the quality dipped significantly.
Can't believe they've left the spectacularly funny Hungarian Wedding Episode. Or better yet the episode where Bilko accidentally signs the whole platoon up for a germ warfare experiment. That one's hysterical.
ReplyDeleteStill, any Bilko on DVD is better than none. I understand that a number of episodes are in the public domain (or at last don't seem to be on file at the Library of Congress). I wonder if that's going to stop us from ever seeing the release of the whole series.