F Troop
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F Troop was a satirical American television sitcom that originally aired from 1965-1967 on ABC. 65 thirty-minute episodes were produced; it premiered in the United States on September 14th, 1965, ran for two seasons and finished its first run on April 6th, 1967. It premiered on the ITV network in the UK on October 29th, 1968 and was repeatedly screened until July 16th, 1974. The series was also broadcast nationally in Australia on ABC-TV.
Creators
Although the show's opening credits claim F Troop was created by Richard Bluel, a final arbitration by the Writer's Guild of America eventually gave Seaman Jacobs, Ed James, and Jim Barnett credit. Episode writers included Arthur Julian, Stan Dreben (Green Acres), Seaman Jacobs, Howard Merrill (The Dick van Dyke Show), Ed James and the highly successful comedy writing duo of Tom Adair and James B. Allardice, who collaborated on some of the most successful American TV sitcoms of the Sixties including The Munsters, My Three Sons, Gomer Pyle, USMC and Hogan's Heroes. The series was directed by Charles Rondeau and Leslie Goodwins and produced by William T. Orr and Hy Averback. The story is in some ways a comedy derivative of the John Wayne film, Fort Apache. In actual fact, it bears more than a slight resemblance to a 1964 Glenn Ford film called Advance To The Rear, which appeared just one year before F Troop aired.The Show
The show is set at Fort Courage, Kansas, an Army outpost in the West, in 1866, the year after the end of the Civil War. The commanding officer at Fort Courage is the gallant but chronically clumsy and accident-prone Captain Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry), the descendant of a long line of military leaders. He is awarded the Medal of Honor after accidentally instigating the final charge at Appomattox: he is meant to call "retreat", but he sneezes just as he is about to speak and his troops mistake this for the order "Charge!" His superiors soon realise his ineptitude and post him to remote Fort Courage, a dumping ground for the least useful or trustworthy soldiers.The circumstances are illustrated in the show's opening theme:
- The end of the Civil War was near,
- When quite accidentally,
- A hero who sneezed, abruptly seized
- Retreat and reversed it to victory.
- His medal of honor pleased and thrilled
- His proud little family group.
- While pinning it on, some blood was spilled,
- And so it was planned he command...F-Troop!
- :Where Indian fights are colorful sights,
- :And nobody takes a lickin',
- :When paleface and redskin,
- :Both turn chicken.
- When drilling and fighting get them down,
- They know their morale can't droop,
- As long as they all relax in town
- Before they resume, with a bang and a boom...F-Troop!
Captain Parmenter, the "Scourge of the West", is credited with keeping the peace (which is in fact really kept by O'Rourke's secret treaty) although when the need to keep up appearances arises, the troopers and the Hekawi stage mock battles for the benefit of outsiders.
Love interest is provided by Captain Parmenter's beautiful but tomboyish girlfriend "Wrangler" Jane Angelica Thrift (played by then 16-year old Melody Patterson), who runs the local general store. She is determined to marry the naive Parmenter and is often obliged to rescue him from his various predicaments.
Other regular characters troopers include Cpl. Hannibal Shirley Dobbs (James Hampton), F Troop's inept bugler; Private Vanderbilt (Joe Brooks), the legally blind lookout (20/900 in each eye, according to Agarn); and Private Duffy (1930's western star Bob Steele), a slightly senile survivor of the Alamo.
The Hekawi tribe supposedly derived their name an incident in which the tribe became lost, exclaiming "Where the heck are we?", which then became "We're the Hekawi". The regular "Indian" characters (none of whom were really Native Americans) include Chief Wild Eagle (Frank de Kova), his assistant and heir-apparent Crazy Cat (Don Diamond), and aged medicine man Roaring Chicken (veteran actor Edward Everett Horton). There were also guest starring roles and/or cameo appearances by:
- Sterling Holloway (the voice of Disney's Winnie The Pooh)
- Don Rickles as the ridiculous Bald Eagle
- US TV legend Milton Berle as a crooked Indian detective Wise Owl
- acerbic comedian Paul Lynde as Sgt. Ramsden
- veteran Hollywood character actor Jack Elam
- Jamie Farr (best known as Klinger from ''M*A*S*H) as "Standup Bull"
- Lee Meriwether and Julie Newmar, both of whom played Catwoman in the TV version of ''Batman
- TV veteran Parley Baer
- Mike Mazurki (Geronimo)
- Zsa Zsa Gabor as a traveling gypsy
- Vincent Price as Count Sforza, a suspected vampire
- Phil Harris as 147-year old Flaming Arrow, determined to take the United States back
- Harvey Korman as Heinrich Von Zeppel, a Prussian balloonist
- Henry Gibson as "Wrongo" Starr, an extremely unlucky soldier
The entire series was shot on the Warner Bros. backlot, contrary to rumors that it was shot in Thousand Oaks, CA.
Syndication and Afterlife
Although only two seasons were produced, F Troop enjoyed a very healthy second life in syndication, much like fellow 2-season entries The Munsters, The Addams Family, and Batman from the same era. The show was a particular favorite on Nick At Nite in the 1990s, running from 1991 to 1995 despite the fact that there were only 65 episodes to run. The show did draw some negative criticism for its portrayal of Native Americans even though the United States soldier was not exactly portrayed in a positive light.On September 27, 2005, Warner Home Video released the first F Troop DVD compilation as part of its "Television Favorites" series. The 6 episode DVD included 3 black and white episodes and 3 color episodes. Previously, the series had been digitally remastered and released on 10 VHS tapes by Columbia House in 1998, with 30 of the 65 episodes represented in that series.
On February 14, 2006, following the highly successful sales from the "Television Favorites" release, Warner Home Video announced that F Troop: The Complete First Season would be released in boxed set form on June 6, 2006, with all 34 black and white episodes included.
The Feature Film
F Troop is currently being developed into a feature film by writer/director, Bobby Logan (Repossessed, Meatballs 4, among others).
External links
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