Gomer Pyle: USMC

I grew up on the re-runs when local independent TV stations (known for mostly re-runs) were still common and later when TBS started showing the program. I got a lot of laughs from this show.

I went on to serve in the real Marine Corps for ten years. While this show has many many technical military errors, I still get a good laugh of the comedy of the show. It's a great way to lighten up!

The military aspect this show really gets right is the relationships between the sergeants and the junior enlisted men and/or the officers and the rest of the unit; for a funny show they kept that aspect believable of who was in charge and who was being led.

Jim Nabors in the title role gave us a departure from the quintessential portrayals of Marines from that era; instead of a hard-charging, squared away, by-the-book hero, we got someone from the other end of the spectrum whose heart is in the right place when it comes to the military, but serves in a bumbling way! If you didn't take this show too seriously or (if you were in the service) if you weren't too gung ho, this show brought you the laughs that it should.

While I echo some of the sentiments of the other reviewers like, "The Military Was Never this Funny" I also see that we have to step down and laugh a little too! Military service is serious business, hands down, but it don't mean we have to be mindless robots de-void of humor!

Also. . .yes, Gomer didn't go to Vietnam, nor was it ever mentioned as the war went on as the show did; I saw in a documentary (about the military) that TV shows of the time avoided including Vietnam in their shows for fear of low viewership and ratings as that was an unpopular war. That war may have helped in its cancellation as well even if it wasn't mentioned as the American public wanted no reminders.

No matter your view of the military, whether you served or not, this show provided many laughs so long as you didn't take it seriously.

I ve always enjoyed "Gomer Pyle" Frank Sutton played Vince Carter so well..certainly one of the great supporting actors in television. Of course the situations Gomer got into were a bit unbelievable,but after all it was escapist TV in he 60's.

The first season of theshow will be released in December with commentaries and some extras including a clip from the Jim Nabors Hour,which also starred Ronnie Schell and Frank Sutton.

One of the reviewers mentioned Ronnie Schell was with the show the entire run. He was not in the 1967-68 season. He starred in a short lived sitcom with Joby Baker "Good Morning World" He did return in 1968 as a corporal for the remainder of the series.

For those of us who were very young and just discovering the fun of watching TV comedies with our parents you couldn't ask for better shows than the Andy Griffith Show and it's spin-offs. Perhaps the best spin-off show was Gomer Pyle USMC. It's excellence is due primarily to the chemistry between Jim Nabors and Frank Sutton. The writing was good too, but these pros made that easier because they could carry the load so effectively.

Of course the show's formula was lifted wholesale from the already successful Andy Griffith's comedic career. That formula started, as far as I know, with Andy's routine called "What It Was Was Football" which I still think of when I see a "big orange" soda (Crush or similar ilk)! It was honed further by the movie "No Time For Seargeants" and then refined for sitcoms in The Andy Griffith Show. American loved the formula so as long as it was changed enough to camouflage the sameness...Success was almost guaranteed.

Oh yeah, the formula was basically exploiting, in a kind way, the innocence of someone who was naive and stripped of all pretension. It worked to the "nth-degree" with Jim Nabors as Gomer! He was so believable that it likely sabotaged him after his stint as Gomer. That can happen when a character is so fully inhabited by an actor who is both a great actor and is so well suited for a persona that you see this as the person's natural persona. In spite of this, I see his whole acting career as a qualified success due to the fact this show will continued to loved by millions more around the world...Especially now that it's out on DVD.

Simply put, "they don't make 'em like they used to" and this is truly a gem of a series.

When Andy Griffith hired Jim Nabors to portray Gomer Pyle on his hit Mayberry sitcom, the Alabama born actor-singer played the part so well that a spin off was created for him. It turned out to be Gomer Pyle, USMC, putting his naive personality against the tough, no-nonsense Sergeant Carter, played by Frank Sutton. The show ended up becoming one of TV's most successful spinoffs, never falling out of the Nielsen Top 10 ratings.

I remember watching Gomer Pyle for many years and I thought it was a very funny show. A couple of episodes I remember was the one when Gomer and Sgt. Carter were in Washington and Gomer really wanted to say "Hey!" to the President. Recently, i saw the two episodes with Carol Burnett, including the one where Gomer and Sgt (promoted from Corporal) Carol Barnes sang a duet. It was one of several episodes that showcased Nabors' outstanding singing talent.

Also added to the hysteria were Ronnie Schell as Duke Slater and Allan Melvin as Sgt. Hacker.

After five years, Gomer Pyle ended its run, not because of low ratings, but because CBS offered Nabors a variety show and he decided to leave the sitcom and focus on the new show. But we'll always remember his stint as one of TV's funniest marines. Shazam!

BEING A Spin off from THE ANDY GRIFFITH show, even before anyone had even heard of a "spinoff"; GOMER PYLE, U.S.M.C. successfully walked a tight rope to sitcom immortality. Going on and staying on CBS for a full 5 years was no small accomplishment.

THE "TIGHTROPE" OF which we speak was that certain balance that the production team sought and managed to maintain throughout the series run. This balance was one of seeking a sort of middle of the road approach to Gomer's persona.

HAVING ORIGINATED AS a stock character hillbilly and employed as an assistant mechanic & grease monkey; the character Gomer's main function was to provide the show with some of its most obvious laughs. Hence, the other supporting characters, such Barney, Floyd, Otis and even Ernest T. Bass, would seem, at least comparatively, smarter.

NOW, WITH THE advent of the GOMER PYLE Series, the production team was presented with a problem of minor personality modification. This "surgery" was a necessary evil for the ultimate success of the show. If left as he appeared on ANDY GRIFFITH, his inherent stupidity would be an insurmountable obstacle to believability and success.

IN RE-INVENTING Gomer's personality (or at least in adjusting it), the writers made Pyle more of an innocent and literalistic (much like Andy Griffith's characterization of 'Will Stockdale' in NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS). Added to this, they emphasized a sort "Heart of Gold" tendency of our hero. This greatly enhanced their ability to make a premise last for the full half hour.

SPEAKING OF FAR-OUT characterizations, what about that of Sergeant Vince Carter. Being portrayed by an under-appreciated dramatic actor (Frank Sutton), it at first seems that this Sergeant is Gomer's eternal Drill Instructor (aka "D.I.") His involvement with the story lines, however, also required a toning down for the good Sergeant Carter's attitudes, personality and actions.

WITH THE OBVIOUS blessing of the United States Department of Defense, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, those opening and closing sequences using hundreds of real marching Marines, that serve as a backdrop for Sgt. Carter's hard-boiled shouts and gesturing and Pyule's silly laugh-talking.

THIS SEEMED TO be an exercise in the unbelievable; as it was the era of the Vietnam War. We don't really know how to describe this; other than "Dicotomy" and "Paradox."