Sgt Bilko/ Phil Silvers Show - C/D, S/D

(the sitcoms that is) xp

Private Benjamin, M.A.S.H.

every movie comedy team in the '40s/50s joined the army or navy, sometimes on multiple occasions (cept Hope & Crosby, who were independent con men)

prob the major factor is that in the 40s/50s/60s much of the audience would've had the shared experience of being in the service, not true nowadays

the wiki page for gomer pyle u.s.m.c. says that the marine corps gave the show total cooperation and let them use whatever military equipment, etc., they wanted b/c they thought it was "good for their image"!

there was a draft on for its entire run, i think, so it's not like they needed a recruiting magnet.

(well not quite -- i didn't realize it debuted as early as fall '64)

I think this show was much more popular in the UK than it ever was in the US. Could be wrong. By the way, there have been two British sitcoms set in the Army in the last 5 years: Bluestone 42 and Gary: Tank Commander. I think I may have had a conversation or two before about the weird reverential attitude towards the military service in the US as opposed to the UK.

there was a draft on for its entire run, i think, so it's not like they needed a recruiting magnet

The problem was that a lot of guys chose to enlist in the Air Force, Navy, or Coast Guard in the '60s instead of going into service via the draft, in which case they'd be assigned to the Army or Marines (draftees didn't have a choice of which branch to serve in). Presumably the Marines wanted to present as good an image as possible in order to encourage more men to enlist in the Marines who might otherwise have enlisted in the other branches, which were considered safer in the Vietnam Era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUkteCQl90I