Sergeant Bilko
| The Phil Silvers Show | |
|---|---|
title card
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| Created by | Nat Hiken |
| Directed by | Nat Hiken Al De Caprio Charles Friedman |
| Starring | Phil Silvers |
| Theme music composer | John Strauss |
| Composer(s) | John Strauss |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 144 including a 1955 pilot and a 1959 special (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Nat Hiken Edward J. Montagne |
| Running time | 30 minutes (per episode, including commercials) |
| Production company(s) | The CBS Television Network |
| Distributor | CBS Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Picture format | black-and-white |
| Original release | September 20, 1955 – September 11, 1959 |
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titled You'll Never Get Rich, is a sitcom which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959. A pilot called "Audition Show" was made in 1955, but never broadcast. 143 other episodes were broadcast - all half-an-hour long except for a 1959 one-hour live special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army.
The series was created and largely written by Nat Hiken, and won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Comedy Series. The show is sometimes titled Sergeant Bilko or simply Bilko in reruns, and is very often referred to by these names, both on-screen and by viewers. The show's success transformed Silvers from a journeyman comedian into a star, and writer-producer Hiken from a highly regarded behind-the-scenes comedy writer into a publicly recognized creator.
By 1955, the American television business was already moving westward to Los Angeles, but Nat Hiken insisted on filming the series in New York City, believing it to be more conducive to the creativity and humor. Early episodes were filmed at Dumont's television center in New York City – now home to WNYW-TV – with later episodes shot at the CBS "Hi Brown" Studios in Chelsea, Manhattan.
Most of the series was filmed to simulate a live performance. The actors memorized their lines, and performed the scenes in sequence before a studio audience. Thus, there are occasional flubs and awkward pauses. Actor Paul Ford, playing Bilko's commanding officer, was notorious for forgetting his lines; when he would get a blank expression on his face, Silvers and the rest of the cast would improvise something to save the scene, like "Oh, you remember, Colonel, the top brass is coming..." At that point, Ford would pick up where he left off.
The series was originally set in Fort Baxter, a sleepy, unremarkable U.S. Army post in the fictional town of Roseville, Kansas, and centered on the soldiers of the Fort Baxter motor pool under Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko. However, Bilko and his men seemed to spend very little time actually performing their duties—Bilko in particular spent most of his time trying to wheedle money through various get-rich-quick scams and promotions, or to find ways to get others to do his work for him.
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Wikipedia