Shark Bytes

The fifth and final season of Gomer has just been released. It's good to have these shows on DVD; I just wish they could be released in their COMPLETE & UNCUT for. I noticed the episode 'Two On The Bench' is missing a scene. Gomer and an old friend (in town to play a football game), get together for a song called 'You Can't Have Your Kate & Edith Too'. This sequence has been deleted.

Obviously this is another copyright issue. I can't figure out how such a trivial tune be such a stumblng block.

Only Season 1 is actually COMPLETE in it's DVD release form. The remaining 4 Seasons all contain edited songs.

Chris C is quite correct--how ANYONE could take a fun show like Gomer Pyle & read into it some grand Pentagon conspiracy is beyond me! That said, the show was kinda lame although Gomer singing "Blowin' in the Wind" to the pseudo-hippies was pretty funny. It would have been the funniest thing in the history of the galaxy if he'd sung it in his Gomer voice....

This is for the person who handles this website. Please delete the negative garbage. I enjoy the JTS site and have posted on many shows. The postings have gotten away from the spirit that JTS is intended for. It is unfortunate that people are this unhappy in life.

I have heard many a tall tale filled with all kinds of conjecture and conspiracy. But, never have I heard one that promoted the claim that Gomer Pyle USMC was used as a propaganda showpiece for the Pentagon. How absurd.

Come on folks.

Lets have a little fun here, get a life, and don't bog ourselves down with such trifling, ridiculous, half-baked notions.

Gomer Pyle was a typical mid 60's television comedy. Nothing more, nothng less. Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Ruben were brught in from Andy Griffith to give the show some credibility.

However the show was very careful not to make parody of the Marines. The first episodes dealing with boot camp were filmed on an actual Marine obstacle course.

In fact, Jim Nabors got his "boot cut" from an actual Marine barber. Even got gouged in the back of his neck during the cut.

He also got sent to the hospital for a couple days due to back spasms from the obstacle course wall scene.

Hey Guest of 9/9,

I know you think "Gomer" is all about comedy, but what you don't realize is that it's all a big conspiracy; Richard Head explained it to us. In 1964, even before the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the Marine Corps went to the suits at ABC & said "Listen, we are going to get involved in this war in Vietnam. It will ultimately prove unpopular. What we need is you guys to put on a show that shows just how easy it is to get through Marine basic training." The folks at CBS said "Sure, we don't really care about ratings or our own financial interests, so we'll do this as a favor." Richard Head has documented proof of this which he is going to share with us very soon. Stand by.

What makes this even more intriguing is that, according to Richard, EVERYONE at the Pentagon is an idiot. I'm sorry, to use Richard's version of grammar, everyone at the Pentagon ARE idiots.

I'm a Gomer fan from way back. I grew up on the after school re-runs back in the early 70's. I had not seen any of the episodes until I came across Season 1 on DVD a couple years ago. It was great watching those old B&W episodes from 1964. The haircut scene was hilarious; and Jim Nabors actually recieved a gouge on the back of his neck during that shot. The audio commentaries were very insightful.

If there is any disappointment to the DVD episodes, it's that there are no 'extra's' in the following season's. Also, certain musical numbers are missing in various episodes. I am assuming this deals with copyright issues in some way.

Oh well; with all that said, it will be good when the 5th and final season will be released on DVD in November. It will also give you a chance to purchase the entire series in one package. Amazon is taking advance orders.

Until then...."Gah-ah-lay" & "Shuh-Zayam"

To poster Richard Head(7/31/08). McHale's Navy was not on the air in the 1950's. It ran from 1962 to 1966.

Richard Head said, "Please, please, please tell me that you're not a school teacher -- I hate to think of what horrific blunders you might possibly have taught our young people!"

Newsflash: The public school system in America today is fraught with horrific blunderers passing themselves off as teachers. What's one more going to do, pollute the system? Check the nationwide test scores. Truly pathetic. If you want to see some real results, stop throwing money at it willy-nilly and make it stick to a decent, common sense curriculum. Maybe then we wouldn't be the laughingstock of the world anymore.

Peace.

Major, Major, Major...

Methinks your mind is but a little messed up. Your incessant attempts at historical revisionism have begun to make you believe your own ravings.

As noted before, the anti-war movement began to coalesce in 1962-63. Since you don't seem to be very up-to-date on your Word-of-the-Day calendar, coalesce means that it began coming together, began to unite from different elements. Protests began in '63 and by '64 were happening around the country. By spring of '64 the February bombings began creating public disfavor for the military actions in Vietnam.

There were significant protests all around the country (New York; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Boston; Seattle; Madison, Wisconsin) throughout '63-'64. And, yes, the military does take notice of these sorts of nascent movements.

Also, the draft was not providing the numbers of warm bodies that it did previously -- the draft provided only 25% of the total military force during the Vietnam conflict, as compared to 66% during WWII. There was a HUGE need for warm bodies, and the PR machine was in full swing.

Major, I never said that the military PR machine was in operation ONLY for the Vietnam conflict. I stated that the "military" shows of the fifties like McHale's Navy had little PR value for anyone. It wasn't until the military's back was up against the wall and a huge need for more recruits developed that the PR machine went into high gear.

The term 'Pentagon' is being used to refer to the people who work there, Major -- which is common usage. Since the reference is to more than one person, the use of "were" is correct. Please, please, please tell me that you're not a school teacher -- I hate to think of what horrific blunders you might possibly have taught our young people!

Little Dickie Boy said the following:

You folks don't have a very good grip on your history. Speaking of the draft, don't forget that the draft accounted for only one-quarter of all people enlisted into military service throughout the sixties. That left a huge number of volunteers to be 'enticed' into joining. The military was desperate for ways to draw young males into service. Their PR machine was going wild and they were grasping

In fact, support for the Vietnam War among those under 30 remained strong until the end of '68/early '69. Here are the percentages, according to Gallup, of those under 30 who supported the war, arranged by year:

May 1965: 61%
August 1965: 76%
November 1965: 75%
March 1966: 71%
May 1966: 62%
September 1966: 53%
November 1966: 66%
May 1967: 60%
July 1967: 62%
October 1967: 50%
Early February 1968: 51%
March 1968: 50%
April 1968: 54%
August 1968: 45%
Early October 1968: 52%
February 1969: 47%
September 1969: 36%
January 1970: 41%

So Dickie Brains' analysis is completely flawed. In fact, in 1962, the so-called "protest" movement on campuses consisted of a VERY small minority of marginalized little pissants. It didn't gain steam until, as I said before, '67/'68.

Now, Mr. Head is correct that the military cooperated with "Gomer" for PR. He's wrong in thinking that it JUST had to do with Vietnam--the military also cooperated with a host of military movies in the 50s & 60s and, yes, "McHale's Navy" for the same reason. The military is ALWAYS interested in good PR, just like every company out there, including the hippy-dippy ones.

Little Richie H. shows his cognitive limitations (and his politics) by making the statement that everyone in the Pentagon is an idiot. He further shows that he is grammatically challenged by stating that "the Pentagon were HUGE idiots." In fact a) the Pentagon is a building (an inanimate object) which, by definition, cannot have any level of intelligence and b) it is singular; since the subjunctive isn't in play, it would have to read "WAS an idiot."

So I was wrong--the Dickster needs to re-study History AND English...

You folks don't have a very good grip on your history. Speaking of the draft, don't forget that the draft accounted for only one-quarter of all people enlisted into military service throughout the sixties. That left a huge number of volunteers to be 'enticed' into joining. The military was desperate for ways to draw young males into service. Their PR machine was going wild and they were grasping

And yes, the Pentagon were HUGE idiots -- and still are for that matter.

Lets not forget there was a draft still in effect in the mid 60's. If your number was drawn, then YOU went!....Like it or not; you had to go. Even if you didn't like to march; you had to go. Even if you didn't like guns; you had to go. Even if it meant leaving home for the first time; sorry Charlie; you had to go.

And watching Gomer Pyle every week was not going to change a thing.

If the Pentagon ever did think that watching Gomer Pyle would actually ease the incoming draftees into military life, then they were far bigger idiots than I ever gave them credit for.

What an insipid argument.

Baloney. The USMC signed off on the production of GPUSMC -- this is not top secret information. The USMC, and the Pentagon in lockstep afterword, wanted to use the show as a way to encourage enlistment in the military. Not a very bright PR idea, but that's the military mind for you.

Yes, the show was complete fiction -- that was beside the fact that it was used for PR. It was not meant to present a realistic vision of the military, but rather a vision of basic training that would entice youth to believe that they could 'put up' with the rigors of basic in order to become Marines.

The other examples of military-based shows that the guest provides (Sgt. Bilko [1955], McHales Navy [1962]) were both produced before the Vietnam conflict began. They had no real PR value for anyone.

The only reason that Gomer Pyle USMC was made is that Andy Griffith told producer Aaron Ruben in late 1963, "let's find something for Jim".

Now THAT is the reason the series was made. It had nothing to do with PR campaigns or political agendas.

The show was pure fiction; a cartoon. It was a half hour weekly break from the blood, guts, and gore realities of Vietnam.

For a more realistic look at 1960's Marine boot camp, revisit Full Metal Jacket.

The PR campaign myth is a joke. Gomer Pyle had no more poltical impact than SGT Bilko or McHales Navy.

Major,

Sorry, but your history is a bit off. The roots of the anti-war protest movement had started to coalesce on college campuses in 1962-63 as a reaction to the close relationship between academia and the military-industrial complex. The bombings of Vietnam in February of 1964 was the catalyst to jump-start the movement across the country. By the spring, public disfavor was quickly building for the bombings.

Gomer Pyle was pushed into production later that summer and began airing in September of '64, as a PR campaign to gain acceptance of the military's Vietnam campaign.

Try not to let your politics stand in the way of the facts, ok?