F Troop: The Complete First Season
by Charles R. Rondeau, David Alexander, Gene Reynolds, Leslie Goodwins, Seymour Robbie
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Forrest Tucker, James Hampton, Ken Berry, Larry Storch, Melody PattersonDirector: Charles R. Rondeau, David Alexander, Gene Reynolds, Leslie Goodwins, Seymour Robbie
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Al Gordon
Writer: Arthur Julian
Writer: Ed James
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Box set, Closed-captioned, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 866 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 80774
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- After accidentally leading a cavalry charge into victory, Private Wilton Parmenter becomes a hero and is given command of Fort Courage. Here, his group of cavalrymen bumble through fighting their enemies and working with the local Hekawi Indians to sell items to tourists.Running Time: 866 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN Rating: NR Age: 012569807747 UPC: 0125698
Movie Reviews of F Troop: The Complete First Season
Movie Review: "Agarn, I don't know why everybody says you're so dumb!" "Who says I'm dumb???"
Summary: 5 Stars
F TROOP always made me laugh hard. It's a silly, innocent mid-Sixties Army comedy that takes place on the frontier circa 1867. Season One was originally broadcast in black and white---does anybody remember black and white TV?
The Army's F Troop is comprised of a bunch of lovable misfits (a bugler who can't bugle, a lookout who can't see, the only survivor of the Alamo, etc.). They are commanded by Captain Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry), an unlikely, inexperienced Civil War hero who constantly refers to his Army Manual for guidance, and relies on his Top Sarge for advice.
The Sergeant, O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker), is an entrepeneur/grifter whose best pal is Corporal Agarn from Passaic, New Jersey (Larry Storch). O'Rourke's "Enterprises" work closely and secretly with the Hekawi Indians (the inventors of the peace pipe), to sell tourist trap junk to folks passing through Fort Courage, the garrison town which is somewhere on the Great Plains.
Captain Parmenter is in love with Wrangler Jane, the local cowgirl, played by Melody Anderson (who was only fourteen---a very mature fourteen---when the show debuted. She was so hot was I was a kid!). The Hekawis are headed by Chief Wild Eagle (Frank DeKova) who is constantly being plotted ahgainst by his Assistant Chief, Crazy Cat.
F TROOP is full of gut-busting, belly-laughter bad puns, sight gags, slapstick and classic comedy routines that we've seen a million times before (in 1965, we'd already seen them half a million times). In terms of modern TV programming, its ridiculously unsophisticated, and that's what makes it so great.
A few reviewers have complained about the show's political incorrectness. Sure, the Hekawis seem Politically Incorrect with their broken English and bead trading, and, oh yeah, peacefulfulness. I mean---peaceful American Indians on the frontier????---how outrageous! How Politically Incorrect! Oh, shut up.
There are complaints about the laugh track. This is what bothers you? The laugh track? Come on! If it wasn't for F TROOP shows like CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM would never have evolved. By-the-bye, I don't think SCRUBS holds a candle to F TROOP. Today's "intellectual comedies" are fine, but I don't always want to think, sometimes I just want to laugh until my sides hurt:
Vincent Price as the visiting vampire: Good ev'ning!
Agarn: Why do you always say "Good ev'ning!"? It's two in the afternoon!
Vinnie: Oh! Excuzze me! I must haf forgotten to vind my vatch!"
Agarn: You turned your brother into a crow!
Vinnie: No! I call him "Brother" becauzze he iz like a brother to me. You see, I vaz an only child, and he...vaz an only crow."
Yeah, its silly and predictable, but IT WORKS. If you used to watch F TROOP as a kid you'll want this, and if you've never seen it, I recommend it for the sheer enjoyment you'll get.
Summary of F Troop: The Complete First Season
F TROOP:COMPLETE FIRST SEASON - DVD MovieF-Troop belongs to the ranks of television's great military slacker comedies, including Sgt. Bilko and McHale's Navy. Ken Berry was promoted from bit player to leading man with his role as clueless and clumsy ("I fall down a lot") Wilton Parmenter, who is put in charge of the frontier post Fort Courage after a display of inadvertent Civil War heroism. "He's the pigeon we always dreamed of," enthuses Sgt. O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker), who runs "O'Rourke Enterprises" with his sidekick Corporal Agarn (Larry Storch). Most episodes involve O'Rourke and Agarn's get-rich schemes that ultimately backfire. The show's great (albeit politically incorrect) comic conceit is the Hekawis, the decidedly un-bloodthirsty Indian tribe who makes tourist souvenirs, not war. "We invent peace pipe," proclaims Chief Wild Eagle (Frank DeKova), whose broken English and anachronistic vernacular (similar to Joey Bishop in Texas Across the River) provide most of each episode's biggest--and, in these more enlightened times, guiltiest--laughs.
F's troupe also includes Melody Patterson as Wrangler Jane, who has a hankerin' for "Will" ("I told you, Jane, not in front of the men"), James Hampton as bungling bugler Dobbs, Joe Brooks as nearsighted look-out Vanderbilt, cowboy star Bob Steele as gung-ho Alamo survivor Duffy, and venerable character actor (and Rocky and Bullwinkle's "Fractured Fairy Tales" narrator) Edward Everett Horton as Hekawi medicine man Roaring Chicken. Among the more memorable guest appearances include Zsa Zsa Gabor as a gypsy who attempts to fleece Agarn in "Play, Gypsy, Play," and Don Rickles (!) as Chief Wild Eagle's excitable, warlike son in "The Return of Bald Eagle." The episode, "Reunion for O'Rouke," contains the classic bit about how the Hekawis got their name. F-Troop debuted in 1965 and lasted but two seasons. It broke no television ground and was never nominated for an Emmy. A single-disc compilation of six episodes is also available, but Baby Boomers who remember F-Troop fondly will want to enlist for a full season. It's old school, flat-out funny. -?Donald Liebenson
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