McHale's Navy

Ernest Borgnine as Lt. Commander Quinton McHale in McHale's Navy, an ABC television series which aired from 1962 to 1966

Before his role on CBS' The Carol Burnett Show, Tim Conway played Ensign Charles Parker. He is pictured in 2007, more than forty years after his role on McHale's Navy.

Joe Flynn as the by-the-book Captain Binghampton

.

McHale's Navy was an American TV sitcom from 1962 to 1966 which poked fun at the relationship between administrators and fighting men. Produced by Revue Studios in its first season and by Universal Television in later seasons, it starred Ernest Borgnine as Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale, a PT boat commander whom upper command gave considerable latitude because of his unit's combat prowess. For example, his PT boat sank a $3 million Japanese destroyer; then he "wasted" $300 on fuel while water skiing. Tim Conway (who later appeared as a regular on The Carol Burnett Show) starred as Ensign Charles Parker, sent by McHale's commanding officer Captain Binghamton, played by Joe Flynn (1924-1974), to instill some regular naval discipline into the men, but who was actually such a bumbler that he soon joined McHale's navy instead of bringing them into Binghamton's.

The men had their own Japanese deserter named Fuji who served as a houseboy. He has the initials PW on his back, but McHale saved him from a prisoner of war camp. McHale takes a paternalistic attitude toward Fuji and is not above making fun of his accent, but Fuji is more afraid of "Japs" than he is of McHale.

In the first season of McHale's Navy, NBC aired another Navy comedy, Ensign O'Toole, starring Dean Jones (1931-2015).

External links

• McHale's Navy at IMDb