The Phil Silvers Show
 Set in the motor pool of Fort Baxter - a remote army post in
Roseville, Kansas - Phil Silvers starred as fast-talking Master Sergeant
Ernest Bilko - A man whose major aim was to make money, and plenty of
it.
Bilko ran every money making scheme in the book; Poker games,
Midnight cruises on Army Landing Craft, Tank Rides and a crooked deal
with local service stations for spare parts and tyres for army jeeps.
Colonel Hall constantly tried (usually in vain) to keep his plans in
check.
But deep down he recognised that Bilko was really in charge.
Created by Nat Hiken (later responsible for Car 54, Where Are You?),
the show featured Paul Ford as Colonel Hall, Maurice Gosfield as
Doberman, Harvey Lembeck as Rocco Barbella, Joe E. Ross as Ritzik and
Elizabeth Fraser as Sergeant Hogan.
 Usually, US Army personnel are depicted on TV as smart, fit, tall,
handsome, virile men, eager to fight for their country and ever at the
ready.
Bilko's motor pool privates were scruffy, lazy, unattractive
slobs who liked to do as little work as possible, never paraded, and
were almost fearful of weaponry.
Of all of Bilko's platoon of hapless wonders, Private Duane Doberman
stood out as the ultimate in slobbery - a short, appallingly-dressed fat
man with an embarrassed, round, sweaty face and a high, squeaky
voice.
Doberman failed to grasp the ways of the world (the ways of the
barracks even) and became the ultimate patsy in Bilko's schemes.
Mostly
he arrived in a scene a few seconds late or spoke his line a few seconds
late because he was supposed to. At other times it was because
Gosfield's sense of timing was awry.
As the series progressed, more and more of the plotlines revolved
around Doberman, and he eventually became a huge star. In an attempt to
inject fresh impetus, the fourth season of The Phil Silvers Show
was based not at Fort Baxter, but in a new location - Camp Fremont in
Grove City, California.
The end came a few months later when CBS executives pulled the plug
so that they could sell the series into syndication while it was still
hot.
 Despite a 1963-1964 series entitled The New Phil Silvers Show,
Silvers was never able to repeat his success as Bilko and his career
sadly declined until his death in 1985, aged 74.
The Phil Silvers Show remains the benchmark against which all
great sitcoms must be measured.
TRIVIA NOTE
Nat Hiken named Bilko after a minor league US baseball player, Steve
Bilko, whom he admired, happy with the connotation that it also gave of
being bilked, or cheated.
Bilko's platoon members were also named after sportsmen - Paparelli
was a baseball umpire, Barbella was the real name of the boxer Rocky
Graziano, and other boxing names (as well as genuine boxers) populated
the cast.
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