The Good
A well written, funny show that looks extraordinary in color.
The Bad
Paltry extras.
With 31 episode spread out over 6 discs, F-Troop: The Complete Second Season is a laugh filled festival of jokes that are both sensitive and insensitive at the same time. Picking up where we left off from the First Season, Captain Parmenter (Ken Barry) and his “troops” manage to do their best to have fun in the wilderness. In “Reach for the Sky Pardner,” the payroll train is robbed and Sgt, O’Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and Cpl. Agarn (Larry Storch) are given the job of guarding its next run. “Miss Parmenter” sees the Captain up to his ears in trouble when his sister comes for a visit and sets her sights on Trooper Dobbs (James Hampton). Lastly, in what has to be one of the more interesting episodes, “Guns, Guns, Who’s Got the Guns?” everyone in F-Troop is under a magnifying glass when it seems that somebody in the regimen has been selling arms to the Native Americans.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
While maybe not the greatest piece to comment on society, F-Troop: The Complete Second Season serves as a comic look at a time gone by. Taking nothing as sacred, it is easy to see why so many people found this show so funny.
Features
Fall In With F-Troop
Mike Teilmann (who I believe has done retrospectives for Bob Hope and others) takes us through the history of this show. While its apparent that he’s reading cue cards, he tells us how U.S. troops loved F-Troop, and then goes in the explain Warner Bros. history with the western genre and how this show turned that on its ear. We then hear from show Producer/Director Phil Rawlins as well as writers Austin and Irma Kalish. They talk about how much people loved this show and how, because it was so popular, it was hard for a lot of writers to get work on it.
Video
Standard Version presented in a format preserving the aspect ratio of its original television exhibition. The first set of DVDs that I reviewed for F-Troop were not in color. I remember thinking that those looked good, but once this show got into the realm of color these DVDs really looked good. The colors were not only sharp and strong, the look of this show helped play into the stories and subject matter being put across. Everything was so rich it really seems like Warner Bros. has gone through this show, episode by episode, and cleaned it up.
Audio
Dolby Digital - English: Mono. Close Captioned. After turning the sound level on my TV more than halfway up, the audio on these discs played about as well as I could have hoped it would. There wasn’t anything that special about it and I’ve always been impressed with how the laugh tracks have been cut in. How did the actors have their timing down so well? Did it effect their performance knowing that they were going to have to hold for a laugh? I had these and other thoughts as I was watching these DVDs, but all in all everything sounded as solid as Warner Bros. usually makes them sound.
Package
Four of the main members in this cast are shown in full character and color on the front of this slipcase cover. The back showcases some pictures from various episodes, a description of what this show is about, a Special Features listing, a cast list and some technical specs. The six discs that store all the content are stored in three, slim, double cases. They list out the shows, who wrote and directed them, their airdates and even a description of what said episode is about.
Final Word
I may have already asked this question on my last review but why did this show only run for two seasons? It was filled with so many comic ideas that were ahead of its time, it seems that audiences back when this show aired (1965-1967) would have eaten this stuff up. With the comic wit of performers like Barry, Tucker, Storch and Melody Patterson it seems like this show would have been a slam dunk. As it is, F-Troop: The Complete Second Season seems to be the end of a show that wasn’t really given the time to get its legs under it. I think what I really appreciate about this show is how great the acting is. I have no idea how people used to work without live audiences. Timing in comedy is everything and without the audience to feed off of how do you know what you have?
At its best, F-Troop is the kind of show that probably left a league of followers in its wake. Why it was taken off the air so soon is anybody’s guess, but something tells me that based on some things I’ve read on the internet (namely, “Release F-Troop Series On DVD” as the heading of a post on IMDB), its fans will be placated to now own all the episodes.
F Troop was released .
