April 4: Repeats Again? — Write about a movie that is based on a TV series.
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titled You’ll Never Get Rich, is a sitcom which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 but is better known as Sgt. Bilko. It started Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko, who runs a series of scams at Fort Baxter to make money instead of doing his job. Most of the first two seasons were written by creator Nat Hiken and Neil Simon was one of the writers in later seasons. DC Comics also published a Sergeant Bilko comic book which lasted 18 issues and a Sergeant Bilko’s Private Doberman series that lasted 11 issues.
Jonathan Lynn created the TV show Yes, Minister and directed Clue, Nuns on the Run, My Cousin Vinny and The Whole Nine Yards, so he knew comedy. Andy Breckman worked on Late Night With David Letterman and Saturday Night Live, as well as writing the movies Rat Race and Arthur 2: On the Rocks before creating the TV show Monk.
So with talent like that and Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd and Phil Hartman in the cast, this movie should have been a success. It wasn’t, losing around a million dollars. It also won Worst Resurrection of a TV Show at the 1996 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards.
But you know, for a film that was critically savaged when it came out, I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Sure, Martin is a long way from his best work in this and so much further from his stand up, but you know, if you like Steve Martin, it works. As far as I’m concerned, Aykroyd and Hartman are the two best Saturday Night Live cast members ever, so I’ll watch anything they do. And I love old TV being repurposed.
Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko (Martin) is in charge of the motor pool at Fort Baxter, serving under Colonel John Hall (Aykroyd), who is more concerned with developing a hover tank than Bilko and his men’s money plans until Major Colin Thorn (Hartman) threatens everything by inspecting the base and even trying to steal Bilko’s long suffering girlfriend Rita (Glenne Headly, who teamed with Martin before in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).
You also get new recruit Pfc. Walter “Wally” T. Holbrook (Daryl Mitchell), Spc. Dino Paparelli (Max Casella), Spc. Tony Morales (Dan Ferro), Spc. Luis Clemente (John Ortiz), Sgt. Raquel Barbella (Pamela Segall, the voice of Bobby Hill), Pfc. Mickey Zimmerman (Mitchell Whitfield) and 1st Lt. Monday (Phil Silvers’ daughter Catherine). Chris Rock briefly is in it as is Travis Tritt as Travis Tritt, which is the perfect role for Travis Tritt.
Somehow, this is the only movie that Aykroyd and Martin appear in together. What’s funny is that Phil Hartman loved to impersonate Paul Ford, the original Colonel John T. Hall on TV, and used the impression during his Saturday Night Live. Everyone thought he was too young looking to play Colonel Hall in the film.
My favorite laugh is the end credit: The filmmakers gratefully acknowledge the total lack of co-operation from the United States Army.
Maybe movies have gotten so much worse since 1996 — they have — but I really had fun with this. I laughed a few times and yes, it’s kind of silly, but that’s what a comedy should be.
B&S About Movies 
Somebody said once that Ackroyd would have been a better choice for Bilko – although probably with a different script.
Would have worked better IMO with original characters, rather than as a Bilko remake. I’m a little biased because the original show was HUGE in the UK – it was basically never off the air until at least the 90s.
There are some good moments – I liked the inspection scene, where they’re all pretending to be the occupiers of each others’ rooms; that was pretty clever
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I didn’t know Bilko was huge in the UK. That would explain why in a Hale & Pace sketch Hale is settling down to a take-out meal and a Bilko marathon! At the time I thought it was just Hale’s peculiar taste.
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It would have been good if Steve Martin and Phil Hartman had switched roles—Martin has a coldness to him that makes him a little unlikeable and makes him come across meaner than he should, whereas Hartman has a natural likeability.
I found the movie mostly depressing. There’s an odd coincidence in that the fate of Hartman’s character at the end mirrors of that John Larroquette’s character in Stripes.
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