CPO Sharkey: The Complete Season 1

Notable mainly for casting comedian Don Rickles as a career Navy officer, this 1970s peacetime service sitcom is an otherwise unmemorable show that only comes to life when Rickles lets his special brand of insult humor loose on the new recruits he's charged with training. The newbies represent a culturally diverse group—Polish, Puerto Rican, Jewish, African-American, Japanese, etc.—giving Rickles plenty of opportunities to lay on the ethnic slurs (suitably toned down for TV, although the DVD back cover carries a warning), but the seemingly hard-bitten Chief Petty Officer Sharkey is, of course, a softy at heart and he calms down for a moment of generosity or compassion in each episode. Rickles plays the part big and broad, pulling cartoonish faces as he adopts the role of a bulldog drill-sergeant-type for his nervous recruits. Costar Peter Isacksen was surely cast as his junior officer purely for the repeated sight gag of a tall, gawky, drawling character towering over the diminutive Rickles. Harrison Page is a fellow officer and Elizabeth Allen costars as Sharkey's commanding officer—the first female officer to serve on the ship. Fans of comedy legend Rickles may find this interesting, but most will ignore this deservedly forgotten sitcom. Compiling all 15 episodes from the 1976-77 first season (there were only two), extras include a bonus clip from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson visiting the CPO Sharkey set. Not a necessary purchase. (S. Axmaker)