McHale's Navy: The Complete Series

A service sitcom about a misfit PT boat crew in the South Pacific during World War II, McHale's Navy featured familiar comedy with a solid ensemble. Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine is the fun-loving, big-hearted McHale, a former tramp steamer skipper commissioned as a Lt. Commander due to his knowledge of the islands and seaways. Tim Conway plays his lovable but incompetent executive officer, and Joe Flynn costars as the eternally exasperated Captain who hates how McHale flaunts rules despite his superb record fighting the Japanese (constantly referred to here as "Japs," which is accurate to the period but sounds offensive to modern ears). In the fourth and final season, the entire cast is relocated to a small Italian village to patrol the waters of the Mediterranean. Most of the episodes offer variations on the same theme: McHale's crew hatches some scheme or gets caught up in some activity that breaks Navy rules and then must cover it up before the Captain catches them. Airing on ABC from 1962-66, the series was moderately popular and a syndication staple through the 1970s (giving it some nostalgia appeal), and it launched Conway's career. In addition to all 138 episodes from the four-season run, this boxed set includes the big screen movies McHale's Navy (1964), which plays like a feature-length episode revolving around a horse racing scheme, and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965), in which Borgnine is completely absent and Conway takes the lead. Extras include a cast and crew reunion featurette, and interviews. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)