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Phil Silvers deserves more respect than posterity has awarded him. He should be ranked with the great comedians of the mid-20th century, at the top of the list with Groucho Marx and Lucille Ball. His lower profile resulted from lack of starring roles in memorable movies, or spotty syndication of his signal accomplishment, which occurred in television rather than on film.
Perhaps the release of his best work on DVD will help remedy the relative neglect. “Sgt. Bilko/The Phil Silvers Show: The Complete Series” collects all 142 episodes of the classic situation comedy, which ran 1955 through 1959. Already known for playing loveable hustlers, Silvers was terrific as the titular Bilko, a non-commissioned officer gaming the system week after week. For Bilko, military service was a floating crap game, an opportunity to fleece subordinates and superiors while collecting a government paycheck.
<>Bilko was posted to Fort Baxter, Kansas, a sleepy installation in the middle of nowhere garrisoned by shirkers and slackers. The base bugler, awakened by his alarm clock, plays a recording of reveille through the public address system, rolls over and goes back to sleep. Officers are ineffectual, enlisted men report for sickbay whenever ordered to duty, and Bilko presides over an underground economy of graft. It’s a damning, subversive portrait of the military at the height of the Cold War, delivered with a wink at an audience that included a high percentage of ex-servicemen.
Unlike many comedies, “Sgt.Bilko” has lost little of its hilarity over the years. Somehow, its satire of a fat, lazy bureaucracy—and the machinations of Silvers’ memorable trickster— remains meaningful 60 years later.
