The Phil Silvers Show 4.X

The Phil Silver Pontiac Special: Keep In Step (1959)

21 minutes

This TV special starred the cast of The Phil Silver Show. It plays a bit like an episode of the show but it is incomplete. Bilko gets Lanny Langford, a singer, who has just been drafter into the army transferred to Camp Fremont. Bilko's plan is to have Langford be the star of a stage musical that he will produce. The 21 minute clip of the special ends after Langford has been transferred to Camp Fremont but before he arrives.

The quality of the picture is not up to the standards of the rest of the episodes of the show. According to IMDb this episode also starred Diana Dors but she did not appear in the clip that was on the DVD. From the looks of it there are three separate listings for this special on IMDb. My guess is that's an error.

The Phil Silvers Show 4.35

The Weekend Colonel

Bilko finds a short order cook who looks just like Colonel Hall. He hires Charlie, the short order cook, to impersonate Colonel Hall while the colonel is on vacation in Lake Tahoe. Everything goes great until Colonel Hall unexpectedly returns early from Lake Tahoe.

Thoughts

This was a good episode. I like the twists and turns that the plot took. The final shot shows Bilko behind bars as he signs off saying, "That's all Folks!" 

The Phil Silvers Show 4.34

The Bilko Boycott

Corporal Henshaw decides he's had enough of Bilko making money off the men in the platoon. Henshaw starts a gamblers anonymous group which is so successful that Bilko has to look elsewhere for victims. He turns to the women stationed at Camp Fremont. He sweet talks his past way past Major Allenby, the commanding officer of the WACs. He doesn't run into any trouble until he goes to collect from the women's barracks and gets trapped there when it is put under quarantine.

Thoughts

I really enjoyed this episode. I like the plot twists and the way the story evolved.

The Phil Silvers Show 4.33

Bilko in Outer Space

Ritzik and Grover have $600 that they plan to use to pay for their vacation in Hawaii. Bilko tries to get them to play cards with him but they do their best to avoid him. They manage to steer clear of him until he tricks them into signing up for a phony space program.

Thoughts

This was okay. I was hoping that part of the episode would involve Bilko going to outer space but that is not the case. I was hoping for something along the lines of The Outer Space Spirit or Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD 6 (Nov 1968). That is not what I got.