A very, very, bad American sitcom of the 1960s; it was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, in which the dopey (but lovable!) Deputy Pyle (played by Jim Nabors), goes off to join the Marines. Frank Sutton played his gruff crewcut-wearing sergeant.

It was bad, folks. The Vietnam War was raging, but this didn't merit a mention on the series; cultural upheavals were occuring left and right in the land, but the writers and producers seemed to be stuck in 1951.

So you were left with the same stuff every week, essentially: Gomer's little drawled catchphrases, like Gawwwwly! and Shazam!, and the befuddlement of Sergeant Carter at the aw-shucks laid-back Private Pyle. (Tennessee Ernie Ford and Andy Griffith -- the latter's 50's hit No Time for Sergeants was the obvious blueprint for this show -- did this shtick ten years earlier and ten times better).

The show was a mainstay of the Friday night CBS lineup, and Nabors also had a variety show spinoff, due to his inexplicable popularity (as both an "actor" and a "singer"). But around 1971, CBS pulled the plug on shows such as this, as part of The Country Purge.

One of the producers, Duke Vincent, went on to co-produce Dynasty, IIRC.

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