![]() ![]() With the series under the steady guidance of creators Aaron Rubin and Sheldon Leonard, it deviates little from its locked-down premise week after week, Sutton and Nabors are able to cruise along with these silly little 25-minute farces with supreme ease, finding endless variations on line deliveries and facial expressions that never cease to get a laugh. And with Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., the scripts, while at times perhaps too "sitcom-y" for modern tastes (Gomer and the thieving crow Gomer and the bank robber Gomer and the smugglers Gomer the chef Gomer and the "space aliens"), deliver solid, dependable laughs time and time again, due largely to the expert mugging of Jim Nabors and Frank Sutton. Performance and script are obviously key. ![]() What we have, then, is a visual field created strictly to showcase the actor delivering the screenwriter's dialogue. Camerawork is restricted to the same master shot, two-shot, over-the-shoulder P.O.V., and close-up technique that marks most televised shows from this era, and background mise-en-scene is limited to the barest essentials. Carter's barracks, the small area outside the barracks, and then pick-up shots in various anonymous bars, lobbies, stores and other buildings - all from the famous "Forty Acres" lot), to create a visual continuity that varies very little from episode to episode. utilizes the same four or five basic sets (the men's barracks, Sgt. Essentially a service comedy, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Such is the case with Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., certainly one of the more rigidly constructed sitcoms from this era. But that view doesn't take into account the honing of the performances that occurs when actors, particularly in a sitcom, have the chance to perfect their timing and delivery over a period of time, within a stable framework. Now some TV critics ( there's a vile term) detest such rigidity, seeing it as artistic non-growth. Fans of the series will get the exact same aesthetic experience this third season, as they will for the first and the last. "Sameness" was the objective for The Big Three's offerings - or perhaps better put, "continuity." If a series was a success, the primary goal of the network was to mint that ratings accomplishment by keeping the show as close to the series' initial broadcast as possible (certainly, a series like Hogan's Heroes would be a prime example of this process).Īnd the same applies to Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Not that it's particularly necessary for this or many sitcoms from the golden age of 1960s network television. (please click here to read my defense of the series, as well as here for the second season review), so I won't go into a lot of background on the series itself. I've written extensively about the aesthetics of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. ![]() For fans who have collected the series from the first season, there's some potentially good news as far as edited episodes go, but unfortunately, bonus material apparently will be limited to the first season release only - there's nothing extra here for Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.: The Third Season. Paramount and CBS Video have released Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.: The Third Season, a five disc, 30-episode collection of the 1966-1967 season of this immensely popular 1960s sitcom. ![]()
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