Combat! The TV series.

I was going to resurrect an old thread about this, but both of the them were closed to replies.

I have been watching through the series. I am currently watching the first season. It was one of my favorite shows back in the 60's. So far, I don't remember any of the shows that I have watched. At one point probably during the 80's we had just gotten a VHS recorder (remember that?) and I had started recording episodes. The show came on late at night, so I recorded it while I was sleeping and watched them later. I got about 20 shows recorded and then the station quit broadcasting the show.

Anyhow, I eventually purchased the entire series on DVD, and finally got around to watching it. The first season so far has been excellent. There were some great dramatic human interest stories. Saunders is an amazing character. I just watched an episode about one of the troops running into his wife at a medical outpost. As the story develops we discover that she is having an affair with one of the doctors. Of course her husband gets wounded, and the doctor has to operate on him. She admits the affair to him, but the story had a good ending, and not what I expected it to be.

Anyone want to talk about it? Episode discussion? Favorite characters?

 

I quite enjoyed and remember it but I was around 6-7. Playing army at that time was real popular in our neighborhood.

 

I remember watching it when I was around 8 years old. My neighbor who was my age watched it religiously, and we would go play "Combat" out in the vacant lots in our neighborhood. We went so far as to dig foxholes we covered with sheets of fiberglass with dirt on top to camouflage them, and had toy machine guns, grenades etc. Those were some fun days.

As for the show itself, I don't remember much of anything except "...with Vic Morrow, and Rick Jason..." in the opening.

 

Combat was a bit before my time. I finally got to see it about ten years ago. It's now one of my favorites. Top-notch writing and innovative production, including frequent use of handheld cameras to simulate actual battle footage, give it a grittiness seldom seen in network TV before or since.

A few notable episodes:

"The Glory Among Men" -- One of my favorite episodes. The most hated member of the squad is wounded and trapped out in the open. But the Germans don't finish him off -- instead they leave him alive, hoping to draw out the Americans to rescue him. Should the squad risk their lives for someone they despise?

"Anatomy of a Patrol" -- Trying to get a wounded pilot and valuable reconnaissance film back to HQ, Saunders must match wits with a German sergeant every bit as shrewd as he is. The sergeant is played by a very young James Caan, who speaks some rather impressive German.

"The Bridge At Chalons" -- The squad must guard a surly demolitions expert while he blows a key bridge. The guest star is no less than the great Lee Marvin.

"Hills Are For Heroes" -- Essentially a movie, a 2 part episode directed by Vic Morrow. The title is a reference to the film Combat creator Robert Pirosh wrote that served as sort of a run-through for Combat -- Hell Is For Heroes.

"Survival" -- Directed by Robert Altman, and another of my favorites. Wounded in a fire and separated from the squad, Saunders wanders through enemy territory in a daze. Virtually half the footage has no dialogue, and Altman employs some unorthodox camera angles (shooting into the sun) previously unheard of in TV.

 

Combat's currently broadcast daily on the H&I (Heroes & Icons) Network.

 

Oh yeah.....dirt clod grenades!

 

another great sixties show

sean

 

I bet you had a Johnny Seven OMA like me and the rest of my buddies did!

 

Been watching Combat the last few weeks. A few more notable episodes:

"The Enemy" w/ Robert Duvall. Duvall's German accent isn't so hot (though it's better than his English one in The 7% Solution) but otherwise he gives a subtle performance as a demolitions expert who has booby-trapped an entire town in advance of the American army taking it. He is captured by Hanley and forced to defuse the bombs he's planted, resulting in a nerve-racking game of cat and mouse. This must surely be Rick Jason's best episode, with script and direction taking every possible advantage of the suspenseful premise.

"The Wounded Don't Cry" w/Karl Boehm. A solid enough episode, but I really like the cliche-avoiding ending, with Saunders trying be both humane and a soldier in dealing with his prisoner

Though not a great episode, "Bridgehead" has a great performance by Nick Adams and another great final scene, with Adams playing it just right, avoiding the usual cliches. The script is disappointing in that it doesn't have enough Morrow-Adams confrontations -- in fact Adams is kind of wasted until the final scene. It should have been rewritten to make Morrow vs Adams the main plot.

 

Too bad this hasn't been releases on blu ray. I would buy it in a heartbeat!

 

Great show I watched it with my dad as a kid. There aren't many actors on tv now as good as Vic Morrow. He couldn't have played Sgt. Saunders any better. When you look at the list of guest stars who appeared on this show, its a list of actors and singers who were or became famous. Some amazing talent appeared in those guest spots. Got it on dvd waiting for BD also.

 

I grew up with this show in the early sixties. I played army behind my Philly rowhouse. But it did occur to me, while watching "The Glory Among Men" yesterday, that when this show first aired, the primary audience were people who had been through WWII. I wonder what they thought in their heart of hearts. Was this show a realistic depiction of what it was like to be on one of those patrols?

 

Great show. I used to watch it back in the '80s. Vic Morrow was so cool. RIP.

 

COMBAT! was one of the best tv shows back. Vic Morrow was sensational as Sgt. Saunders.

 

Wow... I remember all of these and haven't seen the show since the original run.