Once again Binghamton tries to put a spy in McHale's crew, this time a very-young seaman who promises his new captain that he will do whatever the captain wants if he can be given a chance to go into battle.
The crew welcomes the new member, although they think of him as a kid. On his first night with them, a long-planned luau is set and Mr. Parker says he'll babysit the kid while the rest of the guys go and have fun.
It is a fact, at least decades ago, that TV series signing actors for guest roles frequently signed them for two episodes, frequently as different characters, to be aired many weeks apart. I guess that includes this chimpanzee that "guest starred" in this episode, at least, I presume he was the same one involved 8 episodes earlier as the chimp who stole Captain Binghamton's necklace that he bought for his wife.
In this one, the chimp seems to be the crew's mascot. Here he keeps picking up handguns and shooting them-luckily not hitting anyone-although he does shoot a hole through Binghamton's hat, another of the many times recently when the captain nearly gets killed whenever he approaches one of the huts on McHale's Island just when a hand grenade or a bullet or something gets thrown out the window or discharged, causing him to think they somehow knew he was there and tried to kill him.
Here, just before Binghamton phones to send McHale out to look for a Japanese submarine, this chimp goes onto the 73 by himself, starts the engine and sails away. This chimp not only manages to steer the boat far from the island, but he seems to answer the radio when they call and Chuck tries to talk him into returning to the island. Then the sub starts firing at the boat and the chimp-stay with me-pushes the button for Torpedo # 1 and he scores a direct hit, blowing up the surfaced sub-with the same video of a sub blowing up used many times in this series.
The chimp then manages to pilot the boat back to the island and even pulls it into the dock, in McHale's words-"just as well as I can do it." The men all rush aboard the boat, delighted that their boat wasn't sunk, and they are about to now go out to look for the sub-as ordered some time before.
But Binghamton has reason to believe his orders to go out were never followed and he and Carpy and some SPs arrive and start announcing the court martial for disobeying orders and mutinying by not going out. This is interrupted by a radio call from Admiral Rogers, congratulating McHale because reconnaissance has informed him of the 73's sinking of the sub. Instead of a court martial, they all get a unit citation and Binghamton is again frustrated.
The new sailor, Orvie, was caught phoning in a report to the captain before the ship came back, having given no details to the captain. When Binghamton thought he had them all on not following orders, he directly asked Orvie, "Did the 73 go out after the sub as ordered?" Orvie honestly answered that the 73 did go out. That caused Binghamton to tell Orvie that he'll go to the brig with the others.
Orvie wasn't with the men long enough to learn about Fuji-but he almost was. He also never saw them break any rules. Since he started out being a guest star, it seemed his role in the episode was greatly reduced for the last 2/3 of the show.
I didn't find anything about the chimp funny. To begin with, chimps do not hail from the South Pacific. They come from Africa, which is more than a few miles away. In the first scene with the chimp, the men are playing poker, and Tinker is holding the chimp. He walks across the room and puts him down on a bed inches from a handgun in a holster. I would think even in McHale's Navy they wouldn't just leave their weapons lying on bunks.
But the stupidest part is this chimp not just starting the engines and powering the boat, but piloting it miles away, sinking the sub, and returning and docking it perfectly. Even most cartoons wouldn't do this. Oh, there is also the matter of the ropes used to tie the ship to the dock that we always see them fastening when they dock, and removing before they go anywhere. I guess the chimp knew to untie those ropes before he got on board.
There was a matter of poor direction when the chimp started the boat too. The crew was in their hut when they heard the 73's engine starting. They all raced outside and ran toward the boat, stopping when they saw the chimp at the wheel. Instead of continuing to race to try to get on the boat before anything happened, they stopped to talk about how hard this was to believe, and this was when the chimp got the boat going. Based on what we saw, it appeared that at least one of them could have gotten close enough to jump on board before the boat got away from the dock.
I also remember that in most episodes where they were firing torpedoes, McHale called out to torpedo man Gruber to "Fire 1" or whatever number, and Gruber, standing far from the bridge, pushed the button to fire the torpedoes. Now the buttons are shown to be right next to the wheel no the bridge. Seems like Gruber's job was no longer necessary.
I have stated before that a show can be quite funny even if there is a stupid element in setting up the main plot-as long as the whole show isn't built on unbelievably stupid actions. Here, the key scene really was setting up the chimp to do all I described with the PT 73-none of which was the least bit realistic.
Beyond that, allowing the chimp to continue to get his paws on handguns-I think 3 times-was not funny at all. Orvie was youthful looking but he didn't really provide any humor with the possible exception of when Parker was trying to be tough and told him he needed to shave. Orvie said, "I just shaved five weeks ago."
The whole business with Orvie was wasted-he never really saw anything, and wasn't really instrumental in anything toward the conclusion. I think he should have been more the focus of an episode where he decided to be loyal to his new crew and not let the captain know anything about illegal activities he saw. If they HAD to do the dumb business with the chimp, make it a different episode. Better yet, skip it altogether. I cannot give this any higher score than a 2 for its cartoonish activities of an animal.
The crew welcomes the new member, although they think of him as a kid. On his first night with them, a long-planned luau is set and Mr. Parker says he'll babysit the kid while the rest of the guys go and have fun.
It is a fact, at least decades ago, that TV series signing actors for guest roles frequently signed them for two episodes, frequently as different characters, to be aired many weeks apart. I guess that includes this chimpanzee that "guest starred" in this episode, at least, I presume he was the same one involved 8 episodes earlier as the chimp who stole Captain Binghamton's necklace that he bought for his wife.
In this one, the chimp seems to be the crew's mascot. Here he keeps picking up handguns and shooting them-luckily not hitting anyone-although he does shoot a hole through Binghamton's hat, another of the many times recently when the captain nearly gets killed whenever he approaches one of the huts on McHale's Island just when a hand grenade or a bullet or something gets thrown out the window or discharged, causing him to think they somehow knew he was there and tried to kill him.
Here, just before Binghamton phones to send McHale out to look for a Japanese submarine, this chimp goes onto the 73 by himself, starts the engine and sails away. This chimp not only manages to steer the boat far from the island, but he seems to answer the radio when they call and Chuck tries to talk him into returning to the island. Then the sub starts firing at the boat and the chimp-stay with me-pushes the button for Torpedo # 1 and he scores a direct hit, blowing up the surfaced sub-with the same video of a sub blowing up used many times in this series.
The chimp then manages to pilot the boat back to the island and even pulls it into the dock, in McHale's words-"just as well as I can do it." The men all rush aboard the boat, delighted that their boat wasn't sunk, and they are about to now go out to look for the sub-as ordered some time before.
But Binghamton has reason to believe his orders to go out were never followed and he and Carpy and some SPs arrive and start announcing the court martial for disobeying orders and mutinying by not going out. This is interrupted by a radio call from Admiral Rogers, congratulating McHale because reconnaissance has informed him of the 73's sinking of the sub. Instead of a court martial, they all get a unit citation and Binghamton is again frustrated.
The new sailor, Orvie, was caught phoning in a report to the captain before the ship came back, having given no details to the captain. When Binghamton thought he had them all on not following orders, he directly asked Orvie, "Did the 73 go out after the sub as ordered?" Orvie honestly answered that the 73 did go out. That caused Binghamton to tell Orvie that he'll go to the brig with the others.
Orvie wasn't with the men long enough to learn about Fuji-but he almost was. He also never saw them break any rules. Since he started out being a guest star, it seemed his role in the episode was greatly reduced for the last 2/3 of the show.
I didn't find anything about the chimp funny. To begin with, chimps do not hail from the South Pacific. They come from Africa, which is more than a few miles away. In the first scene with the chimp, the men are playing poker, and Tinker is holding the chimp. He walks across the room and puts him down on a bed inches from a handgun in a holster. I would think even in McHale's Navy they wouldn't just leave their weapons lying on bunks.
But the stupidest part is this chimp not just starting the engines and powering the boat, but piloting it miles away, sinking the sub, and returning and docking it perfectly. Even most cartoons wouldn't do this. Oh, there is also the matter of the ropes used to tie the ship to the dock that we always see them fastening when they dock, and removing before they go anywhere. I guess the chimp knew to untie those ropes before he got on board.
There was a matter of poor direction when the chimp started the boat too. The crew was in their hut when they heard the 73's engine starting. They all raced outside and ran toward the boat, stopping when they saw the chimp at the wheel. Instead of continuing to race to try to get on the boat before anything happened, they stopped to talk about how hard this was to believe, and this was when the chimp got the boat going. Based on what we saw, it appeared that at least one of them could have gotten close enough to jump on board before the boat got away from the dock.
I also remember that in most episodes where they were firing torpedoes, McHale called out to torpedo man Gruber to "Fire 1" or whatever number, and Gruber, standing far from the bridge, pushed the button to fire the torpedoes. Now the buttons are shown to be right next to the wheel no the bridge. Seems like Gruber's job was no longer necessary.
I have stated before that a show can be quite funny even if there is a stupid element in setting up the main plot-as long as the whole show isn't built on unbelievably stupid actions. Here, the key scene really was setting up the chimp to do all I described with the PT 73-none of which was the least bit realistic.
Beyond that, allowing the chimp to continue to get his paws on handguns-I think 3 times-was not funny at all. Orvie was youthful looking but he didn't really provide any humor with the possible exception of when Parker was trying to be tough and told him he needed to shave. Orvie said, "I just shaved five weeks ago."
The whole business with Orvie was wasted-he never really saw anything, and wasn't really instrumental in anything toward the conclusion. I think he should have been more the focus of an episode where he decided to be loyal to his new crew and not let the captain know anything about illegal activities he saw. If they HAD to do the dumb business with the chimp, make it a different episode. Better yet, skip it altogether. I cannot give this any higher score than a 2 for its cartoonish activities of an animal.
