McHale's Navy

"Seven Against the Sea" (1962)

Academy Award–winning dramatic actor Ernest Borgnine first appeared as Quinton McHale in an hour-long PT boat drama called "Seven Against the Sea", which aired as an episode of Alcoa Premiere in 1962, an ABC dramatic anthology also known as Fred Astaire's Premiere Theatre and hosted by Fred Astaire, who introduced television audiences to the Quinton McHale character. It is considered the pilot show for the series although it is an hour-long drama instead of a half-hour situation comedy and is starkly different in tone.

Plot

During World War II, Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale (Borgnine) is the commanding officer of the U.S. Navy PT boat PT-73, stationed at the fictional Pacific island base of Taratupa. In the late spring of 1942, the Japanese heavily bomb the island, destroying the base. Only 18 of 150 naval aviators and Marines on the base survive. With Japanese patrols in the region too heavy for a Navy rescue mission, McHale and his men survive by hiding on the island. Assisted by the native tribes whom they befriend, the sailors live a pleasant island existence. After months of leisurely life, strait-laced, by-the-book Annapolis graduate Lieutenant Durham (Ron Foster) parachutes onto the island. His job is to assume duties as McHale's executive officer and help him get the base on Taratupa back into action.

Durham faces an uphill battle: the men have gone native. One man has started a native laundry service, and McHale operates a still, making moonshine for the men and the natives. In addition, McHale is friendly with the native chief; the two even bathe in the same room, attended to by one of the chief's wives. When Durham informs McHale of his orders, McHale refuses to follow them. It is clear that while McHale is as loyal as any American, following the devastation caused by the Japanese on the island, he is reluctant to risk losing more men. His concern now is for their survival until they can be rescued, which creates friction between Durham and McHale.

When they get word that a Marine battalion is pinned on a beach and an enemy cruiser is planning to attack the beachhead in the morning, McHale's attitude changes. McHale is ordered to use all his boats to protect the beachhead and the Marines, but he has no boats, since the Japanese sank them all. However, McHale and his men manage to capture a Japanese PT boat that arrives at the island. Surprising the men and Durham, McHale does not plan to use the boat to evacuate his men or the Marine battalion. Instead, he will attack and destroy the Japanese cruiser. He estimates that since they are on a Japanese boat, flying a Japanese flag, they can move in and torpedo the cruiser twice and send it to the bottom.

With just two torpedoes, McHale, Durham, and a crew set out in darkness aboard the acquired PT boat to find and engage the cruiser. By patrolling the only water deep enough for the cruiser to reach the beach, they spot it about two hours before dawn. McHale pilots the PT boat at maximum speed directly towards the cruiser, allowing the crew to fire both torpedoes, the second of which impacts the bow of the cruiser and causes a very large explosion, implying its destruction. The PT boat is last seen, apparently returning to Taratupa, now flying an American flag.

Cast

The cast of "Seven Against the Sea" was:

Ernest Borgnine as Captain Quentin McHale

Ron Foster as Lieutenant Robert Durham

William Bramley as Bosun Ward Gallagher

John Wright as Willy Moss

Gary Vinson as Christy Christopher

Steve Harris as Plumber Harris

Brian Eliot as Jenkins

Bob Okazaki as Japanese Officer

Michael Dugan as Seaman Number One

Juano Hernandez as Chief Mamora

Response

This episode of an early dramatic anthology series received respectable ratings and ABC ordered a series. The series requested by the network was significantly different in tone from the pilot. In an interview in Cinema Retro magazine, Borgnine said the show was meant as a vehicle for Ron Foster, who was to be contracted to Universal Pictures, but that did not work out. Producer Jennings Lang recalled the 1953 film Destination Gobi inspiring a half-hour comedy with the Borgnine character's PT boat. The lead character in Destination Gobi, played by Richard Widmark, was named McHale.

"Seven Against the Sea" is available for public viewing at the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio) in New York City and Los Angeles. As of 2024, it can also be found on YouTube.

McHale's Navy (1962–1966)

This military service comedy series was set in the Pacific theatre of World War II—for the last season, the setting changed to the European theater in Italy—and focused on antics of the misfit crew of PT-73 led by Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale, played by Borgnine. The producer, Edward Montagne, had enjoyed success with The Phil Silvers Show—often referred to as Sergeant Bilko, after the series' protagonist—a military comedy that ran from 1955 to 1959 about an opportunistic non-commissioned officer and his loyal platoon putting loony things over on the camp commander. While the pilot had been dramatic, with overtones of Henry Fonda's introspective Mister Roberts, Montagne turned the "McHale" project into "Bilko in the Navy" and recruited Sergeant Bilko actors and writers.

However, unlike Sergeant Bilko, which was set in peacetime, McHale's Navy was set during World War II, although much of what takes place is, in some ways, as if it were peacetime with the crew permanently stationed in one location and concerned about peacetime duties rather than fighting a war. At the time of the series, then-President John F. Kennedy was known as the decorated wartime commander of PT-109. A popular book, PT-109: John F. Kennedy in World War II by Robert J. Donovan, came out the previous year, and a feature film based on the book, PT 109, a year after the series’ debut. PT-109 was referenced in the episode "Send Us A Hero".

Plot

The basic plot is that McHale's crew schemes to make money, attract women and enjoy themselves, and the efforts of Captain Binghamton (McHale's superior) to rid himself of the PT-73 crew for good, either by transfer or court-martial. Although they often get into trouble, they typically manage to get out of it. Despite their scheming, conniving, and often lazy and unmilitary ways, McHale's crew is always successful in combat in the end. This bears close resemblance to the British radio programme The Navy Lark, broadcast around the same period.

The first episode, titled "An Ensign for McHale", sets the tone for the entire series. It involves Ensign Parker's assignment to McHale's crew after they already had gone through several ensigns who could not put up with their unmilitary, slovenly, and insubordinate ways. One of them even suffered a nervous breakdown. Parker is given one week by Binghamton to reform the crew or be given the worst reassignment possible. At first, the crew treats Parker as badly as they treated the other ensigns, but after McHale sees Parker has integrity, he decides to help Parker out by having his crew be much more like regular Navy.

Sometimes, the crewmen wear disguises to carry out elaborate schemes, such as when McHale needs to stage a phony Japanese attack and several of the crew dress up in Japanese uniforms. At other times, the crew dresses up to look like "native savages". When a situation calls for a disguise as a woman, one of the crew dresses in drag. When they are in Italy, several of the crewmen disguise themselves in German uniforms.

The entire show is based in only two locations: in the South Pacific at a fictional base called Taratupa, and later in an equally fictional town in Italy called Voltafiore.

The first few episodes merely indicate that Taratupa is "somewhere in the South Pacific 1943." The implied location (per the first episode) is islands north of New Zealand. While in the South Pacific, McHale's crew lives on "McHale's Island", across the bay from Taratupa. It keeps them away from the main base, where they are free to carry out their antics and even fight the war.

The final season has a total change of scenery as Binghamton, Carpenter and the entire PT-73 crew, along with Fuji (who hid in the boat as it was being transported), move to the liberated Italian theater in "late 1944" to the coastal town of Voltafiore in "Southern Italy", where Binghamton becomes the military governor and they become members of PT Boat Squadron 19. Moneymaking schemes of the wacky and somewhat crooked Mayor Mario Lugatto (Jay Novello) and the looney antics of the citizens introduce many more plot twists and gags. For instance, when McHale and his crew first arrive in Voltafiore, they are greeted by the newly liberated citizens with cries of Sieg Heil! While Binghamton and Carpenter live nicely in the city hall, McHale and his men are forced by Binghamton to bivouac in tents near the beach. However, they stumble on an abandoned wine cellar, which becomes their secret underground hideout where they hide Fuji (and of course Binghamton nearly discovers it several times). They later add a submarine-style periscope and fancy furnishings.

Episodes

McHale's Navy came to an end in 1966, due to low ratings and repetitive storylines.

Regular characters

Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale (Ernest Borgnine) – A principal character of the series, he is also a former captain of a tramp steamer who is familiar with the South Pacific and is especially knowledgeable about the islands and natives around Taratupa, which often helps him in combat situations and makes him a favorite with the admirals. Like his crew, he is unmilitary in many ways, but always a strong and competent leader who is very protective of his crew. Also like his crew, McHale likes to wear Hawaiian-style clothing when off duty and to use the PT-73 to go deep-sea fishing and water skiing. As Gruber says in the 1964 film, "That's no officer, that's our skipper".

Gruff but lovable, he often calls his crew "schlockmeisters" and goofballs. He is called "Skip" by his crew. Although he very often bellows at them and tries to put his foot down, he loves his crew too much to be all that hard on them. McHale's catchphrases are "Knock it off, you eight-balls" and when trying to come up with an excuse, a rapid "Well-a, well-a, well-a." He speaks Japanese, Italian and local island dialects. In the 1964 film, he briefly speaks fluent French. When the crew is in Italy, McHale's knowledge of Italian serves him quite well and his mother is Italian (both of Borgnine's parents were from Italy). In a dual role, Borgnine played his lookalike Italian cousin, Giuseppe, who does not speak English in "Giuseppe McHale" and "The Return of Giuseppe."

Ensign Charles Beaumont Parker (Tim Conway) – McHale's likable, but goofy second-in-command, he is referred to by McHale as "Chuck" and by the crew as "Mister Parker" (in the United States Navy, officers ranking from warrant officer to lieutenant commander were referred to as "Mister" until 1973). Conway's bashful, unassertive, naïve, mildly gung-ho bungler often succeeds in spite of clownish ineptitude (a theme that was career-defining). Like Conway, Ensign Parker is from Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Parker was born between about 1916 and 1920 and worked for the Chagrin Falls Gazette.

Although he tries to be military, he is too dimwitted to command much respect and many of the episodes involve Parker getting into trouble because of his bumbling and ineptitude such as accidentally firing depth charges or shooting down Allied aircraft. Even before becoming a member of McHale's crew, Ensign Parker's personnel file is a laundry list of major foul-ups, including crashing a destroyer escort into a dock, doing something unspecified in heavy fog to the heavy cruiser USS Minneapolis and calling in a naval airstrike on a Marine gasoline dump.

Other characters

Many of the episodes in the South Pacific involve interactions with native islanders. The most colorful is Polynesian chief and witchdoctor, Pali Urulu (Jacques Aubuchon), who is as shifty and scheming as McHale and his men. When McHale and the crew are in Urulu's village, the chief displays a portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When the Japanese troops arrive, Urulu turns it over to reveal a portrait of Japanese Emperor Hirohito. In another episode he does the same thing with the Japanese and American flags.

Though "primitive", Urulu is like Gruber, from whom he learns a lot, usually to Gruber's regret—a hustler who is always looking for ways to make money or swindle money from the Navy. In the episode titled "We Do the Voodoo", after Binghamton refuses to pay Urulu for damage to his coconut grove, Urulu uses his powers to put a curse on Binghamton, who then has a streak of bad luck. In "The Balloon Goes Up", Urulu displays the sign "Gone Headhunting" when he leaves his hut and is called a cannibal by Binghamton and McHale (no indication that it is meant to be taken literally). Aubuchon also played the Russian sailor Dimitri in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force.

Another shifty character is Big Frenchy, played by George Kennedy in episodes titled "French Leave For McHale" and "The Return of Big Frenchy." He is a thieving French smuggler, captain of a small boat, and an old friend of McHale's who knows better than to turn his back to him. In "The Return of Big Frenchy", he convinces Binghamton and Parker that he is a member of the French Underground so he can steal supplies. Kennedy also played businessman Henri Le Clerc of New Caledonia in the 1964 movie. Kennedy began his career in showbiz as a technical adviser on the Sergeant Bilko show.

The show has its share of admirals. Admiral Rogers is played by Roy Roberts in 22 episodes. In some episodes, his first name is John, while in others, it is Bruce. Herbert Lytton played Admiral Roscoe G. Reynolds in 11 episodes. Bill Quinn played Benson, Slocum and Admiral Bruce Elliott in six episodes. Willis Bouchey played Admiral Hawkins in three episodes. Admiral Rafferty was played by Philip Ober in "McHale, the Desk Commando" and "McHale's Floating Laudromat".

Ted Knight played Admiral "Go-Go" Granger in "The Fountain of Youth" and "One of Our Engines is Missing", In "Uncle Admiral", Harry Von Zell played Ensign Parker's uncle, Vice Admiral Tim "Bull Dog" Parker. Simon Scott played General Bronson nine times when the show is in Italy. Henry Beckman as U.S. Army Colonel Harrigan was also a regular presence in the Italian episodes as Binghamton's superior and also a thorn in Binghamton's side—as a schemer, Harrigan is sometimes on McHale's side, sometimes on Binghamton's side, or plays one against the other as best suits his purposes. Beckman also played Air Corps Colonel Pratt in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force.

Cast

The cast of the half-hour sitcom series was as listed below. Except where noted, the actors appeared on the show in every season.

Ernest Borgnine as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale

Tim Conway as Ensign Charles Parker

Joe Flynn as Captain Wallace Burton Binghamton ("Old Leadbottom")

Bob Hastings as Lieutenant Elroy Carpenter

Gary Vinson as George "Christy" Christopher, quartermaster

John Wright as Willy Moss, radioman

Carl Ballantine as Lester Gruber, torpedoman's mate

Billy Sands as Harrison "Tinker" Bell, engineman and motor machinist's mate

Edson Stroll as Virgil Edwards, gunner's mate

Gavin MacLeod as Joseph "Happy" Haines, seaman (1962–1964)

Yoshio Yoda as Fuji Kobiaji, cook, seaman 3rd class, Japanese POW

The real-life PT-73

The real-life PT-73 was finished on August 12, 1942, by Higgins Industries, in New Orleans. It was 78 feet (24 m) long, weighed 56 tons and had a top speed of 40 knots. It was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13 under the command of Commander James B. Denny, USN. The squadron participated in the Aleutian Islands Campaign from March 1943 to May 1944. The squadron was then transferred to the Southwest Pacific, where it saw action at Mios Woendi, Dutch New Guinea; Mindoro, Philippine Islands; and Brunei Bay, Borneo.

The squadron was also based for a time at Dreger Harbor, New Guinea, and San Pedro Bay, Philippine Islands, but saw no action from these bases. Overall, the real PT-73 did not have the kind of illustrious combat record depicted in the series. On January 15, 1945, it ran aground off Lubang Island in the Philippine Islands after delivering supplies to Filipino guerrillas and was destroyed by the crew to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Production

The Pacific Ocean naval base stood on the back lot of Universal Studios. For years after the show went off the air, the sets were an attraction on the studio tour. The portion of the Universal Studios tour involving Bruce the Shark from Jaws attacking the tourist tram takes place on McHale's Lagoon, according to the tour guides.

PT-73

Few PT boats survived World War II, almost all having been sold, stripped, or destroyed after the war by various governments. This made sourcing an appropriate boat for the television series challenging.

Three different vessels were used to portray PT-73 in the show: a converted 71-foot (22 m) type II Vosper MTB (motor torpedo boat), a British design built in the U.S. for export to the Soviet Union, was used for shots at sea; and two 63-foot (19 m) World War II air-sea rescue boats were reconfigured above-deck to resemble the reconfigured Vosper and based at Universal Studios.

The war had ended in August 1945 before the Vosper, hull number PT-694, could be sent to the Soviet Union. It was purchased by Howard Hughes for a chase boat for the only flight of his Spruce Goose aircraft. Universal purchased the boat.

Significant liberties were taken reconfiguring the Vosper 694 and the two air-sea rescue boats to resemble a World War II-era PT boat. These included:

The Vosper's charthouse and bridge configuration were kept.

Gun turrets were added to both sides of the charthouse about where they would have been on a stock Vosper 71-foot, but this was not the configuration of the 80-foot (24 m) Elco boats, but mimicked the Higgins 78' PT-71 Class boats.

On McHale's boat, each gun turret mounted a single M2 heavy machine gun on an external, tubular steel spindle fed from a 100-round .50 caliber ammunition box, whereas the real boats used two M2s in Mk-17 gun mount / Mk-9 gun carriage combinations that rotated within the body of the turret and had integral ammunition magazines and feed systems holding 250 rounds in disintegrating belts for each gun.

The turrets in the show also did away with the wrap-around safety cages that kept the .50 cal gunners from accidentally firing into the boat during the heat of combat.

A single .50 caliber M2 mounted on an M4 autocannon-style pipe stand tended to appear, disappear, and move around from scene to scene on the forward deck. Normally, the forward gun would have been an either an .50 caliber M2 heavy machine gun or Oerlikon 20-mm antiaircraft cannon on a pedestal to the right of centerline, back nearer the charthouse, and possibly a 37-mm M4 autocannon mounted on the foredeck.

Spinoff

Producer Edward Montagne set up a female version of McHale's Navy entitled Broadside, which ran for 32 episodes on ABC during the 1964–65 television season. In place of the PT crew were a group of WAVES led by Lt. Anne Morgan (Kathleen Nolan). She and her motor pool personnel Joan Staley, Sheila James, Lois Roberts. and Jimmy Boyd (as a male with a female name), were up against base commander Edward Andrews and his nervous adjutant George Furth, who guest-starred in an episode of McHale's Navy entitled "Dart Gun Wedding." Dick Sargent provided a love interest for Nolan.

Edward Andrews (as "Eddie Andrews") had appeared in Edward Montagne's military sitcom The Phil Silvers Show (Sergeant Bilko). Montagne remembered him and co-starred him in Broadside. "The amusing thing is that Ed Montagne first offered me the Captain Binghamton role in his McHale's Navy and I turned him down," said Andrews in 1965. "After seeing what a wonderful job Joe Flynn is doing with the role, I keep kicking myself for what was apparently a stupid decision. [Broadside] is roughly a distaff version of McHale's Navy."

Although not an actual spinoff, Tim Conway and Joe Flynn teamed up playing characters with similar personalities in The Tim Conway Show, which lasted only 13 episodes in 1970.

Merchandise and other media

Dell Comics published three issues of a comic adaptation in 1963. There was also a Dell comic adaptation of the first film in 1964.

A board game, McHale's Navy Game, was published by Transogram in 1962. A trading card set was published by Fleer in 1965.

Years after the show ended, Borgnine and Conway played the SpongeBob SquarePants superhero team Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.

Theatrical films

Two feature film spin-offs were based on the series: McHale's Navy (1964) and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965). The ensemble cast appeared in both films, but Borgnine and Ballantine were absent from the second film; Borgnine was not available due to schedule conflicts with the filming of The Flight of the Phoenix; why Ballantine was missing is not known. To beef up the crew, MacLeod, who had left the series, returned for this appearance. In a Cinema Retro interview, Borgnine said that Montagne wanted to make the film cheaply, without him, and would not show him the script. Both films have the same basic plot scheme as the series in the South Pacific and, in many ways, were merely extensions of the series. Even parts of the filming location for New Caledonia in the first movie are identical to episodes from the series.

The seagoing PT-73 was extensively filmed running between San Pedro and Catalina Island's Avalon harbor, which stood in for the fictional town where the show was set. The first film did well at the box office, but the latter film (without Borgnine) was not as successful and was derided by critics as having too much slapstick comedy, though others praised it for satirizing of military incompetence (after a typical screw-up, the Japanese POW Fuji sighs, "Beats me how they beating us."). William Lederer, who co-authored the second film with John Fenton Murray, used scenes lifted directly from his comic novel, All the Ships at Sea.

Unlike the television series, both movies were filmed in Technicolor. McHale's Navy (1964) earned an estimated $2,250,000 ($23.4 million in 2025) in North American rentals. McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force took in $1,500,000 ($15.3 million in 2025).

In 1997, a sequel was released, also named McHale's Navy. It starred Tom Arnold as McHale's son, a United States Naval Academy graduate. The film showed the PT-73 and its crew operating in a modern, post-World War II setting in the Caribbean. Borgnine has a cameo appearance as the senior McHale, commanding rear admiral of what appears to be the United States Naval Special Warfare Command and going by the code name "Cobra."

Home media

Shout! Factory has released all four seasons of McHale's Navy on DVD in Region 1. In November 2015, Shout! released McHale's Navy – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. The 21-disc set contained all 138 episodes and both theatrical films in special collectible packaging. In Australia, Madman Entertainment released all four seasons on DVD. Madman released the first three seasons in Australia in August 2009, in Slimline packaging, replacing the original releases, which were box sets. In June 2011, a Slimline-packaged set of season 4 was seen in Big W stores in Australia in Region 4, however, no details indicate the item being available elsewhere. All full episodes are now available on YouTube.