F Troop
F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom about U.S. soldiers and American Indians in the Wild West during the 1860s that originally aired for two seasons on ABC. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was broadcast in black-and-white, the second season in color.
The series relied heavily on character-based humor; verbal and visual gags, slapstick, physical comedy and burlesque comedy make up the prime ingredients of F Troop. The series played fast and loose with historical events and persons, and often parodied them for comical effect. There were some indirect references made to the culture of the 1960s such as a “Playbrave Club” (a parody of a Playboy Club) and two rock and roll bands (one which performs songs written in the 1960s).
F Troop is set at Fort Courage—a fictional United States Army outpost in the Old West—from just at the end of the American Civil War in 1865 to at least 1867. There is a town of the same name adjacent to the fort. Fort Courage was named for the fictitious General Sam Courage (portrayed by Cliff Arquette, best known as the character Charley Weaver.) The fort itself is in the stockade style typically found in most American westerns.
The commanding officer is the gallant although laughably clumsy Captain Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry), who is descended from a long line of distinguished military officers. He is awarded the Medal of Honor after accidentally instigating the final Civil War charge at the Battle of Appomattox. Only a private in the Quartermaster Corps, he is ordered to fetch the commanding officer’s laundry (presumably General Grant’s). As Parmenter rides away to get the laundry he repeatedly sneezes. A group of Union soldiers mistake his sneezing for an order to charge, turning the tide of the battle and “earning” Parmenter the nickname “The Scourge of Appomattox.” He also is awarded the Purple Heart after he is accidentally pricked in the chest by his commanding officer while receiving his first medal, making him known as “the only soldier in history to get a medal for getting a medal.” His superiors reward his action by promoting him to captain, only to give Parmenter command of remote Fort Courage, a dumping ground for the Army’s “least useful” soldiers and misfits (the Secretary of War (William Woodson) notes “Why, the Army sent them out there hoping they’d all desert”). Indeed, of the three commanding officers at Fort Courage before Captain Parmenter, two did desert the army, while the third suffered a nervous breakdown.
Much of the humor of the series derives from the scheming of Captain Parmenter’s somewhat crooked but amiable non-commissioned officers, Sergeant Morgan O’Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and Corporal Randolph Agarn (Larry Storch). They, in league with the local (fictitious) American Indian tribe, the Hekawis—led by Chief Wild Eagle (Frank de Kova), are forever seeking to expand and conceal their shady business deals covertly and collectively referred to as “O’Rourke Enterprises”. Initially, rations and pay were drawn for 30 men at Fort Courage, even though only 17 are actually accounted for (the other 13, according to O’Rourke, are Indian scouts who only come to the fort at night and leave before dawn). The pay of the fictitious scouts is apparently used to help finance the dealings of O’Rourke Enterprises. Although O’Rourke and Agarn try to take full advantage of Captain Parmenter’s innocence and naïveté, they are also very fond of and fiercely protective of him, and woe be to anyone attempting to harm him. Parmenter also struggles to exert his authority outside the ranks. Very bashful, he tries to escape the matrimonial plans of his girlfriend, shopkeeper–postmistress Jane Angelica Thrift, known locally as “Wrangler Jane” (played by Melody Patterson, who was awarded the role at the age 16, thanks to a forged birth certificate)—though he becomes a bit more affectionate toward her during the second season.
In the episode “Captain Parmenter, One Man Army,” it is revealed that all of the soldiers (troopers) of “F Troop” have been at Fort Courage for at least twenty months, meaning they spent at least part of the Civil War there. They are so incompetent that when they are formed into a firing squad in the episode titled “The Day They Shot Agarn” all of their shots miss Agarn despite the fact they are standing only a few yards from him. The most common running gag through both seasons of the series (shown in every first season opening except for the pilot episode) involves the fort’s lookout tower. Every time the cannon is fired in salute the lit fuse burns out. Corporal Agarn or Private Dobbs then steps up and kicks the cannon’s right wheel, collapsing the cannon and causing it to fire off target. The cannonball strikes a support leg of the lookout tower, bringing it crashing to the ground along with the trooper in it (in the opening credits, this coincides with the line in the lyrics, “Before they resume with a bang and a boom.”) In one episode, an arrow brings the tower crashing down, and in another Parmenter yanks down the tower with a lasso. In another episode, musical instruments being played loudly cause the tower to collapse. The fort water tower is also a frequent victim of this sort of gag.
Another running gag involves dialogue between Sergeant O’Rourke and Agarn. In many episodes O’Rourke says to Agarn, “I don’t know why everyone says you’re so dumb.” Immediately the scene ends. Then at the beginning of the next scene (presumably after a significant time lag), Agarn indignantly asks, “Who says I’m dumb?”
Genre Sitcom
Created by Seaman Jacobs
Ed James
Jim Barnett
Starring
Forrest Tucker
Larry Storch
Ken Berry
Melody Patterson
Frank de Kova
James Hampton
Bob Steele
Joe Brooks
Theme music composer William Lava
Irving Taylor
Composer(s) William Lava
Frank Comstock
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia