Was Viet Nam ever mentioned?
They made this show at the height of the war. I can't remember it ever being mentioned. Remember the episode when the Oriental girl visited Vince? I think she was supposed to have been Korean.
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MovieChat Forums > Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964) Discussion > Was Viet Nam ever mentioned?
If so, it was probably mentioned pretty indirectly. It wasn't an absolutely taboo subject (like you sometimes hear), but not one brought in very casually either.
shareThink how many years it was after the Korean Conflict ended before M*A*S*H became a TV series - and that was because the movie had been such a hit.
YOU CAN SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT ABOUT THE SOUTH, BUT YOU NEVER SEE SOUTHERNERS HEADING NORTH WHEN THEY RETIRE.
NO Nam was never mentioned in the show. I saw Jim Nabors on a show one time, and he said that the opening credits of Gomer Pyle, Gomer is marching with real Marines. He also said that it is always sad to watch this, because a lot of those guys were shipped to Nam and lost their life.
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I know this is OT, but since you mentioned this, I thought I should address it.
There were black people on TAGS, even in some of the early B&W episodes. And in one of the color episodes, Opie had a black ball coach who gave him piano lessons.
Which actually put TAGS ahead of its time as compared to some other sitcoms during that same time period.
The earliest black person I saw on Andy Griffith was a large black woman when Barney thought a new deputy was his replacement, but it turned out he was just training for something else.
Barney is trying to show the new guy how to turn off the siren and it got stuck. The large black woman appears at the front of the crowd.
As it is, Dick Van Dyke had children in Richie's class and Phil Silvers had black servicemen, as well as Car 54 had black police officers.
Greg Morris as well had a very hilarious appearance on Dick Van Dyke, where Rob Petrie thought he might have the wrong baby from the hospital. Morris was the father of the other baby born on the same day.
Gomer Pyle USMC went on the air in '65. I don't think the height of the war was reached until the Tet offensive of '68. The Pyle show was a comedy. Seems to me its producers and directors would have thought it strange indeed to try to make Nam seem funny. Personally, I'm glad they didn't. My oldest brother was over there during those years.
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