Actually, he was complaining a lot beforehand, but admitted that the “Best man won” after the race. The whole segment is here. NBC had beaten ABC in a relay race, but the judges tacked on a 2 second penalty because one of the racers had cheated, giving the race to ABC. Conrad, captain of the NBC team, blew his top, and eventually he and Mr. Kotter, captain of ABC, agreed to a foot race to settle the matter. Conrad had no idea that Kaplan had been a track star in high school. The fact that the whole event is announced by Howard Cosell really makes it timeless.
Baa Baa Black Sheep had a great intro and the fantastic Simon Oakland
If I recall: they had modern haircuts…and one of the flyers had two American stamps on his Corsair (?) because of friendly fire.
Also remember an ep ( might be the same guy) where a novice accidentally shot down a famous Japanese ace, so the ace (who lived) challenged the novice to a one on one duel
And this was actually a source of drama in the ep!! I could see it happening IRL…maybe? But it wouldn’t be a source of drama and losing sleep. It would either happen or they’d set up an ambush
I was a big fan of THE WILD, WILD, WEST and BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON, and I also liked him in CENTENNIAL. But I recall him playing a bit part as an overly aggressive senior military advisor in some movie from the 80’s or 90’s. I cannot recall if the movie was a comedy or not—but his character was most certainly a cartoonish, two dimensional attempt at humor. After admiring his serious tough guy roles, I remember I got a kick out of this general he played being ignored when he wanted to solve every problem with more firepower! He also claimed to have these tidbits of tactical intelligence that could not be actual information: “has dinner with his mother every Tuesday night…” or “ … yes sir, chronic masturbator with a Napoleon Complex”. You want to take him seriously because of his previous roles and playing it straight presence in the role but he became too absurd. It was just funny because he was making fun of his tough guy roles with such earnestness.
Wrong is Right. A very timely movie
I was going to post one of those battery commercials, in fact. 
I always enjoyed him in Wild Wild West.
RIP, Mr. Conrad.
Thank You Dale Sams!
I would not have remembered that in a million years. In fact, I still have little memory of the movie or the plot even after looking it up on IMDb, but I DO remember Mr. Conrad’s performance.
Even if I didn’t remember Sean Connery or John Saxon (big fan of both actors) were in the movie, you would think I would recall Katherine Ross!
If this thread goes longer than the RIP Kirk Douglas thread, I will become very very sad.
Half the episodes revolved around them trying to get with the nurses or figuring out ways to get one up on Major Lard. Wikipedia calls it a “military drama” but I can’t remember any other military drama that ends with a women’s volleyball game in the middle of a warzone.
And video is has some politically incorrect statements, with stereo-typical vintage slurs towards Germans, Jews, and the Irish.
Imagine how much outrage there would be on Social Media
at the 1:40 mark
“He’s Jewish and he wants to do is arbitrate”
“I’m German and I want to kill the both of them”
“I’m Irish and I am looking for another Mick to hit”
I watched that when it was first broadcast and thought it was pretty cringe-worthy then. Even more so when I caught a re-run or YouTube video a couple of years ago. That exchange seemed very real and very intense to me. But the thing with him putting the battery on his shoulder and blocking Lou Ferrigno’s way seemed pretty much scripted to me.
Ha - yes! And the pretty secretary. I had a crush on her at the time…
He’d have been perfect as Napolean.
I just learned that he was a singer, too.
YouTube has several of his songs:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=robert+conrad+singing
That’s Colonel Lard!
I know of another action military drama movie that takes time out from all the flyin’ and girl chasin’ for a shirtless volleyball game.
Das Boot?
I loved Black Sheep Squadron. Today they’d call it a ‘dramedy’. It was a drama built around a combination of humorous and deadly serious plots.
In tone it’s probably closest to the movie version of MASH.
If you get a chance to read the autobiography of Greg ‘Pappy’ Boyington, I can highly recommend it. It’s a very entertaining war biography written by a guy who was a huge hero and celebrity in WWII, who became a drunk and never really succeeded at anything again.
“Show me a hero, and I’ll show you a bum.” - Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington, top Marine fighter ace of WWII and Medal of Honor winner.
I believe the show recreated the Medal of Honor event, in which Boyington got tired of the enemy refusing to engage (because they got slaughtered against American Corsairs), so Boyington took the Black sheep out and they circled an enemy airstrip with 60 fighters on it, taunting them by radio to come up and fight. When the Japanese finally had it with the taunts against their honor they sent up their fighters, outnumbering the Blacksheep almost 3-1. The result was 20 Japanese planes downed, with the loss of one Corsair.
Conrad captured Boyington’s spirit, swagger, and disdain for the brass very well. He’ll be missed.
Now that you mention it . . . he did embody the correct attributes to make a very compelling Bonaparte.
Another domineering personality in an . . . um, compact frame, was Frank Lloyd Wright. Conrad didn’t resemble him much, but with makeup and wardrobe could he have pulled off a biopic of “America’s most famous architect”?
That would be Lt. Casey.
RIP, Bob, ya bantam bastard.