# Will tv ever again have military comedies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 15, 2016, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190 "2016-02-15T06:11:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/21 "2016-02-15T17:15:02Z")
Well, I still have that idea for a series set at that Radar Station in Alaska where they send all the screwups, smartass hotshots, and guys who knew too much… ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/22 "2016-02-15T17:26:37Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Most service comedies in the US (_Gomer Pyle, No Time for Sergeants, Ensign O’Toole_) took place in peacetime (or the Cold War, which was pretty much peaceful). It’s hard to do one now, since the military has been at war for so long. It certainly wouldn’t be contemporary. Gomer Pyle took place during the Vietnam war. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/23 "2016-02-15T17:28:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > You must have missed _Enlisted_ when it was on for 13 episodes on Fox in 2014. One thing that impressed was that after a pilot that was filled with ridiculous mistakes that had every vet throwing things at the tv, they listened to the critics and made a big effort to get everything right. They courted the military community through social media. I think it could have turned into a decent show but it never had the ratings. The lead character in that show was an Iraq War veteran who had PTSD. It didn’t come up a lot but it was an underlying element of the show, which I liked. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/24 "2016-02-15T17:40:15Z")
> [@bump](#): > > That said, I always wondered why there hasn’t been a show set in either Iraq or Afghanistan cut broadly in the MASH mold (although not necessarily medical-oriented), and that mostly pokes fun at Frank Burns types, has a Henry Blake type, or the everyday absurdities inherent in the military, and some of the surreal oddness present when deployed. There’s no reason to treat the servicemen and women on the whole as anything but competent and dedicated, except for the Burns types, and even there, show him as at least competent or dedicated. But one of the most important points about M_A_S\*H was that the principals were all draftees, not professional military. (Yeah, I’m excluding Margaret and Potter for the moment.) They could make fun of Blake and Burns because they clearly had no business being there in the first place. Today a senior officer is a career soldier who chose that way of life and worked through the ranks. It’s far more risky to make someone like that a buffoon like Blake or Burns. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/25 "2016-02-15T18:23:33Z")
If you aren’t sanctimoniously pro-military, you will get flak from right-wingers. If you aren’t sanctimoniously anti-war, you will get flak from left-wingers. I’m not sure there are enough people in the middle to allow a show to find an audience. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/26 "2016-02-15T18:27:00Z")
Re: _Dad’s Army_ is 37% at Rotten Tomatoes. It’s gotten some really nasty reviews. Opening weekend (week+ ago) in the UK was $3M, a decent enough amount. (Similar to how _Ride Along 2_ did there.) But I don’t expect it to make any dough in the US, let alone any non-Anglophile country. It will hurt, rather than help the genre. The US is too war-weary to get into this now. It’s not like during the Viet Nam days when people still had hope that our wars were going to end soon in victory. I see that the HBO comedy _The Brink_ with Jack Black which had some military elements has been mentioned. But the military part was secondary. The main part was diplomatic/political. It was renewed for a 2nd season and HBO soon after decided to cancel it instead. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/27 "2016-02-15T18:34:59Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The lead character in that show was an Iraq War veteran who had PTSD. It didn’t come up a lot but it was an underlying element of the show, which I liked. Yeah they were hitting on a lot of important issues but weren’t too preachy. Unfortunately iirc it really wasn’t given a chance. Moved around a lot and not given a chance. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/28 "2016-02-15T19:05:33Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Someone already mentioned MAJOR DAD. _Major Dad_ may or may not belong on this list. It always struck me as less a service comedy and as more a domestic/family sitcom where the father’s job happened to be the Marine Corps. There were none of the fish-out-of-water-recruit or isn’t-the-military-silly type of jokes that you tended to get in traditional service comedies. And although it took place partially during the first Gulf War, that was rarely mentioned, apart from a single episode where the family was worried about whether the Major would have to deploy to a combat zone (spoiler alert: he didn’t). Rather, most of the humor (such as it was) came from the Major’s disconnect at the sort of no-nonsense command style he used in the Marines not working within the very different dynamic of a family of growing girls. Again, by this time the military was all-volunteer, and the Major was a career Marine, as were most of his co-workers. They were all there because they wanted to be there, and were mostly portrayed as competent, professional people. Oh, they had their sitcom-style foibles: The young lieutenant was painfully earnest and a bit naive, the general was old-fashioned and kind of slow on the uptake. But none of them were ever portrayed as the sort of incompetent boob that a Frank Burns was, or the sort of lazy, wheedling con-man that a Sergeant Bilko was. Either view of the military would have seemed wildly out of place on that show. Writing this makes me realize, slightly to my horror, that I know an awful lot more about _Major Dad_ than I would have liked. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/29 "2016-02-15T23:29:17Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > …Today a senior officer is a career soldier who chose that way of life and worked through the ranks. It’s far more risky to make someone like that a buffoon like Blake or Burns. Military physicians get commissioned officer rank (Captain in the Army/Air Force, Lt Commander in the Navy) right off the bat, and a lot only signed up to pay for medical school without any intention of going career after their contracts up. IIRC this is true for a lot of nurses and other medical personnel too. A lot of room for humor there. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/30 "2016-02-16T00:14:35Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > I’m thinking there hasn’t been a successful military comedy series since the Vietnam War, and news coverage of same, hit the U.S. public in the face with the gravitas of war. The goofball attitude common to that type of sitcom just wouldn’t fly anymore. M_A_S\*H was pretty successful. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/31 "2016-02-16T00:54:20Z")
How soon we forget [Blackadder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDQ1ljlnSjU) - WWI can still be mined for comedy! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/32 "2016-02-16T01:14:20Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > M_A_S\*H was pretty successful. _MAS_H\*\*\* began in 1972, when the US was still in Vietnam. Of course, it continued until well after the war ended. Back in the '80s, there was a _ **Private Benjamin** _ series, and one called _ **At Ease** _, which lasted only 14 episodes. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/33 "2016-02-16T01:14:53Z")
Guys…The A-Team? Granted, that was like 20 years ago. > [@kunilou](#): > > But one of the most important points about M_A_S\*H was that the principals were all draftees, not professional military. (Yeah, I’m excluding Margaret and Potter for the moment.) They could make fun of Blake and Burns because they clearly had no business being there in the first place. > > Today a senior officer is a career soldier who chose that way of life and worked through the ranks. It’s far more risky to make someone like that a buffoon like Blake or Burns. The important point about MASH was that the principals were doctors, making it a medical comedy/drama, of which there are plenty on TV. Much of the comedy came from the fact that these were unorthodox, but highly skilled doctors with a legitimate desire to help people, juxtaposed over the absurdity and horror of having to do this as part of the bureaucratic rear echelon logistics chain of an active duty US Army in the middle of the Korean War. Blake and Burns could be buffoons because their pompous buffoonery was largely confined to the relatively safe environment of the 4077th MASH behind the lines. Make it a front line paratrooper battalion and it’s a lot less funny (i.e. Lt Dike from Band of Brothers). I’m not really sure how you would make a military comedy in this day and age. There are/were plenty of military dramas (JAG, NCIS, Army Wives, The Unit, Pensacola: Wings of Gold). Sometimes they have comedic elements in them. There are political comedies like VEEP or The Brink that sometimes have military plot elements. I just don’t see how you would create a “Brooklyn Nine-nine” about the military. “Oops! I blew off Sarge’s foot with a Claymore mine! Sporgie Dorg!” Or would they just make another dumb show about the biggest bunch of misfits in the Army and their big hearted con-man of an NCO and his endless conflicts with the by the book base commander? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/34 "2016-02-16T01:19:21Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > You can’t cause they’re all heroes and anything less than on screen worship will be seen as disrespecting “the troops.” Damn straight. There is a segment of the population that thinks that the military is infallible, that no serviceman ever did anything wrong, and that the only proper way to look at the troops is with fawning adoration. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/35 "2016-02-16T01:25:30Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Guys…The A-Team? > > Granted, that was like 20 years ago. More like 30. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/36 "2016-02-16T01:27:56Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Gomer Pyle took place during the Vietnam war. Watching the series, you would never have guessed there was a war going on the whole time. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/37 "2016-02-16T01:33:52Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > You must have missed _Enlisted_ when it was on for 13 episodes on Fox in 2014. One thing that impressed was that after a pilot that was filled with ridiculous mistakes that had every vet throwing things at the tv, they listened to the critics and made a big effort to get everything right. FOX showed the episodes out of the order in which they were produced, thereby destroying any continuity: > **[Enlisted (TV series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlisted_(TV_series))** > > Enlisted is an American sitcom that premiered January 10, 2014, on Fox. Fox placed a 13-episode order for the single-camera comedy in May 2013. Despite low ratings, the show received many good reviews. > On March 26, 2014, Fox announced that from April 11, Kitchen Nightmares would be airing in Enlisted's timeslot – effectively removing Enlisted from the schedule after nine episodes had aired. On May 7, 2014, Fox canceled the series due to low ratings, but allowed the final four episodes to air in ... ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/38 "2016-02-16T01:39:20Z")
I’m guessing only a very small percentage of today’s potential viewers lived through a war. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/39 "2016-02-16T01:55:12Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > But it wouldn’t be set in contemporary times. On the other hand, there has been: > > [Bluestone 42](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03n3bsz) > > [www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvhZC2LP18M](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvhZC2LP18M) Bluestone 42 is exactly the kind of show the OP was thinking about. It’s very much a MASH for our times. It’s British, of course. It’s also really good. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190/40 "2016-02-16T06:13:38Z")
I think **Simplicio** hit on something by bringing up conscription. A military comedy when there’s a draft makes fun of “us.” When there isn’t a draft, it would have to make fun of “them.” Our all-volunteer military creates a situation where large numbers of people feel they owe a debt of gratitude to those in the armed forces. It would be hard to do a military comedy today without making it seem like civilians were ridiculing the people and institutions they ought to be thanking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-tv-ever-again-have-military-comedies/746190.md?page=3)