Broadside (TV series)
Broadside is an American sitcom that aired on ABC during the 1964–1965 TV season. The series, produced by McHale's Navy creator Edward Montagne, starred Kathleen Nolan, formerly of The Real McCoys.[1]
| Broadside | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Written by | Frank J. Gill, Jr. George Carleton Brown Si Rose Ray Brenner Barry E. Blitzer Benedict Freedman Earl Barret Robert C. Dennis Jack Harvey Bruce Howard Bud Nye Elroy Schwartz Irving Taylor Sam Locke Joel Rapp Stan Dreben Howard Merrill William Raynor Myles Wilder |
| Directed by | Frank McDonald Sidney Miller Edward Montagne Hollingsworth Morse Don Richardson Jean Yarbrough E.W. Swackhamer Charles Barton |
| Starring | Edward Andrews Dick Sargent Sheila James Kathleen Nolan Joan Staley George Furth Arnold Stang Jimmy Boyd |
| Composer | Jerry Fielding |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 32 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Edward Montagne |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | Universal Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 20, 1964 – May 2, 1965 |
Synopsis
The series centered on the women of the Navy (WAVES) on "a supply base somewhere in the South Pacific, 1944," who found themselves transferred to the island of Ranakai to run the motorpool in an otherwise all-male environment. Lt. Anne Morgan (Kathleen Nolan) was in command of the man-crazy, wisecracking Selma Kowalski (Sheila James), the alternately chipper and worried Molly McGuire (Lois Roberts), the slow-witted blonde and former exotic dancer Roberta Love (Joan Staley), and the unit's only male recruit, Marion Botnik (Jimmy Boyd), assigned to the WAVES due to a clerical error.
Their nemesis was the rarefied Commander Roger Adrian (Edward Andrews), who regarded the war as a major intrusion on his idyllic, luxurious lifestyle; he felt that the WAVES experiment would attract official government supervision, endangering his private paradise. Adrian and his easily flustered junior officer Ensign Beasley (George Furth) constantly conspired to get rid of the WAVES, while executive officer Lt. Max Trotter (Dick Sargent) and streetwise sailor Nicky D'Angelo (Don Edmonds) sided with the girls in their counter-attacks on Adrian. Completing the ensemble was Adrian's fussy personal chef Bernard (Richard Jury).
Producer Montagne had produced movie short subjects starring comedian Arnold Stang in the early 1950s. Midway through the Broadside run, Montagne recruited Stang to join the series and gave him co-star billing. Stang replaced both Richard Jury and Don Edmonds in the ensemble cast. He appeared as outspoken master chef Stanley Stubbs, reunited with his high-school classmate Selma of the WAVES motor pool.
Broadside boasted clever scripts and good direction by the McHale's Navy staff, and enthusiastic performances by the ensemble cast. As it was a rule that vehicles on set could only be operated by union members, the cast playing drivers got honorary Teamsters’ cards.
Though ratings were not bad, the series ran for just a single season. The executives at Universal Studios felt the tropical exteriors being used by Broadside and McHale's Navy—and nothing else—were taking up too much space on the backlot, so Broadside was cancelled and the setting for McHale's Navy was changed to Italy, which could be shot on the studio's more frequently used sets with European facades.
Cast
- Kathleen Nolan as Lieutenant Anne Morgan
- Edward Andrews as Commander Roger Adrian
- Dick Sargent as Lieutenant Maxwell Trotter
- Jimmy Boyd as Marion Botnik
- George Furth as Ensign Beasley
- Sheila James as Selma Kowalski
- Lois Roberts (actress) as Molly Maguire
- Joan Staley as Roberta Love
- Arnold Stang as Seaman 1st Class Stanley Stubbs
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Don't Make Waves" | Edward Montagne | Story by : Si Rose Teleplay by : Barry Blitzner & Ray Brenner & Frank Gill, Jr. & George Carleton Brown | September 20, 1964 | |
| A quartet of WAVES takes over the motor pool on a South Pacific island, with animosity immediately developing. | |||||
| 2 | "The Non-Permanent Wave" | Earl Bellamy | William Raynor & Myles Wilder | September 27, 1964 | |
| Marion Botnik snaps pictures of the girls in violation of Navy regulations, but Commander Adrian locks the pictures in a safe so the admiral can see them. | |||||
| 3 | "Kill 'Em with Kindness" | Charles Barton | Sam Locke & Joel Rapp | October 4, 1964 | |
| Adrian offers the WAVES delicious, high-calorie foods so that they will be unable to pass the upcoming fitness test. | |||||
| 4 | "Annie Shoots Down the Cupid" | Earl Bellamy | Ralph Goodman & Stan Dreben | October 11, 1964 | |
| Dissension among the WAVES breaks out after each of them has dated a muscular sailor. | |||||
| 5 | "Lt. Morgan's Secret Marriage" | Hollingsworth Morse | Ralph Goodman & Stan Dreben | October 25, 1964 | |
| Adrian's visiting nephew ends up causing more trouble for him than the WAVES. | |||||
| 6 | "The Great Lipstick War" | E.W. Swackhamer | Benedict Freeman | November 1, 1964 | |
| Adrian cuts off the WAVES' makeup supply in the hopes that they will leave, but Morgan quickly sets up a lipstick still. | |||||
| 7 | "Adrian Gets Nipped" | Charles Barton | John Fenton Murray | November 8, 1964 | |
| Adrian and the crew pose as the enemy to frighten the WAVES into leaving the island. | |||||
| 8 | "The Morale of Molly McGuire" | E.W. Swackhamer | William Raynor & Myles Wilder | November 15, 1964 | |
| Molly falls in love, so Adrian schedules a psychological test for her in the hopes that the entire motorpool will be shipped stateside. | |||||
| 9 | "Adrian's Anniversary Waltz" | Unknown | Unknown | November 22, 1964 | |
| A WAVES birthday party results in a raid on Adrian's gourmet food cellar. | |||||
| 10 | "Anne Bugs the Enemy" | Charles Barton | Frank Gill, Jr. & George Carleton Brown | November 29, 1964 | |
| Adrian sabotages the motorpool to get them flagged for inefficiency. Anne fights back by planting a tape recorder in the commander's headquarters in the hopes that he will make a damaging admission. | |||||
| 11 | "Ranakai Flips Its Wig" | Charles Barton | Bruce Howard & Bud Nye | December 6, 1964 | |
| The WAVES are tricked by Adrian into thinking that they are victim of a rare tropical disease known as "galloping baldness". | |||||
| 12 | "My Son, the Egg" | Charles Barton | Sam Locke & Joel Rapp | December 13, 1964 | |
| Adrian gets the mistaken notion that one of the WAVES is pregnant. | |||||
| 13 | "Selma, the Love Trap" | Hollingsworth Morse | Sam Locke & Joel Rapp | December 20, 1964 | |
| The WAVES instruct Selma in the care and feeding of the fragile male ego. | |||||
| 14 | "The Obstacle Course" | Frank McDonald | Sam Locke & Joel Rapp | December 27, 1964 | |
| The WAVES compete against three trained Marines in running a jungle obstacle course, and end up using their ingenuity to come out ahead. | |||||
| 15 | "Behind the Eight Ball" | Don Richardson | Elroy Schwartz | January 3, 1965 | |
| After undergoing involuntary hypnosis, Adrian's attitude toward the WAVES swings wildly between love and hate. | |||||
| 16 | "The Stowawaves" | Hollingsworth Morse | William Raynor & Myles Wilder | January 10, 1965 | |
| The WAVES stow away on a cargo ship and are shocked to see that Adrian is aboard. | |||||
| 17 | "The Wolfman Cometh" | Frank McDonald | Frank Fox & Bruce Howard & Bud Nye | January 17, 1965 | |
| A war correspondent uses the power of the press to wrangle a date with a WAVES lieutenant. | |||||
| 18 | "Taurus to Aries to Chance" | Hollingsworth Morse | Jack Harvey & Irving Taylor | January 24, 1965 | |
| After Roberta destroys Adrian's croquet court while trying to warn him about ominous astrological signs, the other WAVES have to make Adrian believe in astrology to avoid having Roberta court-martialed. | |||||
| 19 | "Adrian Goes Gung-Ho" | Bruce Humberstone | Bruce Howard & Bud Nye | January 31, 1965 | |
| While Anne is on leave, Adrian uses sleep-teaching records to try to get the WAVES to leave. After she returns, she tries the same thing on him and implants the idea that he should volunteer for dangerous duty. | |||||
| 20 | "The Arrival of Stanley Stubbs" | Hollingsworth Morse | Elroy Schwartz | February 7, 1965 | |
| World-famous chef Stanley Stubbs (Arnold Stang) comes to the island after Adrian begs to have him assigned there. | |||||
| 21 | "Follow That Pigeon" | Hollingsworth Morse | Bruce Howard & Bud Nye | February 14, 1965 | |
| After spotting coded messages being sent by carrier pigeon, Adrian becomes convinced that the WAVES are guilty of espionage. | |||||
| 22 | "Three Wishes" | Sidney Miller | Bruce Howard & Bud Nye | February 21, 1965 | |
| Adrian acquires a monkey's paw that is supposed to give the owner magical wishing powers. However, he is unaware that a curse is applied if an evil wish is made. | |||||
| 23 | "Lieutenant Love, Sir" | Unknown | Unknown | February 28, 1965 | |
| After calling a Navy hearing to charge the WAVES with inefficiency, Adrian then has them arrested by Brisbane police so they will not be present to defend themselves. | |||||
| 24 | "Adrian's Phantom Staff Car" | Jean Yarbrough | Robert C. Dennis & Earl Barret | March 7, 1965 | |
| Stanley and Selma allow Adrian's Rolls-Royce staff car to roll off a cliff and into a tree. They have to scramble to limit the consequences. | |||||
| 25 | "Adrian Gets the Boot" | Jean Yarbrough | Jack Harvey & Iving Taylor | March 14, 1965 | |
| Adrian orders the WAVES to undergo boot-camp training while continuing with their motorpool duties. The WAVES fight back by faking an order that Adrian undergo basic training. | |||||
| 26 | "Filet on the Hoof" | Jean Yarbrough | Elroy Schwartz | March 21, 1965 | |
| Adrian smuggles a steer onto the island. After he discovers that Anne is allergic to animal hair, he assigns her to fatten up the steer. | |||||
| 27 | "The Great Ranakai Mutiny" | Hollingsworth Morse | Robert C. Dennis & Earl Barret | March 28, 1965 | |
| After Adrian begins shooting at an imaginary polar bear, Ensign Beasley takes command of the base. | |||||
| 28 | "Ann Morgan's Home Movies" | Hollingsworth Morse | Story by : Stan Dreben & Howard Merrill Teleplay by : Bruce Howard | April 4, 1965 | |
| Adrian has movies of the WAVES taken during an unguarded moment so he can use them as evidence that they are neglecting their duties. | |||||
| 29 | "Witchcraft a Go-Go" | Hollingsworth Morse | Elroy Schwartz | April 11, 1965 | |
| Roberta develops extrasensory perception, which causes Adrian to use him to contact his wife, an 18th-century Hawaiian king, Napoleon's cook, and a Chinese emperor who reigned in 6 AD. | |||||
| 30 | "Once Upon an Island" | Frank McDonald | Bruce Howard & Bud Nye | April 18, 1965 | |
| During the flight to Brisbane for the WAVES' court martial, the airplane door inadvertently opens, which causes Adrian, the WAVES, Ensign Beasley, and Lt. Trotter to sail out over the South Pacific. (Originally, this was the last show of the series, but two shelved first-run episodes were broadcast later.) | |||||
| 31 | "Miss Ranakai" | Jean Yarbrough | William Raynor & Myles Wilder | April 25, 1965 | |
| Adrian stages a beauty contest to create jealousy among the WAVES. (This was filmed earlier in the season, but pre-empted; Don Edmonds appears instead of Arnold Stang.) | |||||
| 32 | "Operation Clip-Joint" | Charles Barton | Ray Brenner & Barry Blitzer | May 2, 1965 | |
| When Molly needs money for her nephew's operation, Adrian suggests a fund-raising party. He then arranges to raid the party in the company of Admiral Bradford. (Filmed earlier in the season, this had been pre-empted; Don Edmonds appears instead of Arnold Stang.) | |||||
References
- Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2007-10-16). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present (9 ed.). Ballantine Books. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.
