In 1964, Glenn Ford starred in a Civil War-era comedy about northern soldiers sent to a fort in the American West. It was silly and full of slapstick humor--not much better, really, than a cinematic bomb. But some Hollywood types thought the concept perfect for a TV sitcom, and so "F Troop" was born. Like "Advance to the Rear" it was pure silliness, with so many recognizable old vaudeville routines ("That's good" . . . "No, that's bad") and so many old-time vaudevillians as guest stars that you could almost accept the show as a last hurrah for that corny brand of entertainment.
Patterned in part after "Sergeant Bilko," "F Troop" gave viewers the scheming Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and his underling, Cpl. Randolph Agarn (Larry Storch), whose get-rich-quick schemes always found willing partners in the equally ambitious and greedy Hekawi tribe camped not far from Fort Courage. And a mid-tier military man can't scheme unless he has an incompetent and clueless commander--in this case a bumbling Capt. Parmenter (Ken Berry), who was promoted in the closing days of the Civil War for leading a charge . . . accidentally.
I was a teenager when this show aired back in 1965-67, and I remember watching it with a certain amount of bemusement. It wasn't in the same league as "Hogan's Heroes" or "McHale's Navy," as far as I was concerned, but it was one of my younger brother's favorite shows. Watching it again, years later, I can understand why. The show seems to be aimed at younger viewers . . . or audiences who don't want their humor to be too clever or complicated. The jokes are as old as a well-worn pair of shoes, and intended to be just as comfortable for audiences.
The first season was broadcast in black-and-white, as often happened back then, and when it became clear that the show would run another season it was produced in color. To show off the new season-two color, the opening sequence was changed from live-action clips to a cartoon board sequence (again, much like "Advance to the Rear"). And you know what? For a '60s show, this season of "F Troop" looks really good. It's too bad the show itself isn't as stunning as the picture quality. The episodes are simplistic and, much of the time, just plain dumb. And political correctness? What's that? But two things bear watching: Storch's Emmy-nominated performance this season as the manic, high-energy Agarn, and a bevy of guest stars that include performers old enough to have played the vaudeville circuit. Phil Harris is here as 147-year-old Flaming Arrow, who's always hot to go on the warpath. So is Vincent Price, who puts in an appearance as a Transylvanian count, Paul Lynde, who plays a singing Mountie, Harvey Korman, who goes over-the-top as a Prussian balloonist, and Milton Berle as a scamming medicine man. In short doses, these skits can actually be entertaining . . . especially watching legendary entertainers at work. Or rather, play. In large amounts, though (and a 22-minute sitcom qualifies) it can be too much to take.
Writers also went to the same well far too often, with running gags stumbling more than sprinting. How many times, for example, can you watch nearsighted Trooper Vanderbilt (Joe Brooks) do his blind-as-a-bat schtick? Apparently endless times, because that's what we're treated to. Same with Trooper Dobbs (James Hampton), whose prowess with the bugle doesn't even approach the level of a kazoo, or the rag-tag bunch of troopers who look to be half the age of Flaming Arrow, and twice as senile. It all gets old pretty quickly, but you can find yourself smiling in spite of yourself as you watch some of these veterans go through their familiar paces.
Here's how the season's 31 episodes played out. They're contained on 6 single-sided discs that are housed in three thin clear-plastic keep-cases, with episode descriptions conveniently listed on the front and back covers:
1) "The Singing Mountie"--Storch also plays Cpl. Agarn's French-Canadian fur-trapping cousin who's on the lam from a Mountie. This episode is SO over-the-top that it gives notice exactly what viewers will be in for this season. Lynde is even more hammy than he was in "Bewitched" as Uncle Arthur, but episodes with guest stars still tend to be more watchable.
2) "How to Be F Troop Without Really Trying"--F Troop is assigned to train its own replacements, and G Troop isn't much better. A pretty dumb episode with unbelievable scenarios.
3) "Bye, Bye, Balloon"--Korman does his Prussian thing as he arrives with the goal of adding a little air power to F Troop.
4) "Reach for the Sky Pardner"--O'Rourke and Agarn go undercover to catch the robbers who are stealing the Fort Courage payroll.
5) "The Great Troop Robbery"--Agarn loses his memory, which is just perfect for a disreputable medicine man (Berle).
6) "The West Goes Ghost"--O'Rourke, Agarn, Dobbs and Vanderbilt decide to file homestead claims on a ghost town.
7) "Yellow Bird"--O'Rourke considers matrimony when he learns that Yellow Bird's father is filthy rich. Julie Newmar guests.
8) "The Ballot of Corporal Agarn"--Agarn's absentee ballot decides who will be mayor of his hometown.
9) "Did Your Father Come from Ireland?"--O'Rourke's father arrives from Europe and proceeds to transform Fort Courage to his liking.
10) "For Whom the Bugle Tolls"--A fort inspection hinges on the bugler, and that means trouble.
11) "Miss Parmenter"--The captain's unmarried sister comes for a visit and sets her sights on Dobbs in this dumb episode.
12) "Le Dolce Courage"--An Italian man and his daughter open a restaurant in town.
13) "Wilton the Kid"--The captain's look-alike robs a bank, and you know what that means.
14) "The Return of Wrongo Starr"--"Laugh-In's" Henry Gibson guests as a jinx who happens to be escorting a shipment of dynamite.
15) "Survival of the Fittest"--It's survival training time for Parmenter and Agarn.
16) "Bring on the Dancing Girls"--When a blackmailer takes over O'Rourke's saloon, he schemes to get even.
17) "The Loco Brothers"--Two crazy Indians kidnap the captain.
18) "From Karate with Love"--A martial arts expert in a kimono turns up at the fort, trying to escape "honorable bad man" in this episode that nails another race besides Native Americans.
19) "The Sergeant and the Kid"--A new would-be soldier presents a few problems. For one thing, he's only 10 years old, which is about the age that this seems aimed at.
20) "What Are You Doing After the Massacre?"--Flaming Arrow (Harris) returns to fan the fires of war.
21) "A Horse of Another Color"--Capt. Parmenter tries to capture a wild stallion. Good luck.
22) "V is for Vampire"--In one of the campier episodes reminiscent of that super-bad campy movie "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula," Price guests as a Transylvanian count.
23) "That's Show Biz"--With so much vaudeville you knew there'd be an episode devoted to putting on a show. This is it.
24) "The Day They Shot Agarn"--Agarn faces a firing squad after a series of unlikely events makes him look guilty.
25) "Only One Russian is Coming! Only One Russian is Coming!"--Agarn's Cossack cousin Dmitri makes an appearance, which gives Storch another chance to play a different version of himself.
26) "Guns, Guns, Who's Got the Guns?"--When rifles disappear, one of the troopers is suspected of selling weapons to the Apaches.
27) "Marriage, Fort Courage Style"--Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson, whose performance will undoubtedly remind some of Ellie Mae Clampett) hires a matchmaker to try to pair her up with Capt. Parmenter.
28) "Carpetbagging, Anyone?"--Agarn and Dobbs plot to save the fort from a land speculator (yeah, like that could happen).
29) "The Majority of Wilton"--When the captain gets sick, his friends give him concoctions that make him even more woozy.
30) "Our Brave in F Troop"--New recruit Wild Eagle finds it easy to advance in rank when the competition is so incompetent.
31) "Is This Fort Really Necessary?"--An officer in charge of closing down forts arrives to determine the fate of F troop. But the Nielsen ratings had already decided that. Sorry boys.
Patterned in part after "Sergeant Bilko," "F Troop" gave viewers the scheming Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and his underling, Cpl. Randolph Agarn (Larry Storch), whose get-rich-quick schemes always found willing partners in the equally ambitious and greedy Hekawi tribe camped not far from Fort Courage. And a mid-tier military man can't scheme unless he has an incompetent and clueless commander--in this case a bumbling Capt. Parmenter (Ken Berry), who was promoted in the closing days of the Civil War for leading a charge . . . accidentally.
I was a teenager when this show aired back in 1965-67, and I remember watching it with a certain amount of bemusement. It wasn't in the same league as "Hogan's Heroes" or "McHale's Navy," as far as I was concerned, but it was one of my younger brother's favorite shows. Watching it again, years later, I can understand why. The show seems to be aimed at younger viewers . . . or audiences who don't want their humor to be too clever or complicated. The jokes are as old as a well-worn pair of shoes, and intended to be just as comfortable for audiences.
The first season was broadcast in black-and-white, as often happened back then, and when it became clear that the show would run another season it was produced in color. To show off the new season-two color, the opening sequence was changed from live-action clips to a cartoon board sequence (again, much like "Advance to the Rear"). And you know what? For a '60s show, this season of "F Troop" looks really good. It's too bad the show itself isn't as stunning as the picture quality. The episodes are simplistic and, much of the time, just plain dumb. And political correctness? What's that? But two things bear watching: Storch's Emmy-nominated performance this season as the manic, high-energy Agarn, and a bevy of guest stars that include performers old enough to have played the vaudeville circuit. Phil Harris is here as 147-year-old Flaming Arrow, who's always hot to go on the warpath. So is Vincent Price, who puts in an appearance as a Transylvanian count, Paul Lynde, who plays a singing Mountie, Harvey Korman, who goes over-the-top as a Prussian balloonist, and Milton Berle as a scamming medicine man. In short doses, these skits can actually be entertaining . . . especially watching legendary entertainers at work. Or rather, play. In large amounts, though (and a 22-minute sitcom qualifies) it can be too much to take.
Writers also went to the same well far too often, with running gags stumbling more than sprinting. How many times, for example, can you watch nearsighted Trooper Vanderbilt (Joe Brooks) do his blind-as-a-bat schtick? Apparently endless times, because that's what we're treated to. Same with Trooper Dobbs (James Hampton), whose prowess with the bugle doesn't even approach the level of a kazoo, or the rag-tag bunch of troopers who look to be half the age of Flaming Arrow, and twice as senile. It all gets old pretty quickly, but you can find yourself smiling in spite of yourself as you watch some of these veterans go through their familiar paces.
Here's how the season's 31 episodes played out. They're contained on 6 single-sided discs that are housed in three thin clear-plastic keep-cases, with episode descriptions conveniently listed on the front and back covers:
1) "The Singing Mountie"--Storch also plays Cpl. Agarn's French-Canadian fur-trapping cousin who's on the lam from a Mountie. This episode is SO over-the-top that it gives notice exactly what viewers will be in for this season. Lynde is even more hammy than he was in "Bewitched" as Uncle Arthur, but episodes with guest stars still tend to be more watchable.
2) "How to Be F Troop Without Really Trying"--F Troop is assigned to train its own replacements, and G Troop isn't much better. A pretty dumb episode with unbelievable scenarios.
3) "Bye, Bye, Balloon"--Korman does his Prussian thing as he arrives with the goal of adding a little air power to F Troop.
4) "Reach for the Sky Pardner"--O'Rourke and Agarn go undercover to catch the robbers who are stealing the Fort Courage payroll.
5) "The Great Troop Robbery"--Agarn loses his memory, which is just perfect for a disreputable medicine man (Berle).
6) "The West Goes Ghost"--O'Rourke, Agarn, Dobbs and Vanderbilt decide to file homestead claims on a ghost town.
7) "Yellow Bird"--O'Rourke considers matrimony when he learns that Yellow Bird's father is filthy rich. Julie Newmar guests.
8) "The Ballot of Corporal Agarn"--Agarn's absentee ballot decides who will be mayor of his hometown.
9) "Did Your Father Come from Ireland?"--O'Rourke's father arrives from Europe and proceeds to transform Fort Courage to his liking.
10) "For Whom the Bugle Tolls"--A fort inspection hinges on the bugler, and that means trouble.
11) "Miss Parmenter"--The captain's unmarried sister comes for a visit and sets her sights on Dobbs in this dumb episode.
12) "Le Dolce Courage"--An Italian man and his daughter open a restaurant in town.
13) "Wilton the Kid"--The captain's look-alike robs a bank, and you know what that means.
14) "The Return of Wrongo Starr"--"Laugh-In's" Henry Gibson guests as a jinx who happens to be escorting a shipment of dynamite.
15) "Survival of the Fittest"--It's survival training time for Parmenter and Agarn.
16) "Bring on the Dancing Girls"--When a blackmailer takes over O'Rourke's saloon, he schemes to get even.
17) "The Loco Brothers"--Two crazy Indians kidnap the captain.
18) "From Karate with Love"--A martial arts expert in a kimono turns up at the fort, trying to escape "honorable bad man" in this episode that nails another race besides Native Americans.
19) "The Sergeant and the Kid"--A new would-be soldier presents a few problems. For one thing, he's only 10 years old, which is about the age that this seems aimed at.
20) "What Are You Doing After the Massacre?"--Flaming Arrow (Harris) returns to fan the fires of war.
21) "A Horse of Another Color"--Capt. Parmenter tries to capture a wild stallion. Good luck.
22) "V is for Vampire"--In one of the campier episodes reminiscent of that super-bad campy movie "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula," Price guests as a Transylvanian count.
23) "That's Show Biz"--With so much vaudeville you knew there'd be an episode devoted to putting on a show. This is it.
24) "The Day They Shot Agarn"--Agarn faces a firing squad after a series of unlikely events makes him look guilty.
25) "Only One Russian is Coming! Only One Russian is Coming!"--Agarn's Cossack cousin Dmitri makes an appearance, which gives Storch another chance to play a different version of himself.
26) "Guns, Guns, Who's Got the Guns?"--When rifles disappear, one of the troopers is suspected of selling weapons to the Apaches.
27) "Marriage, Fort Courage Style"--Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson, whose performance will undoubtedly remind some of Ellie Mae Clampett) hires a matchmaker to try to pair her up with Capt. Parmenter.
28) "Carpetbagging, Anyone?"--Agarn and Dobbs plot to save the fort from a land speculator (yeah, like that could happen).
29) "The Majority of Wilton"--When the captain gets sick, his friends give him concoctions that make him even more woozy.
30) "Our Brave in F Troop"--New recruit Wild Eagle finds it easy to advance in rank when the competition is so incompetent.
31) "Is This Fort Really Necessary?"--An officer in charge of closing down forts arrives to determine the fate of F troop. But the Nielsen ratings had already decided that. Sorry boys.
In 1964, Glenn Ford starred in a Civil War-era comedy about northern soldiers sent to a fort in the American West. It was silly and full of slapstick humor--not much better, really, than a cinematic bomb. But some Hollywood types thought the concept perfect for a TV sitcom, and so "F Troop" was born. Like "Advance to the Rear" it was pure silliness, with so many recognizable old vaudeville routines ("That's good" . . . "No, that's bad") and so many old-time vaudevillians as guest stars that you could almost accept the show as a last hurrah for that corny brand of entertainment.
Patterned in part after "Sergeant Bilko," "F Troop" gave viewers the scheming Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and his underling, Cpl. Randolph Agarn (Larry Storch), whose get-rich-quick schemes always found willing partners in the equally ambitious and greedy Hekawi tribe camped not far from Fort Courage. And a mid-tier military man can't scheme unless he has an incompetent and clueless commander--in this case a bumbling Capt. Parmenter (Ken Berry), who was promoted in the closing days of the Civil War for leading a charge . . . accidentally.
I was a teenager when this show aired back in 1965-67, and I remember watching it with a certain amount of bemusement. It wasn't in the same league as "Hogan's Heroes" or "McHale's Navy," as far as I was concerned, but it was one of my younger brother's favorite shows. Watching it again, years later, I can understand why. The show seems to be aimed at younger viewers . . . or audiences who don't want their humor to be too clever or complicated. The jokes are as old as a well-worn pair of shoes, and intended to be just as comfortable for audiences.
The first season was broadcast in black-and-white, as often happened back then, and when it became clear that the show would run another season it was produced in color. To show off the new season-two color, the opening sequence was changed from live-action clips to a cartoon board sequence (again, much like "Advance to the Rear"). And you know what? For a '60s show, this season of "F Troop" looks really good. It's too bad the show itself isn't as stunning as the picture quality. The episodes are simplistic and, much of the time, just plain dumb. And political correctness? What's that? But two things bear watching: Storch's Emmy-nominated performance this season as the manic, high-energy Agarn, and a bevy of guest stars that include performers old enough to have played the vaudeville circuit. Phil Harris is here as 147-year-old Flaming Arrow, who's always hot to go on the warpath. So is Vincent Price, who puts in an appearance as a Transylvanian count, Paul Lynde, who plays a singing Mountie, Harvey Korman, who goes over-the-top as a Prussian balloonist, and Milton Berle as a scamming medicine man. In short doses, these skits can actually be entertaining . . . especially watching legendary entertainers at work. Or rather, play. In large amounts, though (and a 22-minute sitcom qualifies) it can be too much to take.
Writers also went to the same well far too often, with running gags stumbling more than sprinting. How many times, for example, can you watch nearsighted Trooper Vanderbilt (Joe Brooks) do his blind-as-a-bat schtick? Apparently endless times, because that's what we're treated to. Same with Trooper Dobbs (James Hampton), whose prowess with the bugle doesn't even approach the level of a kazoo, or the rag-tag bunch of troopers who look to be half the age of Flaming Arrow, and twice as senile. It all gets old pretty quickly, but you can find yourself smiling in spite of yourself as you watch some of these veterans go through their familiar paces.
Here's how the season's 31 episodes played out. They're contained on 6 single-sided discs that are housed in three thin clear-plastic keep-cases, with episode descriptions conveniently listed on the front and back covers:
1) "The Singing Mountie"--Storch also plays Cpl. Agarn's French-Canadian fur-trapping cousin who's on the lam from a Mountie. This episode is SO over-the-top that it gives notice exactly what viewers will be in for this season. Lynde is even more hammy than he was in "Bewitched" as Uncle Arthur, but episodes with guest stars still tend to be more watchable.
2) "How to Be F Troop Without Really Trying"--F Troop is assigned to train its own replacements, and G Troop isn't much better. A pretty dumb episode with unbelievable scenarios.
3) "Bye, Bye, Balloon"--Korman does his Prussian thing as he arrives with the goal of adding a little air power to F Troop.
4) "Reach for the Sky Pardner"--O'Rourke and Agarn go undercover to catch the robbers who are stealing the Fort Courage payroll.
5) "The Great Troop Robbery"--Agarn loses his memory, which is just perfect for a disreputable medicine man (Berle).
6) "The West Goes Ghost"--O'Rourke, Agarn, Dobbs and Vanderbilt decide to file homestead claims on a ghost town.
7) "Yellow Bird"--O'Rourke considers matrimony when he learns that Yellow Bird's father is filthy rich. Julie Newmar guests.
8) "The Ballot of Corporal Agarn"--Agarn's absentee ballot decides who will be mayor of his hometown.
9) "Did Your Father Come from Ireland?"--O'Rourke's father arrives from Europe and proceeds to transform Fort Courage to his liking.
10) "For Whom the Bugle Tolls"--A fort inspection hinges on the bugler, and that means trouble.
11) "Miss Parmenter"--The captain's unmarried sister comes for a visit and sets her sights on Dobbs in this dumb episode.
12) "Le Dolce Courage"--An Italian man and his daughter open a restaurant in town.
13) "Wilton the Kid"--The captain's look-alike robs a bank, and you know what that means.
14) "The Return of Wrongo Starr"--"Laugh-In's" Henry Gibson guests as a jinx who happens to be escorting a shipment of dynamite.
15) "Survival of the Fittest"--It's survival training time for Parmenter and Agarn.
16) "Bring on the Dancing Girls"--When a blackmailer takes over O'Rourke's saloon, he schemes to get even.
17) "The Loco Brothers"--Two crazy Indians kidnap the captain.
18) "From Karate with Love"--A martial arts expert in a kimono turns up at the fort, trying to escape "honorable bad man" in this episode that nails another race besides Native Americans.
19) "The Sergeant and the Kid"--A new would-be soldier presents a few problems. For one thing, he's only 10 years old, which is about the age that this seems aimed at.
20) "What Are You Doing After the Massacre?"--Flaming Arrow (Harris) returns to fan the fires of war.
21) "A Horse of Another Color"--Capt. Parmenter tries to capture a wild stallion. Good luck.
22) "V is for Vampire"--In one of the campier episodes reminiscent of that super-bad campy movie "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula," Price guests as a Transylvanian count.
23) "That's Show Biz"--With so much vaudeville you knew there'd be an episode devoted to putting on a show. This is it.
24) "The Day They Shot Agarn"--Agarn faces a firing squad after a series of unlikely events makes him look guilty.
25) "Only One Russian is Coming! Only One Russian is Coming!"--Agarn's Cossack cousin Dmitri makes an appearance, which gives Storch another chance to play a different version of himself.
26) "Guns, Guns, Who's Got the Guns?"--When rifles disappear, one of the troopers is suspected of selling weapons to the Apaches.
27) "Marriage, Fort Courage Style"--Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson, whose performance will undoubtedly remind some of Ellie Mae Clampett) hires a matchmaker to try to pair her up with Capt. Parmenter.
28) "Carpetbagging, Anyone?"--Agarn and Dobbs plot to save the fort from a land speculator (yeah, like that could happen).
29) "The Majority of Wilton"--When the captain gets sick, his friends give him concoctions that make him even more woozy.
30) "Our Brave in F Troop"--New recruit Wild Eagle finds it easy to advance in rank when the competition is so incompetent.
31) "Is This Fort Really Necessary?"--An officer in charge of closing down forts arrives to determine the fate of F troop. But the Nielsen ratings had already decided that. Sorry boys.
Patterned in part after "Sergeant Bilko," "F Troop" gave viewers the scheming Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and his underling, Cpl. Randolph Agarn (Larry Storch), whose get-rich-quick schemes always found willing partners in the equally ambitious and greedy Hekawi tribe camped not far from Fort Courage. And a mid-tier military man can't scheme unless he has an incompetent and clueless commander--in this case a bumbling Capt. Parmenter (Ken Berry), who was promoted in the closing days of the Civil War for leading a charge . . . accidentally.
I was a teenager when this show aired back in 1965-67, and I remember watching it with a certain amount of bemusement. It wasn't in the same league as "Hogan's Heroes" or "McHale's Navy," as far as I was concerned, but it was one of my younger brother's favorite shows. Watching it again, years later, I can understand why. The show seems to be aimed at younger viewers . . . or audiences who don't want their humor to be too clever or complicated. The jokes are as old as a well-worn pair of shoes, and intended to be just as comfortable for audiences.
The first season was broadcast in black-and-white, as often happened back then, and when it became clear that the show would run another season it was produced in color. To show off the new season-two color, the opening sequence was changed from live-action clips to a cartoon board sequence (again, much like "Advance to the Rear"). And you know what? For a '60s show, this season of "F Troop" looks really good. It's too bad the show itself isn't as stunning as the picture quality. The episodes are simplistic and, much of the time, just plain dumb. And political correctness? What's that? But two things bear watching: Storch's Emmy-nominated performance this season as the manic, high-energy Agarn, and a bevy of guest stars that include performers old enough to have played the vaudeville circuit. Phil Harris is here as 147-year-old Flaming Arrow, who's always hot to go on the warpath. So is Vincent Price, who puts in an appearance as a Transylvanian count, Paul Lynde, who plays a singing Mountie, Harvey Korman, who goes over-the-top as a Prussian balloonist, and Milton Berle as a scamming medicine man. In short doses, these skits can actually be entertaining . . . especially watching legendary entertainers at work. Or rather, play. In large amounts, though (and a 22-minute sitcom qualifies) it can be too much to take.
Writers also went to the same well far too often, with running gags stumbling more than sprinting. How many times, for example, can you watch nearsighted Trooper Vanderbilt (Joe Brooks) do his blind-as-a-bat schtick? Apparently endless times, because that's what we're treated to. Same with Trooper Dobbs (James Hampton), whose prowess with the bugle doesn't even approach the level of a kazoo, or the rag-tag bunch of troopers who look to be half the age of Flaming Arrow, and twice as senile. It all gets old pretty quickly, but you can find yourself smiling in spite of yourself as you watch some of these veterans go through their familiar paces.
Here's how the season's 31 episodes played out. They're contained on 6 single-sided discs that are housed in three thin clear-plastic keep-cases, with episode descriptions conveniently listed on the front and back covers:
1) "The Singing Mountie"--Storch also plays Cpl. Agarn's French-Canadian fur-trapping cousin who's on the lam from a Mountie. This episode is SO over-the-top that it gives notice exactly what viewers will be in for this season. Lynde is even more hammy than he was in "Bewitched" as Uncle Arthur, but episodes with guest stars still tend to be more watchable.
2) "How to Be F Troop Without Really Trying"--F Troop is assigned to train its own replacements, and G Troop isn't much better. A pretty dumb episode with unbelievable scenarios.
3) "Bye, Bye, Balloon"--Korman does his Prussian thing as he arrives with the goal of adding a little air power to F Troop.
4) "Reach for the Sky Pardner"--O'Rourke and Agarn go undercover to catch the robbers who are stealing the Fort Courage payroll.
5) "The Great Troop Robbery"--Agarn loses his memory, which is just perfect for a disreputable medicine man (Berle).
6) "The West Goes Ghost"--O'Rourke, Agarn, Dobbs and Vanderbilt decide to file homestead claims on a ghost town.
7) "Yellow Bird"--O'Rourke considers matrimony when he learns that Yellow Bird's father is filthy rich. Julie Newmar guests.
8) "The Ballot of Corporal Agarn"--Agarn's absentee ballot decides who will be mayor of his hometown.
9) "Did Your Father Come from Ireland?"--O'Rourke's father arrives from Europe and proceeds to transform Fort Courage to his liking.
10) "For Whom the Bugle Tolls"--A fort inspection hinges on the bugler, and that means trouble.
11) "Miss Parmenter"--The captain's unmarried sister comes for a visit and sets her sights on Dobbs in this dumb episode.
12) "Le Dolce Courage"--An Italian man and his daughter open a restaurant in town.
13) "Wilton the Kid"--The captain's look-alike robs a bank, and you know what that means.
14) "The Return of Wrongo Starr"--"Laugh-In's" Henry Gibson guests as a jinx who happens to be escorting a shipment of dynamite.
15) "Survival of the Fittest"--It's survival training time for Parmenter and Agarn.
16) "Bring on the Dancing Girls"--When a blackmailer takes over O'Rourke's saloon, he schemes to get even.
17) "The Loco Brothers"--Two crazy Indians kidnap the captain.
18) "From Karate with Love"--A martial arts expert in a kimono turns up at the fort, trying to escape "honorable bad man" in this episode that nails another race besides Native Americans.
19) "The Sergeant and the Kid"--A new would-be soldier presents a few problems. For one thing, he's only 10 years old, which is about the age that this seems aimed at.
20) "What Are You Doing After the Massacre?"--Flaming Arrow (Harris) returns to fan the fires of war.
21) "A Horse of Another Color"--Capt. Parmenter tries to capture a wild stallion. Good luck.
22) "V is for Vampire"--In one of the campier episodes reminiscent of that super-bad campy movie "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula," Price guests as a Transylvanian count.
23) "That's Show Biz"--With so much vaudeville you knew there'd be an episode devoted to putting on a show. This is it.
24) "The Day They Shot Agarn"--Agarn faces a firing squad after a series of unlikely events makes him look guilty.
25) "Only One Russian is Coming! Only One Russian is Coming!"--Agarn's Cossack cousin Dmitri makes an appearance, which gives Storch another chance to play a different version of himself.
26) "Guns, Guns, Who's Got the Guns?"--When rifles disappear, one of the troopers is suspected of selling weapons to the Apaches.
27) "Marriage, Fort Courage Style"--Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson, whose performance will undoubtedly remind some of Ellie Mae Clampett) hires a matchmaker to try to pair her up with Capt. Parmenter.
28) "Carpetbagging, Anyone?"--Agarn and Dobbs plot to save the fort from a land speculator (yeah, like that could happen).
29) "The Majority of Wilton"--When the captain gets sick, his friends give him concoctions that make him even more woozy.
30) "Our Brave in F Troop"--New recruit Wild Eagle finds it easy to advance in rank when the competition is so incompetent.
31) "Is This Fort Really Necessary?"--An officer in charge of closing down forts arrives to determine the fate of F troop. But the Nielsen ratings had already decided that. Sorry boys.
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