Introduction

McHale’s Navy is an American sitcom starring Ernest Borgnine that aired 138 half-hour episodes over four seasons, from 11 October 1962 to 12 April 1966 on the ABC television network.

The series was filmed in black and white and originated from a one-hour drama titled “Seven Against the Sea”, broadcast on 03 April 1962. The ABC series spawned three feature films: McHale’s Navy (1964); a sequel, McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force (1965); and a 1997 sequel-remake of the original series. A documentary, McHale’s Navy: The Crew Remembers, was aired in 2007.

Producer Edward Montagne set up a female version of McHale’s Navy entitled Broadside, which ran for 32 episodes in the 1964-1965 ABC season.

Background

Kwazniak (Marvin Kaplan), an MIT-trained electronics wizard, comes to the base to convert the 73 into a fully automated, remote-controlled vessel. McHale and the crew fear that they may soon become obsolete and be transferred somewhere else. The only hope for McHale and his crew is if they can jam the radio frequency on the day of the test. If they can show the Adm. Hardesy (John Zaremba) that the boat is uncontrollable then they can save their positions. Willy is unable to get to the jamming radio, so it looks hopeless for the crew of the 73. The test starts out without any problems, but things soon go wrong with help from a very unlikely source. Sammy Shore appears as a Guard.

McHale’s Navy Series

You can find a full index and overview of McHale’s Navy here.

Production & Filming Details

• Release Date: 27 April 1965.
• Rating: TV-PG/TV-G.
• Running Time: 60 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.

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