"combat"

[Bob Seijas]

Just edited a terrific article by Marty Black for the GCA Journal ... he went hunting with a metal detector where the TV series was filmed. Lots of great stuff found! Also a very good discussion of the specially-made blanks they used. A really interesting article.

[bentonville]

I am probably missing it, but please give a web address so I can go to that article by Marty Black? I couldn't find it at the Garand Collectors Association site. Thanks.

[DaveN]

Thanks to bentonville and all who gave me so much more on the inner workings of the show COMBAT I have truly enjoyed everyone's comments. And I was in no way putting down the show because of a few bloopers. This series has got to go down as my favorite.

[bentonville]

DaveN, I enjoy sharing about Combat. We couldn't pick up CBS when I was a boy. There were only two stations. I would go over to a friend's house on some evenings and watch it. Then in the late 1980's I was able to pick up reruns on rabbit ears. My wife got hooked and started noticing how great the music was. The composer was a classical style composer who wrote the music before the show was even filmed, iirc. The main theme is based on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" from the Civil War era. Sometimes he use the German National Anthem, written by Haydn, in appropriate dramatic spots. There are other ideas he uses that I can't remember at this moment. There is music for Germans marching, G.I.s marching, suspense..etc. It's great. The editors would then use whatever segments of music they required for a particular scene.
I was sharing a moral from Sgt. Saunders one day in a sharing session at Church. After it was over, an older man whom I had known for years said it was interesting that I would be watching Combat. His first cousin is Kirby aka JacK Hogan, really Roland Benson. My ten-year-old son and I went wild. We begged him to arrange a meeting which he did. I had just purchased the DVD sets and we had watched every episode at least once. My son loves the show as much or more than I do. Roland was most gracious. He was living in Chapel Hill, NC where he grew up. He has since moved to be with his family. We spent several hours with him, asking questions about the show. The helmets were specially made out of plastic so they could wear them for hours at the time without problems. He said that Vic was a master actor. He would always blend in with the props around him. He studied folks that had severe burns for a few days before starting the filming of the episode where he was burned. He had to find his way home with arms and hands burned so badly that he couldn't use them. He said that Dick Peabody was very funny, a former radio announcer. He talked about how in one episode the Lt. was on the radio and got off and gave an order to Little John except he called him Peabody. We had watched the show but hadn't noticed it. It may be explained in one of the bloopers on the DVD set. He told us that when Lee Marvin guest-starred on the show, he was so cool and an experienced G.I. that all the cast wanted to act like him and wear their helmets like him. Marvin had a rubber inner-tube around his helmet and Kirby, Cage, Little John all wanted to get theirs fixed like his.
He said they would always go to a certain bar after filming and get drunk quite often. Peabody was really funny then. Mickey Rooney would talk your ears off. He never shut up. Cage was quite an athlete. He is also an artist. Roland had a carving that Pierre had given him fairly recently to the time we visited. It was beautiful. He said that there was always a little friction between the two leading actors. Lt. Hanley was the initial star but Vic began to grow in popularity and he had to finally demand more money. It was some paultry sum compared to today's prices. They had five days to get the filming done, including learning the script, blocking out the scenes, etc. The special effects guy was a genius. They did hundreds of bullet explosions and grenades etc. with never an injury on the set. The guys were sent to a former WW2 army camp and received a few days of training on how a squad would march, attack, etc. and that was really all the training they received, according to Roland Benson. Most of the filming was done on back lots or in a northern Cal. winery. They would remodel the town using styrofoam etc. Cage would always outrun all of them when doing an action scene. They had to really work to keep up. He could fire his M1 faster than anyone else in the world, Roland said. Roland took us out to eat Mexican food, talked about God, took us to see where he did some theater work at UNC, took us to meet another cousin and talked about growing up. It was amazing. This guy is so very intelligent. He was the casting director of Magnum P.I. and also was in some of the episodes. He allowed my son to have a couple of photos made with him as he harvested a huge tomatoe from his garden. He then explained that he never told anyone in Chapel Hill about his role in Combat and really valued his privacy. We wrote to him later but he would never return the favor. It was a one time deal and we are so very happy he allowed us into his life for that day. His eyes were just as they were in the show, vibrant and full of life. His acting is very good. We pay close attention to him now as we watch the shows for the fifth or sixth time. Well, I got all that out. Sorry about the run on but I enjoyed it. I know there are a lot more details of our day with Roland Benson but I will rely on my son for those.

[GUTS]

My Mom always watched Combat with me so she could translate what the Germans were saying(she still spoke pretty good German then), it was fun.

[Bob Seijas]

I am probably missing it, but please give a web address so I can go to that article by Marty Black? I couldn't find it at the Garand Collectors Association site. Thanks.

That's because it hasn't been published yet It's slated to appear in the Fall issue that goes out in late August or early September. We work on the articles well in advance at this end, at least three months before the publisher's deadlines. I'm always paranoid about running short and having to scramble for material at the last minute.

[TDH]

each episode of Combat has a bloopers and oddities section. I've looked for some of the bloopers and can't find them others are qwuite obvious
Kirby was a gold brick the guy that always shirked work and extra duty as well as responsibility. I still love Hill's are for Hero's bit I also love the episode where Kirby finds himself in charge of an expanded squad during a major german push. (Nothing to Lose) It's on the next disc after "Hills"
The last season was cut short because of the increased salaries of the 2 "STARS", they are rarely seen in the same episode, and the switch to color film which was 3 times as expensive.

[emmagee1917]

I'm enjoying it now. Watched the 1st and 3rd seasons and just finished the 1st half of the second. Big difference between what I see now and what I saw as a kid in the '60s. Well done for both age groups.

( BTW , just for fun , in the carrier pigeon episode , when the squad dismounts from the truck , how many noticed the paper drink cup in the bed ? Musta been a hot day .)
Chris

[DaveN]

As I recall the real GOLD BRICKwas a private,can't remember his cast name but credits had him as Sheky Greene. I tried my DVD player and got to get one of my technicians (sons) to find out why no go. Any way he was only on part of 1st season, kind of reminded me of Costello from Abbot and Costello. He always wore a pair of marine camo pants like the pattern on sgt Saunders helmet. I don't know if Kirby replaced him and took up the gold brick duties or what?

Do you ever wonder how they did all those heroic acts and never got promoted or a medal or anything like that. I guess it is from June 44 to sometime in 45 as I'm only in season 3 disk 4 now.

[Tom Doniphon]

Bob, the exteriors for the show were shot in many locations. And other films and TV shows were shot at those same locations. I even remember as a kid going to MGM Studios to watch part of an episode being filmed outdoors.

Can you give us a clue as to where he did his metal detecting?