F Troop


F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom western about U.S. soldiers and American Indians in the Wild West during the 1860s that originally aired for two seasons on ABC. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was broadcast in black-and-white, the second season in color.
The series relied heavily on character-based humor; verbal and visual gags, slapstick, physical comedy and burlesque comedy make up the prime ingredients of F Troop. The series played fast and loose with historical events and persons, and often parodied them for comical effect. There were some indirect references made to the culture of the 1960s such as a "Playbrave Club" and two rock and roll bands.

Setting and story

F Troop is set at Fort Courage—a fictional United States Army outpost in the Old West—from near the end of the American Civil War in 1865 to at least 1867. There is a town of the same name adjacent to the fort. Fort Courage was named for the fictitious General Sam Courage. The fort itself is constructed in the stockade style typically found in most American westerns.
The commanding officer is the gallant although laughably clumsy Captain Wilton Parmenter, who is descended from a long line of distinguished military officers. He is awarded the Medal of Honor after accidentally instigating the final Civil War charge at the Battle of Appomattox. Only a private in the Quartermaster Corps, he is ordered to fetch the commanding officer's laundry. As Parmenter rides away to get the laundry he repeatedly sneezes. A group of Union soldiers mistake his sneezing for an order to charge, turning the tide of the battle and "earning" Parmenter the nickname "The Scourge of Appomattox." He also is awarded the Purple Heart after he is accidentally pricked in the chest by his father and commanding officer while receiving his first medal, making him known as "the only soldier in history to get a medal for getting a medal." His superiors reward his action by promoting him to captain, only to give Parmenter command of remote Fort Courage, a dumping ground for the Army's "least useful" soldiers and misfits. Indeed, of the three commanding officers at Fort Courage before Captain Parmenter, two did desert the army, while the third suffered a nervous breakdown.
Much of the humor of the series derives from the scheming of Captain Parmenter's somewhat crooked but amiable non-commissioned officers, Sergeant Morgan O'Rourke and Corporal Randolph Agarn. They, in league with the local American Indian tribe, the Hekawis—led by Chief Wild Eagle, are forever seeking to expand and conceal their shady business deals covertly and collectively referred to as "O'Rourke Enterprises". Initially, rations and pay were drawn for 30 men at Fort Courage, even though only 17 are actually accounted for. The pay of the fictitious scouts is apparently used to help finance the dealings of O'Rourke Enterprises. Although O'Rourke and Agarn try to take full advantage of Captain Parmenter's innocence and naïveté, they are also very fond of and fiercely protective of him, and woe be to anyone attempting to harm him. Parmenter also struggles to exert his authority outside the ranks. Very bashful, he tries to escape the matrimonial plans of his girlfriend, shopkeeper–postmistress Jane Angelica Thrift, known locally as "Wrangler Jane" —though he becomes a bit more affectionate toward her during the second season.
In the episode "Captain Parmenter, One Man Army," it is revealed that all of the soldiers of "F Troop" have been at Fort Courage for at least twenty months, meaning they spent at least part of the Civil War there. They are so incompetent that when they are formed into a firing squad in the episode titled "The Day They Shot Agarn" all of their shots miss Agarn despite the fact they are standing only a few yards from him. The most common running gag through both seasons of the series involves the fort's lookout tower. Every time the cannon is fired in salute the lit fuse burns out. Corporal Agarn or Private Dobbs then steps up and kicks the cannon's right wheel, collapsing the cannon and causing it to fire off target. The cannonball strikes a support leg of the lookout tower, bringing it crashing to the ground along with the trooper in it In one episode, an arrow brings the tower crashing down, and in another Parmenter yanks down the tower with a lasso. In another episode, musical instruments being played loudly cause the tower to collapse. The fort water tower is also a frequent victim of this sort of gag.
Another running gag involves dialogue between Sergeant O'Rourke and Agarn. In many episodes O'Rourke says to Agarn, "I don't know why everyone says you're so dumb." Immediately the scene ends. Then at the beginning of the next scene, Agarn indignantly asks, "Who says I'm dumb?"

Main characters

F Troop officers and enlisted men

The Hekawi appear to be a very small tribe consisting of only one small village. They live an indeterminate distance from Fort Courage, though the directions to their camp are described as: "Make right turn at big rock that look like bear, then make left turn at big bear that look like rock". In "Reunion for O'Rourke", Chief Wild Eagle explains how the tribe got its name: "Many moons ago, tribe leave Massachusetts because Pilgrims ruin neighborhood! Tribe travel west, over stream, over river, over mountain, over mountain, over river, over stream! Then come big day... tribe fall over cliff. That when Hekawi get name. Medicine man say to my ancestor, "I think we lost. Where the heck are we?". "Where the heck are we?" became "We're the Hekawi".
The Hekawis are 50/50 partners in everything they do with O'Rourke Enterprises. They make most of the company's products, usually in the form of Indian souvenirs and whiskey for the town saloon. They are a peace-loving tribe, and self described as "the tribe that invented the peace pipe", "lovers, not fighters" and "proud descendents of cowards". Profit minded, the Hekawis look to be paid when O’Rourke needs them to do something like orchestrate a fake attack on the fort and will haggle over the price and how many braves would be in the attack. But because it had been such a long time since they had been on the "warpath" when the series started Agarn has to teach the Hekawis how to do a war dance, a clip of which was shown in the first season opening credits. Anytime the tribe wants to contact the fort they use smoke signals which only O'Rourke can read. In one episode, the Hekawis have a "Playbrave Club" complete with go-go dancing and 1960s style music.
As a sly jest based on the myth that Native Americans are the 13th tribe of Israel, many of the Hekawi Indians were played by veteran Yiddish comedians using classic Yiddish shtick. The regular Indian characters include:
as 'Chief Wild Eagle'
In order of number of appearances:
In the order of their appearance on the show
Many established actors and comedians appeared as guest stars in the series including Bernard Fox, Don Rickles, John Dehner, Lee Meriwether, Jamie Farr, George Gobel, Pat Harrington Jr., Zsa Zsa Gabor, Willard Waterman, Paul Petersen, Paul Lynde, Harvey Korman, Milton Berle, Julie Newmar, Jacques Aubuchon, Jay Novello, Sterling Holloway, Mako, Phil Harris, Vincent Price, and Cliff Arquette.
Other notable and well known character actors who appeared in the series are : Henry Brandon, Jay Sheffield, Alan Hewitt, Don "Red" Barry, Willis Bouchey, Forrest Lewis, Vic Tayback and Robert G. Anderson, Linda Marshall, Laurie Sibbald, John Stephenson, Nydia Westman, Patrice Wymore, Parley Baer, MaKee K. Blaisdell, Jackie Joseph, Mike Mazurki, Tony Martinez, Del Moore, Andrew Duggan, Abbe Lane, Jackie Loughery, Marjorie Bennett, Eve McVeagh, Ben Gage, Richard Reeves, Victor Jory, James Griffith, Cathy Lewis, Les Brown, Jr, George Barrows, Paul Sorensen, Mary Young, Charles Lane, Don Beddoe, Lew Parker, Tol Avery, Tommy Farrell, Richard X. Slattery, Joby Baker, Letícia Román, I. Stanford Jolley, George Furth, Pepper Curtis, Peter Leeds, Victor French, Fred Clark, Mary Wickes, Joyce Jameson, and Charles Drake. Lowell George, later the leader of the rock group Little Feat, appeared with his earlier band The Factory on an episode as a group called the Bedbugs. William Conrad was the uncredited voice announcer in the first episode "Scourge of the West".

Episodes

Season one (black and white, 1965–1966)

  1. "Scourge of the West"
  2. "Don't Look Now, One of Our Cannon is Missing"
  3. "The Phantom Major"
  4. "Corporal Agarn's Farewell to the Troops"
  5. "The Return of Bald Eagle"
  6. "Dirge for the Scourge"
  7. "The Girl from Philadelphia"
  8. "Old Ironpants"
  9. "Me Heap Big Injun"
  10. "She's Only a Build in a Girdled Cage"
  11. "A Gift from the Chief"
  12. "Honest Injun"
  13. "O'Rourke vs. O'Reilly"
  14. "The 86 Proof Spring"
  15. "Here Comes the Tribe"
  16. "Iron Horse Go Home"
  17. "Our Hero, What's His Name?"
  18. "Wrongo Starr and the Lady in Black"
  19. "El Diablo"
  20. "Go for Broke"
  21. "The New I. G."
  22. "Spy, Counterspy, Counter Counterspy"
  23. "The Courtship of Wrangler Jane"
  24. "Play, Gypsy, Play"
  25. "Reunion for O'Rourke"
  26. "Captain Parmenter, One Man Army"
  27. "Don't Ever Speak to Me Again"
  28. "Too Many Cooks Spoil the Troop"
  29. "Indian Fever"
  30. "Johnny Eagle Eye"
  31. "A Fort's Best Friend is Not a Mother"
  32. "Lieutenant O'Rourke, Front and Center"
  33. "The Day the Indians Won"
  34. "Will the Real Captain Try to Stand Up?"

    Season two (color, 1966–1967)

  35. "The Singing Mountie"
  36. "How to Be F Troop Without Really Trying"
  37. "Bye, Bye, Balloon"
  38. "Reach for the Sky, Pardner"
  39. "The Great Troop Robbery"
  40. "The West Goes Ghost"
  41. "Yellow Bird"
  42. "The Ballot of Corporal Agarn"
  43. "Did Your Father Come from Ireland?"
  44. "For Whom the Bugle Tolls"
  45. "Miss Parmenter"
  46. "La Dolce Courage"
  47. "Wilton the Kid"
  48. "The Return of Wrongo Starr"
  49. "Survival of the Fittest"
  50. "Bring on the Dancing Girls"
  51. "The Loco Brothers"
  52. "From Karate with Love"
  53. "The Sergeant and the Kid"
  54. "What Are You Doing After the Massacre?"
  55. "A Horse of Another Color"
  56. "V is for Vampire"
  57. "That's Show Biz"
  58. "The Day They Shot Agarn"
  59. "Only One Russian Is Coming! Only One Russian Is Coming!"
  60. "Guns, Guns, Who's Got the Guns?"
  61. "Marriage, Fort Courage Style"
  62. "Carpetbagging, Anyone?"
  63. "The Majority of Wilton"
  64. "Our Brave in F Troop"
  65. "Is This Fort Really Necessary?"

    Creation and production

Although only two seasons were produced, F Troop enjoyed a healthy second life in syndication. The show was a particular favorite on Nick at Nite in the 1990s, running from 1991 to 1995 despite an archive of only 65 episodes. Reruns began airing on TV Land from 1997 to 2000, GoodLife TV Network in 2004 and on Me-TV on September 2, 2013. In the United Kingdom reruns commenced in October 2017 on Sky TV channel Forces TV.
Reruns premiered on the ITV network in the United Kingdom on October 29, 1968, and were screened repeatedly until July 16, 1974. The series was also broadcast nationally in Australia on ABC-TV, in Ireland on Telefís Éireann and in Italy during the 80s as a "filler" show during summer months.

Home media

In 1998, 30 of the series' 65 episodes were digitally remastered and released on 10 VHS tapes by Columbia House.
On September 27, 2005, Warner Home Video released the first F Troop DVD compilation as part of its "Television Favorites" series. The six-episode DVD included three black-and-white episodes and three color episodes.
Following the successful sales from the "Television Favorites" sampler release, Warner Home Video released F Troop: The Complete First Season, with all 34 black-and-white episodes included. The Complete Second Season of F Troop was released on DVD on May 29, 2007. The DVD features interviews with original F Troop members, writers and other production personnel, as well as behind-the-scenes information. However, only one major actor from the series, Ken Berry, was interviewed for the half-hour special. There were also audio segments of an interview with actor Joe Brooks.
The complete series has been released on iTunes in both SD and remastered HD. For the HD remaster, the original film elements were rescanned into high resolution video.