No, you’ll never get rich buying all the great DVD sets that are coming out, but I wanted to recommend one that’s worth owning that was recently released. That’s the box on the right and it’s Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show, 50th Anniversary Edition (one year late, actually). Some histories of the show state that the original title was You’ll Never Get Rich and then it was later changed to The Phil Silvers Show, but in the “lost” audition show (description to follow), it’s already called The Phil Silvers Show and subtitled “You’ll Never Get Rich”.

My biggest regret is that it’s not a full season, but a “Best of” set. I spoke to Jeffrey Abraham, one of the people behind this box and he said the feeling is that there are just some shows that won’t sell as complete series. Still, even if in the future they decide to release season sets, I’m recommending this just for the bonus material alone.

I haven’t finished watching all of it yet, but one of the highlights is the “lost” pilot episode. It’s in pretty rough condition, but apparently only one 16mm print of it exists and it was in creator Nat Hiken’s personal collection. The script is almost identical to the newer pilot, “New Recruits”, but other differences abound. One of the most notable differences is that the first pilot was shot on video rather than film, although what now exists of it is a kinescope. For those unfamiliar, a kinescope is a film made from a video source.

The other major change was in certain cast members. Jack Warden played Cpl. Henshaw, the part that would become Allan Melvin’s for the series. Paul Ford was absent from the part of Col. Hall and there was a different Chaplain. But most of Bilko’s platoon was there from the beginning, and while Bilko calls out the familiar names in roll call, some of the actors responded to different character names, so they were obviously switched around before the other pilot was filmed. Also, oddly, many of the “new recruits”, who would not appear in another episode, reprise their roles for the second pilot.

There are many more extras, including commentaries by Allan Melvin, Dick Van Dyke and others, plus clips of the show and Phil Silvers winning Emmys.

And by the way, the shows stand-up, too. Don’t miss this one!

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