Commando Garrison

I watched the show when it was first on TV when I was 12 & fell in love with the characters. My favorite was Chief & he became a teen idol during that time. The stories were good, the humor I loved! Even my parents enjoyed it. The TV show was shown on GoodTime TV about 4 years ago and I tried to tape all the episodes. For the time period that the show was made the sets were OK. The costumes/uniforms were great. Loved the give and take between the characters. I would recommend this to anybody! It was a take-off from the movies but it was still well done. Comparing it to today's TV shows is not fair. Acting, special effects and such have come along way in 40 plus years. The main story was that people could change and improve themselves especially when working for the greater good. Many times the guys could have escaped but chose to do their job and honor their commitment and the Warden. It had a great theme running through the entire show.

A great series full of repartee between characters and loyalty to each other. Some themes have parallel truths with actual war.

I was 11 when it came out like some here. I was caught up in the opening theme song and Chief. However, watching 5 years of Combat with GG having a similar theme of defeating the Nazis left me lukewarm about the show. It definitely had its great moments, but similar background music to Combat kept me wishing Combat hadn't been canceled. It is now on YouTube and probably most of the episodes you can still see. I don't recall, seeing it was 50 years ago, but I believe I watched most of the episodes. But time to move on from killing more Germans.

With 'Combat!' becoming increasingly expensive to produce and WWII dramas in general on the wane, the ABC network decided to try a makeover. Ostensibly inspired by the film 'The Dirty Dozen', 'Garrison's Gorillas' has much more in common with the 1960s series 'Mission: Impossible' than anything else.

Within the limitations of the time, 'Combat!' was known for its gritty realism, with most of its stars WWII vets themselves. ABC's historically inept 'Rat Patrol', not surprisingly, showed the network was more interested in ratings than realism. It ran for two seasons... 'Garrison's Gorillas' was lucky to make it through one.

From a 2000-Teenies point of view, the series isn't that bad. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be that many good prints of the show getting around. 'Garrison's Gorillas' has good production values, decent acting, and relatively entertaining scripts (and it was shot in colour). Fans of '60s WWII dramas should find it more than passable.

Garrison's Gorrilas came on when I was 11 and I absolutely fell in love with it. Until GoodLife TV brought it back, all I had were my memories after it was canceled. Granted, it has it's flaws, but the characters were wonderful, the story lines were fun and I was in love with Brendon Boone almost immediately. Granted I lean more toward Ron harper now, those two will always be my favorite characters :) One of the reasons it stayed with me for so long is the fact that I used to watch it with my Grandfather just before he passed away after a long battle with cancer. He would be laying on the couch and I would be sitting on the chair or the floor in the living room, discussing the episodes as we watched them. So it will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart.