Garrison's Gorillas

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.

I watched this series when it premiered a long time ago. I liked it a lot. Since I was a teen then, it's sort of dream-like to try to remember all of it. I loved the play between the characters. Especially between "The Warden" and the "Con's". This is a much better series to watch than that movie they made with Lee Marvin. In the "Garrison's Gorillas" series, the characters and the play between them was more human and more humane with the convicts trying to win Pardons for working with the Allies against the Germans. I hope one day one of the television stations will re-run this series so I can re-watch and enjoy it again!!!

I was 11 when I watched this series and was an instant fan, I haven't seen or heard of it since. I too loved Combat! and felt Garrison's Gorillas was a perfect follow-up because of it's sense of humor which was welcomed at that time. I loved Goniff's irreverence, Actor's suaveness and I had a crush on Chief. It's true Ron Harper was a little wooden and I viewed him almost as background support, but make no mistake, he had control of his men and I think the others respected him. I recall the first few episodes included Telly Sevales (cashing in on his Dirty Dozen character), but I didn't feel he quite fit in and was glad he left in short order. Bottom line, these were fun and action packed. I even remember having a Garrison's Gorillas coloring book!

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

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.