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.
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rcj536530 December 2010The year of 1967,ushered in a new wave of violence not only on the big screen,but made its way through the media of television as well. In the summer of 1967,two major motion pictures were playing in theaters throughout the country....one was Robert Aldrich's "The Dirty Dozen",and the other was the sixth film in the James Bond 007 series "You Only Live Twice" starring Sean Connery. In the upset that followed, Aldrich's "The Dirty Dozen" overtook the summer's biggest Bond film "You Only Live Twice" as not only the top box office draw at the movies,but became one of the highest grossing films of that year. Along with Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde"(which didn't come out until later that year),and Norman Jewison's "In The Heat Of The Night"(which was released later on that year) ushered into a new wave of violent cinema. Things will never be the same way again.
In the fall of 1967,the television series "Garrison's Gorillas" premiered on ABC. After the Emmy-winning World War II drama "Combat!" ended its successful five-year run,"Garrison's Gorillas" took over in the same time slot as "Combat!" was on Tuesday nights. Produced by the same company that brought you "Combat!"...Selmur Productions in association with the ABC Television Network. "Garrison's Gorillas" was inspired by the 1967 film "The Dirty Dozen" which featured a similar scenario of training Allied prisoners for various military missions during World War II. The leader was Lt. Craig Garrison(Ron Harper),who basically acted just like Lee Marvin's 'Major Reisman'. Garrison was in charge of a band of convicted criminals(all of them were a motley group of commandoes recruited from stateside prisons)that were recruited for a variety of special skills against the Germans in World War II. They had been promised a parole at the end of the war of they worked out. That is,if they lived. The alternative was an immediate return to prison. If they tried to run,they could be executed for desertion. They were given a choice.....Fight for Uncle Sam or face a firing squad.
The four were Actor(Cesare'Danova) the handsome con-man;Casino(Rudy Solari)the safe cracker and mechanic;Goniff(Christopher Cary)the Cockney cat burglar;and Chief(Brendan Boone),the native American who handled a switchblade like he was born to it. Each week,the Gorillas would go on various missions as daring as they were with high suspense and breathtaking excitement. "Garrison's Gorillas" was like the "A-Team" of its day,with a dollop of "Mission:Impossible" thrown in for good measure not to mention a hint of another WWII show "The Rat Patrol"(which by the way was on the same network). The slippery group ranged all over Europe in various exploits that took them behind enemy lines. Some of the episodes were very good included the pilot episode "The Big Con". Other excellent episodes included "The Magnificent Forger","Banker's Hours","48 Hours to Doomsday",the two-part episode "War and Crime",and "A Plot To Kill",along with the final episode of the series "Time Bomb". The guest stars ranged from Jack Klugman, Telly Savalas,to Roddy McDowell, Richard Kiley, Malachi Throne, to Jeff Corey and Will Geer and to an lesser extent Gena Rowlands.
Airing on ABC-TV,in full color from September 6, 1967 until March 12, 1968. Only 26 episodes were produced. "Garrison's Gorillas" had a strong viewer presence,but the ratings for this show became its downfall and it was gone after one season. The show that replaced it on the ABC-TV schedule for the 1968-1969 was "The Mod Squad"(that was produced by Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas),that lasted more than five seasons on the network. -
ShadeGrenade10 June 2009Whenever a successful movie appears, you can be sure television will capitalise on it somehow. In 1967, Robert Aldrich's 'The Dirty Dozen' overtook that year's Bond movie - 'You Only Live Twice' - to be top box office draw, and ( along with Arthur Penn's 'Bonnie & Clyde' ) ushered in a new wave of violent cinema. Things would never be the same again. 'Garrisons Gorillas' was on air within months of the Dozen firing their first shots. It starred Ron Harper as 'Lt.Craig Garrison', who like Lee Marvin's 'Major Reisman', is put in charge of a band of convicted criminals recruited to fight the Nazis; they are the handsome 'Actor' ( Cesare Danova ), chirpy Cockney 'Goniff' ( Christopher Cary ), gambling-mad 'Casino' ( Rudy Solari ) and native American 'Chief' ( Brendon Boone ). They are given a choice - fight for Uncle Sam or go up before a firing squad. Each week, the Gorillas went on missions as daring as stealing a new German aeroplane engine, substituting counterfeit printing plates for real ones, kidnapping a German Colonel's son, recovering important microfilm hidden in a painting in a Dutch museum, and helping Americans escape from an Italian prison camp. It was the 'A-Team' of its day, with a dollop of 'Mission: Impossible' thrown in for good measure.
Characterisation was sparse, though in fairness there was chemistry between the cast. Though Garrison was their 'keeper', the Gorillas grew to like him, bestowing him with the nickname 'Warden'. When, in one episode, he was suspected of crimes, they went out of their way to clear him. Had Alistair Maclean been hired to write a series, it probably would have looked a lot like 'Garrison's Gorillas'.
The team often found themselves behind enemy lines, and their favourite escape method was impersonating Germans. I used to marvel at how they managed to find perfectly fitting uniforms without any difficulty whatever!
'The Dirty Dozen' connection was reinforced by the presence of Telly Savalas in the premiere episode as the argumentative 'Wheeler' - he was religious fanatic 'Archer Maggot' in the Aldrich movie.
The combat scenes were unusually violent by then-television standards; each episode had a body count worthy of 'Rambo' with Nazis machine-gunned to death at a rate of knots. As an 8 year-old, I loved it!
But the Gorillas' war was to be short-lived. Though popular, an anti-violence crusade sweeping the networks in the aftermath of Bobby Kennedy's assassination led to the show's unexpected cancellation after only 26 episodes. It was last shown in the U.K. in a late-night slot on I.T.V. in the early '90's. Since then, nothing. Despite the formulaic 'Boys Own'-style plots, it was an entertaining and exciting show, and should it ever appear on D.V.D. I'll be ready with my pre-order! -
SavhCaro8 March 2005I 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.
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lovemusic19841 June 2010Maybe it is a normal TV Programe in the States, but in China, almost everybody know it. It was the second American TV/Movie played in China. Even the famous TV program like prison break, 24 hours could not catch up with it.
The character of Actor and Goniff are my best favor. The Chinese dubbing of five person are very good.
Although it was played before 20 years, but they still have plenty of fans in China. There is a funny story. In the year of the first play, plenty of insurance cabinet steal cases happened. It was said that the theft were influenced by the TV program.
I have bought DVD version, but it is not clear enough. So, does anyone know where can bought the DVD-9 standard disc? Thanks -
hazeljaques9 February 2019A great series full of repartee between characters and loyalty to each other. Some themes have parallel truths with actual war.
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verbusen14 February 2007I was really wanting to watch this show and was thrilled that I found it through a collector. OK so how did it measure up? First let me say that I like drama in a war setting, All Quiet On The Western Front comes to my mind as a favorite, Hell Is For Heroes as another not that they are in the same league but thats a cross section of my tastes for war movies. For TV shows Combat! is most widely known and what I watched in reruns in the 70's as a pre-teen. For the record I hated Combat! as it was lame, you knew certain characters would live, so whats the point, I realized this as a youth. Garrisons Gorillas (notice they didn't use the term Guerilla) is basically a mix of mostly the Dirty Dozen (Telly Savalez was in the pilot and the redone pilot first episode), mixed with a bit of maybe Mission Impossible. It's extremely light on character development, it's full of action (the cowboys vs Indians action), and it's tedious. It has no redeeming place for a war film lover like myself, it's to the point that it's dare I say it, like Combat! boring. Combat! at least had it's character interaction, this is very devoid of good dialog, "lets go get in the back, you know something? It's gonna be light soon", as examples, it's just really lame action packaged in a WW2 TV show. The whole show is totally implausible and it is not helped that we never see any one higher than the Officer in charged handing out the missions, we just take his word that he got them, it's lazy writing (how about the officer questioning any of this? Some 12 O'Clock High TV show dialog would have worked here very well). How not to write a WW2 or war drama should use Garrisons Gorillas as an example. Definitely targeted for youths and I doubt even they would have liked it after 5 or so episodes.
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washburnjm16 May 2017I 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.
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sykespj26 March 2018With '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. -
svgarvin725 December 2005I 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!
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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!!!