more retro rewinds

“McHale’s Navy” (Airs daily on Antenna): Another example of the con artist soldier is the title character of this World War II-set 1962-66 ABC comedy, which cast Academy Award winner Ernest Borgnine as Lt. Cdr. Quinton McHale, who regularly flaunted regulations much to the joy of his men on their South Pacific PT boat but to the dismay of his immediate superior, Capt. Binghamton (Joe Flynn). Tim Conway also began his long and distinguished comedy career here as Ensign Parker.

“F Troop” (Streams on Prime Video, Apple TV): Set in the post-Civil War American West, this 1965-67 ABC sitcom starred Ken Berry as Capt. Wilton Parmenter, the bumbling commanding officer at Fort Courage. In addition to the supporting cast of Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch and Melody Patterson, the show featured appearances by A-list comedic talent of the day, including Don Rickles, Milton Berle and Paul Lynde. And TV trivia mavens will note that the local tribe the Hekawis (a play on “Where the heck are we?”) originally had a more salacious name that began with the letter F, but network censors figured out the reference and had it changed.

“Gomer Pyle: USMC” (Airs weeknights on MeTV; streams on Philo): Jim Nabors brought his naive rural character from “The Andy Griffith Show” to this 1964-69 CBS comedy that placed Gomer in the Marines at California’s Camp Henderson, under the command of Sgt. Carter (Frank Sutton), who wasn’t so patient with Gomer’s bumbling ways. Ronnie Schell, Barbara Stuart and a pre“That Girl” Ted Bessell also starred, along with William Christopher, a few years before he began his long run as Father Mulcahy in ...

“M*A*S*H” (Airs daily on MeTV and TV Land; streams on Philo): Well, of course. Alan Alda headed the cast of this 1972-83 CBS comedy about the madcap goings-on at a Korean War-era mobile Army surgical hospital, easily the most decorated show of its type in TV history.