Gomer Pyle – USMC

Gomer Pyle – USMC is an American sitcom originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spin-off of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot episode was aired as the season finale of the fourth season of its parent series on May 18, 1964. The show ran for a total of 150 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons, in black-and-white for the first season, and then in color for the remaining four seasons. In 2006, CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) began releasing the series on DVD. The final season was released in November 2008.

Like its parent series, Gomer Pyle – USMC was also a major ratings hit, never placing lower than tenth in the Nielsen ratings, and ended its run as the second-highest-rated series in the United States (only behind Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In). It has enjoyed continued popularity through reruns and DVD releases. The series was created by Aaron Ruben, who also produced the show with Sheldon Leonard and Ronald Jacobs. Set and filmed in California, it stars Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle, a naïve but good-natured gas station attendant from the town of Mayberry, North Carolina who enlists in the United States Marine Corps, Jim Nabors was cast to play Gomer; he had been performing for a Santa Monica nightclub, The Horn, when Andy Griffith discovered him. Though originally intended to appear in only one episode, Gomer proved popular, and after appearing in seasons 3 and 4, Nabors was given his own spin-off produced by Aaron Ruben. The pilot episode of Gomer Pyle was filmed in 1963 as part of The Andy Griffith Show, but was not aired until 1964, as the finale of The Andy Griffith Shows fourth season. In the episode, Andy accompanies Gomer when he reports to the Marine recruiting base at Camp Lejeune. The show was originally going to be called Gomer, was then changed to Gomer Pyle, until it finally became Gomer Pyle – USMC.

Ronnie Schell (who played Duke Slater) left after the third season to star in Good Morning World, though he returned for the fifth season, promoted to corporal, after graduating from non-commissioned officer training. Roy Stuart, who played Corporal Chuck Boyle, made his debut in the second season and left after the fourth. Andy Griffith, Frances Bavier, Ron Howard, and George Lindsey made guest appearances on the series reprising their respective roles from The Andy Griffith Show. Denver Pyle and Allan Melvin, who both had roles on The Andy Griffith Show, appeared in Gomer Pyle, but did not reprise their original roles. Denver Pyle, who had played Briscoe Darling in six episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, played tomato farmer Titus Purcell in the Gomer Pyle episode "The Price of Tomatoes." Allan Melvin, who had played Clarence "Doc" Malloy and other antagonists on The Andy Griffith Show, played Sergeant Carter's rival, Staff Sergeant Hacker, for four seasons. Nabors also carried the Gomer Pyle character to fellow CBS series The Lucy Show, in which he made a cameo appearance in a 1966 episode.

Nabors always said he had a hard time watching the show's opening credits, as many of the Marines he was filmed training with were later killed in Vietnam.

Ratings and timeslots

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! Season

! Timeslot

! Rank

! Rating

| 1) 1964–65

| Friday at 9:30 pm

| No. 3

| 30.7

| 2) 1965–66

| Friday at 9:00 pm

| No. 2

| 27.8

| 3) 1966–67

| Wednesday at 9:30 pm

| No. 10

| 22.8

| 4) 1967–68

| rowspan="2" | Friday at 8:30 pm

| No. 3

| 25.6

| 5) 1968–69

| No. 2

| 27.2

Legacy

In the song "Nobody Home" from Pink Floyd's 1979 album The Wall, an audio clip of Pyle saying his signature line "Surprise, surprise, surprise!" can be heard. The audio clip, however, is not present in the 1982 film.

In Gustav Hasford's 1979 novel The Short-Timers, later adapted into Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, the nickname "Gomer Pyle" is given to Private Leonard Pratt (Leonard Lawrence in the film, played by Vincent D'Onofrio) as a derogatory term during boot camp, after incurring the drill instructor's wrath for being unable to turn off his idiot's grin and his perceived incompetence.

A brief clip of the show airing on American Forces Vietnam Network television appears during the military hospital scene in the 1994 film Forrest Gump. In the scene, Gump is scolded for watching the show by a fellow soldier who calls it "stupid shit".

In other media

E. Kitzes Knox wrote a novel based on the series, also titled Gomer Pyle – USMC The paperback was published by Pyramid and released in 1966. Jim Nabors recorded Shazam!, which is not a soundtrack of the show but features Jim singing novelty songs in his "Gomer" voice, and released it on the Columbia Records label.

A board game was released in 1964 by Transogram.

A trading card set was published by Fleer in 1965.

In April 1994, it was reported that producer Robert N. Fried, who had acquired the rights to Gomer Pyle – USMC from the creators, was in the process of setting up development of a feature film version at Savoy Pictures.

Home media

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment) has released all five seasons of Gomer Pyle – USMC on DVD in Region 1. All episodes have been digitally remastered, but due to clearance issues, some episodes that feature Nabors (and other cast members) singing have been edited to remove those performances.

On March 10, 2015, CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) released Gomer Pyle – USMC- The Complete series on DVD in Region 1.

In Region 4, Shock Entertainment has released all five seasons on DVD in Australia.

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2"|DVD Name

! rowspan="2"|Ep #

! colspan="2"|Release dates

! Region 1

! Region 4

| The Complete First Season