Combat - Season 1, Campaign 1

Rating:
Summary: The BEST WWll TV show ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: All I can say is, IT IS ABOUT TIME!!!!!! Just like the WWll memorial in D.C.The DVD issue of these Excellent shows is WAY,Way,Way over due!!!!!
Thanks to all involved for bringing them back!! I will be getting all of these memorials on film to "The greatest generation".
Do yourself and your family a favor get these at all cost! God Bless America!! Come to think of it, He has!!

Rating:
Summary: Combat in Camelot
Review: Few TV shows connected me with my strict disciplinarian father, a WWII Pacific Campaign soldier & his family living in north Alabama. The first season of Combat was the exception. Reviews, critiques regarding production qualities, technical flaws, & other "oddities" do little to tarnish the golden memories of my golden minutes spent in front of a 21 inch B&W Zenith each Tuesday evening with my Dad watching Saunders and his men. Although 22 years as a Marine allow me to criticize the issues mentioned above, I still love the series. You can go back.

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Summary: Most Realastic WWII Series and/or Movie of the Times
Review: I had the privelege of being able to view the Combat! series as I grew up. Even back then I was mesmerized and impressed on all the action that was happening in each episode. About two years ago now I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon the Combat! series on The Action Network (cable tv channel) in my home viewing area. At first I was kind of aprehensive about watching it because some of the series that I had watched as a child weren't that great as I watched them as an adult. To my suprise and enjoyment, I found this series wonderful! I was quite ecstatic after viewing several of the episodes. I really hadn't been able to remember much of the series from my childhood and I was amazed that there was so much action in each of the episodes. They spared no expense on pyrotechnics, stage props, locations and stage sets. This series had more pyrotechnics and action than almost all of the war movies that came out in that era and since! When I found I enjoyed this series again and wanted to have a library for myself I looked high and low for any media that might be out. At that time there was none. Since there wasn't any other option I decided to copy them to my computer. Now I have around 100 episodes that I have copied from my computer to DVD's!
The only problem with the Action Channel is that they tend to rerun the episodes over and over and it is hard to get them in order. I still don't think they have shown them all yet. I hope that the younger generation will discover this series and realize what it was and still is, a truly great representation of WWII.

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Summary: Yes !! Finally !!
Review: I have been praying for this series to come out on DVD. It is without a doubt one of the best TV series ever made. It was truly a breakthrough as well in Television. The series revolves around a platoon of men in western Europe during World War II. Bravo for releasing this !!! Bravo !!!

Rating:
Summary: Good Stuff
Review: I have just finished watching both sets of DVDs and enjoyed them both. I remember watching combat as a child but didnt really remember the episodes except for the scene in Survival where Vic Morrow comes out of the burning barn with his jacket sleeves smoldering. I know that this program did influence my brother and me. We used to call our mom the Sarge (she was the disciplinarian in the house).

The episodes were good to excellent with Survival being the best one in my opinion. The revolving cast was interesting. I dont remember the steven rogers doc or Shecky Greene but remember the others really well, Caje, Littlejohn, Kirby, the second doc.

There was definitely some grit in this series. At one of the episodes at the end of season one, Morrows jacket from the wrist to the elbows is completely shot from all the crawling around and you got the sense that they were always dirty unlike some other shows.

There were mistakes in accuracy of the vehicles and some of the uniforms but overall the feel was that of a combat unit.

It was also nice seeing actors at the beginning of their careers being guest stars.

I enjoyed this and will buy the series as it comes out. I cant wait for season 4 with the 2 parter "Hills are for Heroes"

Rating:
Summary: Gritty realism for the most part
Review: I loved this series in 1962 when it debuted and still do. This is not fantasy. You need to watch more then 2 episodes, when over 150 were produced, to do a fair evaluation of the series.
What made this series stand out that they were able top bring the character of the average fighting man to the small screen. This was pointed out to me by my dad who was in the European Theater as a front line soldier and others I have talked to that were also there verify the realism. The stories are well-written and do not glorify war.
The cast was also superb with Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders, Rick Jason as Lt. Hanley and Pierre Jalbert, Dick Peabody and Jack Hogan being the squad mainstays over the years.
The Gallent Men was also a good WWII series but only lasted one year. I think it was because it failed to have a strong chracter for viewers to identify with like Saunders and because of the little things, such as, my dad noticed on The Gallant Men that when they took their helmets off their hair was perfectly combed. When Saunders takes his off it looks tangled and messed.
If you don't like this series, fine, but cutting it down as being typical super-American soldiers/yak yak yak/ is way off beam. This is a great TV series with outstanding writing, acting and production standards that just don't exist anymore in contemporary TV for me.
The episode quality is excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Something to Ponder
Review: I was a pretty young boy when Combat was first aired, but I remember it was a favorite of my dad. A WWII Vet, this shouldn't surprise anyone. It was great to see the show again. With our soldiers off fighting a war, again on a foreign land, it might do us well to ponder what combat is all about. This show, albeit old, captures many of the current threats our men and woman face. I think it was chintzy of the distributors to release the series in two parts. With that being said, it still gets 5 stars from me. I hope Kojak is released before I die and go to heaven. I guess I am more macho than I thought.

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Summary: Father and Daughter Bonding
Review: I was in grade school while this show was on. "Combat" was my dad's and my Tuesday nights never miss show. The stories to me, were more about the guys taking care of each other and watching each other's back as a child I saw it as good guy vs bad guys. My dad was a USMC Sargent, veteran of WWII in the Pacific. He used to critique Saunders, always tellin him to get his men spread out that they were bunched up too close and one grenade would take them all out. This was our show. I am now induldging in the guilty pleasure of taping the reruns of this show as it is now being played on the Action TV network on our cable system. Do you know that Robert Altman directed alot of the shows in this series? That Lee Marvin, Richard Basehart, Nick Adams, Nina Fouche guest-starred on this series? And finally, that the late Vic Morrow was probable one of the most under appreciated method actors ever to grace a soundstage. Watching these shows again I can state without equivocation that none of the actors on network television shows now running can hold a candle to him as an actor.

Rating:
Summary: It's Been a Long Time Coming, But Worth the Wait!
Review: If you were a kid growing up in the 1960s (as I was), and you didn't watch the TV series Combat! (1962-1967), you were living under a rock. I cannot imagine my neighborhood friends amassing our arsenal of toy guns, plastic helmets, and other uniquely devised accoutrements of war to play Army, without first arguing over who was going to play Sergeant Saunders, "Cage," or the BAR toting, wise-cracking Kirby. After years of sporadic syndication, the release of the entire first season of Combat! on DVD is long overdue.The first season is broken down into two, four-disc packages of 16 episodes each titled: Combat! Season I, Campaign I, and Combat! Season I, Campaign II respectively. The episodes are arranged in the order they aired in syndication, not as originally televised. There are 4 episodes per disc, plus Special Features including photo galleries, and interviews with past cast members. The sound quality is good, and the scenes not overly dark like some black and white transfers to DVD. Absent, however, is a booklet that would have been a nice touch. Instead, a mere list of episodes with scene selections is included. Consequently, I highly recommend the book "Combat!: A Viewer's Companion to the WWII TV Series (revised)" by Jo Davidsmeyer as an indispensable guide to the entire five-year run of the series.Campaign I opens with the pilot "A Day in June," which finds the squad of the 2nd platoon of (K)ing Company in England preparing for the D-Day invasion. Interestingly, Hanley (Rick Jason) is a First Sergeant, having not yet received his battlefield commission to lieutenant. Pierre Jalbert, a film editor, not an actor by trade, who will later mold the character of "Cage," is casted here as "Caddy." Other regular character-roles such as Lil' John (Dick Peabody) and "Doc" (Conland Carter- debuting in season-two) will be introduced in subsequent episodes, but not before Peabody and Carter are cast in different minor roles for an episode each. The comedian Shecky Green was also cast as a regular, but, due to other obligations, would not last the first season. A host of guest stars including: Dean Stockwell, Robert Culp, Frank Gorshin, and Tab Hunter get the first season off to a good start. Davidsmeyer's book not only lists the episodes as they are in syndication, but also notes what order they were aired. This allows one to watch them in their original order and marvel at the development of the characters of Saunders (Vic Morrow), Hanley and the rest of the squad. Morrow and Jason, both met tragic ends. Morrow was killed on the set of the 1982 film Twilight Zone: The Movie, and Jason sadly took his own life recently. Watching these first-season episodes today, some of the lessor attention to realism and detail become apparent. For example: the German soldiers are paper-doll cut-outs of each other. From kettle-helmet to jack boots (the latter was all but gone by 1944 anyway), they all wear the exact same uniform and arrange their battle kits the exact same way. At least once during a fire fight, the German will predictably leave cover, foolishly run out into the open, only to be shot by a member of the cast. Following episodes has the standard American M-5 Half-track switching roles between belligerents with the help of a noticeable vehicular make-up change. For other picky viewers, like myself, there is also more chronological attention paid to actual historic events and places during the Normandy Campaign in season one. This historic detail gets lost in subsequent seasons. But it is the fine acting, script-writing, directorial and production talents that made Combat! a classic TV series. The series portrays best the inner conflicts that affects men trying to survive the horrors of war. For the true Combat! fan, this two-part first season is a must have. For those who like the war film genre, or vintage television series with great acting and production, this DVD package will not disappoint. It was a long-time coming, but the wait was worth it.

Rating:
Summary: A Blast From the Past
Review: It is great to re-live one's own childhood again. Growing up I used to be a devoted fan. I waited years to own the series.

Watching the series with an adult eye one can see the inter-personal relationships and the impacts of combat on a young soldier. The series could be used in real life as a training guide to leadership.

One negative though. The map on the homepage of the DVD is incorrect. It shows modern europe but not world war 2 europe. Bad on the DVD producer.