McHale's Navy

is an American sitcom first aired in the 1960s, featuring the exploits of a PT boat crew during World War II. Ernest Borgnine starred as Lt Commander Quinton McHale.

The series resulted in two movies, McHale's Navy (1964) and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965), and a Distaff Counterpart Spin-Off series, Broadside (1964, one season).

A new McHale's Navy movie was released in 1997, starring Tom Arnold as Quinton McHale Jr.

Tropes used in McHale's Navy include:
  • Armed Farces: Not a surprise given that it's about a PT crew who wants to avoid the war unless they absolutely have to and live the good life.
  • Break the Haughty: This happens to Binghamton every episode. It also happens to guest antagonists throughout the show often.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: The show often didn't hesitate to show all of the main characters having racist views of the Japanese, with their derogatory nickname "Nips" often being dropped quite casually. Also, on more than a few instances, other issues do show up. One episode has Binghamton's wife visit the base, and Admiral Rogers mistakenly believes a nurse is Binghamton's wife. Binghamton's paranoia about the Admiral learning about the misunderstanding is rooted in the fact that in the 1940s, adultery was a crime under American law, and while it usually was not prosecuted, it was a justifiable ground to remove someone from a job.
  • During the War: The series is set during World War II, natch.
  • Enemy Mine: Most the episodes usually have this, where Binghamton and McHale often have to work together despite their mutual dislike of each other. This is mandatory whenever the Japanese or the Germans are involved, and also whenever a guest antagonist appears that threatens both of them, and if there is a special VIP visiting the base.
  • Evil Roy: Lt Elroy Carpenter, Binghamton's aide.
  • Flanderization: Captain Binghamton's lengths to get McHale and his crew court martialed or transferred were heavily exaggerated in the third season. While he had been willing to go to illegal means beforehand, the incidents were often rare, and he usually went to unethical, but still legal methods throughout the first two seasons of the show. The third season often had Binghamton often resort to outright criminal schemes and antics, ranging from fraud and evidence fabrication to straight up officer impersonation. By the time the series ends, it would be Binghamton who had the much larger rap sheet than McHale and his men.
  • Gambling Addict: The crew, especially Gruber, has a serious gambling problem, which on more than a few instances, has allowed Binghamton to get easy evidence that can get the crew court martialed.
  • Impersonating an Officer: A frequent act is McHale and his men dressing one of the crew up as an officer, either to get out of a particularly tight jam, or if it is to get something they want. Binghamton also started to do this in Season 3 when he started to get subjected to severe Flanderization.
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Given it's a war comedy, one of the most common ways for the gang to get into trouble is for them to have a mishap that either injures or almost kills Captain Binghamtom by accident, with Parker being the most common culprit. Most of the time, it often involves accidentally running over or sinking Binghamton's boat with the 73, but there have been a few firearm instances involved, such as Chuck being careless with his pistol, or cavalierly tossing grenades. One episode has a stowaway French girl playing with a machine gun and almost shooting Binghamton by accident.
  • Military Brat: Ensign Parker, a hopeless schlub from an illustrious military family who is nevertheless bound and determined to somehow carry on his family's tradition of service.
  • Military Maverick: McHale and his crew, without a doubt.
  • Mr. Vice Guy: Torpedo's Mate Lester Gruber is often the reason McHale, and his crew get into trouble. Many of his schemes either get Binghamton on their trail, gain the attention of the Japanese or the Germans, or more seriously, cause Binghamton to get them dead to rights with irrefutable evidence to get the crew court martialed, which Binghamton often uses either to blackmail McHale or he offers to lift if McHale helps him out. He constantly gets warned by McHale that his schemes will get the crew court martialed, but Gruber usually can't resist the chance to pull get rich quick schemes or gambling.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: On more than a few instances, a guest antagonist usually has McHale dead to rights, usually giving Binghamton a golden opportunity to get rid of McHale through a golden opportunity. However, the guest antagonist then proceeds to either antagonize Binghamton or believe he is working with McHale or anger the admirals which forces Binghamton to reluctantly join forces with McHale. The second season episode "A Star Falls on Taratupa" is a prime example, where McHale has confined an army colonel to the base hospital without authorization so that a fictional movie star can put on a show for Admiral Rogers. When Binghamton discovers what has happened, Colonel Pryor, who Binghamton had asked to make a slight stop at Taratupa for the show at the beginning of the episode, accuses Binghamton of being behind McHale's scheme. With his own career on the line, Binghamton is forced to reluctantly go along with McHale's scheme to save his career.
  • Quintessential British Gentleman: Sub-Lieutenant Clivedon
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: McHale's uniform cap badge is smaller than everyone else's by a noticeable amount. This is not an error. In fact, all the other caps, which used 1960s-vintage hat badges, are in error. The badge McHale wears in the series is personally owned by Ernest Borgnine, who was a genuine World War Two Navy veteran and came from his time in the service.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: All of the admirals and higher ups in the series either think very highly of McHale or come to sympathize with him. Admiral Rogers is by far the most notable, as in several episodes, he either turns a blind eye to McHale's schemes when Binghamton shows him irrefutable evidence or he outright helps McHale by dismissing Binghamton's evidence against him. Part of this is due to genuine respect for McHale's success as a commander, and the other part is sheer frustration over Binghamton's obsession with getting rid of McHale and his crew.
  • Retool: In its final season, the series moved from the Pacific theater to Italy.
    • The entire premise of the show itself came from a retool: The pilot episode was called "Seven Against the Sea," an installment of "Alcoa Presents", and was a gritty war drama, featuring McHale as a serious leader trying to keep the men on his PT boat alive after a shattering Japanese attack. One of the producers, however, wanted to do Sgt. Bilko in the Navy. He ordered the shore-side business angle (which included running a laundry and still and McHale's rapport with the native chiefs) ramped Up to Eleven, and the dramatics jettisoned. The rest is history.
  • Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Binghamton to Commander McHale beyond a doubt.
  • Spiritual Successor: McHale's Navy shares many behind-the-scenes people with The Phil Silvers Show and in many ways is Sergeant Bilko in the Navy.
    • Torpedoman's Mate Lester Gruber could also be seen as an unintentional Expy of The Navy Lark's Chief Petty Officer Jon Pertwee to boot, as both shows cribbed liberally from The Phil Silvers Show.
  • Welcome Episode: The pilot has Capt Binghamton assign Naive Newcomer Ensign Charles Parker the job of making McHale's men behave the military way.

The contemporary spin-offs provide examples of:

The 1997 movie provides examples of:

Vladikov: What do you think of my stealth boat, David?
David: Very stealthy, sir.

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