The D-Day Blogathon: TV Series Review: Combat! Season 1, Episode 11: "A Day in June"

Hello, everyone!

In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day (which was yesterday), Hamlette (who blogs at Hamlette's Soliloquy) and Eva (who blogs at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness) are hosting a blogathon!

I knew that I wanted to participate in some way, but I wasn't sure how. I was rather slow so when I got there a lot of different entries were already claimed. Because of this, I am doing some thing that I have never done before... review something out of order! When I asked Hamlette what she would recommend, and she suggested an episode of her favorite TV show, Combat!.

There are some TV shows where you must watch them in order that they air, or else you would be confused, but there are others where you can watch them in any order. From what I understand, Combat! is like the latter one. Each episode has its own story that you can watch at any time. If you watch it in the order that it was made then you see it in the historical order too. It's up to you.

Update: Actually, as Hamlette pointed out to me in the comments, this was written as the pilot of the show, but decided later to use a different beginning. So, this could be the perfect one to start with!

My guarantee: On ALL of my reviews there are NO spoilers unless I give you warning.

Combat!: Season 1, Episode 11: "A Day in June" (1962):

Based on: The events of June 6th, 1944, known as D-Day.
"This isn't a pig pen, it's a chicken coop."

One rainy night, Sergent Saunders recalls the events of D-Day. He and his troops were waiting for weeks before they finally started the attack. Their job was to get to a farm house and find out who was staying there. If is was an enemy, they were supposed to report back. Each soldier is a little nervous, for good reason. When they have to change their plans, they all wonder, who will make it back alive?
"That's all anybody can do, try."

Genre: Action.

Length: approx. 47 minutes.

Costumes: 8, nothing bad, but nothing spectacular.

Script: 10, no bad words!

'"It's either fog or low hanging clouds."

"What's the difference between fog and low hanging clouds?"'

Crew:

Directed by: Boris Sagal.

Written by: Robert Pirosh.

Starring:
Rick Jason as Lt. Gil Hanley. "You're getting smart, lieutenant."
Vic Morrow as Sgt. "Chip" Saunders.
Steven Rogers as PFC "Doc" Walton. (He was my favorite, just to let you all know).
Shecky Greene as Pvt. Braddock.
Pierre Jalbert as Caddy.
Pat Dahl as Hazel.
Lisa Montell as Marcelle.
Dean Stanton as Beecham.

Cinematography: 8.

Music: 8, I feel like if I watched this a lot I would get it stuck in my head, but not for one time viewing.

Music by: Leonard Rosenman.

Quotes: 8. "Beautiful H2O is coming down in buckets."

Storyline: 7, there is some smoking, death, and fighting scenes. This is a war TV show called "Combat!".

Age Range: As I said, it does feature death, but I would say that anyone over 10 would be fine. Maybe not interested, but fine.

Overall Score: 8.

Bonus thoughts:
It was definitely interesting to see the different view points on D-Day.
This was a fun introduction to the show for me, and I hope that if you watch it then you enjoy it, too! I will be watching more episodes in the future.


(Sorry about the lack of photos, these are all that I could find!)

A huge thank you to Hamlette and Eva for hosting this! Make sure to go check out all of the other entries HERE.

Have you seen any episodes of Combat!? Let me know what you thought of them. Thanks for reading!

MovieCritic