The Gallant Men (1962-63) was another television series about WWII. The show failed largely because it couldn't compete with another like show COMBAT!. I really don't remember much about it, seeing how I was so young at the time and that The Gallant Men only survived a season on air. It is nice to find a sampling of these shows on YouTube. The theme song, intro, and outro are the only things about this show that I do recall. Both Combat! and The Gallant Men were products of ABC. The Gallant Men aired on Friday nights and Combat! on Tuesday nights. From what I've read online - The Gallant Men turned out to be a little too mellow dramatic - what I'd call a soap opera with machine guns. Combat! won out - but I'd still like to see what these shows were like myself. Even if it is like a soap opera, I'd like to see them. I'd probably take an interest in soap operas if someone lobbed a grenade in the plot every now and then
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I liked The Gallant Men as much as I did Combat. I don't think it's problem was melodrama--Combat had plenty of that--but the characters weren't as well-defined. Maybe I think that because Combat had several seasons to develop characters.
Even at that tender age, I was able to see borrowed footage from Darby's Rangers and To Hell and Back, both Warner Brothers pix. It even had Warner Brothers gun sound effects--as tell-tale as the Italian western ones.
Still, I liked the show and hated to see it go.
Funny, but watching this clip and the narration at the end reminded me of John Huston's doc The Battle of San Pietro (also in the Italian campaign). Coincidence?
I don't think it was a coincidence. The stories of The Gallant Men were seen through the eyes of a reporter - a sort of Ernie Pyle character. It's a good concept.
I'll take your word for The Gallant Men. I was very young. When you and I were kids - we liked any show where Nazi's were blown to smithereens.
The Combat characters were defined. I also read online where The Gallant Men leaned more toward characters that were more stereotypical - kind of like the silver age WWII comic that we enjoyed so well - Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos.
N Loved this show when I was nine years old but don't remember much of it now. Noticed the "star" of the show was one James Doohan. Was that Jimmy Doohan that went onto fame in Star Trek?
I think one reason I leaned toward GM rather than Combat was because I was allowed up later on Friday nights and saw it more often, and I also found Combat to be more of a soap,despite what others have said.
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