The Rear Guard

There's only one thing to be said.

This should've never ever been made! Apparently you're not meant to 'shout' in these comments. Why? I want to make a valid point and the opinion I wish to articulate needs to be heard over the rooftops. What better way to achieve this than shouting?What is the fascination of the American TV companies with seeing a fabulous UK programme saying Hmmm this looks good, let's take it to the States. But instead of showing the original show, they decide to remake the programme! It has happened with Are You Being Served?, Coupling, The Office, I'm not going to go on because I'll be here all day.

NO NO NO! We here in the UK don't remake American classics such as Friends, Frasier, Sex and The City, Cheers, M*A*S*H, The Phil Silvers Show. Need I go on? I think my point is made.

If there was a rating of 0 I'd give it to this pile of fermented carrion, but seeing as the lowest rating I can give is 1 that will have to suffice.

The Rear Guard was a one-off, intended as a pilot for a series that never eventuated. It is based directly on the BBC sitcom Dad's Army, and the script is adapted from Dad's Army's best episode, The Deadly Attachment. The script by Jimmy Perry and David Croft was adapted by Arthur Julian for what he considered American taste. It didn't work.

Headed by Lou Jacobi, playing Sgt Max Raskin (equivalent of Sgt Wilson), and Cliff Norton playing Captain Nick Rosatti (Capt Mainwaring), the other troops were made up with Dennis Kort as Bobby Henderson (Pike), John McCook as actor Don Crawford (Walker) and Eddie Foy jr. as Bert Wagner (combination of Jones and Godfrey!). The clergy was represented by Jim Connell as Father Fitzgerald (the Vicar) and Arthur Peterson as Mr Muldoon (the Verger).

Also featured were Ronda Coupland as Marsha Wilson, and Conrad Janis as the U-boat Commander (originated in the BBC episode by Philip Madoc). And making up the ranks were Don Diamond as Foster and Claude Jones as Krupinsky. James McCullion played Colonel Walsh.

The original script was trimmed to the bone, and altered slightlyfor the US audience, and the acting was much less subtle than Dad's Army. But it was not too bad an attempt on Americanizing something so British as Dad's Army.

Made by ABC-TV it aired just once, on the 10th of August 1976. After that, ABC'TV disposed of their master copy, and it was thought lost for years.

I run the Dad's Army Appreciation Society New Zealand Branch, and while interviewing cast from Dad's Army, Colin Bean (Private Sponge) mentioned the American version. This was unknown to the society then (1997), so I set out on a hunt to find out about it. I searched for two years to find details on this show, and finally tracked down the late Cliff Norton in 1999 who found a copy in director Hal Cooper's possession. I was able to pass this on to Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the successful writers who created this, their only failure in many years as a partnership! They were elated.

Recently clips from The Rear Guard aired in the BBC special Missing Believed Wiped, about the recovery of two lost Dad's Army episodes.

Dave Homewood

Wow an American version of the BBC comedy classic DAD`S ARMY ! What a masterstroke of stupidity , it`s a bit like making an American version of FAWLTY TOWERS or a British version of MARRIED WITH CHILDREN who in their right minds would do that ? Oh hold on somebody has on both the latter counts

There`s two things you should know . One is that both Britain the country and Britain the sit-com are divided by the class system , this is what makes DAD`S ARMY and umpteen other Brit sit-coms work . There`s a third thing you should also know and that is America prides itself on being a classless society . Worked out where this comedy pilot might fall down ? So instead of a middle class bank manager credited with some authority looking down his nose at his peers the jokes in REAR GUARD* tend to bounce off ethnic divides with a Jewish equivelent of Arthur Lowe telling his sargeant that " You can take the man out of the olive oil but you`ll never take the olive oil out of the man "

But don`t panic people this never went to a full series . Strange too that the script is directly culled from the DAD`S ARMY episode about the captured U-boat . If you`ve seen the source episode you won`t need me to tell you how flat everything is in comparison here . Nice to know someone at the TV studio ran up the white flag before anymore atrocities were committed

* I wonder if the show was named after Cpl Jones catchphrase " They don`t like it up`em sir " ?