F Troop: Difference between revisions

'''Definitely''' not to be confused with the zombie [[Super Soldiers]] from ''[[Project Superpowers]]''.

 

 

* [[Accidental Aiming Skills]]: Parmenter is notorious for his inability to hit a target. Instead, he wins gunfights by accidentally making ludicrously complicated trick shots, followed by his men pretending they were deliberate. He ends up with a [[Accidental Hero|reputation as a sharpshooter]] as a result.

* [[Balloon Belly]]: Agarn acquires one at the end of "Survival of the Fittest".

* [[Blind Mistake]]: Happens regularly with Private Vanderbilt, thanks to his 20/900 vision. He once allowed two Indians wearing feather head-dresses to enter the fort unchallenged, and later explained "I thought they were turkeys." (Vanderbilts inability to distinguish Indians from turkeys is actually a [[Running Gag]], though it's usually played the other way.)

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: B. Wise from "Spy, Counter, Counterspy" is essentially Maxwell Smart from ''[[Get Smart (TV)|Get Smart]]'' in an Old West setting. They even borrow a couple of his [[Catch Phrase|Catch Phrases]]. Justified as it would be unlikely for Smart to have time-travel capabilities. {{spoiler|And also averted, as Wise proves to be a traitor.}}

* [[Casting Gag]]: Trooper Duffy (Bob Steele) is an elderly cavalryman who claims to be the sole survivor of the Alamo, and regularly recounts his exploits there. Steele was previously a 1930s and '40s Western movie star, and had once been in a movie about meeting Davy Crockett at the Alamo.

* [[Dawson Casting]]: Inverted with Wrangler Jane, a twenty-something woman played by 15-year-old Melody Patterson. She got the part by initially lying about her age. The truth was not revealed until an on-set tutor pointed out her real age to one of the producers.

** This gave the producers a bit of trouble, as once her true age had been found out and due to a host of ethical/legal/[[Squick|squick]] issues, they couldn't have Ken Berry perform normal romantic scenes (such as kissing or embracing) with Melody Patterson, at least until she turned 16 (presumably the age of consent at the time). To get around it, the writers had Wrangler pursue a completely oblivious Parmenter fruitlessly -- until the second season, by which time it was kosher for her to do romantic scenes. Suddenly, Parmenter took a more active romantic interest in her.

* [[Double Vision]]: Used no less than ''five'' times on the show. Because Larry Storch was good with accents, he played three of Agarn's "long lost" cousins, one from Mexico, one who was French-Canadian, and one from Russia, in three separate episodes. Forrest Tucker and Ken Berry also got one episode each where they had to play opposite themselves.

* [[Dreadful Musician]]: Private Dobbs, an inept bugler who regularly mangles standard tunes like "Reveille", "Assembly" and "Retreat".

* [[The Gunslinger]]: Wrangler Jane, the best shot in Fort Courage.

** In the battle in the first episode, all the troopers in the fort combined shot seven Shugs. Wrangler Jane got ''seventeen''.

* [[Haunted House]]: Featured in the episode "V For Vampire," which guest-starred Vincent Price.

* [[Historical Domain Character]]: Ulysses S. Grant and General George Custer make appearances in the first season.

* [[Status Quo Is God]]: After O'Rourke is promoted to lieutenant in one episode, Agarn, Dobbs, and Hoffenmueller are promoted to sergeant, corporal, and bugler, respectively. When O'Rourke gets himself demoted back to sergeant by the end, he demotes Agarn, who demotes Dobbs, who takes his bugle back from Hoffenmueller. And the whole thing is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Captain Parmenter, who declares he's happy that Four Courage is back to normal.

* [[Theme Naming]]: When listing the troopers, many background ones were named after famous pairs: i.e. Lewis and Clark, Gilbert and Sullivan, Stanley and Livingston, and so on.

* [[Took a Level In Jerkass]]: Parmenter, in the episode "Old Ironpants". He was back to his normal self by the end, thank goodness.

* [[Truth in Television]]: "The Day They Shot Agarn" was based on an actual rule that appeared in post-Civil War army manuals; if a soldier lost a prisoner in transport, he was expected to carry out the prisoner's sentence.