Many episodes of "Dad's Army" are available on Youtube. It is a BBC TV sitcom about the British Home Guard in World War 2 which aired from 1968 to 1977.. Many of the TV episodes were later remade for radio. They are also available on Youtube.
Did anyone know that they tried to re-make it for the U.S? There is a pilot episode out there and needless to say, it was scrapped because it was so bad. It was called The Rear Guard: http://youtu.be/1q1ToUWu3Cc
While a number of British sitcoms were successfully Americanized, the basic premise of Dad's Army (a force of volunteers too old. too young, or physically unfit for regular military service) doesn't work in America since there was really no danger of invasion by Germany or a successful invasion by Japan. The US had nothing comparable to the Home Guard. The threat of invasion of Britain by Germany was very real and Germany actually made some preparations to invade . In hindsight it appears that Germany was probably not capable of launching a successful cross Channel invasion (they didn't have the ships and landing craft needed to transport their army), but that was not known at the time.
There's me thinking it flopped because the actors couldn't act and the production was lousy. Some things are best left alone eh?
Suprisingly....a few years ago I was busy googling around for "home guard manuals"....and discovered a HUGE number of American ones online!!! It would seem that quite a few U.S. states did indeed constitute a "Home Guard" during the war; I don't think it was anywhere near as well organised as the UK version, and certainly not nationwide....I'm not sure uniforms etc. were formally issued, for example - or if they were, it was on a per-state basis if it was done or not..... But it's a topic worth finding out more about.
New Zealand Home Guard Manual 1941: http://www.angelfire.com/ca5/yourturf3/NZHG1.html British Home Guard Pocket Manual, January 1944:: http://www.jonlinney.co.uk/hg_manual/01.htm A movie The Life and Death of Coronel Blimp 1943: Is a romantic drama that follows the military career of its main character, Major-General Clive, from the Boer War to a senior commander of the Home Guard in WW2.
With the federalization of the state National Guard units, FDR signed the State Guard Act in October, 1941. Of course, the names varied(Home Guard, Reserve Defense Force, State Guard, State Guard Reserve, State Militia, etc.), here in Pennsylvania, the State Guard was was called the Pennsylvania Reserve Defense Corps, before changing it's name in 1943 to the Pennsylvania State Guard.
I looked up googled State Guard and read some of the articles about them . While trained so they could perform military functions if necessary, their primary purpose was to perform the normal peacetime functions of the National Guard units called into Federal service, although they also performed guard and patrol functions that would have been performed by the NG they were available. Some of them were formed in 1939-40 period. Before FDR signed the State Guard Act in 1941.
Each character is so well loved and the series is an institution. Will be an extremely hard act to follow therefore I do not have high hopes of the new movie being a success.
I've got all the Dad's Army episodes on DVD . Always a favourite to watch when feeling a little under the weather. Perks you up no end!
Toki, even the film adaptation of the original series feels a bit "off" because of tall the issues they had with the BBC over copyright etc. forcing changes on them. I like it, but it feels...distinct?....from the television series.
