HOW REALISTIC?

[treky]

I was watching this show on Antenna TV and got to wondering: how realistic was it about the U.S. navy in W.W. II?

[JJM]

My option is that its no more realistic then Hogan's Heroes, but just as funny

[Ellayn O'Kosh]

Realisms in comedies are more by accident than design. First off, the characters' uniforms tend to be actors' costumes. As such, it is by convention that a costume must have a uniform defect. E.g., Borgnine, was a Navy veteran, IIRC, wore a WWII period emblem on his cap while the other officers' cap emblems was a bit larger and shinier.

Some WAVES uniforms have big, blatant defects, like the caps worn by the nurses, looked like men's caps without the bills (also in In Harm's Way). And there was the dress uniform worn by Betsy Jones-Moreland as Lt. Casey Brown in the third episode. Again, the bill-less man's cap, but what really stand out is that she is wearing the male dress blues jacket! The WAVES dress blue jacket only has the four vertical buttons, not the double breasted as she wore. I could not tell by the imagery if her jacket was darted for female use, or left alone as standard for male uniform.

A South Pacific Bases did not stay the same for long. Of course, McHN spent only 1943 at Taratupa, and then, where is Taratupa? Fictional place.

Someone really up on PT boats could cite the historical defects of the PT-73. It is more likey a Higgins boat than an ELCO, but it is easy to go down every possible rabbit hole, for something 20 years after the period.

And then there is the Captain's priviledge v. duties. My "Courts martial" thread begin some of that discourse.

And of course, like Hogan's Heros, nobody get killed and the enemy is almost never hostile.

If it was too realistic, could it be a comedy? Perhaps Down Periscope and Operation Petticoat could lend an idea.