C.P.O. Sharkey
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| C.P.O. Sharkey | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Situation comedy |
| Starring | Don Rickles Peter Isacksen Elizabeth Allen Harrison Page Richard X. Slattery |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 37 |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 0:30 (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Original run | December 1, 1976 – July 28, 1978 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
C.P.O. Sharkey was an American sitcom which aired from 1976 to 1978 on NBC. It starred "insult comic" Don Rickles as a Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy. Sharkey was an abrasive, sharp-tongued veteran in charge of a company of new Seaman Recruits. Rickles is famous for his jokes about various ethnicities and this show provided him with the perfect vehicle for his politically incorrect humor. The young company consisted of Daniels, an African-American; Kowalski, a Polish-American; Skolnick, a Jewish-American, Mignone, an Italian-American and Rodriguez, an Hispanic-American. Sharkey's best friend on the naval base was Chief Robinson (Harrison Page) who was African-American.
Rickles as Sharkey also put his insult humor to good use with the other characters. Sharkey's assistant, Seaman Pruitt (Peter Isacksen), was 6' 7" and simple-minded. His immediate superior was the smug and buck-toothed Lt. Whipple. The base commander was the female Capt. Quinlan (Elizabeth Allen), who Sharkey never insulted to her face. But Sharkey was really a nice guy beneath his harsh exterior and often went to extreme measures to help his recruits with their problems.
In the first season, Sharkey's first name was never revealed until in one episode, he referred to himself as "Seymour". In the second season, he was named Otto.
[edit] Running gags
The 6' 7" Pruitt would often stand right next to the 5' 6" Sharkey to speak to him. Sharkey would find it difficult to speak to Pruitt this way and would make a snide remark about Pruitt's height.
Lt. Whipple would often lecture Sharkey about something. When he left the room, Sharkey would look in the camera and imitate Whipple's buck-teeth.
In the second season, Sharkey had a new commander, the tough Capt. Buckner (Richard X. Slattery). Buckner would yell orders in a tirade directly in Sharkey's face making the usually verbose Sharkey speechless.
[edit] The cigarette box incident
Despite not being particularly popular, this series is often remembered for an incident that occurred on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. During production of the series, Rickles appeared on Tonight Show with guest host Bob Newhart. While poking fun at Newhart, in faux-anger, Rickles slammed the cigarette box which Johnny Carson kept on his desk and broke it. When Carson returned to the show and discovered this, he took a camera crew to the studio next door where Sharkey was being taped. Carson disrupted the taping in order to tease Rickles about it, to the delight of the studio audiences of both shows. Rickles, known for his quick comebacks, was left speechless and could only laugh heartily. Carson also turned to Harrison Page and said: "Oh, there's a black man. Hello black guy!". This incident was often replayed in Tonight Show retrospectives and was considered a highlight of the 1970s era of the show.
