C.P.O. Sharkey

C.P.O. Sharkey
Sharkey winds up in a Tijuana jail after trying to bail out his men.
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Aaron Ruben
Starring	Don Rickles Peter Isacksen Elizabeth Allen Harrison Page Richard X. Slattery
Composer(s)	Peter Matz
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	37
Production
Executive producer(s)	Aaron Ruben
Producer(s)	Aaron Ruben Gene Marcione
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	R&R Productions
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	December 1, 1976 (1976-12-01) – April 28, 1978 (1978-04-28)

C.P.O. Sharkey is an American sitcom created by Aaron Ruben that aired on NBC from December 1, 1976, to April 28, 1978. The series starred Don Rickles in the title role, with Peter Isacksen, Elizabeth Allen, Harrison Page and Richard X. Slattery as supporting players.

Premise

The series starred Don Rickles as U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Otto Sharkey, an abrasive, sharp-tongued veteran in charge of a company of new seaman recruits on a San Diego naval base. Rickles (who in real-life served in the Navy during World War II) is famous for his jokes about various ethnicities, and the program provided him with a vehicle for his politically incorrect humor. Sharkey, however, was really a nice guy beneath his harsh exterior and often went to extreme measures to help his recruits with their problems.

The young company consisted of Daniels, an African-American; Kowalski, a Polish-American; Skolnick, a Jewish-American; Mignone, an Italian-American; and Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican. Sharkey's best friend on the base was C.P.O. Dave Robinson (Harrison Page), who was African-American. Sharkey's assistant, Seaman Lester Pruitt (Peter Isacksen), was a 6' 7" Southerner who shared his simple-minded homilies to the uninterested C.P.O. Sharkey's immediate superior was the smug and buck-toothed Lt. Whipple (Jonathan Daly). The base commander in the first season was the female Capt. Quinlan (Elizabeth Allen), whom Sharkey never insulted to her face. In the second season, Capt. Quinlan was replaced by Capt. Buck Buckner (Richard X. Slattery), a by-the-book former submarine captain. Also in Season 2, a seaman named Apodaca (played by Phillip Simms) would join the company.

The series featured an early American prime time TV depiction of punk rock, with San Fernando Valley punk rock band, The Dickies, making a guest appearance.^[1]

Coincidentally, Rickles portrayed a different C.P.O. in the 1961 episode "Professional Sailor" of the CBS military sitcom/drama, Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper.

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. Pruitt's girlfriend was Evelyn (Rhonda Bates), a 6' 2" Southerner with the same mannerisms, especially their laughter.
• Lt. Whipple would often lecture Sharkey. When he left the room, Sharkey would look in the camera and imitate Whipple's buck-teeth.
• In the second season, Buckner would yell orders in a tirade directly in Sharkey's face making the usually verbose Sharkey speechless.

The Tonight Show cigarette box incident

The series is often remembered for an incident that occurred on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson during December 1976. Rickles (who several times served as a guest host on The Tonight Show) appeared as a guest, speaking with guest host Bob Newhart. During the segment, Rickles slammed down the cigarette box Carson kept on his desk while joking with Newhart, and broke the box when he was doing a routine where he was pretending to stamp passports while pretending to be an immigration agent, using the box as the stamp. When Carson returned the following night to the show and discovered the broken box (as he was conversing with bandleader Doc Severinsen), he took a camera crew and walked across the hallway to the adjacent studio where Sharkey was being taped. Carson disrupted the taping in order to tease Rickles about it, pretending to be angry, to the delight of the studio audiences of both shows. Carson imitated Rickles' insult comedy style by calling him a "big dummy" and teasing Harrison Page by speaking to him in an exaggerated jive accent. As Carson prepared to exit the stage, Rickles looked at the Sharkey audience and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Carson!" With mock exasperation, Carson glared at Rickles and stated, "They know who I am!"

The incident was often replayed in Tonight Show retrospectives and was considered a major highlight of the 1970s era of the show. The incident was also featured in the documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project.

In a 2005 interview with The New York Times, Rickles said that the incident was a genuine accident, but he and Carson made it dramatic. "Knowing Johnny, he milked it a little bit. And I added to it." He also said he had no idea that Carson would barge in on his set that day. "I was really taken. In those days, those were bigger cameras than they are today. To schlep all that stuff into the other studio was quite an event."^[2]

Broadcast history

Reruns

Reruns aired on Comedy Central (then known as Ha!) in the early 1990s.^[3]

DVD release

On May 19, 2015, Time Life released C.P.O. Sharkey - The Complete Season 1 on DVD in Region 1.^[4]

On September 22, 2015, Time Life released C.P.O. Sharkey - The Complete Season 2 on DVD in Region 1.^[5]

Episodes

Season 1 (1976-77)

Season 2 (1977-78)

References

Further reading

• Brooks, Tim; Earl Marsh (2003). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.

External links

• C.P.O. Sharkey on IMDb