(065) Silver Service

Teleplay by Kay Lenard and Jess Carneol
Story by Edward J. Bonner
Directed by Sutton Roley

In "The Silver Service," Kirby shows his leadership ability. When faced with someone more irresponsible than himself, Kirby becomes the model of responsibility.

Former matinee idol Ramon Novarro (Ben Hur in the 1927 silent film) plays the befuddled grandfather. He later appears as the befuddled Count in the episode " Finest Hour ."

Pierre says about director Sutton Roley, "He was trying to direct Mickey Rooney to play the dice. Can you imagine that? Mickey Rooney, the greatest talent that Hollywood produced. And Mickey got, excuse the expression I have to use, Mickey got so 'pissed' that he walked off the set. He said 'I'm going to kill that son of a bitch.' I walked out and walked Mickey around the stage to cool him off so I could bring him back in and finish the scene."

· Spectacular night-time pyrotechnics in the French village. These explosions interrupt Kirby's nightmare, which consists of recycled footage from previous episodes.

· Exterior sequences filmed at Squaw Valley (read about filming).

· This episode is the series' attempt to cover the Battle of the Bulge.

Jack Hogan at the Combat! reunion said: "They sent a second unit to Squaw valley, and the rest of us, Mickey and Claudine and myself, we worked in plastic snow. And that stuff gets in your eyes and you think you're going to croak. [...] Mickey Rooney was funny in his own way. Mickey was a compulsive talker and joke teller. Sometimes you'd do a scene and they would say cut and everybody would go to learn their next lines. But Mickey, the second they'd say cut, would grab your sleeve and keep on talking to you. And you couldn't get away to go to the john or get a drink of water because Mickey was talking."

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