Just two years before a 3-hour tour landed 7 men and women shipwrecked on Gilligan’s Island, Lt. Commander Quinton McHale, (played by Ernest Borgnine), began leading a misfit PT Boat crew through the South Pacific in the WWII comedy series McHale’s Navy.
The show, which premiered on ABC in October of 1962, was nominated for 5 Primetime Emmys during the course of its 4-year run. But according to actor Ernest Borgnine, he had little support when he first accepted this television role.
“When I decided to go into making ‘McHale’s Navy,’ people said, “Why are you lowering yourself?” Lowering myself? What do you mean, lowering? It’s all show business, isn’t it? I mean, whether you’re in front of a small camera or a big camera, it makes no difference, you’re still entertainment,” Borgnine said in his interview with EmmyTVLegends.org.
During the 2008 two-and-a-half hour interview, McHale also recalled his own enlistment into the Navy, the production schedule for McHale’s Navy and his impression of his fellow cast members, as well as details about his personal and professional life on and off screen.
This Tuesday, January 24, 2012, the actor had something greater than surviving with a crew of individuals whose unmilitary antics often got them into trouble – he turned 95! He shows no sign of slowing down either. According to the Emmy TV Legends blog, Borgnine’s carreer continues to move ahead at full steam - his next appearance will be as “Rex Page” in the film The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez, due out later this year.
Please enjoy Part 2 of 3 from Borgnine’s 2008 interview with EmmyTVLegends.org below. In this part of the interview, Borgnine talks about how the series McHale’s Navy came about and his initial reluctance.
