Television series
The Phil Silvers Show
The Phil Silvers Show is the original schemer sitcom — half an hour of Sgt. Ernie Bilko running cons, poker games and get-rich-quick rackets past his exhausted commanding officer. Shot live to a studio audience, fast and verbal and endlessly inventive, it's built on the pleasure of watching a con man who never quite gets away with it, but never really loses either.
If you liked this
Only Fools and Horses....1981
British sitcom royalty built on the same engine — a lovable chancer whose every scheme to get rich collapses spectacularly, with a sidekick who should know better by now.
But Very London, very 80s in its rhythms — some of the class-based jokes need context if you're not British.
M*A*S*H1972
Takes the military-comedy setup somewhere darker and sadder, with the same push-pull between rule-breakers and the officer trying to hold the base together.
But Tonal whiplash between farce and grief can feel jarring if you want pure comedy.
Barney Miller1975
Swaps the barracks for a squad room but keeps the format — a weary boss, a parade of oddballs, and comedy built almost entirely on dialogue and patience running out.
But Slow by modern pace; almost nothing happens except talking, which is either the appeal or the problem.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Sting1973
Same structural pleasure as Bilko — a con laid out step by step for the audience to admire — moved from sitcom farce into full dramatic heist cinema.
Watch the con-man engine dressed up as a glossy Depression-era heist movie — the same pleasure in seeing a scheme built brick by brick, just with an Oscar and Newman and Redford instead of a laugh track.
But It's a serious, plotted caper rather than a joke machine — nobody's coming back next week for another racket.
More like this (8)
Hogan's Heroes1965no page yet
Prisoners running elaborate schemes under their captors' noses — Bilko's con-man DNA transplanted into a POW camp, played entirely for laughs.
But The premise, comedy set in a Nazi POW camp, still unsettles some viewers whatever the tone.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia2005
Bilko's scheming spirit gone feral — a crew of self-interested operators whose plans always detonate in their own faces, just with far fewer boundaries.
But Deliberately abrasive and mean-spirited; the show wants you uncomfortable as often as amused.
Cheers1982
Same warmth underneath the wisecracks — a tight ensemble who needle each other constantly but would never actually let one another really lose.
But No scheming plots to speak of; if you came for cons, this is pure hangout comedy instead.
F Troop1965no page yet
A cavalry outpost running a profitable side business in whiskey and souvenirs — broader and sillier, but unmistakably descended from Bilko's racket.
But Slapstick and cartoonish stereotypes of its era land clumsily now.
Seinfeld1989
No military hierarchy, but the same delight in watching a fast-talker's clever little schemes unravel through his own overconfidence.
But Entirely different world — apartments and diners, not barracks — so the connection is more spiritual than structural.
WKRP in Cincinnati1978
A workplace of oddballs and one exasperated boss trying to keep a chaotic operation solvent — gentler cousin to Bilko's outfit.
But Milder and warmer than Bilko's sharper edges; if you want cons and grift, this is mostly just nice.
Catch-221970
Takes Bilko's world — soldiers working every angle of an absurd institution — and shows what it looks like when the absurdity stops being funny and starts being horrifying.
The same military bureaucracy, the same officers baffled by their own rules and the men gaming them, but pushed until the jokes curdle into genuine dread.
But Deliberately disorienting structure and a much bleaker payoff; this isn't comfort viewing.
Buck Privates1941no page yet
The direct ancestor — proof the con-man-in-uniform format existed and worked before Bilko, and a look at where the whole tradition of military hustle comedy actually started.
Abbott and Costello, in uniform, over a decade before Bilko, running the exact fast-talker-and-patsy double act that Silvers would later perfect for television.
But Creaky wartime production and musical numbers that have nothing to do with the plot.
People
Cast
Writing
- Nat HikenCreator
Recommended by
The Jack Benny Program, WKRP in Cincinnati, It Ain't Half Hot Mum