FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 01/24/20 - CORPORAL STEVE HENSHAW

Last year we inducted Corporal Rocco Barbella into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as a Friday Hall of Famer, and for this month’s showcase, the Classic TV entry, we added Sgt. Ernie Bilko to kick off 2020.

It only seems fair that we now complete the show’s triumvirate of tricksters….

CORPORAL STEVE HENSHAW

From Wikipedia:
While appearing on Broadway in “Stalag 17”, [Allan Melvin] got his break into television by getting the role of Corporal Steve Henshaw on the popular ‘The Phil Silvers Show’ program. U.S. Television fans of this era usually best remember his role as Henshaw, Sgt. Bilko’s right-hand man on that show.

“He was proudest of that show,” Amalia Melvin said. “I think the camaraderie of all those guys made it such a pleasant way to work. They were so relaxed.”  

Allan Melvin, who played Henshaw, was not involved in the original pilot “The New Recruits.”  Jack Warden played Corporal Henshaw in that.

I’m assuming based on his listing in the IMDb that Warden's first name was not mentioned in the pilot.  And even if it was, I doubt that it’s that unique a name; I’m sure there could be plenty of Steve Henshaws around the country.

Since the motor pool was made up of soldiers from all around the country, I don’t see how it would be that unusual to not only have two soldiers named Henshaw, even Steve Henshaw, and not only that, but that they would both attain the rank of corporal.

That aside, it does mean that Melvin’s Henshaw is lacking one-third of his requirement to join the TV Crossover Hall of Fame....  Officially.

Luckily for us, Allan Melvin was a prolific performer in television; in fact, it looks as though he was so busy that he only could fit in two movie roles – in “With Six You Get Eggroll” and as the voice of “H.R. Pufnstuf”, replacing Lennie Weinrib.

Melvin made several appearances on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ as various characters, all but two of whom had names.  One of those exceptions was “Recruiting Sergeant” in the episode “Ernest T. Bass Joins The Army.”

I always love when an unnamed character is able to come to my rescue when I’m in need of a “splainin to do” to conflate two characters into one.

I’m making the claim that Melvin’s recruiting sergeant was Steve Henshaw.  We know it can’t be Sgt. Charley Hacker, Sgt. Vince Carter’s rival, because he was in the Marine Corp. It’s right there in the title of the show: ‘Gomer Pyle, USMC’.  And the title of this TAGS episode makes it clear that the sergeant is recruiting for the Army.

It’s nice to think that Henshaw eventually was promoted and the Army found a good use for his persuasive con man skills.

There is another possible candidate however – “Harrison B. Harding of Camp Crowder, Mo.” from that eponymous episode of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’.  But that can be easily challenged – good old “Horseface” visited the Petries in 1961 and by then he had been out of the Army for some time.   He couldn’t have been a recruitment officer in 1963.

Four actors whose characters
are now in the TVXOHOF:
Harvey Lembeck, Allan Melvin, Phil Silvers
from 'The Phil Silvers Show
and Dick Van Dyke for
Dr. Mark Sloan of 'Diagnosis Murder' &
Rob Petrie of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'

I am partial to a theory of “relateeveety” in which Steve Henshaw, Charley Hacker, and Harrison B. Harding are the euphemistic kind of “identical cousins”.  In their case, they weren’t actual cousins like Cathy and Patty; “identical cousins” is just a polite way of saying they were all  half-brothers, each with a different mother.

Who knows?  Maybe their father (who probably looked like Allan Melvin as well) had a thing for women whose married names began with “H”?

I wouldn't be surprised if Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner was another twin brother from a different mother!

None of that counts toward Henshaw’s qualifications for TVXOHOF membership, of course. Just adds a bit of supposition flavoring….

Here are the roles which “qualify” Cpl. Henshaw for induction into the Hall:

1955-1959
The Phil Silvers Show
143 episodes

1959
Keep in Step (TV Movie)
Cpl Steve Henshaw

1963
The Andy Griffith Show
- Ernest T. Bass Joins the Army
Recruiting Sergeant

Welcome to the Hall, Corporal -# I mean, Sergeant Henshaw.  I’m sure you’ll find your old cronies in a game down in the rec room…..

Cpl. Henshaw is a multiversal.
Here he is in a cigarette print ad.