Combat! - Season 5 Episode 19 Encounter On television, war is heck.
Overview: Capt. Cole (James Daily) is Reunited with his son Jack (James MacArthur).The Capt. hadn't seen his son in years. Jack now a reporter, sent to the front to cover the war. The squard assignment is to help the Capt. find the best place to build a pluntune bridge. While encountering the Germans at a farmhouse. Jack & his Father (Capt. Cole) are able to mind their fences. Jack get his story. A father & son find each other again.
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My dad used to talk about this when I was a kid... well... his entire life. And I can relate. He sounded a lot like I probably sound when I still talk about the A-Team: "And then, and then Mr. T did this and.... ahhhh... it was awesome." "How old are you again?" "40." Anyway, hearing about that all my life, when I finally got to watch it, Thank you MeTV, I felt obligated to take the opportunity. After all, Combat! And All in the Family were the only television shows I ever heard my father reference. And.... WOW. It humanizes. The Nazi soldiers are just, well, soldiers. They totally ignored the habit of making them characterless monsters and instead just made them soldiers who may or may not be political. That is pretty amazing right there. That sort of says "Yeah, we are going to be focused on writing and telling compelling stories more than anything else," and of course, it still manages to keep the O. Henry style moral twists that came with the era despite not making a statement of absolute evil. It makes for a really smart show.