Soldato Benjamin

This series tried to take off the success of the movie by the same name. No such luck, maybe it was because that the TV staff could not hire Goldie Hawn to portray Private Benjamin. Even though this series has been off for nearly 20 years I still remember one of the jokes made by Captain Lewis (Eillen Breenan). Captain Lewis was explaining to Private Benjamin why the Army would not promote her to Major. " I made a big mistake. Instead of sending a hundred turkeys to a battalion, I sent a hundred battalions to Turkey"

Throughout the 1960's and 1970's, the unfunny sitcom was a staple of network television. Shows like "Family Affair" and "The Brady Bunch" laid it on thick with the laugh track, but no jokes ever emerged and nothing funny ever happened in them. They were the television equivalent of the "Family Circus" comic strip.

Coming along in 1981, after Mary Tyler Moore, Mash and All in the Family seriously raised the bar on TV comedy, Private Benjamin was a throwback to those earlier sitcoms. Based on an actually funny movie, the series strained hard, with an omnipresent laugh track, to make Judy Benjamin's klutzy mistakes look like they were high comedy. Hal Williams and Eileen Brennan were pulled in from the movie, but just seemed strained in the series. Brennan in particular seemed like she was SCREAMING ALL THE TIME.

Lorna Patterson, coming off the truly funny movie Airplane, is cute but adds nothing to the mix.

They don't make 'em like this anymore, thank goodness.

I don't get the haters. No, it wasn't a Golden Globe winner but as a young person, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. And now that I'm older and feeling nostalgic, I would love to watch it again. It's nice to have a light, funny, heartwarming series to settle in and forget the real world for a while. Not everything has to be deep and meaningful. I loved the movie too and I thought the series held up to the original. I thought you could find anything on the internet these days but not so! Please bring Private Benjamin to dvd or a streaming platform!!!! I would pay to have this in my collection.

This series suffered from poor writing and Blah direction which probably explains why it has never shown up again since its demise.

Lorna patterson is passable as Private benjamin but nothing special...And none of the gags in any of the episodes were ever above par.....The show was sweet natured enough...but thats really about it

Oh and what ever happened to Lorna anyway???

I enjoyed the movie, and the series wasn't half-bad for an 80s sitcom. Sure, it wasn't Cheers but so what. It was funny and I enjoyed watching this alongside Donahue.