How were they with continuity of wounds and injuries?

Hey PhineasAppleby,

As you noted, near the end of the Masquerade episode Saunders was wounded and passed out after making it back to his lines. The episode closed with Saunders, arms around the shoulders of two other GIs, being walked back for medical attention. And you are correct, in the next episode he was fully recovered.

Throughout the 152 episode run of the series, the regularly featured squad members were wounded many, many times each and still returned to duty. In fact, Billy was killed off in the Celebrity episode, but someone decided they liked Tom Lowell as Billy, and Billy suddenly reappeared a few episodes later with no explanation for the miracle.

You simply have to accept the idea that weekly TV series would have the regular characters wounded in one episode and fully recovered in the next episode. And remember that most GIs shot in action and not killed would be out of the war for good. Soldiers with multiple Purple Heart awards were fairly uncommon. This is also true for other TV series whether they be westerns or crime dramas or whatever.

It was episodic TV at its best; each week was a new adventure story. There were no soap opera type arcs running through the episodes; they were standalone dramas. During the 152 episode run of Combat! there were about six or so two-part stories, and the rest were all single stories.

Today the "in" thing is for TV series to have multiple story arcs continuously running throughout the episodes. These series are more like the soap operas - if you miss an episode, the continuity may be lost, but in true soap opera form, you accept your loss and start right up again. That is very frustrating for me; I much prefer to watch a complete story with a beginning, middle and an end.

You are also correct about the series being aired "out of order." There are three "episode orders" to be considered for the series. First is the order in which the episodes were filmed. Second is the order in which the episodes were first aired, and this order was very different from the first. Third is the order in which the episodes were shown in syndication, and this was different than either of the filming or airing orders. Fortunately, because all the episodes (including the six or so two-part episodes) are really complete stories which stand alone, it really does not matter in what order you happen to see them. It really was a very well done series.

Jo Davidsmeyer still has a website which is a wealth of information about the show and the people who made it happen. If you Google "Combat! - Jo Davidsmeyer" you will find her Combat! website. Sorry, but I have no idea how to provide a link in my response - never learned how to do that. Her website still has an episode guide which also includes filming order, airing order, and syndication order. It also has loads of other information as you navigate through the menu system.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile