‘Victory’ Still Big Hit

Executives at NBC thought the idea was daft, a sure-fire loser. Who would want to watch a 26-episode documentary about the U.S. Navy in World War II?

One exec mocked the project as “Victory in Red,” as in red ink.

But the big boss at NBC - urged on by his son - approved the project, with what was then a whopping budget of $500,000, plus use of the esteemed NBC orchestra.

Gentle persuasion was applied to composer Richard Rodgers to take time from Broadway to enlist his services for this new medium called television.

Still the advertisers stayed away.

What they missed was being part of “Victory At Sea,” by most measures one of the most acclaimed, enduring and artistically successful television production ever, an American classic.

Forty-five years have passed since “Victory At Sea” made its debut one Sunday afternoon. In all that time, there has never been a season when the series, which chronicles the Navy from 1939 to VJ Day, has not been shown in one television market or another.

As the 20th century winds down, the emotional resonance of the series shows no signs of losing its grip on the American public.

Indeed, interest appears to be increasing, a sign perhaps of a national emptiness and an atavistic yearning for times that, while more dangerous and uncertain than our own, were also more purposeful and possessed of a moral clarity.

“There is always an intense interest during unheroic times in heroic events of the past,” said Alan Brinkley, professor of modern American history at Columbia University. “In the eyes of most people, we live in very unheroic times, and ‘Victory At Sea’ is the ultimate heroic story.”

The History Channel uses the series to anchor its Monday prime-time lineup with back to back 30-minute episodes, and occasional all-day marathons. Before that, the series ran for several years on the Arts & Entertainment channel.

Two-thirds of the nation’s Public Broadcasting System stations have used the series in recent years as a fund-raising vehicle - a sure-fire audience grabber in areas as different politically and socially as San Francisco and San Diego.

The Naval Academy and a host of civilian universities use “Victory At Sea” as a teaching tool - mostly in classes on documentary filmmaking, the history of television and popular culture.

“‘Victory At Sea’ embodies the American myth, in the best sense of that word, a story that ennobles and gives higher meaning to a people’s existence,” said Peter Rollins, editor of the journal “Film & History” and professor of English at Oklahoma State University. “In one way, it is less about World War II than about how Americans once thought of themselves and their country.”

At Annapolis, “Victory At Sea” is shown to remind midshipmen - all born in the post-Vietnam era - of how passionately Americans felt about World War II and the Navy’s role in winning it.

For years, visitors to the U.S.S. Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor were shown Episode 2, “The Pacific Boils Over: Pearl Harbor.” Copies of “Victory At Sea” have found their way to innumerable military bases, squadron ready rooms and ship libraries.

On a recent training deployment, young sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, on their off-hours, huddled around to watch an episode about the four-day naval battle for Leyte Gulf. “Amazing,” said one wide-eyed 19-year-old.

Strictly speaking, “Victory At Sea” is not primarily a work of scholarship, but rather a work of art. Depending on your view, this is either its glory or its bane.

The series has its critics - including Rollins - both for its political message (America can do no wrong, American leaders are wise and compassionate) and some of its shortcut techniques (some studio re-enactments and use of the same scenes to portray different battles).