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This Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. episode was inspired by a hilariously real mishap in Jim Nabors' life
I hope you're "bready" for this story.
It’s common for television writers to draw on real-life experiences and inject them into their writing. It helps to inject reality into fictional stories and allows those television characters to feel that much more believable. Plus, sometimes, just sometimes, the universe can create funnier situations than anything the human imagination could think to come up with.
This was the situation for Jim Nabors, better known as sweet Gomer Pyle. You might remember an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. when Gomer holds a wedding ring for a friend before the big day, but loses it after baking, and believes the ring might have accidentally been cooked into one of the many loaves of bread he baked (I’ll give you three guesses to where the ring is not).
Well, that episode was actually based on an event from Nabors' real life. Nabors had been friends with Jimmy Pursell since the 1940s when the two lived in Talladega County during high school. Nabors had served as Pursell’s best man when he had married his wife, Chrissy Parker. David Pursell, Jimmy’s son, spoke with The Montgomery Advertiser and said, “They had invited Jim Nabors to come up and be the best man, to sing and usher in their wedding. He was the one and only attendant on the groom’s side.”
Pursell was getting married at his Air Force base in Sacramento, California, which meant that Nabors had to visit from Los Angeles, where he was working as a film cutter for NBC. As best man, they also charged him with taking care of the rings before the wedding, a task he took very seriously... until he lost it.
David Pursell said, “The day of the wedding, he can’t find the wedding ring. Somehow, he had misplaced it, so I’m told.” He went on, “My grandmother, she was a mess. She goes up to Jim Nabors and points a finger in his face and says, 'There will be a wedding today. I’ve come too far for there not to be a wedding.’”
Fret not, the ring was eventually found, but it was clearly a memorable enough experience that Nabors knew it would come in handy for excellent comedic material one day.
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11 Comments
A great little article about Jim Nabors.
Terry Marvin (Dallas, Texas, USA)
My brother was in the army and me, being a first grader watched Gomer and imagined that's how it was for my brother. I was old enough to know that Gomer was extra goofy but also that as much as I would hate any "sarge" who screamed at my brother that way, ot was better than Vietnam.
I was definitely old enough to know what that meant. He missed that rotation by luck or God's geace or just how a calendar works, but eith way, he came home to us.
I think Gomer Pyle had alot to do with a six-year-old girl through a hard couple of years. And she's still grateful.
("Yeah, right. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.")
