I thought Walk Hard was a brilliant parody of the genre. Way better than anything that's come out of the SNL team in decades.

Lemme see if I've got this correctly. In the 50s there were lots of comedies, some of which featured soldiers/sailors/airmen. Later on, there were less comedies featuring soldiers/sailors/airmen, because that would have undermined an ongoing war effort?

Don't you think the genre of the show plays a much greater role in how it depicts the military? Petticoat Junction (c. 1963) was a sitcom, ergo tertiary characters who happen to be in the military will—and this will shock you!—tend to be played for laughs.

You could just as easily cite a contrary example—The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin (c. 1954), a kids show where most of the major recurring characters were officers or enlisted personnel, and generally seen as responsible and paternal, not horny and drunk.

Likewise Swamp Fox (c. 1959), a drama set in the Revolutionary War. did not lean heavily on comedic soldier caricatures. And let's not forget that in the 1950s TV was flooded with non-comedic military anthologies (The Air Force Story, Assignment Foreign Legion, Citizen Soldier, Crusade in the Pacific, etc).

And let's not forget that back in 1950-something, the Second World War and Korea were very recent memories. In WW2, 16 million Americans served in uniform (about 10% of the total US population). Not exactly an insignificant market. A big chunk of the viewers could be expected to be familiar with military life and, having spent so much time seeing it up close and personal, probably wanted lighter viewing fare—like sitcoms, rather than serious-minded military dramas.

As the military shifted to an all-volunteer force in the 70s, not only did general unit discipline improve, but the trials and tribulations of military life have become more alien to the viewers, as the number of them that have seen active duty have shrunken over the decades. Today, about 1 million Americans have served in Iraq, or about 0.3% of the population.

If you are a writer, or a network exec, is it a good idea to craft shows that will appeal to 0.3% of your viewers, or will you aim at something a little broader?