For the last couple of years I've been seeking out TV westerns with Asian characters and have reviewed a number on IMDb, including episodes of "Bonanza," "Cheyenne," and "Laramie." This episode of "F Troop" is the first comedy western I've found in this quest and I have to say I found it very funny. It has actual Japanese-American actors playing its Japanese characters and it shows elements of Japanese culture being adapted to life on the fort. The treatment is respectful and the humor revolves around the way each culture reacts to the other. One can argue that the cavalry soldiers seem to know way more about Japanese culture than characters in that position would have known, but it adds to the humor. (E.g., an Indian smoke signal signs off with Sgt. O'Rourke reading it as "Sayonara.")
The plot involves a Japanese girl, Miko (Miko Mayama), fleeing an arranged marriage in Japan and being pursued by a samurai warrior (Mako) sent by her father to retrieve her. She asks for protection at the fort and after some back-and-forth is granted it, with Capt. Parmenter letting her move into his quarters, where she charms the captain by serving him tea, dressing him up in a kimono, and playing the samisen for him. Meanwhile, the samurai has spotted some of Miko's kimonos and other goods at Wild Eagle's Indian camp where O'Rourke and Agarn have left them to be duplicated as "souvenirs," prompting O'Rourke to make the topical joke, "We'll be the first to copy the Japanese." Eventually, Wrangler Jane returns to the fort and is none too pleased at seeing Miko in Parmenter's quarters but is soon recruited to help hide Miko, going so far as to switch outfits with her, while the samurai uses his karate skills to make short work of parts of the fort looking for Miko. It's all resolved in a nonviolent, satisfying and warmhearted way. Oh, and Miko looks adorable in buckskin, while Wrangler Jane looks quite fetching in a kimono.
Mako had come off of his acclaimed performance in THE SAND PEBBLES to do this episode, which aired before his nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for that film was announced. Miko Mayama is new to me and I found her very lovely and believable in the role. The two of them seem to be having fun with the characters and manage to satirize Japanese customs without mocking them. The other characters mine the humor of the situation without resorting to stereotypes or demeaning "oriental" jokes.