Roll Out is an American sitcom that aired Friday evenings on CBS during the 1973–1974 television season. The series was headlined by night-club comedian Stu Gilliam (who was branching out into a television career) and Hilly Hicks; co-starring Mel Stewart, Val Bisoglio, and Ed Begley Jr.; with recurring appearances by Penny Santon, Garrett Morris, Teddy Wilson, Darrow Igus, and Rod Gist. The series was set in France during World War II and was loosely based on the 1952 film Red Ball Express.

France, 1944. With the French railroad system rendered useless by the dead-on target bombing of the United States Air Corps, the advancing armies of Generals George S. Patton and Courtney Hodges were supplied their vital gasoline and millions of tons of war materiel by the skillful and dedicated drivers of the legendary Red Ball Express.

The series chronicled the fictional 5050th Quartermaster Truck Company of the U.S. Third Army's, a company in which all of the personnel was African-American with the exception of its two commissioned officers. The stories were mainly focused on the unit's best driver, Corporal Carter "Sweet" Williams (Stu Gilliam) and his partner, P.F.C. Jedediah "Jed" Brooks (Hilly Hicks) - the unit's worst driver, and the cultural clash between the two. Sweet, a city slicker who hails from Harlem, is worldly, cocky, undisciplined, and highly unmilitary; Jed, a country boy from Louisiana, is naive, idealistic, and religious. Their antics, both on and off-duty, constantly has them in the crosshairs of the 5050th's senior non-commissioned office, Sergeant B.J. Bryant (Mel Stewart), who is strict, by-the-book, and has little tolerance for the, "Double clutches," as he calls the drivers. The 5050th is commandeded by Captain Rocco Calvelli (Val Bisoglio), a cantankerous Italian-American who wants nothing more than to return to civilian life. Calvelli is assisted by his company clerk, Lieutenant Robert Chapman (Ed Begley, Jr.), who is very thorough and efficient when it comes to paperwork, but otherwise not very bright in other areas. Other noteworthy drivers in the 5050th include Corporal "Wheels" Dawson (Garrett Morris) and his partner, High-Strung (Teddy Wilson), Jersey (Darrow Igus), and Phone Booth (Rod Gist). The 5050th set up camp in a bombed-out bar and inn in the French countryside, which was run by the elderly Madame Delacourt (Penny Santon).

In an effort to cash in on the success of M*A*S*H, CBS turned to producers Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart to create another military sitcom for them. As Gelbart himself mentioned in an interview with the Archive of American Television, "Knowing that M*A*S*H was on its way to being a success, what most studios do, they want to clone another one." Whereas M*A*S*H initially drew its humor from anti-war satire as social commentary on the then-raging Vietnam War (despite being set during the Korean War), Roll Out drew its humor from race relations, using World War II as its backdrop. African-American actors and characters were becoming more prominent in the television landscape following the Civil Rights Movement, although racial humor was still considered largely acceptable at the time. Many of the characters of color featured in Roll Out are depicted as jive-talking goofs, although this is not the case with all; Mel Stewart as Sergeant B.J. Bryant is depicted as a strict and by-the-book soldier who takes pride in his military career, and even looks down on the other drivers of the 5050th Truck Company for their offbeat antics. It was not just the characters of color who were affected by such depictions; while a lot of the local French villagers depicted on the show are friendly enough, even towards the drivers they meet, a language barrier is played for laughs, as the villagers attempts to communicate with the drivers in broken English results in humor mis-speakings. Italian-American Captain Calvelli is often prone to mood swings, and loud temper outbursts, with broad, animated hand gestures, all of which are stereotypes commonly associated with Italians in fictional media. Despite the humorous overtones, there were occasions where racial tension was treated seriously. In one episode, Sergeant B.J. brings his tired and hungry men into a mess tent to be fed, only for the white mess sergeant to refuse to serve them, bluntly stating, "We only serve our own, boy." Not willing to accept such indignity, Sergeant B.J. pulls a gun on the mess sergeant, who then reluctantly serves the drivers.

Like M*A*S*H, exteriors of Roll Out were filmed at 20th Century Fox's Ranch (now known as Malibu Creek State Park), while interiors were filmed on a sound stage at Fox's studio lot, which, according to Gelbart, made it easy for the crew to oversee the production of both series concurrently. Also like M*A*S*H, Roll Out was filmed as a single camera series, giving it a distinct cinematic look, which is especially evident in a lot of the footage filmed outdoors of the trucks driving through the French countryside.

Roll Out aired opposite ABC's The Odd Couple. Subsequently, Roll Out failed to win its timeslot and was canceled halfway through its sole season. It was replaced on February 8, 1974, by Good Times, a spin-off of Maude starring Esther Rolle and John Amos, which would run for six seasons. When asked the fate of Roll Out, Gelbart admitted, "It wasn't successful, I think because it wasn't as heartfelt of a premise, it was really a commercial decision that Gene [Reynolds] and I made. I don't even know what I think of that show; I know it didn't do terribly well, but it wasn't a disaster."

Interestingly, many of Roll Out's principal cast would later make memorable guest appearances on M*A*S*H. Hilly Hicks appeared in the episodes "White Gold" and "Post-Op"; in the former he appears as an aid station medic who sneaks into the 4077th's supply hut to swipe penicillin, while in the latter he appears as medic who confides in Hawkeye Pierce about the racial prejudice he faced. Val Bisoglio and Ed Begley, Jr. would both take their turns cooking for the 4077th; Bisoglio as Mess Sergeant Pernelli in "Twas the Day After Christmas", who switches places with Major Charles Emerson Winchester as part of a Boxing Day observance, and Begley, Jr. in "Too Many Cooks" as Private Paul Conway, an incredibly klutzy rifleman whose true vocation is as a cook. Teddy Wilson appears in "The General Flipped at Dawn" as a chopper pilot.