[1] The series centered on the women of the Navy (WAVES) on "a supply base somewhere in the South Pacific, 1944," who found themselves transferred to the island of Ranakai to run the motorpool in an otherwise all-male environment.

Lt. Anne Morgan (Kathleen Nolan) was in command of the man-crazy, wisecracking Selma Kowalski (Sheila James), the alternately chipper and worried Molly McGuire (Lois Roberts), the slow-witted blonde and former exotic dancer Roberta Love (Joan Staley), and the unit's only male recruit, Marion Botnik (Jimmy Boyd), assigned to the WAVES due to a clerical error.

Their nemesis was the rarefied Commander Roger Adrian (Edward Andrews), who regarded the war as a major intrusion on his idyllic, luxurious lifestyle; he felt that the WAVES experiment would attract official government supervision, endangering his private paradise.

Stang was then co-starring with the national touring company of the Broadway hit A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and left the show on October 3, 1964 to join Montagne.

Broadside boasted clever scripts and good direction by the McHale's Navy staff, and enthusiastic performances by the ensemble cast.