You know, there is this very specific sound.
It's this rhythmic chopping, this mechanical
sound. And if you grew up in the 70s, the 80s,
or, you know, honestly, even the 90s, because
of all the reruns. Yeah, absolutely, the reruns.
Right. That sound just triggers a complete Pavlovian
response. You're talking about the Bell H -13
Su helicopter. Exactly. You hear that rotor blade
just cutting through the air. And you don't just
think of aviation. You think of olive drab tents.
You think of meatball surge. You think of a very
dry martini being made in a literal mess kit.
We are talking, of course, about M -A -S -H.
A cultural monolith. I mean, I really don't think
that word is too strong here. No, not at all.
We are talking about a show whose finale drew
something like 106 million viewers. It completely
changed the landscape of television. But today,
we aren't looking at the finale. Right, we are
doing something a bit different today for this
deep dive. We aren't looking at the show everyone
remembers with the mustache -wearing B .J. Hunnicutt
or the very patrician Charles Emerson Winchester
III. No, we are going all the way back to...
the messy, chaotic, and frankly really surprising
beginning. We are diving specifically into season
one. Yeah, the genesis of the 4077th Mobile Army
Surgical Hospital. Set during the Korean War,
so the 1950 timeline, but filmed in the mountains
of Malibu. And we're covering that initial broadcast
period from 1972 to 1973. Which is just a fascinating
place to start, because season one is... It's
almost like a completely different show compared
to what it became later on. It really is. It's
like watching a band figuring out their sound
in real time on stage. Totally. And our mission
today is really specific for you all listening.
We aren't just here to recap episodes for the
state of nostalgia. We want to understand how
a sitcom about war. Which is an inherent paradox
right there. Exactly. It's a massive paradox.
We want to see how it found its footing. So we
have this huge stack of source material today.
We've got production notes, the original Larry
Gilbert scripts, and some deep critical analysis
of those first 24 episodes. It really is an excavation
project. I'm going to look at the lost characters
you probably forgot about, the evolution of the
tone, and identify the exact moments where the
show really found its legendary voice. Because
when you look at these first 24 episodes, You
see the struggle, right? The struggle to balance
high concept slapstick comedy with the absolute
grim reality of death. And that balance definitely
didn't happen overnight. So let's jump in. We
have to start with the people. Because when I
think of M -A -S -H, I think of a very specific
group of faces. Of course. You have the starting
lineup. The iconic six that are listed in the
opening credits right from the jump. You have
Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce, obviously better
known as Hawkeye. Played by Alan Alda. The complete
heart and soul of the show. Right. And his partner
in crime, Trapper John McIntyre, played by Wayne
Rogers. Then there's the commander, Lieutenant
Colonel Henry Blake. That's McLean Stevenson.
And the antagonists, I mean, if you can call
them that, Major Margaret Houlihan or Hot Lips.
Loretta Switt. Yeah, Loretta Switt. And Major
Frank Burns, Ferret Face, played by Larry Linville.
And, of course, the company clerk, Corporal Radar
O 'Reilly. Played by Gary Bergoff, who, interestingly
enough, was actually the only actor to play the
same character in the original Robert Altman
M .A .S .H. movie and the TV series. Really?
Yeah, everyone else was recast for television,
but Gary Bergoff was just undeniably radar. That
is a great piece of trivia. But here is the thing
that really threw me while I was digging into
these early sources. Watching these first few
episodes, the swamp, you know, that's the tent
where the surgeons live. It's crowded. Oh, it
is very crowded. It's not just Hawkeye and Trapper
bunking in there like we all remember. No, it
isn't. And this is what we might call the the
Mandela effect of season one. Ah, right. They're
recurring characters here who are central to
the plot. They're living in the swamp, scrubbing
in for surgery, who just kind of vanish. Yeah,
they vanish later on without much explanation
at all. Let's unpack these lost characters, because
first up, we absolutely have to talk about Spear
Checker Jones. Right. Captain Oliver Harmon Jones,
nicknamed Spear Checker. He is played by Timothy
Brown. And in the early episodes, he is a main
character. He is. He lives in the swamp with
Hawkeye and Trapper. He's very much part of the
inner circle. And he's a neurosurgeon, right?
He is a neurosurgeon, which is a very high medical
specialty to have there. He's playing poker.
He's helping execute the pranks against Frank
Burns. Right. He was actually in the original
movie as well, though, played by Fred Williamson
there. But in the show, he's a vital part of
the team for the first half of the season. So
why does he just disappear? Because the sources
indicate it wasn't an acting choice or a contract
dispute. It was actually a historical accuracy
choice. That is the official line from the production
notes. Yeah. The producers received information
allegedly that there were no black surgeons serving
in MASH units during the Korean War. So they
wanted to remain historically authentic to that
1950s setting. So they simply wrote the character
out. Which is incredibly ironic because later
research showed that there actually were black
surgeons in Korea. Exactly. It was a research
error on the part of the producers that ended
up costing us a really interesting dynamic in
the swamp. It left the swamp very white for the
rest of the series. Yeah, it really did. But
he's not the only one who vanished. We also have
ugly John. the anesthesiologist, the guy with
the hat. Right. John Orchard played him. He's
usually seen wearing that Australian slouch hat.
He is the anesthesiologist. So he's in the background
of almost every single surgery scene in season
one. He's usually asking for more pentafil or
making some dry sarcastic comment. He essentially
functions as part of the furniture of the O .R.,
but he gives the camp a sense of being this busy
international place. It makes the camp feel bigger,
doesn't it? Like it's not just our main six characters.
doing every single job. Precisely. And then there
is Ho -Jon. Ho -Jon is the swamp's house boy.
And I mean, that term alone really dates the
show. Oh, it really does. Ho -Jon is a local
Korean young man who effectively works for Hawkeye
and Trapper. But if you look at the pilot episode,
which aired September 17, 1972, the entire plot
actually revolves around him. Let's touch on
that pilot for a second because it really sets
the tone. It was written by Larry Gelbarg. Yes.
And the plot is purely about Hawkeye and Trapper
trying to raise tuition money to send Ho John
to Hawkeye's old college back in the States.
They want to get him out of the war zone and
give him an education. Right. So they hold a
camp wide raffle to raise the cash and the prize
for this raffle. A weekend in Tokyo with Nurse
Dish. Lieutenant Dish. Yeah. Played by Karen
Philipp. She's another one of these lost characters.
In the pilot, in the first couple of episodes,
she is a prominent focus. She is the incredibly
attractive nurse who is essentially treated as
the trophy of the camp. Which, looking at it
through a modern lens is, well, it's a lot to
take in. It is problematic, to say the least.
The idea of raffling off a date, which is heavily
implied to be much more than just a date with
the female officer, is something the show would
definitely move away from later. For sure. But
in the pilot, she is central to the plot. She
helps with the schemes. She's part of the core
group. And then, just like Spearchucker and Ho
-Jon, she just fades away as the writers decided
to focus more tightly on the core chemistry of
Hawkeye and Trapper. It's wild to look back on.
It feels like a much bigger ensemble cast in
the beginning. And speaking of cast and quirks,
I noticed something really funny about Father
Mulcahy in the pilot. Ah, yes. The Good Father.
It's not William Christopher. It is not. In the
pilot, Father Mulcahy is played by an actor named
George Morgan. He has this one single appearance,
and he plays the character a bit more, I don't
know, straight, a bit more nondescript. And the
producers felt it just wasn't quite clicking.
Yeah, the sources say they needed someone with
a very specific kind of quirky innocence, sort
of spiritual vulnerability. So by episode three,
which is titled Requiem for a Lightweight, George
Morgan is out. and William Christopher is in.
And Christopher really brought that tentative,
slightly confused, but deeply moral quality that
made Mulcahy an absolute legend. You really did.
And then there's Klinger. I always assume Klinger
was there from day one. I think most people do.
But he actually shows up in episode four, Chief
Surgeon Who. Correct. And his introduction is
incredibly memorable. He's already trying to
get his Section 8 discharge. General Parker is
inspecting the camps. He's clinging on guard
duty. And Claire is wearing a dress. He is wearing
a dress. And he's not just standing there looking
embarrassed. He yells out, halt! Who goes there?
Like it's a completely normal military protocol.
Ah, yes. And here is the kicker from the production
notes. Jamie Farr was originally hired for just
one single episode. Really? Yeah, the man in
a dress trying to get a Section 8 was supposed
to be a one -off visual gag. No way! But Farr
played it with such utter conviction. He didn't
play it like a caricature of a drag queen. He
played it like a desperate soldier who found
a weird loophole and was committing to it 100%.
And the producers realized they had struck. Exactly.
He became a recurring character and eventually,
of course, a main cast member. That visual of
Klinger is just baked into pop culture history
now. Before we move off the cast entirely, we
have to mention the guest stars, because season
one had some heavy hitters before they were huge.
Oh, absolutely. We have Ron Howard. Yeah. And
we will definitely talk more about him later,
because his episode is incredibly pivotal. Yeah.
We also have Leslie Nielsen showing up. And this
is pre -Naked Gun, Leslie Nielsen. Yes, this
is serious dramatic actor Leslie Nielsen playing
a Colonel. And Ed Flanders, who would later star
in Sane Elsewhere. also appears. It really shows
that the casting directors had a real eye for
talent even early on. It does. So we have this
expanded cast, we have the setting established,
but what about the vibe? Because reading through
these early scripts, season one feels so much
looser, much more chaotic than the later years.
It is. The tone is heavily focused on what we
call hijinks and bureaucracy. It's really about
satirizing authority. You have to remember the
cultural context here. It's 1972. The Vietnam
War is still raging. Right. M .A .S .H. is set
in Korea, technically, but it is speaking directly
to an audience that is watching Vietnam on the
nightly news. So the army itself is kind of the
villain. The army is absolutely the antagonist.
Purocracy is the enemy. Hawkeye and Trapper aren't
just doctors. They're anarchists fighting the
military machine with pranks. Because they're
trying to save lives despite the army, not because
of it. Precisely. The episode to market to market
is a perfect example of this. This is episode
two. A total classic. The plot is that black
marketeers have essentially hijacked the camp's
hydrocortisone supply, which is a serious medical
crisis. But the solution is pure farce. To get
the supplies back, they have to trade something
valuable to the black market. So what do they
steal? Henry Blake's antique oak desk. Which
is 100 years old. They sneak into the commander's
office in the middle of the night. They disguise
the desk as a patient on a gurney just to get
it out of the compound. And the visual payoff
is absurd. Henry Blake is standing in his office,
and suddenly a helicopter hook lowers down outside
the window, grabs the desk, and airlifts it away.
Right while he's watching. It's totally cartoonish.
It's something you'd see in a Lenny Toons short.
It is. But it establishes that core principle.
Hawkeye and Trapper will do anything to get what
their patients need, even if it means robbing
their commanding officer blind. It sets the moral
compass perfectly. People first, property second.
Exactly. And then there's the ring banger. This
is the Leslie Nielsen episode we mentioned. He
plays Colonel Buzz Brayton, and the sources note
a ring banger, or a ring knocker, refers to a
West Point graduate who taps his class ring on
the table to let everyone know he outranks them.
Yes, and this guy is a total menace. He has a
high casualty record. He's obsessed with personal
glory. He's literally getting men killed just
to make himself look good in the reports. So
Hawkeye and Trapper decide they have to get rid
of him, but they don't file a report because
reports just get buried by the brass. No, they
decide to gaslight him. They literally convince
him he is going insane. They do. They tell him
Henry is an alcoholic who is having an affair
with Hotlips, which to be fair was a common rumor
around camp anyway, but they really ramp it up.
Yeah. They manipulate conversations so he hears
things that aren't actually there. They move
his tent around while he's sleeping, so he wakes
up totally confused about where he is. It's psychological
warfare. It absolutely is. They use the tools
of psychiatry to completely dismantle a superior
officer. It's funny, but also a little dark when
you really think about it. Right. They are driving
a man to a nervous breakdown just to get him
shipped out. But again, the justification is
that he's an active danger to the troops. It
really highlights that swamp dynamic. If you
cross Hawkeye and Trapper, you aren't just going
to get pranked, you are going to get destroyed.
True. Now, speaking of things that are a little
dark, or perhaps dated is a better word, we have
to talk about the sexual humor in season one.
Yeah, this is where the source material points
out some stuff that might make a modern viewer
wince a bit. The gender politics are very much
1972. We have a sociological study by James H.
Wittebolz mentioned in our sources, and he heavily
critiques This shows early treatment of women.
The nurses are often treated as props or prizes.
Now, we aren't taking sides here, but looking
at Whittable's analysis of the era, the episode
The Moose really stands out. Yes, The Moose.
Episode five. The title refers to a Japanese
word adapted by G .I.'s muzen meaning girl, but
it was used to mean a servant or a mistress.
And the plot involves a Sergeant Baker who literally
owns a Korean girl named Young -Hye. And the
inciting incident is that Hawkeye wins her in
a card game. He wins a human being in a poker
game. Now we have to look at the narrative intent.
Hawkeye's intention is to free her. He wants
to, as the script puts it, demystify her. They
want to teach her to be independent, to not serve
men. But the premise itself, using a woman as
currency to win her freedom, is startling today.
And the comedy comes from her not understanding
she's free, and she keeps continuing to try to
serve Hawkeye. Right. Which plays into some very
uncomfortable stereotypes. It's a sort of white
savior narrative mixed with standard 70s sitcom
tropes. And Wittables points out another example
in Requiem for a Lightweight. Trapper literally
boxes a guy to keep a nurse, Margie Cutler, from
being transferred. Right. Nurse Keller is transferred
by hot lips because she's a quote -unquote distraction
to the doctors. Yes. Not because she's bad at
her job, but simply because she's too pretty.
So Trapper gets in the boxing ring to fight for
her to stay, and they cheat. They do. They use
ether on the boxing gloves to knock the opponent
out. Again, the goal of keeping a good nurse
is framed as noble. But the method treats her
entirely like a prize to be won in a gladiator
match. It's definitely a product of its time.
Wittables also points out the handling of homosexuality
in early episodes like the ring banger and bananas,
crackers and nuts. Yes. In the ring banger, part
of the gaslighting involves convincing the Colonel
that Frank Burns is gay and is secretly attracted
to him. Right. It's played purely for laughs,
using homosexuality as a punchline or a tool
for embarrassment. It's really interesting to
track that evolution, because M .A .S .H. is
known as this incredibly progressive show later
on. Right. But in season one, it was clearly
still shedding the skin of the era it was made
in. Absolutely. It was reflecting the swinging
70s attitudes. OK. But even missed these rougher
edges, you have these moments of absolute brilliance
where the writing just shines through. We're
not to talk about Tuttle. Oh, Tuttle. Episode
15. This is widely considered an all -time classic,
isn't it? It really is the absolute pinnacle
of anti -bureaucracy comedy. If you want to understand
what early M .A .S .H. is about, you just watch
Tuttle. The premise is just chess kiss. Hawkeye
and Trapper invent a completely fake person.
Captain Jonathan S. Tuttle. And it starts so
small they just want to donate some extra supplies
to the local orphanage. Right. The sister at
the orphanage needs supplies. Hawkeye wants to
give them to her, but he can't sign for them
himself without getting in massive trouble. He
needs a cover. So he invents Captain Tuttle of
the audiovisual squad. But then the bureaucracy
kicks in. The army needs paperwork. So to cover
their tracks, they have to create a fake personnel
file for Tuttle. And then they realize if he's
a captain, he gets paid. Exactly. So they have
to figure out how to collect his pay, which they
then, of course, donate straight to the orphanage.
Get a snowball. It spirals out of control beautifully.
They create fake medical records. They get dog
tags made. Oh, and here's a detail I love from
the sources. They get the dog tags from a major
Murdoch. Right. Who turns out to be another totally
fake person invented by the camp dentist. It's
like the entire camp is just running on imaginary
people. And it gets to the point where General
Clayton is so impressed by Tuttle's generosity,
because he's supposedly donating his entire salary
to orphans, that he wants to award Captain Tuttle
a medal. So now they have a massive problem.
They can't exactly produce a fake man for a very
real medal ceremony. So they have to kill him.
Of course they do. Hawkeye creates this incredibly
heroic death scene narrative, where Tuttle jumps
from a chopper to save some drop supplies, but
he forgets his parachute. It's so absurd. It
is, but it highlights the sheer ridiculousness
of the military paperwork machine. You can invent
a hero purely out of paper. If the file says
he exists, the army believes he exists. The sources
draw a parallel to the Lieutenant Kijay story
from Russian literature. A fictional soldier
created by a clerical error who takes on a life
of his own. Yes, it's that exact same satirical
concept. And the cherry on top for Tuttle. I
checked the closing credits of the episode. It
lists Captain Tuttle as himself. A perfect meta
-joke. And we also see Sparky in this episode.
Oh right, Radar's contact at headquarters. Usually
we only hear Radar talking to him on the phone,
but here he actually makes his only on -screen
appearance. It's a rare treat for the fans. So
Tuttle is the peak of the comedy. It's the high
watermark for the hijinks. But then we get to
episode 17. Sometimes you hear the bullet. This
is the turning point, isn't it? This is where
the show stops being just a sitcom and becomes
something else entirely. Absolutely. This is
the moment the show shifts into a dramedy. It's
the moment the laugh track essentially stops
working. The premise starts like a typical episode.
Hawkeye's friend from back home, Tommy Gillis,
comes to visit the camp. he's in the infantry,
and he's writing a book. And the book is titled,
You Never Hear the Bullet. Right. Tommy's a great
character because he represents Hawkeye's life
back home. He's not a doctor, he's just a regular
guy. a writer. He really grounds Hawkeye. And
running parallel to this is a subplot with Ron
Howard. A very young, post -Andy Griffith Ron
Howard. He plays a Marine who comes in with appendicitis.
Hawkeye treats him and realizes the kid is underage.
He's 15 years old. He used his brother's ID to
enlist. And Hawkeye is deeply conflicted. The
kid wants to go back to the front line to kill
commies and be a big hero. Hawkeye wants to send
him home to his mom. So you have these two threads.
The old friend writing a book about death and
the young kid eager to go face it. And then the
tone shifts violently. Tommy Gillis goes out
to the front and gets shot. He comes back to
the 4077th on a stretcher. And Hawkeye is the
surgeon working on him. He tries to save him.
It's frantic. It's desperate. But he fails. Tommy
dies on the table. And his last words are referencing
his book title. He tells Hawkeye that he actually
heard the bullet. That scene. Seeing Hawkeye
break down. It wasn't just a doctor losing a
patient. It was a man losing his best friend.
And that leads to one of the most famous speeches
in the entire series. Henry Blake finds Hawkeye
crying in the scrub room. And Henry, who we just
talked about, is the guy getting his desk stolen,
the buffoon. Henry drops the mask completely.
What does he say? It's in the notes here. He
says, rule number one is young men die. And rule
number two is doctors can't change rule number
one. Oof. Doctors can't change rule number one.
That hits so hard. It's the first time a main
character fails to save a friend. It completely
shattered the sitcom illusion that our heroes
always win. It showed that despite their skill,
despite all the jokes and pranks, death still
wins in the end. And because of that profound
grief, Hawkeye makes a huge decision about the
Ron Howard character. He turns him in. He reports
the kid to the MPs. He sends him home. And the
kid is furious. He screams at Hawkeye, says he
will hate him for the rest of his life. And Hawkeye's
reaction? He just accepts it. He basically says
he would rather be hated by a living boy than
mourn another dead one. It is a powerful, powerful
anti -war message. It redefines Hawkeye from
a prankster to a tragic hero. It really defines
who Hawkeye is at his core. He will sacrifice
his own popularity to save a life. Which brings
us to Hawkeye as a character. He's the hero,
obviously, but season one does a really good
job of showing his flaws, too. It does. He's
arrogant. He's insubordinate. But he is undeniably
brilliant. Episode four, Chief Surgeon Who establishes
this dynamic perfectly. This is the big power
struggle episode. Right. Frank Burns outranks
Hawkeye. Frank is a major Hawkeye is only a captain.
Technically, by Army regulations, Frank should
be chief surgeon, but Henry Blake appoints Hawkeye.
Because Hawkeye is the better doctor. Exactly.
Hawkeye is confident. Frank is, well, Frank.
Frank and Hotlips are furious about this. They
go over Henry's head and call General Barker
to complain. But when the general actually arrives...
He sees Hawkeye work. He sees him take command
in the O .R. during a massive rush of casualties,
and he realizes Henry made the right call. It
cements the idea that in this specific war, skill
trumps rank. The hierarchy of the army doesn't
matter at all when a patient is bleeding out
on the table. But then you have Sticky Wicked.
Episode 21. This is crucial for balancing Hawkeye's
massive ego, isn't it? It is essential. In this
episode, Hawkeye insults Frank terribly during
surgery. He's acting like the literal god of
the OR, mocking Frank's skills in front of everyone.
But then Hawkeye's patient doesn't recover well.
Right. The patient's vitals are failing. Hawkeye
obsesses over it. He can't figure out what went
wrong. He reflects. He agonizes over the charts.
He really starts to doubt himself. And eventually,
he realizes he missed something. A diagnosis.
He missed a tiny piece of shrapnel. But here's
the kicker. Frank caught it. Frank Burns actually
showed up Hawkeye. He did. Frank saw the thing
the great Hawkeye Pierce missed. And Hawkeye
has to eat a massive slice of humble pie. He
has that rare moment where he turns to Frank
and says, thanks, Frank. I love that. It makes
the rivalry so much more interesting. It does.
If Hawkeye is always right and Frank is always
a total moron, it just becomes a cartoon. By
showing that Hawkeye can fail and that Frank
is actually competent enough doctor to catch
a mistake, it grounds the show in reality. It
reminds us that they're all just exhausted doctors
trying to do an impossible job. Precisely. And
speaking of the whole group of exhausted people,
we should talk about the Long John Flap. Oh,
this one is so fun. It's written by Alan Alda.
It's his first writing credit for the show, actually.
And the structure is incredibly unique. It's
based on La Ronde, a famous play. It's a narrative
circle. It's the middle of a brutal Korean winter.
Everyone is freezing. And Hawkeye gets a pair
of thermal long johns from his dad. Which are
basically solid gold in Korea in January. Exactly.
But he gives them to Trapper, who is sick. Then
Trapper loses them to Radar in a poker game.
Radar trades them to the cook for a real lamb
dinner. The cook uses them to bribe Frank. Frank
gives them to Margaret to prove his love. And
then Klinger gets involved. Klinger steals them
from Margaret's tent. gives them to Father Mulcahy.
Mulcahy gives them to Henry. And eventually,
after this long, crazy journey through the entire
camp, they make their way right back to Hawkeye.
It's a brilliant way to showcase the entire ensemble
cast in one episode. It is. It shows the desperate,
petty bargaining that happens in the camp, just
to survive the elements. It shows what everyone
values. For Radar, it's food. For Frank, it's
Margaret. For Klinger, it's a bribe. It's a great
character study disguised as a farce. It really
highlights the swamp dynamics and the constant
pranks. We talked about the ring banger, but
the pranks in season one are just nonstop. They're
survival mechanisms. Take Bananas, Crackers and
Nuts, episode seven. Haw Guy wants R in R. He's
denied. So what does he do? He fakes insanity.
But he really commits to the bit. He eats raw
liver in the mess tent while wearing full surgical
garb. I've eaten a river of liver and an ocean
of fish. That line is permanently stuck in my
head. And when a psychiatrist comes to evaluate
him, played by Stuart Margolin, Hawkeye spins
this elaborate, insane tale about being deeply
in love with Frank. It's pure manic energy. And
then there's major Fred C. Dobbs, episode 22.
This one is interesting from a production standpoint.
Alan Alda has actually cited this as a low point.
episode, in his opinion. Really? Why is that?
The premise is a bit silly, even for them. Frank
wants a transfer. Hawkeye and Trapper want him
gone, but then they realize if he leaves, they'd
have to work double shifts in surgery, so they
have to trick him into staying. So they create
a fake gold rush. Yes. Major Fred C. Dobbs is
a reference to the movie The Treasure of the
Sierra Madre. They trick Frank into thinking
there's gold in the hills near the camp, so his
sheer greed will keep him at the 4077th. It does
sound a bit cartoony compared to the rest. It
is. It leans a little too hard on the Frank is
an idiot button. But then you have Yankee Doodle
Doctor Episode 6, which feels very much on brand.
This is the filmmaking episode. Right. A filmmaker
comes to the camp to make a documentary about
M .A .S .H. units. But he wants a pure propaganda
film. He wants it sanitized, heroic, clean. And
Hawkeye isn't having any of that. No. He literally
destroys the film negative. And then they make
their own version. It's a complete Marx Brothers
parody. Hawkeye is groucho. Trapper is harpo.
They turn the war into a ridiculous circus. Featuring
radar as the patient. It's anarchic. It's rebellious.
And it speaks to that core theme of the early
seasons. The only way to stay sane in an insane
war is to act crazier than the war itself. By
mocking the propaganda, they are actually telling
the truth about the war. That's a really great
way to put it. Now, we've covered the characters,
the tone, the pranks, but season one also played
with the format of television itself. We mentioned
the Long John flap, but the Dear Dad episodes
are huge format breakers. Dear Dad and Dear Dad.
Again, these episodes completely break the traditional
narrative structure of a sitcom. Usually you
have an A plot and a B plot. These episodes are
just a series of short vignettes tied together
by Hawkeye's narration as he writes a letter
home to his father. It allows them to tell smaller
stories that wouldn't necessarily fill a whole
episode on their own. Exactly. It makes the show
feel much more intimate. You are inside Hawkeye's
head. Mm -hmm. But there is a famous continuity
error in Dear Dad, again. Oh, do you tell? I
love a good continuity error. In the letter,
Hawkeye sends love to his sister and mom. Wait,
Hawkeye's an only child, and his mom died when
he was a kid. That's a huge part of his character
later on. He talks about it constantly in later
seasons. Later on, yes. Yeah. But in season one,
the writers hadn't decided any of that yet. So
he has a living mom and a sister. It's one of
those things you just have to hand wave away
as early installment weirdness. That is wild.
I guess they just hadn't built the sad Hawkeye
backstory yet. Not yet. They were still figuring
out who these people were. Then you have the
Army -Navy game. Oh, that's a tense one. Yes.
An unexploded bomb lands right in the middle
of the compound. The whole camp is terrified.
They have to defuse it. And when they finally
pop it open, it doesn't explode. It just shoots
out enemy propaganda leaflets. Talk about anti
-climactic in the best way. And throughout the
episode, they keep checking the radio for the
fictional score of the big game, Navy 42, Army
36. And didn't they use a jazzier theme song
arrangement for that one? They did. It really
gave it a different flavor, which brings us to
the finale, or well, the last episode of the
season. Showtime. Episode 24. It also uses that
nonlinear structure, very similar to Dear Dad.
A USO troop is visiting the camp. So the episode
is intercut with performances, singers, comedians,
cap dancers, specifically Jackie Flash and the
Miller sisters. It constantly juxtaposes the
entertainment on the stage with the surgery and
the OR. Which is a very classic M -A -S -H technique.
The glitz of the show versus the gore of the
meatball surgery. Oh. But there are two really
key moments here. First, Henry Blake's wife gives
birth back home. And Henry is stuck in Korea.
He's devastated. He can't be there. He's pacing.
He's upset. So Radar does something incredibly
sweet. He arranges for a local Korean mother
in the camp to let Henry hold her baby. Oh, that's
beautiful. It is. It's a quiet moment of bonding
between Henry and Radar. It shows Henry's softer,
fatherly side. It reminds us that these men have
real families they're missing desperately. And
the second key moment. A musical note. There's
a drum solo during the USO show. The drummer
gets sick or something and radar just jumps in.
Radar can shred on the drums. Gary Berghoff was
actually a highly skilled jazz drummer in real
life. They explicitly wrote it in to let him
show off his chops. It's a great high energy
way to cap off the season. So we've gone through
24 episodes. We've seen the desk theft, the fake
captain, the tragic death of a friend, the introduction
of Klinger in a dress. When you look at season
one as a whole package, what is the legacy here
for the listeners? The legacy is that it established
the blueprint. It proved you could do high concept
farce like Tuttle and jarring tragedy like sometimes
you hear the bullet in the exact same half hour
television slot. It wasn't just Hogan's heroes
or McHale's Navy. No, it had real teeth. Even
in season one, with the laugh track and the occasional
outdated humor, the anti -war message was pulsing
underneath everything. It moved from sexual humor
in the early episodes to sharp social commentary
by the end. It completely set the stage for an
11th season run that would eventually become
the most watched scripted television event in
history. And it gave us Henry Blake. I want to
end on him, because looking back at season one,
he's such a fascinating figure to analyze. He
is. And here's a provocative thought for the
listeners to take away and mull over. Think about
the evolution of Henry Blake. In the early episodes,
like the Ringbanger, he's portrayed almost entirely
as a buffoon. He's incompetent. He's easily manipulated
by Hawkeye and Trapper. He's the guy getting
his antique desk stolen right out from under
him. Exactly. But then look at that's how they
sheer there. Sometimes you hear the bullet. He's
the one giving Hawkeye the profound wisdom to
survive the grief. He becomes the wise mentor.
So the question is, how does our perception of
the war change depending on Henry's characterization?
Right. When the leadership is incompetent, the
war is a farce. It's a joke. But when the leadership
is compassionate, when Henry is the father figure
carrying the weight of the casualties, the war
becomes a tragedy. It becomes a place where good
people are trapped in a terribly bad situation.
Season one, Henry Blake straddles that line perfectly.
That is a great point for everyone to consider.
He's the anchor that lets the show swing between
comedy and drama. He really is. Well, this has
been an incredible deep dive. I feel like I need
to go re -watch Tuttle right now. Just don't
forget your parachute. Rule number one. Thanks
for listening everyone. This has been the Deep
Dive on M .A .S .H. Season 1. We will see you
next time.