M*A*S*H: Carry On, Hawkeye

M*A*S*H: Carry On, Hawkeye
CBS
November 24, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
C+

Bernard Dilbert contributes his first of two M*A*S*H scripts, with the help of Larry Gelbart and Laurence Marks.  The episode has some tasteless humor, but less than the last two episodes.  And it's an episode where Hawkeye and Hot Lips become closer to being friends.  He refers to her as a friend late in the episode, but I don't quite buy it yet.  I also wish that there had been an acknowledgement of how the other nurses step forward when Hawkeye is the only doctor not down with the flu.  Father Mulcahy's contributions are recognized, so why are theirs taken for granted?  The episode indeed feels like it was written by three people, and the shifts in tone don't always work.  But, yes, an improvement over the last two episodes.  Oh, and note that I suspect that the "news" at the end is full of anachronisms, in particular that the French were unlikely to be considering ending "the Vietnam War" in '51 or '52, when it didn't really start till '54.

Gwen Farrell (now Nurse Wilson), Marcia Gelman (Jacobs), Lynette Mettey (formerly Lt. Nancy Griffin, now Nurse Sheila Anderson), and Kellye Nakahara (Yamato) return.