M*A*S*H: Ping Pong

M*A*S*H: Ping Pong
CBS
January 18, 1977
Dramedy
DVD
C+

The 4077th throws a wedding for a Korean (or maybe Korean-American) soldier who's a table tennis champ.  Margaret, who bickers with an increasingly childish Frank, cries at the wedding.  I think Hawkeye's line about their houseboy being drafted two years ago is a semi-in-joke about Ho-Jon.

Frank Maxwell, who plays Lt. Col. Harold Becket, was William Samuels on That Girl.  Roy Goldman (as Roy Goldman), Enid Kent (Nurse Bigelow), Sachiko Penny Lee (this time as Soony), Jeff Maxwell (Straminsky, doing Bogart), Kellye Nakahara (Yamato), and Sal Viscusco (PA Announcer) all return.  This is Sid Dorfman's last writing credit on my blog, giving him a span of almost 26 years, which will be tough to beat.

M*A*S*H: Private Charles Lamb

M*A*S*H: Private Charles Lamb
CBS
December 31, 1974
Dramedy
DVD
B

The calendar may say New Year's Eve, but it's either April 29, 1951 or April 20, 1952 in this Sid Dorfman celebration of Greek Easter.  Radar, whom we saw in the previous episode has many pets, here has a soft spot for the lamb who's scheduled to be the main course.  I suspect that the pun of the name he comes up with for the "private" is an unconscious one on Radar's part, since he's previously been shown to not know much about literature.  There seems to be a lot more wordplay than usual this episode, including Henry's "Abyssinia" pun that would be ironic in retrospect at the end of the season.  Meanwhile, Frank accidentally hears a confession about a self-inflicted wound, when the patient mistakes him for Father Mulcahy.

Tito Vandis, who's Col. Andropolis here, would be Gene the Janitor on The Bob Newhart Show.  Kellye Nakahara (Yamato) can be spotted in a Hawaiian shirt at the feast.  Margaret is in Tokyo this episode.

M*A*S*H: Iron Guts Kelly

M*A*S*H: Iron Guts Kelly
CBS
October 1, 1974
Dramedy
DVD
B+

In this story written by Gelbart and Burns & Allen veteran Dorfman, Lt. Gen. Robert 'Iron Guts' Kelly (James Gregory) dies during an evening with Margaret.  She can't let Frank know, so she has to turn to Hawkeye and Trapper for help.  When Kelly's adjutant, Colonel Wortman (51-year-old Keene Curtis, who'd make two memorable appearances on Three's Company), finds out, he decides to make it look like the general died in battle.  Lots of good scenes, including a half-asleep Radar trying to track down a battle.

Alberta Jay makes her first of two appearances, as an Anesthetist.  Byron Chung (this time Mr. Kwok), Jeff Maxwell (Straminsky), Bobbie Mitchell (now Nurse Able), and Dennis Troy (this time 2nd G.I.) return.

M*A*S*H: Major Fred C. Dobbs

M*A*S*H: Major Fred C. Dobbs
CBS
March 11, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
C

Frank is rude to Ginger (Odessa Cleveland) in the operating room, not for the first time, but he goes too far, calling her an incompetent bumbler.  She cries quietly.  Hawkeye and Trapper try to comfort her with humor, and then later they decide to get revenge on Burns.  Then they go too far and he wants to transfer out.  They go even further, tape-recording and then broadcasting (over the PA) his farewell to Hot Lips.  Now she wants a transfer.  When Blake says she feels publicly humiliated, Hawkeye jokes that he's offered to privately humiliate her.  With Burns and Houlihan both leaving, H & T are overburdened with work, so now they have to scheme to get Frank and Margaret to stay, and since Radar claims there's gold in them thar hills-- Trapper thinks Radar has the IQ of a house plant-- H & T trick Frank into gold fever.  Once his transfer is rescinded, they reveal their scheme, including painting a jeep and other items gold.  Then at the end, they apologize and Hawkeye shakes Frank's hand, but this turns into him kissing Frank against Frank's will!

I've gone into detail on this because the episode is such a mixture of cool moments and offensive ones.  Yes, I know the broadcast rendezvous is toned down from the movie, but I never liked how Hot Lips was treated in the movie.  And why the gratuitous insult of Radar's intelligence, when O'Reilly is arguably one of the smarter people in the camp?  (He's not well educated and he can be naive at times, but he's only what, 19?)  So anyway, that's why this gets a C, not recommended but not strongly unrecommended.

Harvey J. Goldenberg was on That Girl a couple times, Bob Newhart Show once, and here makes his first of two appearances as Kaplan.  The title is a reference to The Treasure of Sierra Madre (as was the Brady Bunch title "The Treasure of Sierra Avenue").

M*A*S*H: The Army-Navy Game

M*A*S*H: The Army-Navy Game
CBS
February 25, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
B-

Burns & Allen's Sid Dorfman wrote this script, based on a story by McLean Stevenson, earning Dorfman a longevity award on my blog for the moment.  It's not bad for a sports episode, but then it's mostly about the impact, literal and figurative, of an unexploded bomb in the middle of camp.  That the explosive is a propaganda bomb from the CIA is a nice twist.

Alan Manson, who's Colonel Hersh here, would later appear on The Bob Newhart Show.  Bobbie Mitchell plays the first of several roles on the show, this time as Nurse Mason, while Sheila Lauritsen's first is as Nurse Hardy.  John Orchard returns as Ugly John.

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: Wardrobe Woman Wins Free Trip to Hawaii

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: Wardrobe Woman Wins Free Trip to Hawaii
CBS
October 9, 1952
Sitcom
DVD
B

This was the premiere for Season Three (when they switched over from live to film), and we can see that the show is closer to what we think of it as.  Earlier episodes had George standing by the curtain, making wisecracks and observations about the plots and subplots, but by this point the show-within-a-show aspect is firmly established.  In fact, when a wacky situation ensues out of the win of the title-- with Gracie thinking that her married wardrobe lady is single and thus needs a groom to take on a Hawaiian honeymoon-- George starts taking notes in hopes that it'll be a good premise for an episode.  (He ends up throwing away the notes at the end, figuring nobody would believe it.)  It's a gentle, quiet farce that works.  Instead of the Three's Company sitcom attitude of later (or some I Love Lucy episodes for that matter), this is not a case of "If only these people would talk to each other, this could be easily resolved."  No, we have George (the future God) being omniscient but letting things play out.  There's also a sweet but funny little scene of G & G reminiscing about their honeymoon.

The writers and director are again the same as before.  This sort of consistency was I believe a carryover from radio but would become gradually rarer as television continued.

Harry Von Zell doesn't take Gracie's matchmaking well.  Note George's notepad.

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: The Beverly Hills Uplift Society

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: The Beverly Hills Uplift Society
CBS
October 11, 1951
Sitcom
DVD
B-

The second episode of the second season, with the same director and writers as before, this shows an improvement, as people settle in more.  Fred Clark is the new Harry Morton and his bickering with Benadaret provides counterpoint to George and Gracie's loving, supportive relationship.  (Blanche sarcastically compares her husband to Errol Flynn after an air-kiss.)  Harry Von Zell steps in as the new announcer and would continue to the end.  He here plugs sponsor Carnation in a really overt way, which adds unintentional humor.  Gracie again has convoluted finances in this episode, this time impacting the women's group of the title.  Surprisingly, there's a reference to one woman's husband running off with the maid, which seems racier humor than on I Love Lucy or Jack Benny, although the only reference to "sex" is in the sense of gender.

Von Zell is sworn in as an honorary woman so he can donate $120 and promote Carnation.  And they say Gracie is the daffy one!

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: The Income Tax Man

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: The Income Tax Man
CBS
March 1, 1951
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Co-written by Willy Burns (George's older brother), Sid Dorfman, Harvey Helm, and Paul Henning, and directed by Ralph Levy, all of whom would contribute to many other episodes in the series, this shows television in a very raw, primitive state.  It was the twelfth episode of the first season, and aired a few months before I Love Lucy debuted.  It was broadcast live and you can hear performers stumbling over their lines a bit.  (George and Gracie of course had had the luxury of scripts in front of them on radio.)  I consider the series to be under-rated, but it did take them awhile to find their bearings.  Still, it's interesting to see not only George and Gracie, but also Bea Benadaret as neighbor Blanche Morton (her voice unmistakably that of the future Betty Rubble).  As for this episode specifically, Gracie has a financial plan that of course confuses the title character.  There's a Truman reference, so this really is early television!

Note, this was the next to last episode for John Brown, who was soon to be replaced (multiple times) as Harry Morton.

This is actually the subplot, with a baker.