M*A*S*H: L.I.P (Local Indigenous Personnel)

M*A*S*H: L.I.P (Local Indigenous Personnel)
CBS
October 27, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
B-

This story by Carl Kleinschmitt, Larry Gelbart, and Laurence Marks interweaves Hawkeye's romancing of a pretty and witty lieutenant with his efforts to see that a soldier can marry his Korean girlfriend and take her and their baby home when he's shipped out.  When Hawkeye finds out that the lieutenant is bigoted, he breaks off their relationship.  The episode is a bit heavy-handed, including Burns and Houlihan interfering just because that's what they do, but it has its moments, particularly with scene-stealer Klinger.

Odessa Cleveland (Bayliss) and Kellye Yakahara (Yamato) both return, the former being told by Blake to leave jokes to the doctors and the latter seeming to have a crush on Radar.

M*A*S*H: Kim

M*A*S*H: Kim
CBS
October 20, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
B

This story by Marc Mandel, Larry Gelbart, and Laurence Marks is about how Trapper wants to adopt a seemingly orphaned five-year-old Korean boy.  His wife Louise supports him and his two daughters Becky and Kathy (one of whom is also five) are excited.  (Blake claims to also have two kids.  Did one die?  Or is this set before his wife gave birth to their son?)  The whole camp in a sense adopts the boy while they're waiting, with nice moments like Margaret reading aloud to him, Klinger teaching him baseball, and Radar snuggling with him (but taking back the teddy he's as attached to as Mr. Howell was to his).  But then Kim's mother (Momo Yashima in her first of three M*A*S*H roles) finds him.  The episode couldn't really end any other way, but it's good to see other, softer, sides of the characters.

Jeff Maxwell (Straminsky), Kellye Nakahara (Yamato), and Leslie Mitchell (her last M*A*S*H role, as Nurse Mitchell) return.

M*A*S*H: The Longjohn Flap

M*A*S*H: The Longjohn Flap
CBS
February 18, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
B-

This first Alda-written story is about thermal underwear that makes it way through the camp, mostly through the barter system but also through theft and emotional blackmail.  I could've done without Hawkeye calling Burns "hermaphroditic" for no reason, but otherwise a nice rookie effort.  And we find out that Trapper has children but not how many or how old.  This is incidentally the 200th program from the '70s I've reviewed.

M*A*S*H: Sometimes You Hear the Bullet

M*A*S*H: Sometimes You Hear the Bullet
CBS
January 28, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
B

Carl Kleinschmitt's first of two M*A*S*H scripts (he'd written a bit for That Girl) is important to the evolution of the series.  There are several interwoven threads, one featuring 18-year-old Ron Howard as 15-year-old Wendell.  And the "drama" part of "dramedy" is more obvious than before, with Hawkeye crying for the first time in Korea, over the death of his childhood friend.  This also the first death on the series.

John Orchard (Black) returns.  Lynette Mettey makes her first appearance as Lt. Nancy Griffin, who seems like she can match Pierce's drinking.

M*A*S*H: Tuttle

M*A*S*H: Tuttle
CBS
January 14, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
B+

When a Bob Newhart Show episode in the first season is this good, it's not too surprising, but I am baffled by the miracle of an early M*A*S*H episode hitting this height.  David Ketchum and Bruce Shelly didn't write any other episodes, even of other of my shows.  (Ketchum does pop up as an actor on Mork & Mindy though.)  So I don't know if they wrote anything else this clever, both funny and thought-provoking.  Not only are there a lot of great lines, including the "Druid" ones and of course "There's a little Tuttle left in all of us.  In fact, you might say that all of us together made up Tuttle," but the way that Tuttle takes on a reality for everyone is wonderfully handled.  This is one of the episodes where Hawkeye, with of course the help of Radar, makes the Army bureaucracy work for him, rather than against him, and the cause, "Sister Theresa's orphanage," is undeniably a good one.  I would go with an A- or higher, but the pacing could be a shade faster and I wasn't on the floor laughing, just chuckling quietly.

Herb Voland returns as General Clayton.  James B. Sikking plays the Finance Officer.  Mary Robin Redd is Sister Theresa here and would be Susan Wick on Bob Newhart.  This is, by the way, the 500th program I've reviewed on this blog.

M*A*S*H: Henry, Please Come Home

M*A*S*H: Henry, Please Come Home
CBS
November 19, 1972
Dramedy
DVD
B-

In this Laurence Marks story, the first directed by William Wiard, Henry is promoted up and out of the 4077th, so Burns is running things.  Hawkeye and friends scheme to get Henry back from Tokyo.

Patrick Adiarte (Ho-Jon), Timothy Brown (Jones), Odessa Cleveland (Bayliss), Robert Gooden (Boone), Linda Meiklejohn (Scorch), John Orchard (Black), and G. Wood (Hammond) are all back.  Noel Toy would return as Mama-San five years later.