M*A*S*HCast #26 – Five O’Clock Charlie

M*A*S*HCast -  Season 2, Episode 2: Five O'Clock Charlie

Special Guest Star: Max Romero

Air Date: September 22, 1973

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Theme music by Johnny Mandel

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14 responses to “M*A*S*HCast #26 – Five O’Clock Charlie

  1. Another fine episode of MASHcast. I truly missed it during its brief hiatus.
    As soon as you mentioned Corey Fischer as Jesus Hippie I knew exactly which character he had played in All in the Family. Look up Archie goes to Jail on YouTube and you will get to enjoy Jesus Hippie and his love of Jesus Christ Superstar on portable cassette!

  2. Another enjoyable podcast. I also loved this episode growing up that I had this episode on tape and when I mean tape I mean putting my cassette recorder up to the tv speaker and recording the audio to listen to many times later. I would just use my memory to visualize it while listening to the dialog. (Ah the days before the VCR became a common place.)

    Five O Clock Charlie does make one more appearance in season three “There Is Nothing Like A Nurse.” Maybe someone will be discussing that episode in the future.

    Thanks Rob and Max for a great discussion.

  3. Welcome back Corporal Captain Kelly. I hope you enjoyed your R&R in Tokyo.

    You can definitely add me to the list of people who love Five O’Clock Charlie. The idea of the whole camp gathering everyday to watch Charlie make his bombing run tickles me every time I see it. One of my favorite scenes in the episode is the reveal of the bedsheet arrows that Hawkeye and Trapper use to help guide Charlie.

    One thing I wonder about when I see this episode is do Frank and his gunnery crew hit the ammo dump completely by accident, or did Hawkeye and Trapper engineer that to happen in some way? As I recall, Hawkeye and Trapper call out random numbers in an apparent attempt to confuse Frank and his crew, but perhaps those numbers weren’t as random as they seemed. Another thought that occurrs to me is that the gunnery crew may have been working with Hawkeye and Trapper to blowup the ammo dump. Presumably, the crew does not enjoy serving under Frank, and may have seen this as a way to get out from under his thumb.

    1. Brian-

      Yeah I find that confusing as well, it seems like Hawkeye and Trapper are just saying random numbers, and then that just happens to hit the ammo dump. Maybe, as you say, the crew was in on it because of course they don’t like Frank either!

  4. Regarding the casual misogyny, I feel the first 3 seasons , especially the first 1 and a half, tried to keep the “feel” of the movie, ie the overlapping dialogue, Hawkeye saying “Finest kind”, and the doctors sometimes treating the women in a less than respectful way. Although I’m sure that men of the early fifties would probably speak that way to a woman, as the show progressed we obviously saw less and less of this, especially when BJ and Potter showed up.

  5. Great to listen to a new episode. I enjoy this episode because of how Hawkeye & Trapper try to mess up Frank, especially when they kept switching his gun for other things (flush ’em out of the skies.) While some people, like Frank, didn’t understand why the camp would be cheering for an enemy, I believe that as long as Charlie was not really dangerous, the camp does need and welcome some sort of break from the boredom. As we saw, it wasn’t until the jeep was blown up that General Clayton gave Frank the “nug W.W. 04”.

    I’m sure by now you might have been told but Charlie does make a brief appearance as the “enemy paratroopers” in season 3’s “There’s nothing like a nurse.”

    Thank you for a great podcast.

    Bye-Bye and Buy Bonds

  6. 5 o’clock Charlie is a classic. Just the name is supremely memorable. I picture Hawkeye and Trapper with their beach chairs right away, and hear that sputtering lawn-mower engine plane, just from the name alone.

    It’s amazing how well Larry Linville could sell Frank’s cluelessness. Ginger delivers her line so delightfully obviously. “Yes, doctor, his FOUR THIRTY FEEDING!” And Frank doesn’t really care. Great stuff.

    As for the ending, in my head, Hawkeye and Trapper had two plans all along. Help Charlie, and if that failed, use the Nug itself to destroy the ammo dump. After all, they couldn’t count on Charlie to hit the dump, no matter how much they helped. And Hawkeye’s forceful, “you heard the man, FIRE!” made it easy to believe he knew exactly what coordinates were needed and he was standing close enough to see if they were set. But of course, the most important reason is it’s funnier for Frank to destroy the dump. LOL!

    Great job, Rob and Max!

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