M*A*S*HCast #28 – For The Good of the Outfit

M*A*S*HCast -  Season 2, Episode 4: For The Good of the Outfit

Special Guest Star: Jacob Hall

Air Date: October 6, 1973

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Theme music by Johnny Mandel

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4 responses to “M*A*S*HCast #28 – For The Good of the Outfit

  1. I don’t remember this episode very well. I should re-watch it.
    My first thought when you were talking about the plot of this one was how much it reminded me of the My Lai massacre in Viet Nam, which happened in March 1968.

  2. Still loving the show! I do have a thought on why we as kids were so drawn to the show. It was Radar, he was the one we identified with. He was so childlike, but so in control of what was going on there. When I was a kid, the 4077th seemed almost like a playground and Radar was a big reason why.

  3. I always forget how dark this episode is, until I see it again. Perhaps, my familiarity with the plot leads me to gloss over the horror of what happens here. Thank you for helping me to look at this one again with fresh eyes.

    In particular, your discussion really made rethink the character of Major Stoner. I’ve always assumed that he was sent in to undermine Hawkeye and Trapper’s case from the beginning. I never considered that he initial might have been genuine in his desire to help them. I’ll have to rewatch this episode again, and follow Stoner more carefully.

  4. Russell, I think the closest comparison to My Lai would be comparing Trapper and Hawkeye to Hugh Thompson, Jr., the helicopter pilot who had the moral and physical courage to stop the massacre and rescue the survivors. Look him up if you want to read about a hero. My Lai was a revenge-fueled horror story. Artillery going where it was never intended to go happens much more innocently and more often, despite people’s best efforts to prevent it. One likely scenario is an inexperienced soldier under fire calling for support and transposing numbers. Combine that with an out of date map and a civilian populace forced to be mobile in a war zone, and a tragedy like the one in this episode becomes more difficult to prevent.

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