M*A*S*HCast #63 – Bombed

M*A*S*HCast -  Season 3, Episode 15: Bombed

Special Guest Star: Mike Jamison

Air Date: January 7, 1975

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15 responses to “M*A*S*HCast #63 – Bombed

  1. Trapper hitting on someone else’s girlfriend was kind of dirty pool. Hawkeye and Frank working together to break into the store room was out of character. I know it made it funny for them to burst in on Trapper and Margaret but it doesn’t seem like something they would really do as a team.

    Here is something really strange I just saw. MeTV shows two episodes every night in order. Monday they had Margaret’s wedding and Fade Out/Fade In Part One and Tuesday had FOFI Part Two and Fallen Idol (Radar gets shot).

    Anyway, in the opening credits of FOFI (both parts) it had both Linville and Steirs’ names. Linville was right before they switched to the overhead and then Steirs. I thought I was imagining things so I made sure to see Part Two yesterday and it was there again. Linville was gone in the opening of Fallen Idol.

    I am in a hotel for work so I had no way to rewind and watch it again. I wish I had videoed it with my phone so I could post it here.

    Anyway, I just thought it was weird. I found a bootleg of the episode on YouTube and it was just Steirs.

    1. Well, Trapper did have a reputation as a cad, so not really out of character. In regards to Hawkeye and Frank, I don’t think they were really teaming up, I think they both knew that Trapper and Margret were last seen together going to the supply shed, so Hawkeye out of concern for his friend and Frank, out of concern for Margret, kind of had their mutual interests intertwine. And that’s pretty weird with the opening credits!

  2. Thanks for another excellent episode, gentlemen.

    I agree that Frank is at his worst in this episode, but I also think it includes one of his best moments. When Trapper and Hawkeye are trying to remove the booby trap, they call for Frank to sedate the patient. To Frank’s credit, he doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t run and hide. Instead, he rises to the challenge.

    Also, Klinger’s “knock three times” line cracks my daughter up every time.

    1. Very true, gotta give ‘ole Ferret Face credit, he did rise to the challenge there! Your daughter has good taste in humor!

  3. Regarding the Turhan Bey line. The way I hear it is Henry is talking about how great the toothbrush was and how nice it made his teeth look. I think it was a compliment, not a knock on Mr. Bey’s teeth.

  4. If that actor was Asian, maybe he was portrayed in movies as having stereotypical huge teeth. The movies Blake would have watched in the 1930s and 1940s weren’t known for cultural sensitivities.

    1. George, my guess (and that’s all it is) is that Paul’s right on this one. I have two reasons. First, he was half-Asian, but not East Asian, and I think that’s the racial stereotype of the day that you’re referencing. Wikipedia (I know, great source) says Turhan Bey was born in Vienna to a Turkish diplomat and his Czechoslovakian Jewish wife. Second (same source), he was reportedly so handsome his nickname was “the Turkish Delight.”

  5. This is a really great episode, and very dramatic. Previous episodes would play the peril in the camp for laughs, like for the sniper and 5 o’clock Charlie, but not this one. I especially think of the times when the surgery window would blow open, and everybody’d be shouting to put the drapes back up to block the light, so it wouldn’t draw more fire. It showed nobody took the danger for granted, and this episode was doing what I think MASH did best: balance the humor with real drama.

    My usual oddball thoughts: the artillery really failed on the scouting front, because they’re shelling a camp that has tons of big Red Cross logos all over! I do find that a pretty big stretch, because it means they must have no visual on the 4077. But I can buy it as an exaggeration to make the point that nowhere is truly safe in a war.

    And it really tears my heart out to hear Loretta use a variation of her “pickle voice” when she breaks down in the supply shed. That voice is supposed to make us laugh, and here I just want to cry and give her a big hug. (But NO HANKY PANKY! LOOKING AT YOU, TRAP!)

    Great episode, guys!

    1. Tim, I agree it’s a stretch — especially such prolonged fire. I attempted to explain a previous friendly artillery mistake on this show, but I don’t think I can no-prize this one. The Bob Hope show excuse makes it even more ridiculous. You’d still have somebody manning the comms, especially if you were firing your guns. I looked up some other friendly fire incidents involving artillery in the same approximate time frame. I found some horrific ones, but all blessedly brief. Artillery fire is very often beyond visual range, but that’s why you employ forward observers and aerial reconnaissance (both dangerous work).

    2. But as you say, I’m sure they were making some comment about the fog of war and the dangerous buffoonery it generates — a valid point, but a bad example.

    3. Very true, Loretta did use her “pickle voice” in that instance! As always, so many great lines just in that small scene that I forgot to mention:
      Trap: I don’t even have a hankie, and my pankie is in my other suit.

      Margaret: I’m so embarrassed.
      Trap: Why?
      Margret: I outrank you!

      Margaret: Everybody thinks I’m so hard and tough and here I am crying like a baby! Do you mind?
      Trap: No, it’s the first soft water that’s touched my body in a year.

      MASH would dip into the “friendly fire” trope a few times over the years, most likely as a way of showing the how the war effects all those in a warzone and the general absurdities of war, but yeah, you’d think they’d notice the LARGE RED CROSSES! Great insights!

  6. I always thought that there was a separate supply shed that kept the majority of stuff, excess blankets and boxes of tongue depressors etc. The room immediately off the post-op area was the “supply closet,” where the on-hand stuff was stored. I know that in my office we have a “supply room” and then an additional area in the warehouse for the paper, folders, etc still in the boxes. So I always thought of it that way….

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