M*A*S*HCast #84 – Soldier of the Month

M*A*S*HCast -  Season 4, Episode 12: Soldier of the Month

Special Guest Star: Jeff Maxwell and Ryan Patrick from M*A*S*HMATTERS.

Air Date: November 28, 1975

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Theme music by Johnny Mandel

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13 responses to “M*A*S*HCast #84 – Soldier of the Month

  1. Excellent episode. Jeff is always funny and Ryan’s knowledge of the series gives new insights with every episode of MashMatters.

    RATS — My family was poor so we lived in several houses that were infested with rats. I would usually be the last person to go to bed. Sometimes I would go into the kitchen after all the lights were off. The room was lit by one bulb hanging from a cord in the center of the room. You would have to go to the light and pull the cord. There were countless times I would turn the light on and see a rat on the kitchen counter as he scurried away. One time, if fact, I nearly stepped on one with my bare feet as it was on the floor.

    The rat trap reminds me a lot of a fly catching invention in a Three Stooges short “Three Pests in a Mess”. It consists of a three foot tall box with a staircase inside and a plexiglass exterior with a small hole around the floor. According to their explanation the fly crawls in and being nosy climbs the stairs. At the top the fly is dizzy but looks down and sees himself in the mirror. Thinking it’s another fly he dives down to protect his territory and smashes his body on the floor. I think Frank had watched the Stooges.

  2. While Igor only had one line, it was a beaut, AND he was wearing a uniform when saying it! So there ya go.

    Wow, just a fantastic episode of podcasters mashed together! 😀

  3. Ditto to Randall’s first two sentences. It’s always cool to have such very special (and entertaining, and uniquely well-informed) guests.

    I’ve dealt with mice in an Eastern European hotel and a military camp in Afghanistan, but all my rat experiences are domestic. That probably means nothing whatsoever, but it’s true.

    In my head canon, Frank’s illness was coming on well before he knew it, and it was in his fevered state that he designed the rat trap. But it was a Korean vendor/engineer (who later made a version of a vascular clamp) that brought his design to life!

    BJ’s examination of Klinger’s hand was another great example of background acting on MASH. The writers, actors, and directors must have had a rule that the background characters must always be doing what those characters would really do.

    The janitor may have been trying to inspire Frank to toughen up a little and defend himself. Regardless, the innocent explanations for the boxing pictures are probably legit. Why, I know two guys who’ve spent years on another podcast talking about drawings of super fit people in skintight costumes. I tell you, no one thinks a thing of it. It’s quite entertaining, really.

    One final thought: It cannot have been an NCO who came up with this test for the competition. It had to be an officer. Only one of my fellow “Os” could decide that knowing state capitals and a lot of that other trivia was important to being a good soldier in a combat zone. Heck, I bet it was a lieutenant.

  4. Great episode and great guest.

    Of course Igor is prominently featured in my fave episode Adam’s Ribs, when he announces (once again) the entree is ‘liver or fish’ prompting one of the best Hawkeye tantrums ever. SO great to have Jeff on to discuss his critical one line here.

    Klinger’s ‘im crazy unless im sane unless im crazy’ thoughts are the winning bit of this episode for me. Brilliant.

    Thanks for another winning episode!

  5. I always look forward to the end of Soldier of the Month, where Margaret socks Frank in the chin. There’s just something that I find cathartic about that moment. I also have a new theory regarding Margaret’s motivation for punching Frank. She claims that she was upset about Frank’s will, but I think she secretly (perhaps, even subconsciously) had a crush on Igor, and didn’t like seeing Frank dress him down like that.

    Thank you for another amazing episode of MASHCast, with such entertaining and insightful guests.

  6. Having to wait a week was worth it with these two guests. My drive to work Wednesday was just long enough to hear the entire episode in one sitting.

    I never saw anything nefarious in the janitor showing Frank boxing photos but now I wonder.

    Frank doesn’t seem bright enough to pull off tax fraud and prescription kickback schemes or an affair with his secretary without getting caught.

    To add to head canon, Frank made a fortune after the war by designing the game Mousetrap.

    Having a history quiz for Soldier of the Month does sound silly but Radar is clearly the best soldier in the unit. He actually does his job. They brought back the history quiz when they ran the promotion board in a later episode.

    Thanks for getting them on. If you ever switch to a twice a month format please have them alternate weeks with MASH Matters so I still get a weekly MASH fix.

  7. What a great podcast show with great guests about another great episode! I am a huge MASH Matters fan, so I totally found my joy with this show. 🙂
    Ryan and Jeff are comedy gold, and adding Rob to the mix is like podcast version of Hawkeye-BJ-Potter!
    That is all.

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