M*A*S*HCast - Season 5, Episode 20: The General's Practitioner
Special Guest Star: Dr. Chris Lewis
Air Date: February 15, 1977
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Great podcast as usual, thank you.
Just one quibble – I think it’s pretty obvious that Mulligan and Mi Ping have already had their emotional goodbye well before the scene at Rosie’s. Just the look on her face tells the story. She’s already shed her tears – she’s not going to do it in public.
I think that’s a really keen observation; Mi Ping has made her peace with Mulligan leaving, and she’s more than reconciled to the idea of moving Radar into the role of partner/father. Just a shame they left him out of that particular decision!
Another great episode. As a note about a general officer’s desires. The generals that served in the Korean War had served during WW I and WW II. At that time, a general could just request their own personal doctor or chef. Even at that time, a general’s staff would move along with him when transferring to a new unit or command. Things are different now where personnel are stationed with a unit rather than with an officer. Either way, generals are still prima donnas.
What a good observation, Major Joe. I can certainly see some British Generals in WWI having their own entourage of staff, although I’m not enough of a military expert to know how long that practice lasted.
Wow! I didn’t know that about personal doctors, Joe. I know stateside 4-stars often have personal chefs because they’re that busy and entertaining that much for work. And of course, they often have aircraft and flight crews at their disposal because of all their travel. But this episode is the only time I ever came across the personal doctor perk. Nowadays, I think it would be a justified call to DoD’s Fraud, Waste, & Abuse Hotline. (I’ve actually called it. The investigators there seem pretty on the ball, believe it or not.)
Regarding the general’s late-in-the-episode flip-flop, I think we can give credit to the power of shame. Hawkeye’s argument that generals always say the men come first is a great one. The most unrealistic point for me is that they didn’t make that argument straightaway, but then the episode would have been seven minutes long.
I’ll go ahead and make this my episode comment. As I’ve said in the past, Dr. Lewis is a great guest and a great commenter. Same goes for Dr. Anj, of course. I am always pleased when I see their names on a MASHcast page. The combination of good humor, ethics, and medical knowledge they display indicates to me that they are probably great doctors, as well as entertaining and informative people.
This was an even better episode than usual, Iron Guts. Keep it up, and we’ll reward you with praise, a $3 medal, and even more work — just like the real military! 🙂
Thank you for the kind words, Captain E.
I try to be the best doctor I can. Being entertaining is extra!
Great show and great to have Dr. Lewis on board to discuss.
A couple of things.
As mentioned, it is a bit crazy that the General wants a surgeon as his personal doctor. Surgeons do surgery. But they aren’t experts in medical conditions usually. So Hawkeye might be the guy you want reconstructing your bowel if it has been shredded. But as a doc handling high blood pressure, cholesterol, etc? He might not be the best one at all.
And that brings me to the discussion you had Rob. I *am* a pediatric ER doc so as you say, babies can’t tell you what bothers them. So you rely a lot on physical exam findings and symptoms. You also think about things that are specific to different age groups, etc. And experience is huge. I have been doing this now for 22 years. I have seen a lot. You develop a ‘spider sense’, a term I use at work all the time. But when even that doesn’t help and symptoms are too vague, you do things like blood work or imaging to help hone down what you want. As Dr. Lewis said, when babies are very ill, they are very ill. My job is a little crazy, a little stressful, at times a little sad. But always rewarding.
Great show and discussion.
You’re absolutely right, Anj – There’s no substitute for ‘spider-sense’, ‘gut feeling’, or what one of my now retired mentors described as “The angel on my shoulder”!
There’s even been attempts to analyse and evidence-base that ‘gut feeling’ (because we GPs will navel-gaze over *aaannnything*!)
If you’re interested, there’s a link to a paper in the British Journal of General Practice here: https://bjgp.org/content/70/698/e612. This study looks at ‘gut feeling’ when diagnosing patients with cancer. It’s largely down to a subtle mixture of verbal & non-verbal cues from the patient, as well as clinician experience, and seems to have an important predictive benefit.
In the past when I’ve been involved in designing forms for colleagues to use when referring patients from primary care to hospital, we’ve been careful to include a section for free text where clinicians can effectively say “I can’t quite prove it, but I just have a feeling about this one…!” It’s amazing how often that ‘feeling’ turns out to be correct.
I really liked listening to your discussion about an episode that is a bit “meh” for me, I actually think I like it more now. 🙂
And I have to say – the children on MASH are the cutest! The little dude in this episode, Kim, the baby that gets Frank’s purple heart, the little guy in “Death Takes a Holiday” that handles out the fudge, every orphan – all so cute!
Another great episode and podcast. Chris’ insight as both a physician and a fan of MASH brought a lot to the discussion. I always took Hawkeye’s 6 month prediction at face value. I understand now how it wouldn’t work for the structure of the story to tell the general that a stroke would be coming in the next decade.
I agree with Chris, this episode was a great showcase for BJ. That ‘foot’ conversation with Hawkeye makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it. The scene with the home visit for Radar showed off BJ’s family-man image. Mike Farrell pulls off both comedic and dramatic acting beautifully.
And now, from the desk of the Strange Coincidences Office:
Both CheersCast and MASHCast referred to the movie 12 Angry Men this week. That is a coincidence in itself, but at this time I also happen to be in the middle of rehearsals for a production of 12 Angry Men at a local theater. I’ve always loved the movie, so it is fun being in a stage version of the story. Our version is based on the original 1954 TV movie. While the characters and the basic storyline are the same, how they go about their discussions of reasonable doubt are a little different than the 1957 Sidney Lumet version. (In case you are wondering, Rob, I am playing the character Robert Webber played in the movie, juror 12.)
If anyone happens to be in the Williamsburg, VA area in September, tickets can be purchased at http://www.williamsburgplayers.org/wp/.
Yeah, The line “You have a 32% chance of dying in the next decade” might be shocking to some of my patients, but if you’re in a theatre of war under actual gunfire, getting through the next month might feel more important to you!!
I love how BJ and Hawkeye give us two very different – but both completely legitimate – angles on the work of a doctor in this episode: Hawkeye’s virtuoso surgery and righteous anger as he tries to resuscitate his patient on the table, to the quieter supportive mentoring that BJ shows Radar. Both brilliant performances by the respective actors.
To add to your strange coincidence list, Rob & I actually recorded this episode several months in advance (I had to listen back to remember what I’d said!) How weird that its actual release coincides with both Cheers-cast and your performance! I hope that you ‘Break a Leg’… no I don’t want to wish that on you! Sprain a tendon? NO! That’s worse! Err… Good Luck with the show!
Some observations —
—Is she’s had a baby with Mulligan, why is she calling him by his last name?
—When Mulligan and Radar meet each other in the mess tent, they fill their cups, cross to the table, sit and slurp their coffee before saying their lines. It looks very clunsy as if, in reality, they’re reading stage directions.
—The timing between Radar and BJ’s walk and the arrival of the General is magnificent. You hear the jeep in the background as BJ is finishing his line and at the end of the line the jeep appears on camera. That had to be timed precisely.
—Have you noticed that when booze is poured into a glass from a bottle that the actor really slams the neck of the bottle into the glass rim? It’s a wonder Potter didn’t break the neck of the scotch bottle off. And this occurs again and again throughout the series.
—“20 pounds overweight”? If the General is only twenty pounds overweight then I am barely a pound overweight.
—The General really wimps out at the en of the episode. He states that he got to where he is by not accepting “no” but here he is actually stopping his jeep for a lowily Captain and, as your guest states, completely abandons his desire to have Hawkeye as his doctor.
—This is the second time that the doctors have had an opportunity to get rid of Frank but kibosh the plan (the first being the gold rush episode). They must secretly want him around.
Asians often refer to others by their last names. If he had a terribly difficult first name, that might be why she just stuck to “Mulligan.”
The episode that is basically my age
Father Mulcahy saying sinners go to Hell always struck me as odd. Everyone sins. I sin. You sin. Father Mulcahy sins. We all fall short of the glory of God. Had he said “evil doers”, it would have made more sense. Not trying to start a religious debate, just giving my viewpoint.
Mulligan just dumping his girlfriend on Radar without even telling him about the baby was weird. And then he can leave the country with them on a moment’s notice? Did she not have family? And Radar didn’t know about this woman, even though his good friend (yet another camp member we have never seen before) has been with her for at least a year?
Add me to those who found it odd the general went from “you have your orders” to “forget it” after a ten second lecture from Hawkeye. And couldn’t a three star general request a regular doctor to be assigned rather than grabbing Hawkeye? Given that all he’d have to do is check his vitals every day and suggest a better health regimen, Frank could do it. I’d definitely write a glowing recommendation.
Thanks for your thoughts George.
I don’t know if Mulligan is attached to the 4077 or if he’s one of Radar’s large network of friends and acquaintances from outside the camp. In my head-canon, Mulligan is a bit like “Sparky” – someone that Radar has become friendly with through the course of his duties. The nature of that remote friendship might explain why poor, sweet Mulligan trusts Radar with the care of his new family, without Radar actually knowing anything about them.
I’m pretty sure that the photo of Mrs. Potter was in his first appearance episode, Rob. He has some line about always giving her a salute at the beginning of every day, so she has to go on a specific spot on his desk. Then Radar salutes her, too.
I read that the woman in the photo was of Harry Morgan’s real wife. I like that, so I hope it’s true.
Oooh! Great catch, Colonel Captain Corporal, sir! I will have to go back and rewatch that one. I too hope it’s the real Mrs Harry Morgan; that would be very sweet.
I think in a sideways manner they actually did make reference to the issue of interracial marriage and wonder then how many people in 1977 would’ve gotten it. So there was a town called Biter Creek in Wyoming (it’s now a ghost town) that was a train stop town populated mostly by white railway workers. However in the Biter Creek area there was a town (now the city) of Rock Springs. At this place in 1885 the Rock Springs massacre /riots took place leading to between 25 to 50 dead Chinese immigrants and a large destruction of property because they were blamed for taking jobs. And this is in the Bitter Creek Wyoming area.
I remain incredulous that not only could Mulligan have a longtime relationship with a girl in the village, and actually have a baby with her, but Radar knew nothing about it. Surely at least rumors of this had to have been known among the 4077’s enlisted men? And we all know that Radar was well-tapped into the camp’s grapevine.
And I’m a bit surprised that the producers didn’t have Gary Burghoff wear a hairpiece. Radar is supposed to be what, 19 or 20? The visual evidence of his receding widow’s peak and bald spot (just try and not stare…you can’t!), while not unheard of among men at that young age, still jolts the viewer out of the fantasy that he’s just a kid from Iowa. There’s a reason why he almost always wore his cap, after all.