M*A*S*HCast – Season 5, Episode 21: Movie Tonight
Special Guest Star: Kevin Lauderdale
Air Date: February 22, 1977
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What I find amazing as I go through the seasons here is how much MASH has entered my lexicon. When I see someone with jaundice in my job, I always say ‘it’s the most remarkable shade of yellow’. No one gets it. When I see Walter Brennan in a movie, I always say ‘Heh heh Walter Brennan’ like Kilnger’s impression.
As for the ‘gee mom I want to go home’, it is stretching it a bit that everyone makes a lyric so quickly but I think that just further emphasizes how ‘slow’ Frank is. They’ve moved on to the next song when he stands up and does his verse. He is just not as clever as everyone. I always laugh and yet empathize because almost every day I say to myself ‘I should’ve said that as a comeback’ but always just too late.
Great discussion and fun episode.
Great thoughts on the power of film, Rob. I know I mentioned this at the time, but I don’t think I will EVER have a better movie experience than I did with Avengers: End Game. The entire audience was really one, reacting together, allowing nuts like me to jump up and yell “YEAH!!!” at fist-pumping moments. It didn’t detract from the experience, it added to the communal feeling in that room.
Movies can connect us to people in ways we never expected. Dropping a line from a movie with a new co-worker and getting that reaction of recognition builds bridges. Powerful stuff.
I’ve been AWOL from the MASHcast comments for some time. Your guests have been so good I’ve really had nothing to add.
Same is true for this episode. I’m here to praise My Darling Clementine and my 2nd favorite character Col Potter. (zBJ is my favorite)
I love westerns, and MDC is of course a classic. It’s small wonder that msn like Potter would love the film. The character of Potter very much reminds me of my grandfather. He to loved western films, he had a library of Zane Grey westerns and My Darling Clementine was his favorite movie. If he saw it in the tv listenings, he made it an event. The way some folks hold Super Bowl parties, my grandad hosted My Darling Clementine parties. But heaven hrlp us we we talked during the movie like they did in this episode! “Wait for the commercials! We can talk then! Sit down! You can get a soda during the ad break!”
This podcast episode brought me back to some good times. Way back. At least 30 years… excuse me… my allergies are acting up…
Another great episode. However, Kevin made an error. He used Division and Corps interchangeably when discussing I Corps, III Corps, IV Corps, and etc. A division had between 10,000 to 18,000 soldiers. A Corps consisted of two or more Divisions. While I’m not trying to be pedantic, there is a considerable size difference.
The US military has downsized a lot since the Korean War. During that time, we had approximately 5,720,000 soldiers in the Army alone. Now the US Army consists of approximately 1,400,00 soldiers.
And the Army’s still a lot bigger than any of the rest of the services. I mean, there’s like 17 or 18 Coasties…
Loved to listen to the conversation! “Movie Tonight” is such a great episode.
I agree, by now I can really see why Larry Linville wanted out, there was just no way to take the character further, and to spend his time pining over Margaret must have been kind of boring for him as an actor. I would have love if they had given Frank some more depth during the seasons. We get to hear him talk about a not so happy childhood, but he still choses to be the worst in so many ways, and that just gets a bit boring. We see barely any good sides of him, no hopes and dreams, no vulnerability.
Here, I feel absolutely no sympathy for him either when it comes to Margaret, or Hawkeye being somewhat mean to him. Margaret broke up with him in a bad way, yes, but he had treated her like crap a lot, and had been given every opportunity to be with her if he would have wanted. She made it very clear that she wanted to be Mrs. Burns, but he would never leave his wife and all of her family’s lovely, lovely money. And with Hawkeye, his patience with Frank ran out a long time ago, so being nice to him when Frank for once was sincere would have just been impossible.
The singing, and the imitations is so sweet! It’s also great that Margaret has apparently taken some singing lessons! 🙂 And I love her determination to finish her performance, that’s really true to her character – so intense about everything she does! Loretta Swit has such a lovely voice, there is a video on Youtube where she sings As Times Goes By, and it’s such a beautiful performance! So soft, very unlike the way she sings in this episode.
All of them quietly singing in the OR at the end always brings a tiny tear to my eye 🙂
Thank you for another great episode!
Great show, soldiers!
I have 3 things to add (all music related – go figure!)
1) I’m gonna ‘No Prize’ the “Gee, Mom, I Wanna Go Home” segment by saying that I don’t think for a minute that this is the first time the camp had a sing-a-long event.
I’m betting it was a reoccurring event. And in each and everyone of those sing-a-longs I think that “Gee, Mom…” was a standard that was performed every time.
I think everyone who wanted to, had a verse prepared and maybe even changed it up depending on the situation in their life.
2) If you want to hear an interesting version of the song Clementine – check out the Irish group Westlife, who do a cover version of it in a ’60’s Rat Pack style. It sounds great!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IomN3JaHwvo
3) And finally – as Keven pointed out – “C’est Magnifique” was written by Cole Porter who I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and my all time favorite version is performed by Kay Starr. The video link I’ve included has the lyrics so we ALL can have a sing-a-long together!
I agree with Shawn that the singalong to “Gee, Mom, I Wanna Go Home” is a reoccurring event, especially as the Captains’ verse fits Trapper rather than BJ. Also the lyrics used probably reflect internal thoughts they have had. Radar probably has thought they camp would be in the latrine if weren’t for him, Margaret probably has heard ‘tie the knot, Penobscott’ said around camp etc. I do wonder what Henry’s verse would have been or Charles if this was set in season 6 onwards. I also wonder if Charles would have taken part in the play gun fight at the end.
Great episode anyway. I love both Rocky Horror and Tom Lehrer, possibly as much as I love M*A*S*H so it was wonderful to hear them both referenced.
On the subject of Lehrer, I almost forgot he does his own take on the song ‘Clementine’ so it all links in.
Great episode, as always. As to the spontaneous lyrics in the “Gee Mom I Want to Go Home” scene, I find the entire scene so delightful that I don’t mind it’s improbability. By this point, these characters are our friends, so seeing them genuinely delight in each other’s company is really fun. It’s actually one of my favorite scenes in the entire series.
Also, am I alone in preferring BJ without his mustache? It’s the opposite of Ryker’s beard in Star Trek TNG.
Great talk about a rather weak episode.
I love OTR radio programs and Jack Benny is my favorite. And, yes, even though there are hundreds of surviving episodes of Fred Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, Bob Hope, etc. I stll think Benny is the best.
And I’m very glad that you talked about the wonderful Eddie Anderson. I’m happy you mentioned that Eddie had problems buying real estate in LA because of his race. I spent my first 30 years in Alabama and constantly heard that the South was the only area that had racism. Of course that is not true. And as we’ve seen in the last seven years racism is still alive and well all over this country. I’m so tired of the South getting the bad rap it’s gotten through the decades.
I think plotz is a much more common word than vontz (I hope I spelled those two words right). I remember hearing plotz in several Three Stooges shorts along with several OTR shows.
Every time I hear the song “My Farling Clementine” I reflect back to Huckleberry Hound.
I was surprised to see that even Frank got involved in the shootout.
I agree with Shawn, Andrea, and Sean. I think “Gee Mom” is like one of those camp songs that everyone knows and everyone has a lyric ready to go. In fact, I specifically recall my brother and I singing it as kids. I’m not sure how that would have happened, because my Dad was a Marine, but…. is there anybody else out there who remembers:
The meatballs in the Army
They say are mighty fine
One rolled off the table
And killed a friend of mine
And I totally could see BJ learning the “Trapper” version of the song, since he sings it with Hawkeye.
And poor Frank. He really had no friends.
I didn’t get around to watching My Darling Clementine until I was in college. I remember loving it, and it was part of a class I had about Classic Western Movies so we sat around and discussed it. I think I’ll go and borrow it from the library again….!
Great discussion. I think this episode is a lot of fun. I like the lighthearted episodes. I love the Father Mulcahy impressions. Jocularity, jocularity. Also, I enjoyed hearing Kevin discuss The Jack Benny Show. I’ve watched a lot of reruns of his TV show, and I’ve heard some of the radio shows as well.
I have to say Frank’s belated singing resonated with me. Not the inappropriate content of his lyrics, of course, but the way he was behind everyone else and how everyone stared at him when he started singing. In large social settings it sometimes takes me a while to process conversations and by then it’s too late to say anything. In this one limited way, I actually find Frank more relatable than Hawkeye, who Is always the life of the party!
Great discussion of an episode with no real plot.
Never seen the movie and didn’t realize it was that recent to the people at MASH. Side note, it is as close in time to when this episode aired as Forest Gump is to us.
Don’t recall seeing the closing scene in my syndicated viewings. I agree they could have better cut the part with the nurses instead. That part didn’t seem to fit and sounds like a story idea they had but never got anywhere with.
It’s a crime that the final scene was cut in syndication. An absolute crime. It is the icing on the cake for this episode, making from “fun” to “beautiful”.