Season 7, Episode 14: Dear Sis
Special Guest Star: Kevin Lauderdale
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I love Christmas episodes. I’ve never cared for Christmas movies but episodes have always been must-watch for me. And I take a different approach to their appeal than you guest. Christmas is the only major holiday that is steeped in tradition. Each family has their own. I don’t think that people like me look at Christmas episodes and say “Yes, I’ve done that”. I think they instead just see holiday situations and it immediately gives them the warm glow of remembrances of their own Christmases, not the one portrayed on the screen. For example in my youth I was the pianist for a small country church for over a decade. When I hear the religious Christmas songs being played over the loud speaker in MASH episodes I am mentally sent back to those days when I played in the church and at church related projects.
I enjoy your take on the OR scene where the dear Father is asked to calm an ecstatic patient. It always bothered me that Potter was so flippant about the Father’s predicament. If you’re “sterile” just change your gloves. (Aside – why do they have to scrub so long if they are eventually going to put on gloves?). However I thought that Margaret’s callousness was in keeping with her personality. She’s always been portrayed as not caring about anyone’s feelings but her own. This was just a continuation.
The Christmas item that I think would bring back the most memories for me wasn’t necessarily the best present I ever received. In the late 50s my Dad owned a Texaco station for about eighteen months. We were barely scraping by but my folks always made sure that we had as good of a Christmas as they could afford. That year Texaco offered its customers a Buddy L toy Texaco station for only $3.50 (equivalent to about $37 today). It came with cars, signs and about twenty four of the tiniest oil cans you ever saw on which you had to attach labels. It was probably all my folks could afford that year and of course my Dad would have gotten it wholesale too. We had fun with the station although I was never a “car guy”. If I had that station today it would bring back so many memories of my Dad. And on a mercenary note, if I had the station mint in box it would be close to a thousand dollars today.
All in all one of the better episodes of this season.
A song that everyone would know the lyrics to? Probably something that appears at every wedding: YMCA. Though it would take on a completely different meaning if sung to a priest.
Interesting comments on the first scene. I really like the movement of it, and it of course points out the isolation of Father Mulcahy sitting alone in the mess tent, where we can assume not a lot of people came to the Sunday service, and life is going on outside, while Mulcahy watches it, but isn’t involved.
The OR-scene where the patient grabs Mulcahy is interesting too, I think it’s absolutely true that the whole thing, the whole episode, is his interpretation of the situation. He was already in a bad head space, and would have interpreted anything said to him as demeaning. I can also see it as a comment on how both Potter and Margaret are desensitized in a way, patients getting upset and trying to fight off help must have been a common occurrence, and they will treat it kind of nonchalantly, because they’re used to it, they can’t afford to be upset every time, while Mulcahy is not as familiar with the situation.
The scene in Radar’s office always annoyed me, with Radar freaking out like that. I think at this point of the show they made Radar just too young and naive in several ways, it’s like he ages backwards. A farm boy almost fainting at the thought of turning a calf around inside the cow is way too much. One of the few things I actually prefer in the early seasons is the version of Radar that is more worldly, who isn’t just constantly overwhelmed.
The scene with Mulcahy and Hawkeye is one of my favorite Mulcahy-scenes, I love William Christopher’s acting here, and I love how calm and sweet Hawkeye is. It’s an unusual moment for these two characters to share, and it’s always lovely when we see a character admit to struggling with something, so many of them tries to hide emotions, can’t talk about what’s wrong and will find some unhealthy outlet instead, so it’s a very genuine, heartfelt moment that I’m happy we get to see.
I really love the mood of this whole episode, that by this point they could make a truly melancholy episode about not being home for Christmas, about not feeling that you contribute, about longing for the things that should be yours. Holidays can always shine a light on the things in your life that aren’t as you would have liked them to be, and there is something about these group of characters trying to make the best out of what they’ve got that just really pulls on your heartstrings. No family, no fire place, no warm, delicious food, no family traditions, just watery egg nog in the mess tent surrounded by people who wishes to be somewhere else too.
I think it’s so interesting that Charles, who is a very private person, gives us this glimpse of his childhood, and that he talks to Radar about it, I love the fact that his nostalgic love for times gone softens him a bit. Charles as a character is just so great and complex, in the same episode we get the Charles who will absolutely not donate his money to orphans to make their Christmas a bit better (but who knows, maybe he was already planning a secret trip to the orphanage to donate some candy), and we also get the Charles who lights up a s a child when he sees his old hat. I just gotta love the layers of Charles, good and bad.
I’m trying to think of a song everyone would know, and it’s not easy to think of one… A Christmas-themed one I think everyone knows here in Sweden is “Hej Tomtegubbar”. It’s this silly little song that is often sung when we dance around the Christmas tree (yes, that is a thing we do over here, we have a lot of these little “dance songs” with specific movements that goes with them). And not only that, Hej Tomtegubbar is also sung as a “snapsvisa” quite often. When we sit down for Christmas dinner (which is basically a Christmas themed smörgåsbord in most households), we usually drink snaps, and each snaps is accompanied by a little song, and Hej Tomtegubbar is a popular one. Yes, we are a dancing, boozy kind of people. 🙂
I really love that the episode ends in silence, it fits the tone of the episode perfectly, and also – snow makes everything quiet, walking outside on an early winter morning in the snow is just an otherworldly experience, so for the noisy camp just being quiet for once is just a perfectly melancholy ending.
I’m also trying to think of a Christmas gift from my youth that would give me a Charles-esque reaction, but it’s hard. When I was a teenager, though, me and my two best friends were obsessed with this book series, with a total of 47 books. I borrowed the series from my friend, but I craved to own them all, and one Christmas my parents had managed to get all of the family to buy the books for me, so I got a complete set, and it was such a great thing. So if I was far away for Christmas and someone I loved would send me those books, yeah, I think I would cry, so many memories in those pages.
Thank you for the episode, I really liked the discussion.
Great episode! I’m loving all the Mulcahy spotlights, and you’re right about Kevin being a great guest. I will say, in support of your point, 18 Christmases is a lot to miss. Just to compare, I spent one in Bagram and one in Kabul in over 20 years. Other than that, I made it for Christmas. I can no-prize it by saying that Colonel Potter missed so many because he was a doctor. He seems like the kind of leader who would make the point of rescheduling his own family’s holidays and pulling the Christmas shift so other people could get Christmas morning with their families.
Absolutely loved the whole discussion/rant/monologue about that opening shot!! It’s so great noticing a fancy camera move on MASH because there’s five locations, like ya’ll said, and an almost entirely green colour palette. Managing to show off behind the camera is even more of a feat than it would be on any other show. I was shouting at the TV hooting and hollering like it was a footy game or something just the other night watching 8.24 Back Pay because there’s a shot early on with a triple decker pull focus move that was just so slick and effective I couldn’t believe it. Conversely of course we’ve taken to shouting FOCUS YOUR CAMERA when a shot is entirely blurry but hey, swings and roundabouts. Awesome episode with an awesome guest!!
Great episode. I’m not a crier, but the toboggan cap scene and Charles’ words to Father Mulcahy are the nearest M*A*S*H has come to making me sob, aside from Henry’s death of course. My first thought for a song that everyone knows is Happy Birthday, but that’s not appropriate here so maybe 12 Days of Christmas or perhaps a Beatles number?
If I could have anything back from childhood, apart from pets, it would be my rag doll.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!! The difference between the movie and the TV show is that ine has an “in” group that’s absolutely vicious to the “out” group. HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Oh, wait. You’re actually being serious.
I’m sorry, Rob, but the jocks … I mean Hawkeye and his buddies ARE absolutely vicious to the people they don’t like on the TV show. No, they don’t pull up the side of the shower tent on Margaret or tease Frank about the sounds made during sex, but you know they would if they could get away with it on network television. If you’re their friend, great, but if they don’t like you for any reason then they will be completely horrible to you.
If I was able to get one item back from my childhood, it wouldn’t be a toy. I could replace that with ebay, toy show, etc. It wouldn’t be mine exactly, but for me, close enough. I would fall over if somewhere someone would find the Robin vest my mom made for me. It was perfectly realized. I have most of the costume pieces my mom made, but not that one, and it was honestly my favorite. Or maybe the Superman cape with the “S” on the back…
Thinking about it, there really isn’t anything that I would necessarily want from my childhood. My most favorite possessions (a stuff rabbit and two stuffed dogs) I still have. Well, I have the rabbit and older dog (both quickly approaching 50 years old), but Kira has inherited the younger (less patched up) dog.
As for songs, I found it odd they all knew (or quickly learned) a song in Latin. Silent Night is a Christmas hymn probably most would be familiar with, but maybe they still couldn’t say “virgin” on air.
When I was younger and watching the show, I always had the same reaction to seeing that an episode was written and/or directed by Alan Alda: “Oh boy, this one is going to be serious and emotional.” I didn’t appreciate then how wonderful a writer Alan Alda was for the show, because I was still more interested in the humor rather than the complex relationships. As an adult, I can finally understand that Alda has a real grasp of all of the characters.
This episode is probably the biggest reason why I began to like Charles. The gift of the toboggan cap broke through so many layers of arrogance and self-protection, and it did so instantly. He became a human being rather than just a foil for “our heroes”. I would never call Charles one of “our heroes” because he always kept himself largely removed. But at the very least he was a complex and somewhat likeable character.