Season 8, Episode 13: Captains Outrageous
Special Guest Star: Stan Peal
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A wonderful recap, Rob and Stan! Stan, your M*A*S*H origin story is one my favorites I’ve heard. PS, since you both expressed interest, I found that there is a VHS recording of GFA with originally aired commercials on YouTube, check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dndoL1oUpGw
Best,
Matt B
This mash origin story is one of my favourites ive heard on this show, so many twists and turns! And a great discussion of the episode too, its a pretty packed one! Wanted to mention as well that a while back i was looking for stats on mash viewership here in australia and stumbled upon a recording of GFA airing on tv in Brisbane, with 80s aussie commercials still intact! https://archive.org/details/mashgoodbye-farewell-amen-10-10-83
Great story from Stan!
I said earlier that there were references to Charles and boats, and him saying that he lettered in rowing and polo while wearing a shirt with boats on it is one of them. I like that shirt, it should have appeared more often.
My ability to recognize actors is strange. When Muldoon appeared I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him until I saw the name in the end credits and said, oh, that’s Ugly John from season 1. When I first saw The Ringbanger, the instant he appeared I thought, “He’s very famous” but I couldn’t put the name to the face until the credits said Leslie Nielsen.
Stan’s origin story was great! I have zero mechanical abilities, so I would have no idea how to fix a TV.
Similar to Nicole aka Caddy, I knew Muldoon looked familiar, but I didn’t realize he was Ugly John. I guess I haven’t watched season-one episodes in a few years, probably since you covered them. With Orchard and GW Bailey both being in this episode, it’s cool that this episode features two actors who played recurring characters in different eras of MASH but both actors are playing different characters than their usual ones.
I can verify everything my brother said is true (even the tvs). He did forgot to mention his red “Hawkeye” robe that he wore daily.
Although I never tried to eliminate commercials from VHS tapes I did do “editing” on audio recordings on my little 3 1/2″ reel to reel tape recorder in the sixties. One side of the tape would only hold fifteen minutes of audio so when I recorded from the radio I would stop tape during the instrumental breaks toward the center of the song. To this day when I hear one of those songs on oldies radio I expect to hear the sound of the tape recorder being turned off and back on when the lyrics began again.
I’m a first generation MASH viewer but there was one episode that I originally saw in 2005. Apparently “In Love and War” was not included in many syndicated packages. In the eighties I traveled the country on business and therefore saw MASH reruns in many cities. I never saw this episode until about three decades after it originally aired. And to be honest I didn’t miss much because it always winds up in my bottom ten list of the series,.
Great show! I love the adventures of young Stan Peal: TV thief.
This episode reminded me of my time as a bartender at a club along the Georgetown waterfront in DC. I’d get there Saturday nights at 10pm and get home around 5am. There were a lot of international Georgetown students who would frequent the club with their dad’s Black Amex card. Sure enough, right around closing every week, there’s be a fight that would break out between Turkish students and Greek students. We had security, so I never had to do anything except remove as much glassware as I could from the bar top, But one of our managers was an ex-cop who fancied himself an action hero. So one night as a pretty intensive brawl started around 2am, he was standing behind the bar with another bartender and me and decided to get in on the action (He had probably had two or seven drinks during the shift). Our manager steps up on the house liquor rail behind the bar to try to jump up on top of the bar and instead the whole rail gave way, crashed to the ground and he fell half on top of the bar and half in the ice bin. The other bartender and I doubled over in laughter as the mele ensued, glasses and punches flying. We made bank that night.
So Stan was “stealing” second hand TV sets that were being donated to charity for his family that couldn’t afford one? It sounds to me like they’re the people who should have received said TVs. I say good on you, Stan.
Do we ever learn Rosie’s actual Korean name during the series? Not that it’s important, and I never would have thought about such a thing when the show first aired, but it’s the kind of minutiae that’s interesting now.
When talking about the “Captains List”, I could explain it as Potter didn’t see a printed list, but rather it’s communicated via phone calls to remote outfits like the 4077th. Promotions are important enough to merit a call, I’d think.
Since the question came up, the bag hanging in Mulcahy’s quarters is called a “speed bag.” The goal is not to hit it as hard as you can, but rather to get into rhythm and see how long and fast you can keep the bag moving. It works hand-to-eye coordination, and since it’s positioned just above eye level, builds strength and endurance in the shoulders, because to do it right, you hold your elbows wide around shoulder height. So yeah, the show wasn’t trying to use the speed bag correctly, since Mulcahy always clobbers it. I’m not a boxer, but I did study Tae Kwon Do (a Korean martial art) for about a decade, and while not standard equipment, some schools have speed bags to supplement their training. Hmm, pretty sure MASH never has an episode involving Tae Kwon Do, or I’d have lots to talk about.
Great podcast, Rob. And I always have affection for episodes giving a spotlight to characters besides the headliners, so this was a double treat, especially Mulcahy who I have lots of affection for.
Rob and Stan, this was very entertaining. Stan, I very much appreciated your research of what was going on during the week this TV episode premiered. It took me back to my high school days. Btw Rob I was not a big fan of Styx myself. In closing I am ashamed to say that for as many times as I have watched this episode I never caught that Muldoon was the actor who played Ugly John.
Oh, this was a delight to listen to! Love your MASH-origin story, Stan! I listened while spring cleaning my balcony – an event that I dread every year – and you both made time fly by, so thank you 🙂
I think Captain Outrageous is a nice episode. I do wish we would have seen more of Rosie, though. We get to see so few women interact on the show, and I think it would have been so nice if she and Margaret would have had time to bond some more. Maybe just cut the whole Muldoon-character out, and give that time to to Margaret and Rosie. They have a lot in common, headstrong women, trying to make the best of their situation, and just adapting in different ways.
Love how Margaret grabs Rosies hand when she has been injured, and how she holds Rosie’s robe up over her chest, so she won’t feel exposed. Really nice little detail of Margaret knowing what it’s like to be in exposed situations, and protecting a sister.
I really like this side of Mulcahy, that a promotion means so much to him. In an upcoming episode, we will see how his ambition comes back to haunt him in his dreams, even, and I love that. Gives him more layers, and I wish this storyline would have more time to develop, I would have loved to learn more about his own thoughts about this part of his personality. If only MASH-episodes were an hour long…
Also – so interesting than Margaret doesn’t salute Father Mulcahy. She has such a big smile on her face, and looks genuinely happy for him. I honestly think that it’s embedded into her bones that Majors don’t salute Captains, her father would not have like to see that. I can absolutely see her do it for her close friends, though, lIke Helen, when they achieve something.
And maybe, (here I wanna welcome you all aboard the ‘Marie overanalyzes everything-train that leaves all the time every day) in the back of her mind is the thought of the last time she was offered a promotion. When that General told her: “Oh, yeah, I’ll make you a Colonel, you just have to sleep with me first.” Maybe there is a tiny bit of resentment in her, that Father Mulcahy gets his promotion the “proper” way, and it’s not like that for her, there’s always some price to pay for her. Kind of interesting to think about.
Again, thanks for such a fun episode!
Another great episode in the can! One point of perspective for Army officers promotion.
Each year eligible officers are reviewed for promotion. A packet of information is sent to a board that sits in the Pentagon. This includes Officer Evaluation Reports (OERs); an Officer Record Brief (ORB) that lists duty stations, commission source (ROTC or West Point), education, awards received, and a photo in dress uniform; and any other accommodations. This is based on a time in rank cycle where an officer has to hold a rank for a set minimum number of years.
Combat Arms (Infantry, Armor, Artillery, etc.) and combat support (Chemical Corps, Quartermaster, Adjutant Corps, etc.) are all evaluated at the same time. The Chaplain Corps is reviewed separately in their own review board. The only difference is that they have the senior ranking Army Chaplain review each packet and every Chaplain is evaluated, regardless of how many years they’ve served in one rank. Given the volume of packets being reviewed, the board has approximately 1-2 minutes to evaluate and decide.
Again, this is done annually. Seeing that Fr. Mulcahy was quickly promoted in this episode, one of two things happened. One, MASH’s nonlinear timeline happened and an entire year passed. Or, two, the Army revised their published list of promoted Captains based on COL Potter’s calls.