Season 8, Episode 20: Lend A Hand
Special Guest Star: James Kabrhel
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Great MASHcast episode as usual! Just subscribed to Dr. K’s Baloney Detection podcast. When I swipe his material, I’ll try to always cite my source.
Oh, and as a known pedant, I want to go on record that I’ve never been to the San Diego Comic-Con with Rob.
But you really should try this mustard! Darn good, isn’t it?
Thank you for subscribing!
All physicians have run into a doc who thinks they crap doesn’t stink. So this felt a little relatable.
I don’t think this ‘I’ll be the left hand and you be the right hand’ surgery would work in any way.
Dumb episode. (The show, not the podcast).
Barelli’s first visit was a great episode about a guy dealing with his PTSD through alcoholism, forcing Hawkeye to look at himself. A great early episode that had a serious tone.
Here he might as well have been a totally different character. I know the show isn’t big on continuity but if you are going to resurrect a character at least make an effort to make a connection.
I agree the way they did the surgery isn’t realistic.
Apparently this episode was a way of Alan Alda resolving his issues with his dad. Fine, but it could have been done a lot better. The episode was poorly conceived, poorly written, and poorly acted. Makes Edwina look like Sometimes you hear the Bullet.
If a MASH actor does appear on a season of The Pitt, I expect you to do a podcast episode about it titled The MASHPitt.
Well, Rob and James, you did it. You had a very enjoyable conversation about one of my least favorite episodes, I think this was the most I’ve ever enjoyed hearing about Lend a Hand. Yikes, I really don’t care for this one. It’s not as high on my dislike list as Bananas, Crackers and Nuts or Operation Noselift, but it’s up there.
I just can’t get over Doctor Borelli’s personality transplant. I don’t get why they just didn’t name him Doctor John Smith or whatever, and had Robert Alda play an entire different character. I truly like Borelli’s first appearance. This war-weary man who has seen too much and handles it in the only way he can is a wonderful character. And the way Hawkeye sees his future in him and isn’t happy with what he sees is so good!
I am all for characters evolving, changing. Going through experiences that makes them come out on the other side a changed person, for better or for worse, but we need to be with them on the journey for it to work. Apparently Borelli has spent his time away developing an unhealthy obsession with Hawkeye, and it’s plain uncomfortable to watch. Like, why?
Alan Alda wrote so many great episodes for the show, and is a tremendous actor, but this is just painful to watch.
I can’t stand Doctor Left and Doctor Right, and don’t even get me started on that little clap they do. It feels like I’m watching a Hallmark movie, and I say that as someone who watches the Christmas ones happily. Where the plots are always the same, the snow is made of paper, and no one buttons up their coat. Maybe they’ve listened to Doctor Borelli, ha ha. I just expect more from my beloved MASH.
One of the reasons I love the show so much is that usually I feel like the writers treat the audience as smart people, but here, I feel like we’re being talked down to.
And like you talk about – how in the world do they manage to get such serious injuries? Come on! It reminds me of Comrades in Arms, where Hawkeye somehow manages to get that piece of wood jammed into his leg, and is being very dramatic about it. Maybe they are both just precious porcelaine dolls with “The Princess and the Pea”-level of sensitivities.
Ugh, you two were so much nicer towards this episode than what I am. I hate to be a hater, but MASH can soar so high and fall so low, and this is a very low low for me.
To end on a positive note, though, I will say that I don’t mind the party-plot. It’s not spectacular, but I do like when all the characters are doing something together like that. And also – if this episode helped to heal the relationship between father and son Alda, that is really great, and I’m happy for them.
I also really liked when you talkes about comfort shows, I love that MASH is that for so many people.
For me – it has a lot to do with the connection between the actors. There’s something so unique in the way they look at each other, and you can feel a connection between them that goes way beyond the characters they’re playing. The closeness between them off screen is so evident, and it’s so restful to just lean back and experience it.
Thank you both again, I had a great time listening to this!
“Ugh, you two were so much nicer towards this episode than what I am. I hate to be a hater, but MASH can soar so high and fall so low, and this is a very low low for me.”
Being and educator and a podcaster, I’ve learned to keep most of my emotions, especially my anger and negativity, in check. I tried to bring that to this episode, though , like you, I dislike this episode a lot. I didn’t want my first time (and hopefully not my last) time on MASHCast being a crank. Thought that’s what the Alda family drama made me feel.
Like you, my comfort shows are about relationships. MASH, Star Trek, Daria, Friends.
I can understand you pulling punches if it was your first time, I did enjoy your viewpoint. Maybe you can sign up for a clunker next season and you can let them have it.
Appreciated the shout out for our period of adjustment episode! I forget sometimes that BJ getting worse/more evil/harder to tolerate isnt a draw for everybody, so thank you for the reality check. I remember really liking ‘lend a hand’ but I think there’s something about the metanarrative of it being an Alda family drama that really appeals to me. I love that sort of thing, actors getting their characters all intertwined with their real lives, adding all this intersting behind the scenes context. That’s exactly why I started watching ER in the first place, so I could see Alan Alda playing another TV doctor (who also got army training, funnily enough) and just smile to myself because I Know… I Know……..
Speaking of, in Alan Alda’s book ‘never have your dog stuffed’ he mentions how he wrote this episode as a sort of self reflection exercise after he found himself being controlling over his dad when they were filming ‘bottle fatigue’. QUOTE! ‘I was directing him. I was still doing it. I wouldn’t let up on him. I couldn’t figure out why I had this rivalry with him… in many ways I was still an adolescent boy with a father I needed to best… I wrote a show for him in which his character, Borelli, is so controlling that it drives Hawkeye crazy. It gave us a chance to play out the tensions between us as other people.’ He also says his father loved it and it was his idea to have them both get injured and have to be each other’s hands! ANOTHER QUOTE! ‘Like the two characters, we were working hand in hand – and it had taken a few wounds to get us there. It was as though the scene were a wish on his part and a gentle nudge to us both, delivered through the medium of play.’ Now how could a person read that and NOT love this episode?? TV shows are at their best when their writer/directors are using it as therapy. He also mentions in that book how his father had wanted to be a doctor when he was younger. I’m connecting the dots see I’m connecting them. Don’t even get me started on Mike Farrell’s book. Great episode as usual!