Original Air Date: 3/4/73
Written by: Laurence Marks & Larry Gelbart, Richard Baer
Directed by: Don Weis
During surgery, Frank is particularly snippy and clumsy, and Hawkeye is less able to laugh it off, at one point throwing an instrument at him in frustration.
Later in the Mess Tent, Frank asks why Hawkeye was so "tough" on him, and he lets Frank have it--he's a bad surgeon, constantly requires other people's help, is nasty to the staff, and "a pain in the gluteus maximus." Trapper and Ugly John concur.
Hot Lips gets so mad at them that she demands Henry do something about it, and he calls Hawkeye to his office while Hot Lips is there. Henry says the camp's morale is down because of the blow-up in the Mess Tent, and Hawkeye has to try and patch it up by publicly apologize.
Hawkeye isn't having any of it, and walks out. Later, back in surgery, Hawkeye really busts his butt over one patient, Pvt. Thompson. He survives the surgery, but seems to be getting sicker, with a temperature of 101.
In the Mess Tent, Hawkeye can't understand what's going wrong, and Frank chooses this moment to needle him. After letting go with "Well, I haven't killed anyone this week, howabout you?" Hawkeye leaps over the table to throttle him. The fight is broken up by Trapper and the rest.
Hawkeye is so disturbed over this patient he camps out in the bed next to him, and gets so annoyed by the poker game in the Swamp he moves out! He tries to get some peace and quiet in the Supply Tent, but a constant stream of interruptions (a nurse he has a date with, Trapper, the delivery of a kitchen sink) drives him nuts.
Henry arrives, and asks whether Hawkeye is going through all this because he's really worried about the patient, or his ego--Hawkeye just doesn't like the idea of one of his patients not getting better.
Finally, something occurs to Hawkeye, and he gets Hot Lips out of bed in the middle of the night to assist in another surgery for Thompson. Turns out a piece of shrapnel moved and slipped behind the Sigmoid Colon, causing a small tear, something even the best surgeons could've missed.
Frank, observing, says "Anyone could've missed that", which Hawkeye takes as a peace offering. He thanks Frank, and relative piece at the 4077th is restored.
Fun Facts: One of the movies playing in the Mess Tent in this episode is Bonzo Goes To College, which was released in 1952. This would one of a long string of movies somehow playing at the 4077th before they ever made it to movie screens at home, or in some cases were even made.
With some minor exceptions, this is the first real episode of the series that focused on a particular medical case, something the show would do with greater frequency as it went on.
Hawkeye mentions, in a final scene with Trapper, that he was the one who named their tent "The Swamp."
Favorite Line: When Frank is taunting Hawkeye about his patient's lack of progress, everyone tells him quiet down, including Trapper: "Frank, why don't you let that cut under your nose heal?"
(I still use that line to this day)
Hey rob, what is so funny about that quote Trapper says. By the way, I love that fight. I've always wanted to push someone's face in food.
ReplyDeleteThe first season is generally overlooked but as it contains episodes such as the Pilot, Dear Dad, Tuttle, Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, Dear Dad... Again, and this one that is a mistake (Major Fred C. Dobbs may be goofy but it's not *atrocious* as, say, Lend A Hand, The Birthday Girls, and Who Knew? are!). It's interesting that so many people see the post-Gelbart era as where characters got fleshed out whereas I'd argue that the series was *more* not *less* sophisticated often in the Gelbart/Reynolds years and Sticky Wicket is one of the best early examples of that. The Season 5-7 transition of Margaret from her early self to the smiling creepy version from the show's declining years is pretty ludicrous, as every flaw is blamed on someone/something else, and she is absolved of responsibility for every rotten action, leaving only Charles to be the "legitimate" target of any criticism (oddly enough, Charles is the only character who remains sympathetic and likeable by the end, as Klinger had long since lost his role in the series while the rest were either plaster saints or boring); it's the Gelbart era that despite allowing her to be believably priggish, conservative, hypocritical, and self-justifying also acknowledges that she is a good nurse with a degree of empathy. Sticky Wicket is the first episode - I think - that reveals that more sympathetic side to her, the scene in which she quietly talks to Hawkeye is one of the most effective Loretta Swit ever had and is far better than anything in those Pollyanna Houlihan seasons for which she won Emmys. Similarly, without pretending that Frank isn't a (hilarious, absurd, unpleasant, yet somehow sympathetic)jerk, Sticky Wicket allows him a little dignity, he WAS right about Hawkeye and even gets an apology (!), something that would become increasingly unthinkable. However, the one element that really marks out this episode as representative of the more sophisticated early M*A*S*H is that it also allows *Hawkeye* to make a mistake, and lampshades the fact that tho' he is a caring, humane man, he is also a narcissistic, egotistical, and self-righteous fellow. Compare this to how later seasons often heap those characteristics onto Charles or even poor *Radar* even if they gesture toward a critique of Hawkeye. S.W. is very much a model for later episodes of M*A*S*H in terms of the sombreness that pervades much of its length but unlike quite a bit of Seasons 5-7 and much -if not ALL- of Seasons 8-11 it isn't heavy-handed or smug (sure, it isn't complex on the surface either but it doesn't need to be). I've babbled on enough, Rob, but I enjoyed your take on the episode as well as your quoting Trapper's cutting putdown of Frank. Wayne Rogers really should have gotten more lines!
ReplyDeleteThe first season is generally overlooked but as it contains episodes such as the Pilot, Dear Dad, Tuttle, Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, Dear Dad... Again, and this one that is a mistake (Major Fred C. Dobbs may be goofy but it's not *atrocious* as, say, Lend A Hand, The Birthday Girls, and Who Knew? are!). It's interesting that so many people see the post-Gelbart era as where characters got fleshed out whereas I'd argue that the series was *more* not *less* sophisticated often in the Gelbart/Reynolds years and Sticky Wicket is one of the best early examples of that. The Season 5-7 transition of Margaret from her early self to the smiling creepy version from the show's declining years is pretty ludicrous, as every flaw is blamed on someone/something else, and she is absolved of responsibility for every rotten action, leaving only Charles to be the "legitimate" target of any criticism (oddly enough, Charles is the only character who remains sympathetic and likeable by the end, as Klinger had long since lost his role in the series while the rest were either plaster saints or boring); it's the Gelbart era that despite allowing her to be believably priggish, conservative, hypocritical, and self-justifying also acknowledges that she is a good nurse with a degree of empathy. Sticky Wicket is the first episode - I think - that reveals that more sympathetic side to her, the scene in which she quietly talks to Hawkeye is one of the most effective Loretta Swit ever had and is far better than anything in those Pollyanna Houlihan seasons for which she won Emmys. Similarly, without pretending that Frank isn't a (hilarious, absurd, unpleasant, yet somehow sympathetic)jerk, Sticky Wicket allows him a little dignity, he WAS right about Hawkeye and even gets an apology (!), something that would become increasingly unthinkable. However, the one element that really marks out this episode as representative of the more sophisticated early M*A*S*H is that it also allows *Hawkeye* to make a mistake, and lampshades the fact that tho' he is a caring, humane man, he is also a narcissistic, egotistical, and self-righteous fellow. Compare this to how later seasons often heap those characteristics onto Charles or even poor *Radar* even if they gesture toward a critique of Hawkeye. S.W. is very much a model for later episodes of M*A*S*H in terms of the sombreness that pervades much of its length but unlike quite a bit of Seasons 5-7 and much -if not ALL- of Seasons 8-11 it isn't heavy-handed or smug (sure, it isn't complex on the surface either but it doesn't need to be). I've babbled on enough, Rob, but I enjoyed your take on the episode as well as your quoting Trapper's cutting putdown of Frank. Wayne Rogers really should have gotten more lines!
ReplyDeleteYours ramblingly, Hal