skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Season 8, Episode 184: Yessir, That's Our Baby
Original Air Date: 12/31/79
Written by: Jim Mulligan
Directed by: Alan Alda
Hawkeye, B.J., and Winchester are surprised to see someone has left a baby on the doorstep of the Swamp, with a note attached saying the baby's father is an American G.I. The mother cannot care for the baby, so she is leaving it in the care of the doctors at the 4077th.
The baby quickly becomes the darling of everyone in camp, with everyone fighting to care for her. The only dark cloud is, ironically, when Father Mulcahy arrives from a day at the orphanage--he takes one look at the baby and realizes that she, being of mixed parentage, will be a virtual outcast among the other Korean children and could end up "a virtual slave" when she grows up.
The only alternative he says is to deliver her to a monastery buried deep in the Korean hills, where the monks there will take her, no questions asked, and in maybe 15 or 20 years will try and get her out of Korea.
Col. Potter offers, "With all due respect, padre, that's not much of a life." Mulcahy agrees, but says that's the only chance she has.
Hawkeye and the rest can't accept this, and they decide that since the baby is half-American, they're going to go through Army channels. Unfortunately, Hawkeye and B.J. are met with nothing but smug indifference from bureaucrat after bureaucrat, from the Red Cross to the Attorney General's office.
Hawkeye and Col. Potter then turn to the South Korean government, but the official they meet offers no help--he even admits that, in some cases, a mixed-race child is put into slavery, and in some cases, killed outright.
As nightmarish as this is, the man does point out that, out of all the countries fighting in the Korean War, its only the United States does not accept the children of their soldiers and offer them a road to citizenship.
Hawkeye, along with Winchester, make one last try, this time with a U.S. diplomat. After endless interruptions, showing the lack of attention he is giving their case, the diplomat (William Bogert) blithely dismisses them, refusing to lift a finger to help this little girl. It drives Winchester mad, so mad that he offers to punch the man's lights out.
With no other options, Hawkeye, B.J., Winchester, and Father Mulcahy drive to the monastery with the baby, leaving her inside a small alcove. They ring a bell, swinging the platform inside the building, where the monks will greet it. They drive off.
Later, during a session in O.R., Hawkeye muses how much the child meant to them all, and how each of them will carry that memory the rest of their lives.
Fun Facts: A very dark episode, with a grim ending. By the show's own writers and producers, this episode wasn't completely successful, but its really amazing how grimly realistic this particular show is--no fake cheery happy ending, as many series would've done. The scenes set among all the bureaucrats is so maddening it could've come right out of Catch-22.
There's a great little character bit when Hawkeye and the rest get to the monastery. Father Mulcahy starts telling a story about the history of the place, going on and on, and B.J. interrupts, snapping, "Let's just do it, all right?"
You get the sense that, on some level, B.J. is so furious at what they're about to do that he doesn't have the time or interest in hearing Mulcahy tell some boring story. A rare moment of incivility among the characters.
Favorite Line: Winchester's been trying to gather information, seeing if anyone saw the mother in camp: "I talked to everyone in camp--which, by the way, is a first for me."
Season 8, Episode 181: Dear Uncle Abdul
Original Air Date: 12/3/79
Written by: John Rappaport & Jim Mulligan
Directed by: William Jurgensen
Klinger is writing a letter home to his Uncle Abdul, telling him about recent events at the 4077th.
Father Mulcahy gets involved in writing an inspirational war song, Winchester drags Klinger out into the brush to use him to help flush out wild game, and Margaret, enraged that Army Supply won't issue her a new footlocker unless its damaged "in combat", goes ahead and shoots up her old one, using Winchester's hunting rifle.
Meanwhile, Hawkeye and B.J. get in a debate about who's funnier. It gets kicked off when Hawkeye tells B.J. an old joke he learned from his Dad, but B.J. doesn't think its funny, walking away from Hawkeye dismissively with "See you later, Uncle Milty." Hawkeye is annoyed to no end when he learns B.J. is going around camp telling the same joke, getting laughs and the credit.
But the debate is tabled for the moment when a young soldier named Eddie (Richard Lineback) wanders into camp, looking for his pal Hank, who was wounded and recovering in the 4077's Post Op.
Another member of the unit mentions that Eddie is what they call "a little slow"--not mentally retarded, but simply "not all that bright." Hawkeye and B.J. are shocked and disgusted that someone like that has been put in combat. There's an even bigger problem--Eddie's pal Hank is scheduled to be shipped home, leaving Eddie behind.
Things get patched up when Hank reassures Eddie that he's tough, and a good solider. Their mutual friend Dave (Kelly Ward) steps in and promises to become Eddie's new best pal now that Hank is leaving.
The debate about who's funnier resumes, and Hawkeye and B.J. ask Klinger for his opinion. Klinger offers the answer is neither of them--in a unit with a priest who writes war ditties, a head nurse that shoots luggage, and a major that likes to dress up and go quail hunting, what's so special about two guys who go around telling jokes?
Klinger ends his letter admitting to his Uncle Abdul that he now understands why he never got a Section 8--"There's nothing special about me--everybody here is crazy!"
Fun Facts: Other than a variation on the type in the Tenth Season, this is the last episode of the series in the "Dear..." format.
Actor Richard Lineback would return to the show in an eleventh season episode, playing a different character.
The song that Father Mulcahy composes at the end of the show is okay, but there's a line about "The pain and death this madness brings" that jumps right out at you with its bluntness--definitely the best part of the song.
Favorite Line: Hawkeye and B.J. are shocked when they learn the young solider named Eddie is what his buddies call, "a little slow."
Hawkeye asks rhetorically, "What the hell is a kid like that doing in combat?" B.J. responds with, "Maybe there were no openings on the Joint Chiefs of Staff."
Season 8, Episode 175: Period of Adjustment
Original Air Date: 10/22/79
Written by: Jim Mulligan & John Rappaport
Directed by: Charles S. Dubin
In the immediate aftermath of Radar leaing the 4077th, things are not going smoothly--Klinger hasn't quite gotten the hang of his new job as company clerk, so things are pretty chaotic. Potter's office is buried in paper, and he has to fend off calls from I-Corps about late or completely missing morning reports.
Potter tries to cover, but he's so mad at Klinger that he considers that perhaps the job is "too much" for him--"We can't all be Radars", he offers, which hurts Klinger's feelings.
He delivers mail to the Swamp, where B.J. gets a letter from Peg, where she describes what it was like meeting Radar on his way home from Korea. Wearing his uniform, little Erin Hunnicutt saw Radar and exclaimed, "Hi, Daddy!"
During a session in O.R., Hawkeye tries to get B.J. to tell everyone about the meeting between Peg, Erin, and Radar, but he doesn't seem to want to talk about it. Later, in the Mess Tent, he sides with Klinger in being sick of everyone talking about Radar.
Later that night, Winchester takes over for Hawkeye in Post Op, and he warns Hawkeye that, back in the Swamp, B.J. is drunk--very drunk.
Hawkeye goes back to the Swamp, and after a few moments he starts to get the idea that something's bothering B.J. He finally hits upon it being the letter from Peg, and it quickly devolves into an argument. B.J. gets furious, and suggests that his missing his daughter by being stuck in Korea is worse than what Hawkeye is going through.
Hawkeye doesn't buy that, reminding B.J. he's been stuck at the 4077th even longer than B.J. Hawkeye then tries to get B.J. to stop drinking, which sets B.J. off--he smashes the still with a chair, and punches Hawkeye in the eye! He immediately runs out of the tent.
Potter and Margaret are searching for a now-missing Klinger, and come to the Swamp, only to find Winchester tending to the black eye Hawkeye has. They decide to team up and try and find both of them, with Margaret and Winchester going one way, Potter the other (with Hawkeye having to tend to a patient).
During his search, Potter runs into Father Mulcahy, where Mulcahy explains to Potter that once, before he arrived, there was someone even worse than Klinger: "This lad was quite a bozo--couldn't do anything right. Drove everyone crazy with questions. You should've seen him put through a call was like hand-to-hand combat. Folks here were convinced the enemy had sent him here to sabotage the unit.
[O]ver time, he got a little better...your late predecessor, Col. Blake--rest his soul--took him under his wing and sort of helped him grow into the job."
Potter realizes Mulcahy was pulling one over on him--he's talking about Radar. Mulcahy asks, doesn't Klinger deserve the same time to get adjusted to the job? After all, he reminds Potter, when he arrived at the 4077th, he got "The broken-in model."
Potter and Margaret meet back up, and decide to call the MPs. But when they arrive, they find the totally smashed B.J. and Klinger in Potter's office, smashing into his liquor cabinet. Potter asks Margaret to go fetch Hawkeye, while Potter talks to Klinger alone.
He sits Klinger down, and "clears the air." He admits that, when he showed up at the 4077th, people weren't "jumping for joy" over him, since they all thought so much of Henry Blake. But everyone gave him time to make the job Sherman Potter's, since he "Was no Henry Blake...never tried to be."
He decides that, as of this moment, "Radar's office is closed...Klinger's is open." Klinger, relieved, passes out. Potter adds, "Okay, we'll open tomorrow."
Hawkeye arrives, and heads inside Potter's office to talk to B.J. B.J. apologizes for hitting him, and breaks down in tears when he thinks about the first time Erin ever called anyone Daddy..."and it wasn't me."
He admits that he's so jealous of Radar that he almost hates him. He also admits he's even jealous of Trapper--who he's never even met--because "He's home, too." He collapses into sobs, while Hawkeye promises: "You'll go home...some day we'll all go home."
A few days later, Hawkeye and B.J. rebuild the still, with the help of Klinger, who got the necessary parts. They allow Klinger the honor of "The first belt."
Fun Facts: I love Potter's speech with Klinger about what it was like for him to take over for Henry Blake. Potter is so stoic, and since they never covered any of this at the time, its interesting to hear that Potter did have his own period of adjustment after arriving at the 4077th.
Mulcahy's speech is also excellent, and I think its a great hook to build the episode around--namely, that it took someone who's been at the 4077th even longer than Potter to give him the proper perspective.
I also love Klinger's sweet, if drunken, response to Potter's question, "People around here were awfully fond of Henry Blake, weren't they?" Klinger responds, emphatically: "Well, sure...the Colonel was a top-notch kind of a guy."
Favorite Line: Potter suggests he and Klinger talk outside, alone. B.J. laughs, but Klinger is worried: "Oh God, B.J....he's gonna beat me up!"
