Here’s today’s image. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section.

Name That Episode

On September 18th, 1972, the day after M*A*S*H premiered, The Chicago Tribune published Clarence Petersen’s review of the pilot and the series. Like others, he pointed out the absurdity of CBS broadcasting the series early on Sunday evenings slotted between two family friendly sitcoms (Anna and the King and The Sandy Duncan Show). He noted that there was a “popular explanation,” one that CBS never addressed, for the scheduling, that the television version of MASH was a “sanitized, pallid version of the motion picture that would offend no one.”

After viewing the first episodes of both M*A*S*H and The Sandy Duncan Show, Petersen concluded that neither were fit for Sunday. He admitted that M*A*S*H was “neither as bloody nor quite as sexy as the movie” but was still very much “a series for adults.” As for The Sandy Duncan Show (which was a reworked version of Sandy Duncan’s earlier sitcom, Funny Face), Petersen wrote that it “does not seem designed to please parents of small children either.”

As for M*A*S*H itself, Petersen liked what he saw. Here’s an excerpt from his review:

They do not expose any naked nurses in the show nor do they spread the bloody innards of the wounded out on the operating table, but the TV version of M*A*S*H still bends the proprieties of television almost to the breaking point.

[...]

Without the blood and gore, you do not get the same sense of horror that made the film for so many who saw it an anti-war polemic. The operating tent sequences here are filmed in red, but that isn’t the same as focusing the camera down into the wound.

As a wild and wooly satire on army life, however, M*A*S*H will delight anyone who has spent even eight weeks in basic training let alone fought in the war. Hawkeye and Trapper John may not answer the classic question, “How do you get out of this chicken outfit?,” but they are experts at plucking all the feathers.

Sources:
Petersen, Clarence. “Sunday on CBS Short on Family Fare.” Chicago Tribune. 18 Sep. 1972: C13.

There was a hilarious reference to M*A*S*H on last night’s episode of 30 Rock. Alan Alda guest starred in the episode (and last week’s episode as well). I’ve already received one e-mail about it from jbright. I’m sure plenty of other people recognized the reference. I’ve added it to the M*A*S*H References on Television page.

During the last two episodes of the third season of NBC’s 30 Rock, Alan Alda guest starred as Milton Greene. In “Kidney Now!,” the season finale (first broadcast May 14th, 2009) there is a scene in which Tracy (played by Tracy Morgan) talks with Kenneth (played by Jack McBrayer) about a traumatic experience he had in high school. It involved dissecting a frog. He breaks down and starts crying just as Alda’s character walks by:

Tracy Jordan: “It’s true. There was no baby. I was chicken. I was chicken.”
Milton Greene: “A guy crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was a comedy show?”

This hilarious reference relates to the series finale of M*A*S*H in which Hawkeye has a mtental breakdown after watching a Korean mother suffocate her baby to keep it quiet. During his psychotherapy, Hawkeye remembered it as a chicken, but then realized it was a child. He starting crying about a chicken and a baby, then called the therapist a “son of a bitch for making me remember that.”

Now this is an interesting bit of M*A*S*H history I came across on eBay the other day. Someone was selling a board game put together by Alan Alda and his wife, Arlene, in December of 1973 as a Christmas gift for Perry Lafferty. Lafferty, who died in August of 2005 at the age of 87, was a CBS executive during the 1970s and was heavily involved in building the network’s fall schedules. He helped get M*A*S*H, The Waltons and All in the Family on the air (among many other shows). Here‘s a obituary for Perry Lafferty from The Boston Globe.

The M*A*S*H G*A*M*E

The seller told me that the game was pulled out of the trash. It may be a one-of-a-kind item, although that didn’t help it find a buyer. Perhaps Alan and Arlene Alda put together several sets for CBS executives as a Thank You for supporting the series. Who knows.

The game itself is simply a piece of paper glued to a chess/checkers board with game pieces made out of wood with pictures of the cast glued on them. There are also two sets of cards, “Off Duty” and “Choppers,” that give instructions for players to follow, plus markers with the Red Cross emblem for keeping score, and a pair of dice.

The M*A*S*H G*A*M*E

Here are the rules, transcribed from a sheet that used to be attached to the box cover:

Object of Game

1) The object of The M*A*S*H G*A*M*E is to save as many lives as you can, especially your own.

2) The game is over when the first player get to Peace.

3) The winner is the player who has saved the most lives during the game. So, the more you operate the better.

How to Play

1) Choose a M*A*S*H character (“Hawkeye”, “Trapper”, etc.) and start at Peace.

2) Highest throw of dice goes first.

3) Move (in the direction of arrow) the number of spaces indicated by a throw of the dice. Follow the directions in each space you land on.

Spaces

1) “Choppers!” means that choppers have landed with wounded. Take a Choppers card.

2) “Off Duty”- take an Off-Duty card.

3) In all spaces and cards, the directions apply to the character whose name is underlined…and only when that character lands there. For instance, in “Hot Lips misses Frank”…Hot Lips goes back 2 spaces, not Frank, and only when Hot Lips lands in that space.

4) Replace cards at the bottom of their respective piles.

Keeping Score

1) Take a Red Cross marker for every life you save in the game.

2) The player landing in Peace and ending the game doubles his or her Red Cross markers as a bounus for ending the War. If you have 5 markers when you end the game, you get 5 more.

3) The winner is not necessarily the player who finishes first–it is the player with the most Red Cross Markers.

Acting Crazy and Maneuvering

1) At any time after you are drafted you can attempt to survive by acting crazy.

2) To signify you have decided to act crazy, stand your character on it’s head.

3) Acting crazy gives you the option of moving forward or backward. Players not acting crazy may only move forward.

4) When acting crazy, you may only roll one die. What you make up in mobility, you lose in speed.

Three Day Pass

At any time in the game a player can decide to take a 3 day pass, which he or she skips the next three turns at the dice.

When player gets back to camp on the fourth turn, player goes directly to surgery and saves two lives.

You can not be sent to the swamp or showers while on a pass.

Ending the Game

1) The game is ended when a player moves forward into Peace.

But:

a) The character must move into Peace right side up (not acting crazy) and,

b) The character must land on Peace by exact count.

2) If the count is not exact, player stands in place until next turn.

Here are some other pictures:

The M*A*S*H G*A*M*E

The M*A*S*H G*A*M*E

The M*A*S*H G*A*M*E

I wonder if Perry Lafferty ever played the M*A*S*H G*A*M*E and, if so, did he win?

Here’s today’s image. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section.

Name That Episode