Episode Spotlight: Dear Dad, Again

23 Comments

Every Monday, I spotlight a random episode of M*A*S*H, providing a brief review and asking readers to offer their thoughts.

“Dear Dad, Again” (#18, 1×18)
Originally Broadcast: Sunday, February 4th, 1973
Written by Sheldon Keller & Larry Gelbart
Directed by Jackie Cooper

Capsule Summary: Hawkeye writes his father, telling him about a sergeant impersonating a doctor, his naked stroll through camp, Frank’s drunken ramblings and more.

One of the things I really like about reviewing an episode every week is that I sometimes get to rediscover some true gems that I haven’t seen in years. “Dear Dad, Again” is one of those gems. It is a superb episode from start to finish and watching it without a laugh track was really quite interesting. I actually went back and watched a few scenes with the laugh track to get a feel for how experience of watching with the laugh track is so drastically different than watching without it.

Hawkeye Pierce and his Swinging Surgeons

Hawkeye Pierce and his Swinging Surgeons

There’s literally nothing to criticize in this episode with the possible exception of questioning whether Father Mulcahy would really be okay with Casey/Schwartz impersonating a priest. I spent the whole episode wondering who the actor was playing Captain Casey and what I knew him from. It wasn’t until I watched the closing credits that I realized it was Alex Henteloff, who co-starred in The Young Rebels on ABC (you can read all about the show at Television Obscurities).

So much was packed into this episode that I actually made a list, separating the various strands of the Captain Casey storyline from all the other bits and pieces:

Storylines in “Dear Dad, Again”

Captain Casey
-Captain Casey is introduced
-Father Mulcahy learns Captain Casey’s secret
-Hawkeye learns Captain Casey’s secret
-Captain Casey becomes Father Casey

Everything Else
-Klinger’s white wedding dress
-Hawkeye bets Trapper $50 he can walk into the mess tent naked without anyone noticing
-Radar’s correspondence course
-Frank gets drunk and keeps Hawkeye and Trapper up into the wee hours of the morn
-The 4077th’s Charity No-Talent Night

There’s so much to love about this episode that it’s hard to say which storyline was the best or most amusing. Hawkeye walking naked from the Swamp to the mess tent was great, as was the performance of “My Blue Heaven” by Hawkeye Pierce and his Swinging Surgeons (with special guest Hot Lips Houlihan). Even the very brief scene in which Klinger drops off some x-rays while wearing a wedding dress made an impression, if only because without the laugh track it is a little disturbing. Take out the laughs and a man in a wedding dress isn’t funny, it’s just weird.

Hawkeye’s terrible knock knock jokes about Abe Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson fall flat, as intended, but Trapper’s frustrated response (“Hawkeye, I never liked you”) and Hawkeye’s mad laughter (described in the closed captions as “boisterous cackling”) make for a hilarious scene. Larry Linville did an amazing job playing Frank drunk, singing and chattering incessantly. Frank reveals his brother’s cruel, childhood nickname for him: ferret face.

Radar’s correspondence course was confusing because the company involved, The Triple-A High School Diploma Company of Dellavin, Indiana, suggests that he was getting his high school diploma. I always thought you needed at least a high school diploma to get into the military. It was a little strange to see Radar depicted as such an idiot but the character was in flux throughout much of the first season or so.

Two final thoughts on the episode:

First, did the U.S. Army really issue camouflage bathing suits for women, like the one worn by the nurse sunbathing next to Hawkeye while he writes about Radar’s E.S.P.? Or was she wearing a regulation pair of shorts and a homemade bikini top? I’m sure we see similar bathing suits in other episodes.

Second, how much does an extra get paid to stand barefoot and in a bathrobe while pretending to kiss Hawkeye good night at the start of the episode? Was she a regular extra or was there a casting call for an actress with the right legs?

23 Replies to “Episode Spotlight: Dear Dad, Again”

  1. One of my absolute favorite episodes and the best episode, IMO, of Season One. Great from start to finish and not a single boring scene in between. This episode should have been the crowning glory of the season and not ‘Tuttle’ which although is great….falls short of being truly remarkable!!

    1. This one is from season 2. The first “Dear Dad” episode was the Christmas episode from season 1. Maybe you are thinking of that one.

      1. Ok,so I just realized that I was absolutely wrong,and you were right. “Dear Dad,Again” is indeed from season 1,episode # 18. I am actually thinking of “Dear Dad…Three”,which is from season 2. I swear I know my “M*A*S*H” episodes,by the season though not all by the season and exact number. But I knew there was another “Dear Dad” episode in season 2 and to tell the truth,it’s been a bit since this fellow who years ago hardly missed a day of “M*A*S*H” has watched. Think I better get back on the ball and start watching again,huh??

  2. One of the best M*A*S*H episodes. I didn’t like the first “Dear Dad” episode very much, but this one is great. It’s good to see when you’re bored with the later seasons 😉

  3. An ENTIRE scene from this episode is cut from syndication, and it’s an incredibly funny one at that: where Frank is up in the middle of the night, drunk out of his mind, wanting Hawkeye and Trapper to play with him. It’s COMPLETELY cut, but it’s hilarious, and as you say, this is where we learn where “Ferret Face” came from.

    1. I was going to say that I haven’t seen that scene since the original showing, since I don’t have the DVDs. I MUST get them! It truly is COMPLETELY cut out of syndication, and that is a shame.

      I love all the Dear Dads.

      1. Watching this episode right now on MeTV and I had completely forgotten this scene.

  4. I recognized Alex Hentelhoff as well, but had to look him up to realize he was a semi regular on Barney Miller – as an attorney. (Kind of like Sidney in his frequency) – and that is where I knew him from. I loved Barney Miller – the comedy on that show was sometimes almost as inspired as M*A*S*H.

    1. He was also in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”. When the crew time travels back to 1985 San Francisco, he’s the owner of the plexiglass company that McCoy and Scotty visit to get sheets of plexiglass for the whale tank. They give him a formula for transparent aluminum in exchange for the plexiglass.

  5. One more note on this – I love the way Margaret bursts in with the wrong part of the song, and Hawkeye has to correct her quietly in the background.

  6. “…did the U.S. Army really issue camouflage bathing suits for women”

    No. The military only issues uniforms and associated accoutrements, no swimming suits. (FWIW, the numerous “MASH 4077” tee shirts and sweatshirts seen in later episodes were not only not military issue, they would have been forbidden in a front line unit.)

    We could assume nurses made such things for themselves from old camo material; but at that time camo clothing was virtually unseen outside of special forces units. Its popularity didn’t arise til after Vietnam, and today it is almost ubiquitous outside of occasions requiring dress uniforms.

    On a similar note, in a late season episode Charles has a shotgun and bright red hunting jacket and induces (orders?) Klinger to be essentially a two-legged birddog. Klinger wears a camo jacket that in style and camo pattern is decidedly 1970s (and from the style I question if it is actually military). Not to mention the incongruity of Charles in bright red and Klinger in camo.

    1. Jgf
      I have been going through website, and by the way you write your comments I think you are a military man. I was also in the service. Which branch of the military were you in? Are you still in the military? What did you do in the military? I was in the Navy, I was attached to a Fleet Hospital. I was an Environmental health officer. I join the Navy so I could be on a ship and see the world, but I had the only billet in the Navy not assigned to a ship. I basically was in a M*A*S*H unit for the Marines, but it was much bigger than a M*A*S*H. The unit had a 500 bed capacity with all the resources of a hospital, ER, med surge wings, OR, X-ray, Cat Scan etc. So I got a little taste of a M*A*S*H. I wished I was still in the military, but life happens. Let me know when you get a chance to tell me what you did and your experiences.
      Thanks

  7. Rewatching it today, one line stood out for me. When Hawkeye remarks re. Fr. Mulcahy: “It’s a wonder he doesn’t go deaf from the sound of all the commandments breaking here.”

    That line was probably long forgotten by the time GFA was written but it’s eerie in retrospect.

  8. A high school diploma wasn’t necessary to get into the military during the Korean War. My dad volunteered after the war started and got his GED while serving stateside.

  9. In this is the number of women Hawkeye finds himself enamored with
    First the girl or extra in a blue towel kisses before he enters the tent
    Nurse Able (as he calls Nancy) whom I think he’s really enamored with
    then there is the nurse that he says was so called discussing surrender terms with

    Plus going into the mess tent naked in the $50. bet

  10. I watched this last night with no option to turn off the laugh track and I noticed it was present in a few O.R. scenes. I guess the decision to not feature a laugh-track in those scenes wasn’t always adhered to.

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