Episode Spotlight: House Arrest

13 Comments

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

“House Arrest” (#66, 3×18)
Originally Broadcast: Tuesday, February 4th, 1975
Written by Jim Fritzell & Everett Greenbaum
Directed by Hy Averback

Capsule Summary: Hawkeye is placed under house arrest after punching Frank. Meanwhile, Margaret worries about an inspection from the most important nurse in the Army.

I find myself somewhat conflicted about this episode. On the one hand, there are some hilarious bits of dialogue and even some physical comedy involving doorways. Yet the main plot doesn’t make a lot of sense and the episode contains an unfortunate rape joke, which doesn’t fit well with the overall tone of the series.

Some would argue that punching Frank was very out-of-character for a self-proclaimed pacifist like Hawkeye, if not hypocritical. I would argue that it actually isn’t out-of-character. From the very start of the series, Hawkeye was depicted as a flawed character. A womanizer and borderline alcoholic passionate about women, booze, saving lives and vehemently opposed to war and incompetence. His emotions run hot and sometimes get the better of him. This wasn’t the only time Hawkeye became physically violent.

Still, it made no sense for Hawkeye to assault Frank for really no reason whatsoever. All Frank did was snap a towel at him in a misguided attempt to protect Margaret’s honor. Punching Frank was disproportionate response that drew me out of the episode, a definite problem considering it was an integral part of the A story. If Hawkeye had instead snapped his towel at Frank — an eye for an eye, so to speak — and Frank pressed charges, that would have been far more believable and still allowed the episode to unfold.

That said, if you ignore the punch and just go with it the episode has some really funny lines:

Frank: “I better see a doctor. Is there anybody who isn’t mad at me?”

Colonel Blake: “Look, Frank, we’re all a bundle of nerves. Heck, I yell at Radar all the time.”
Radar: “I know you love me, sir.”

Colonel Blake: “Klinger, it’s 4 in the afternoon and you’re still in a housecoat? Put on a dress. You never know who might be coming around.”

Hawkeye getting to eat the church buffalo is also pretty funny. And of course the famous scene in which Frank teases Hawkeye about being able to leave the Swamp only for Hawkeye to do the same thing when the tables are turned.

Frank can step out, Frank can step in

The B story involving Margaret’s inspection is relatively dull, although really it only serves to push the A story forward. Her being nervous about the inspection leads to Hawkeye punching Frank and the inspector herself, Colonel Reese, leads ultimately to Hawkeye being freed and Frank placed under house arrest.

Colonel Reese is a funny character to be sure but a twisted one. Accusing Frank of rape is no laughing matter, even if the episode plays it for laughs and it is never mentioned again. Hawkeye and Trapper joking about the rape is uncomfortable. You can write it off as the two of them knowing full well that Frank would never actually assault a woman, so they see no reason to take it seriously, but it still does not sit well with me.

Reportedly Larry Gelbart later stated he regretted the rape joke, but I have not found an actual source for that.

Radar’s C story doesn’t get much screen time but is a good one. Note that while Hawkeye never seems to care that he is under house arrest or worries about being charged with assault, he is sincere in his response to Radar buying lifts. He cares about Radar.

In the opening scene in the O.R. there is a PA announcement that mentions an “acting camp librarian” who has received 100 copies of Rumpelstiltskin.

13 Replies to “Episode Spotlight: House Arrest”

  1. I love the C storyline as well. I always found it believable that Radar, an avid comic book reader, would be a sucker for the types of ads that ran in comic books. This topic was employed many times with his character: high school diploma by mail, correspondence writing school, door to door shoe sales, and, in this episode, platform shoes.

    The contrast between his efficiency as a company clerk and his personal lack of self-confidence was well used throughout the series.

  2. Mary Wickes was simply hilarious. The way she delivers her lines especially when she’s coming onto Frank was lolworthy.

    Particular standout lines for me in this episode were:
    Trapper: I said watch out for that bar of soap, look out for that bar of soap everybody.
    Radar: And then blammo
    Henry: Make that socko.

    Trapper finishing off other people’s food was also a recurring character theme. He did the same thing to Henry’s food in ‘Cowboy.’

    Good episode. I was very young when I watched this episode for the first time so the whole rape thing didn’t really strike me as odd. When I watch it now, it does seem a little out of place especially when:

    Trapper: I’ve never been to a rape before
    Hawkeye: Maybe for your next birthday.

    That was just not right……all in all, a solid episode. Love Mary Wickes and always found her funny in whatever she appeared in.

  3. Just watched this episode the other night, one of my favorites that I just never get tired of (though I agree the rape “birthday” joke is pretty wrong; was that kind of gag EVER acceptable?). I don’t really have a problem with Hawkeye punching Frank. I guess it can be seen as out of character, but as RJ says, he became physically violent more than once. It seems more out of character when compared to later-seasons Hawkeye than it does early-seasons Hawkeye to me. At any rate, Frank doing that wimpy little towel snap and then Hawkeye calmly drying his hands and then decking him never fails to bust me up.

    Lotsa funny lines in this one. I love the Col. Blake “Put on a dress!” quote, but Klinger’s snappy “Yes, sir!” response is the icing on the cake. Also, “That kinda talk tightens my colon!” has become a favorite Frank quote of mine.

    Aside from the uncomfortable rape joke, great episode!

  4. I agree with Larry about the punch; the way Alda plays it makes me laugh every time.

    A very funny episode slightly marred by an unfortunate rape joke.

  5. Hawkeye was in various episodes held back from hiting other people, so I do not think this was out of character at all. And he did play it very well.

  6. I’m of the opinion that some topics are simply inappropriate for a sitcom to deal with. Even though it was played for laughs, rape is in no way funny. I especially hated when Margaret changed her story about Frank getting hurt. In the United States, if you lie about anything, you will face serious consequences.

  7. Easily in my top 5…the rape joke was the only bad thing though..outside of that…I loved it!..

  8. I always deemed Hawkeye’s response inappropriate simply because it was a considered move. Had Frank snapped hm with the towel and he instantly spun around and hit him that would would have been a reflexive move; instead, after being snapped, Hawkeye calmly finishes drying his hands, puts down the towel, slowly turns, pauses, then hits Frank. No longer reaction but aggression.

    1. I completely agree with you. I was very disappointed in him because of that. I feel like Hawkeye was always the one against violence, or at least against physically acting on it, (although he would talk about hitting someone-making someone’s nose (Frank’s) bleed and stuff like that), against inflicting wounds and carrying guns, but he never did except for this episode. Both Trapper ans BJ hit him at some point when they were upset but he never returned it. I can’t help but see him differently after this episode. Maybe it’s partly because I first saw seasons 4 to 11 and then started with 1 to 3, I don’t know.

  9. For my daughter’s 23rd birthday I had sneakers printed with “I can step in, I can step out,” on high tops. I grew up watching it and shared it with my girls who got a big kick out of the series as well.

    I’m going to have her video the opening of the shoes, because I want to see her reaction!

  10. I read in “The Complete Book of MASH” about what Col. Reese was planning on doing with Margaret. IIRC, Reese never gave Margaret a lesson in the shortness of human memory as the summary of the episode stated. In fact, there are lots of errors in that book. Another example was from “Father’s Day”, pertaining to “Howitzer Al’s” departure from camp. He didn’t get out of the jeep to embrace Margaret before leaving. There are others but that’s for another time.

  11. Aside from the rape joke, this is probably one of my favourite episodes. I can absolutely buy Hawkeye decking Frank if only because it’s genuinely amazing the two had never actually come to blows before with all the blatant animosity between them – I guess Hawkeye would rationalise the whole thing as Frank having started it by technically being the first one to cross the barrier between verbal and physical by snapping the towel at him. And even though they’re not the focus of the scene, Trapper and Margaret’s reactions to first the towel-snapping and then the punch are great. Plus, for some reason the way Henry just gives Radar a look like “what did you have to say that for?!” after Radar suggests house arrest just cracks me up.

    The only other thing besides the rape joke that bothers me about this episode is the scene where they’re all watching the Gene Tierney movie ‘Leave Her To Heaven’ in the Swamp – it’s not an issue if you’ve never seen the movie but none of the scenes (when it shows the screen) actually match up to their placement in the film. And it’s not just cutting scenes out like with ‘My Darling Clementine’ in ‘Movie Tonight’ but where the scenes themselves are presented in chronological order; I mean the footage they show of the movie literally jumps from around halfway through to near the beginning and then forwards to about 2/3 of the way through. Like I said, it’s obviously not much of an problem if you’ve never seen the movie but as far as I can remember, this was never an issue on any of the other episodes so it just seems strange here.

  12. Just a few notes on this episode (which I don’t particularly enjoy, for the reasons cited above):

    Interesting to see that virtually all of it is set at night so it is a (literally) very dark episode to watch i.e dimly lit, with no location footage at all. This and the poor quality of the script makes me wonder if it was rushed in production?

    It starts off with an unusual O.R. scene insofar as Margaret is assisting Hawkeye operate, but then so is Trapper, and Frank is the anaesthetist, all on the one patient. Is there any other O.R. scene any time in MASH that is routine in nature where virtually all the main surgical staff are operating on one patient?

    A V/O announcement early in the episode states:

    P.A. Announcer: [Voice over] Attention. Due to last night’s groping, tomorrow night’s movie will be shown with the lights on.

    Well, the movie shown “tomorrow night” in the episode certainly still had the lights off!

    This episode had yet another scene of Henry Blake “accidentally” groping a nurse.

    I found the spoiler comment on IMDB really interesting, from:

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0638333/trivia

    “This episode is cited as a main reason why other cast members were resentful towards Alan Alda, since his Hawkeye character is clearly in the wrong, first for antagonizing Major Houlihan unfairly, then punching a superior officer, having Blake reluctant to file charges because he likes him, Trapper falsifying evidence and claiming Burns fell even though he witnessed the assault and treating Hawkeye to steak (something that no one else in camp gets to enjoy) and having the whole camp attend the evening’s movie in the Swamp instead of in the Mess Hall so that Hawkeye can watch the film since he cannot leave his quarters. Subsequently, when Burns is under house arrest at the end of the episode, he has to eat C-rations and gets no special privileges. Soon after this episode was written, both McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers decided to leave the show, both actors citing their resentment toward the Hawkeye character. M*A*S*H: Abyssinia, Henry (1975)(#3.24) was the final episode for both of them.”

    I have no idea if this is true … but it certainly sounds highly plausible!! I would also love to have found out what Larry Linville thought of this episode’s script!!

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