Last year, when I wrote about M*A*S*H episodes involving or referencing Thanksgiving, I forgot about a few. Thanks to some reminders in the comments, I think we’ve got a complete list. There were no episodes that saw the 4077th actually celebrating the holiday. There was a first season episode of AfterMASH that did, however.
Here’s a look at the episodes of M*A*S*H that mentioned Thanksgiving:
“Hot Lips and Empty Arms” (Season Two, Originally Aired December 15th, 1973)
Hot Lips mentions Hawkeye and Trapper’s Thanksgiving “Come as Your Favorite Nude Pilgrim” party.
“In Love and War” (Season Six, Originally Aired November 1st, 1977)
Hawkeye tries to explain what his name means to Kyung Soon and winds up telling her about turkeys being eaten on Thanksgiving. She tells him about the Korean version of Thanksgiving, the autumn festival of Chuseok.
“The Yalu Brick Road” (Season Eight, Originally Aired November 19th, 1979)
The episode took place the day after Thanksgiving while most of the 4077th was recovering from salmonella poisoning caused by Klinger’s questionable turkey.
“Trick or Treatment” (Season Eleven, Originally Aired November 1st, 1982)
Hawkeye tries to help Private Scala, a wounded soldier who refuses to eat. His CO put together an early Thanksgiving meal and while he was getting seconds his buddies were killed when the foxhole they were in was hit with artillery.
AfterMASH – “Thanksgiving of ’53” (Season One, Originally Aired November 21st, 1983)
Sherman Potter and his wife hosting their first family Thanksgiving dinner in many years, with Father Mulcahy, Klinger, Soon-Lee and others invited to join.
Were there any other episodes of M*A*S*H involving Thanksgiving?
Since M*A*S*H never did a proper Thanksgiving episode, I took it upon myself to write one in the form of a fanfic:
M*A*S*H – Thanks for Nothing
Beautiful, Big Daddy, Thank you! And happy Thanksgiving!
Didn’t Henry once mention that he dressed up as King Neptune with a rhinestone in his belly button?? Was that for Thanksgiving or was it a plain on fancy dress party at the 4077th??
Happy Thanksgiving All!