It’s Thanksgiving today in the United States. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.
We never saw the M*A*S*H gang actually celebrating Thanksgiving but one episode was set the day after Thanksgiving and several others mentioned the holiday. There was also episode of AfterMASH that took place on Thanksgiving. Here’s a quick rundown. Thanks to everyone who left comments on my Thanksgiving post back in 2013 letting me know about various Thanksgiving references I’d left out.
“Hot Lips and Empty Arms” (Season 2; December 15th, 1973)
Hot Lips mentions Hawkeye and Trapper’s Thanksgiving “Come as Your Favorite Nude Pilgrim” party.
“In Love and War” (Season 6; 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 8; 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 11; November 1st, 1982)
Hawkeye tries to help 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 their foxhole was hit by artillery.
AfterMASH – “Thanksgiving of ’53” (Season 1; 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.
I wanted to see how I thought the 4077th would celebrate Thanksgiving, so several years ago I wrote a M*A*S*H Thanksgiving fanfic if anyone is interested:
M*A*S*H: Thanks for Nothing
RJ, just wanted to say thanks for your continued efforts to keep us fellow M*A*S*Haholics involved with the show through this site. Love it and hope it continues for many more years.
Happy Thanksgiving!