I’m reviewing every episode of AfterMASH, in original broadcast order, and asking fans to add their memories and opinions.
“Saturday’s Heroes” (#30, 2×08)
Originally Broadcast: Friday, May 31st, 1985 from 8-8:30PM ET
Written by Ken Levine & David Isaacs
Directed by Burt Metcalfe
TV Guide Summary
Wally yanks all passes for psychiatric patients just as Klinger is preparing to spend the weekend with his wife and baby.
The Hartford Courant Summary
N/A
Review
The penultimate episode of AfterMASH, “Saturday’s Heroes” is dull, dull, dull. After his weekend pass is revoked by Wally Wainright, Klinger escapes from General General to spend time with Soon-Lee and their baby. The escape isn’t shown on screen and no one except Dr. Dudziak seems to know he’s missing. Maybe escape is the wrong word. Klinger probably walked out the front door with a smile and a wave.
For some reason, Wally and Dr. Boyer get drunk together at the Recovery Room. Dr. Boyer’s date with a nurse fell through, so I guess he was just plain bored. The Potters are supposed to be away on an overnight trip, after dropping Alma Cox off in Columbus. With the house empty, all Klinger can think about is spending some quality time alone with Soon-Lee. Rather than enjoy his new baby, who he hasn’t seen much of, he wants to start working on another baby.
Father Mulcahy doesn’t make an appearance until the final five minutes of the episode when he shows up to baptize Baby Klinger, who finally gets a name: Cy Young. The Potters, Alma Cox, Dr. Dudziak, Wally Wainright, and Dr. Boyer all wind up back at the house for the occasion.
There’s a bizarre minor plotline involving a weird fortune teller Soon-Lee hires. She’s at the house for the christening as well.
The episode ends with Klinger (and Soon-Lee) in isolation after Wally, who isn’t as drunk as he appears, calls the hospital to report him.
Notes
CBS originally planned to air “Saturday’s Heroes” on Tuesday, December 11th, 1984 but pre-empted the episode for a Christmas special. It eventually aired over five months later.
References to the 4077th
Although Dr. Boyer drunkenly tells Wally Wainright a fake story about how he lost his leg in Korea, there are no references to the 4077th in this episode.
M*A*S*H Connections
This is the 13th and final episode directed by Burt Metcalfe.
This is the 13th and final episode written or co-written by Ken Levine and David Isaacs.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the final episode of AFTERMASH never aired, right? At least, not in the U.S.?
You’re correct. The last episode, which was just a regular episode and not a proper series finale, never aired in the United States.
CBS had put the series “on hiatus” (that’s the exact term that was used) in November 1984 around the time the previous episode had aired, due to the pummeling the series was taking that fall on Tuesday nights against NBC’s “The A-Team”. The issue of TV Guide for the week of Dec. 11, 1984, had already gone to press — and several newspapers in the country had already received their TV schedules for that night — when CBS had decided to put the “Saturday’s Heroes” episode on the shelf. A lot of sources claim this episode aired on Dec. 11, 1984, but I can confirm that it didn’t air that particular Tuesday night. (I was among the few “AfterMASH” fans who had the TV on at 8 p.m. that night, even though I’d seen conflicting information as to what CBS would be airing that night.)
Not mentioned in the summary: Max proposes several American names for the baby to Soon-Lee, who doesn’t like any of them. Then, he starts proposing baseball player names, and for some reason pretty much everybody else in the room continues on this route until Soon-Lee likes the Asian-sounding “Cy Young” name.
By the way: The YouTube version is from Australia. The interstitial shot of the 3 main guys that plays along with music each time at the start of a commercial break was not part of the CBS airings.
This episode has another in the long line of “M*A*S*H”/”Star Trek” connections. The guy who briefly shows up as Alma’s date at the end is Armin Shimerman. The following decade, both he (as Quark) and Rosalind Chao (as Keiko O’Brien) would be among the crew of “Deep Space Nine.” Too bad they don’t ever appear in the same shot in this “AfterMASH” episode! (Ahhh, that Rosalind Chao. She made quite a name for herself in portraying characters who marry a lower-rung character on highly popular 1980s TV series, then continuing that role when the lower-rung character became one of the main cast members of a spinoff of the show….!)
Hey, RJ: I’ve got a correction on your info at the top! CBS aired this episode from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (not the following half hour) during that Friday night of May in 1985. “Wet Feet” was supposed to air the following half hour, but didn’t.
You are correct, of course. Fixed.