MAS*H Season 2

By Reggie's Take on October 16, 2011

Season 2 of M*A*S*H for me has several episodes with McLean Stevenson as Colonel Henry Blake in charge that I really like.
First one would have to be Deal Me Out followed by The Chosen People, The Trial of Henry Blake, Crisis, Mail Call.

Overall I think season 2 is probably the funniest of the three season with McLean Stevenson. That doesn’t mean I think there are some funny episodes in season 1 and 3, there are, but overall as a whole I feel there are more in the second.

Season 2 of M*A*S*H aired from 1973-1974

After a first season in which M*A*S*H barely rated among televisions top fifty shows, it received a boost in its second season when CBS switched their time slot to Saturday nights right after “All in the Family.” Shortly after the second season began, the show became a hit.

DISC ONE

Divided We Stand: Air Date 9/15/73
General Clayton assigns a psychiatrist, Captain Hildebrand to examine the 4077th. Henry tells them to
be on their best behavior, or else they will be split up. But the 4077th soon begins to act in their
traditional, insane ways. Hildebrand: “In my short stay here, I’ve seen textbook examples of neuroses,
psychoses, voyeurism, fetishism, and a few ‘isms’ I’ve never even heard of. The people here are mad,
quite mad, all of them. They are impossible people in an impossible place doing impossible work. The
only act I can think of that would be madder would be to break them up.”

5 O’Clock Charlie: Air Date 9/22/73
An inept North Korean pilot, known as “5 O’Clock Charlie”, makes his daily attempt to bomb the
ammo dump. Frank puts in a request for an anti-aircraft gun, which is granted when Charlie hits
General Clayton’s jeep. Frank takes charge of the gun, while Hawkeye and Trapper are determined to
prevent him using it, by getting rid of the ammo dump. Frank misses Charlie and destroys the dump.

Radar’s Report: Air Date 9/29/73
Radar writes the weekly activity report. Hawkeye operates on a wounded prisoner who grabs a scalpel
and attacks the doctors. Frank wants Klinger thrown out on a section 8,so Henry calls in a psychiatrist,
Major Freedman. Hawkeye is attracted to a new nurse but thinks she is married. Trapper loses a patient
who developed complications during the O.R. fracas with the wounded soldier.

For the Good of the Outfit: Air Date 10/6/73
Hawkeye and Trapper want the army to admit responsibility for the accidental bombing of a local
village. They fill out a report and Major Stoner arrives to investigate, and leaves with all the evidence.
When the story is released it claims that the enemy bombed the village, and the army tries to gag the
doctors. But, thinking there could be a medal in it for him, Frank has also put a report together, with
copies of all the evidence, including shell fragments, so the army comes clean.

Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde: Air Date 10/13/73
Hawkeye has been in non-stop surgery for 3 straight days without sleep, and the wounded keep
coming. He decides to find out who started the war, and sends a telegram to Harry S Trueman. After
listening to some of Frank’s rubbish about the North Koreans wanting better plumbing, he tries to send
the officers’ latrine to the North Koreans with an offer of peace. Trapper finally manages to sedate him.
Trapper (about Hawkeye): “I guess he’s just unstable. You see, he took this weird oath as a young man,
never to just stand by and watch people die.”

Kim: Air Date 10/20/73
Hawkeye operates on a 5-year old Korean boy, and Radar can’t find his family. Henry plans to send
him to the orphanage, and the camp enjoys his company while they can. Trapper decides to adopt him
after consulting his wife, and has to rescue him after he wanders into the minefield. Kim’s mother turns
up at the orphanage looking for him.

L.I.P. (Local Indigenous Personnel): Air Date 10/27/73
Corporal Walker is being sent home, and he wants to marry his Korean girl so she and their baby can
return with him. CID sends Lt Willis to investigate, but when he refuses Hawkeye and Trapper frame
him. Hawkeye is upset that a nurse he was pursuing does not approve of the marriage between “a
gook” and “one of us”.

The Trial of Henry Blake: Air Date 11/3/73
Majors Houlihan and Burns challenge Colonel Blake’s fitness to command, and put Hawkeye and
Trapper under arrest so that they can’t help him. Fortunately for Henry, they escape, and with the aid of
Meg Cratty come to the rescue.

DISC TWO

Dear Dad… Three: Air Date 11/10/73
Once more Hawkeye writes home to his father: the doctors operate on a soldier with a grenade shot
into his body; Hawkeye and Trapper colour the skin of a racist patient, who demanded the right colour
blood, while he is asleep; Henry gets a movie of his daughters birthday from home; the officers hold
the monthly staff meeting.

The Sniper: Air Date 11/17/73
A lone sniper has the 4077th pinned down – including Radar and Henry in the shower. The poor boy
thinks he’s firing on McArthur’s headquarters, and a chopper finally comes by and wounds him with
gunfire from above, ending the siege. Hawkeye walks out to into the bush to tend to the wounded
soldier.

Carry On Hawkeye: Air Date 11/24/73
The camp succumbs to the Asian flu, except for Hawkeye and Margaret, who have to do everything
themselves. Then Margaret catches it. As the others start to recover, Hawkeye falls ill but is thanked
with a commemorative roll of toilet paper.

The Incubator: Air Date 12/01/73
Hawkeye and Trapper recover from an all night party. Henry gets a barbecue, and Hawkeye puts in a
request for an incubator. The Quartermaster turns him down. They locate a Major with 3 incubators,
but he won’t let them have one. A Colonel tries to sell them one, and then they get into trouble with a
General at a press conference. Finally, Radar trades the barbecue for an incubator.

Deal Me Out: Air Date 12/08/73
Sidney Freedman comes to the camp, and joins in the poker game at The Swamp. Radar hits a local
with a jeep, although the local is famous for jumping in front of vehicles for the compensation.
Hawkeye and Trapper operate on an intelligence officer against regulations. Sidney helps talk around a
soldier who wants to kill Frank.

Hot Lips and Empty Arms: Air Date 12/15/73
Margaret revaluates her life, and decides to leave Frank and ask for a transfer, which is granted. She
gets drunk at her goodbye party, but is sobered up in the shower when wounded start arriving. She
changes her mind when she realises how loyal her friends are.

Officers Only: Air Date 12/22/73
Hawkeye and Trapper operate on General Mitchell’s son, and the General gives them 3 days in Tokyo
and an officers club for the camp. They plot to allow the enlisted men access to the club, and when the
General opens it the rules are bent to give his son access, which Hawkeye exploits to give access to all.
Klinger pretends to be pregnant.

Henry in Love: Air Date 01/05/74
Henry returns from a week in Tokyo, to announce that he is in love with a 20-year old girl called
Nancy Sue Parker. She arrives for the weekend, and Henry shows her off. Nancy comes on to Hawkeye
while Henry is in surgery. Henry is reminded of his wife back home when Radar places a call for him,
and he realises it’s his wife he loves.

DISC THREE

For Want of a Boot: Air Date 01/12/74
A riotous episode in which Hawkeye will do anything to get a new pair of boots: In order to get Zale to
get him some, he must get an appointment for Zale with Futterman, the camp dentist, who will only do
it if Henry will give him a pass to Tokyo, and Henry will only grant the pass if Houlihan will get off his
back, which she will do only if the guys throw a party for Frank’s birthday, with a cake, and Radar will
only help get the cake if he gets a date with Nurse Murphy, who will only date someone with a hair
dryer, and Klinger won’t give up the hair dryer unless he gets a section 8 (and Frank won’t sign).
Inevitably, the deal falls through, much to the Hawkeye’s chagrin.

Operation Noselift: Air Date 01/19/74
Private Baker, who is always going AWOL, is desperate for plastic surgery on his nose. Hawkeye gets
an old friend, and plastic surgeon, to visit the camp, promising him a nurse called “The Barracuda”.
They put together an elaborate scheme to perform the operation without Frank or Margaret finding out.

The Chosen People: Air Date 01/26/74
A Korean family set up camp in the middle of the compound. A Korean woman with a baby comes
looking for the father, and names Radar. Civilian affairs relocates the family and blood tests prove
Radar is not the father.

As You Were: Air Date 02/02/74
While there are no casualties, Hawkeye & Trapper crate up Frank while he sleeps and receive gorilla
suits through the mail. Henry gets a tan and gives another sex orientation lecture. When the wounded
start pouring in again, their own side shells the camp, hitting the generator, and Radar tries to get
through to someone to stop the shelling.

Crisis: Air Date 02/09/74
The supply lines to the camp are cut. Radar, the housing officer, starts doubling people up to save fuel
and Klinger is thrown out of the nurse’s tent. People start burning everything to stay warm while Frank
wears his heated socks. The toilet paper supply is worst hit, and then wounded start arriving. Supplies
are eventually restored.

George: Air Date 02/16/74
Burns tries to slap a dishonorable discharge on a decorated soldier who admits to being a homosexual,
Private Weston. Weston: “Two guys got beaten up in my outfit. One colored, the other homosexual.”

Mail Call: Air Date 02/23/74
The arrival of a new batch of mail leaves Trapper depressed, and thinking of desertion, despite
Hawkeye’s efforts to dissuade him. Meanwhile, Hawkeye learns that he has successfully tricked Frank
into buying stocks in a fictitious company, Pioneer Aviation.

A Smattering of Intelligence: Air Date 03/02/74
A classic episode in which Colonel Flagg and another secret agent from another intelligence agency
come to the 4077th to keep their eyes on one another and the camp. Hawkeye and Trapper trick them
both into thinking that Burns is a traitor – one thinks he’s a fascist, the other thinks he’s a communist.
Vinny Pratt, a friend of Trapper’s turns up.

Season 2 Cast:
Alan Alda as Captain ‘Hawkeye’ Benjamin Franklin Pierce
Wayne Rogers as Captain ‘Trapper’ John Francis Xavier McIntyre
McLean Stevenson as Colonel Henry Blake
Loretta Swit as Major Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan
Larry Linville as Major Frank Burns
Gary Burghoff as Corporal ‘Radar’ O’Reilly
Jamie Farr as Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger
William Christopher as Captain Father John Francis Patrick Mulcahy