73. Welcome to Korea

September 12, 1975 (G-504-506) (One hour show)

Written by: Everett Greenbaum, Jim Fritzell and Larry Gelbart.
Directed by: Gene Reynolds
Guest Stars: Robert Karnes, as the Colonel. Ted Zeigler, as Sergeant Dale. Reid Cruickshanks, as the Staff Sergeant. Nat Jones, as a GI.
He isn't credited, but I'm pretty sure the Korean farmer is played by Philip Ahn, a regular Korean Old Guy actor.
Semi-regulars: William Christopher as Father Mulcahy. Tom Dever, as MP Lieutenant.

Plot: Dawn at the 4077th. Burns is in charge in the absence of any other commander. In the middle of morning assembly, Hawkeye returns from R&R in Tokyo, in a bicycle rickshaw. Radar tells Hawkeye that Trapper has left and gone back to the States just that morning. Radar is sent to Kimpo to pick up Trapper's replacement, Captain Hunnicutt, and Hawkeye disobeys orders and goes with him to try to catch Trapper. Hawk misses Trapper by ten minutes, but is on time to meet Captain BJ Hunnicutt. Their own jeep gets stolen, and the three take refuge in the Officers' Club to try to calm down. Radar is sneaked into the club as a Corporal Captain (Corporal's stripes and Captain's bars). After having a drink, they steal the jeep of a General. On the way back to the camp, the trio encounter many local things - like a local farmer getting his daughters to check a field for landmines. When one of them is blown up, they take her to a local hospital, where BJ gets his first taste of local medicine. When a tyre blows out, they are in the middle of repairing it when a bunch of guerrillas attack them. After escaping the guerrillas, they are passing a group of GIs and are shelled with mortars. BJ gets his first taste of field medicine, and has to cope first hand with the fact that people die in battle - quite nastily. Over the course of this episode, his nice tidy dress-uniform gets covered in nine kinds of crap. They have almost reached the 4077th, but stop at Rosie's for a drink first. Despite a rather vigorous barney going on behind them, Radar and Hawkeye don't seem to notice. After getting thoroughly blotto, the three turn up at the camp, greeted by Hot Lips and Burns, who were expecting BJ to be someone quite different to the crap-covered drunk who turns up. Frank is moving the jeep they arrived in when MPs turn up and arrest him for stealing it. And finally, Colonel Potter shows up at the very last moment.

Glitches: In the O. Club, in some of the shots, BJ's hand is on top of his glass. In others, it's on the side.
Some of the driving-through-the-countryside shots have obviously been speeded up - very badly.

BIMOL: Colonel Potter only makes a very brief appearance.

Great Lines: Burns: 'Aw, gee, Margaret, ever since I've been Commanding Officer, you don't let me do anything!'
Hawkeye: 'If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, you probably haven't checked with your answering service.'
BJ, about Frank: 'Is he a good surgeon?' Hawkeye: 'With the same light touch as a German jazz band.'
Radar, rescuing the jack under fire: 'This is a General's jack!' Hawkeye: 'Salute it and get in!' And he does.
BJ: 'I really can't wait to see the place.' Hawkeye: 'You can wait.'

The Klinger Collection: A straw hat with lovely flowers on top of his uniform. Later, a regular uniform with nice hoop earrings.

Continuity is for Wimps: Possibly the most continuity-destroying thing the M*A*S*H crew ever did was mention Colonel Potter's date of arrival - 19 September 1952. This is just too confusing - in Episode 200. A War for all Seasons (Season 9), the Colonel is shown to have been at the camp for the entirety of 1951. It also stuffs around Henry's presence and lack thereof, which is too mind-bending to even try to figure out.

They All Look the Same to Me: Philip Ahn, if it's actually him. I think it is.

Je ne parle Korean...do I? Radar knows quite a bit of Korean in this episode. Hawkeye tries to insult a farmer, but instead calls him an umbrella.

Notes: A one-hour show. BJ went to Stanford medical school, and was a member of Tau Phi Epsilon, a very select fraternity. He is married to a woman called Peggy, and has a very new baby daughter, both of whom live in Mill Valley, San Francisco. He's 28 at the start of his stint in Korea, which means he's probably about 47 by the end of the series. He comes from three generations of doctors.

Comments: A great episode for introducing BJ, it doesn't pull any punches about how nasty the war is, but is still very funny. It serves well to show the viewers that two of the old regulars may be gone, but the new kids can hold up their end nicely. Some nice interaction between Hawkeye and BJ foreshadows how close the two have become by the end of the series.

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