M*A*S*H (season 1)

Season 1 (1972–1973)

clockwise: Loretta Swit, Alan Alda, McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers, 1972.

• All episodes are listed in order of airdate.
• Series # refers to that episode's number within the overall series; Season # refers to the order in which the episode aired within that particular season.
• Production codes are taken from the M*A*S*H episode database^[1]

Series #	Season #	Title[n 1]	Director[n 2]	Writer[n 2]	Original airdate	Production Code[n 3]
1	1	"M*A*S*H the Pilot"	Gene Reynolds	Larry Gelbart	September 17, 1972 (1972-09-17)	J301
Captains Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre's houseboy, Ho-Jon, has been accepted to Pierce's college, but needs $1000 tuition. To raise the money, they hold a party while their commanding officer, Lt. Col. Henry Blake, is away. There, they raffle off a weekend pass to Tokyo along with the company of a gorgeous nurse, much to the chagrin of Majors Frank Burns and Margaret Houlihan. George Morgan played Father Mulcahy in this episode only; afterwards, William Christopher had the role. This episode's opening is longer than any other, and it is the only one to announce the setting as "Korea, 1950 - one hundred years ago."

2	2	"To Market, to Market"	Michael O'Herlihy	Burt Styler	September 24, 1972 (1972-09-24)	J303
Thieves hold up a truck full of medical supplies for the 4077, thus rendering them in desperate need of hydrocortisone. In retaliation, Hawkeye and Trapper meet with a notorious black marketeer, hoping to get some replacements. When they realize they have nothing to trade with him, they are forced to go to drastic measures to get what they need. Hydrocortisone was not in use by the time this episode is believed to have taken place.

3	3	"Requiem for a Lightweight"	Hy Averback	Robert Klane	October 1, 1972 (1972-10-01)	J308
Nurse Margie Cutler arrives at the 4077th. Realizing Cutler is an incredible distraction for Hawkeye and Trapper, Major Houlihan has her transferred to another unit. Henry agrees to try to get Cutler back if one of them fights in a boxing tournament with a staff member at Cutler new unit and they agree. To secure victory, Hawkeye treats Trapper's boxing gloves with ether.
4	4	"Chief Surgeon Who?"	E.W. Swackhamer	Larry Gelbart	October 8, 1972 (1972-10-08)	J307
Henry has appointed Hawkeye chief surgeon, much to Frank's disdain. Frank and Margaret call over General Barker, who enters the insane world of the 4077th. Despite unusual experiences with the staff, Hawkeye's skill as a surgeon leads Barker to keep him as head surgeon. This episode marks the first appearance by Corporal Klinger.

5	5	"The Moose"	Hy Averback	Laurence Marks	October 15, 1972 (1972-10-15)	J305
Sergeant Baker stops by the 4077th with his "moose," a teenage Korean girl named Young Hi whom he "bought." Obsessed with freeing the girl, Hawkeye wins her from Baker in a card game, but now Young Hi thinks she belongs to Hawkeye. Hawkeye and the other doctors try to change her into something other than a moose, eventually settling on sending her off to a private school. Hot Lips and Frank Burns do not appear in this episode.

6	6	"Yankee Doodle Doctor"	Lee Philips	Laurence Marks	October 22, 1972 (1972-10-22)	J310
Lieutenant Bricker is making a documentary about M*A*S*H units and General Clayton recommends the 4077th. However, when Hawkeye and Trapper discover the "documentary" is little more than army propaganda, they destroy it and make their own version, which while humorous, does make a serious plea for help for the MASH units.
7	7	"Bananas, Crackers and Nuts (a.k.a. "After Me, The Deluge")"	Bruce Bilson	Burt Styler	November 5, 1972 (1972-11-05)	J311
Henry won't let Hawkeye and Trapper leave for R&R, so Hawkeye begins faking insanity while Henry is away and Frank is in command. Captain Sherman, a brilliant psychiatrist, comes over to see if Hawkeye's madness is for real and decides Hawkeye can use a few weeks of observation. To avoid this fate, Hawkeye, Trapper and Radar pull off a scheme that makes it appear as if Sherman sexually assaulted Hot Lips.
8	8	"Cowboy"	Don Weis	Robert Klane	November 12, 1972 (1972-11-12)	J309
A disgruntled chopper pilot nicknamed "The Cowboy" believes his wife may be cheating on him, because he has not received a letter from her in a long time. He attempts to kill an emotionally exhausted Henry by throwing him from a chopper. When he is denied a trip back to the United States, Hawkeye and Trapper save Henry by reading a letter from Cowboy's wife to Cowboy over the radio. Hot Lips does not appear in this episode.

9	9	"Henry Please Come Home"	William Wiard	Laurence Marks	November 19, 1972 (1972-11-19)	J302
Henry receives a citation for the camp achieving the best efficiency rating, and then General Hammond reassigns him to Tokyo. Frank then changes the camp to be more military, and he confiscates Hawkeye's and Trapper's still. They use forged passes to go to Tokyo and convince Henry to come back.
10	10	"I Hate a Mystery"	Hy Averback	Hal Dresner	November 26, 1972 (1972-11-26)	J306
A stealing spree has swept through the 4077th and Hawkeye becomes the suspect when the stolen goods are found in his footlocker. He manipulates the camp, eventually tricking the thief into revealing himself during a meeting in the mess hall.
11	11	"Germ Warfare"	Terry Becker	Larry Gelbart	December 10, 1972 (1972-12-10)	J304
Hawkeye and Trapper discover that an injured North Korean in the 4077th care has a rare blood type and requires a transfusion. Since Frank has the same blood type, they furtively steal some of Frank's blood in the night. However, when the patient develops hepatitis, they suspect Frank is the carrier. This marks the final appearance of Spearchucker Jones.

12	12	"Dear Dad"	Gene Reynolds	Larry Gelbart	December 17, 1972 (1972-12-17)	J313
December 1950: Hawkeye writes to his father about Christmas at the 4077th, including Henry's mandatory talk about sex and an instance in which Hawkeye must perform field surgery dressed as Santa Claus.
13	13	"Edwina"	James Sheldon	Hal Dresner	December 24, 1972 (1972-12-24)	J312
Edwina "Eddie" Ferguson, a fairly attractive but hopelessly clumsy nurse, cannot find any romance at the 4077th. The other nurses conspire to hold off their romantic relationships with the doctors and corpsmen until someone agrees to date her. Eventually, the doctors draw straws, and Hawkeye becomes her date for an evening.
14	14	"Love Story"	Earl Bellamy	Laurence Marks	January 7, 1973 (1973-01-07)	J314
Radar has received a "Dear John" recording from his fiancée and has consequently become depressed until a new nurse arrives at the camp. It is love at first sight for him, but Majors Burns and Houlihan want to break them up because their relationship is against regulations, forgetting that Radar's is not the only romance against regulations.
15	15	"Tuttle"	William Wiard	Bruce Shelley, David Ketchum	January 14, 1973 (1973-01-14)	J315
Hawkeye and Trapper invent a fictional Captain Tuttle[n 4], but one thing leads to another and soon everyone at the camp believes Captain Tuttle is real. This creates problems when General Clayton decides to honor Tuttle by awarding him a commendation and placing his picture in the newspaper.
16	16	"The Ringbanger"	Jackie Cooper	Jerry Mayer	January 21, 1973 (1973-01-21)	J316
Hawkeye and Trapper try to have Buzz Brighton (Leslie Nielsen), a colonel with a high casualty record, sent back to America by convincing him that he is insane.
17	17	"Sometimes You Hear the Bullet"	William Wiard	Carl Kleinschmitt	January 28, 1973 (1973-01-28)	J318
Frank, who has thrown his back out after a night of fooling around with Hot Lips, has applied for the Purple Heart and Hawkeye discovers one of his patients is an underage soldier (Ron Howard). Hawkeye agrees to keep the young boy's secret until another soldier, who happens to be a childhood friend of Hawkeye's, dies on an operating table. The underage soldier goes home with Burns' Purple Heart.
18	18	"Dear Dad...Again"	Jackie Cooper	Sheldon Keller, Larry Gelbart	February 4, 1973 (1973-02-04)	J317
Hawkeye writes to his father again about several crazy events that take place at the 4077th, including the discovery of a Demara-esque fraud masquerading as a doctor, Frank becoming drunk and Margaret's attempt to sing "My Blue Heaven" at the camp "No-Talent Show." (Demara was a Korean War fraud who pretended to be a doctor aboard an RCN ship – see The Great Impostor.)
19	19	"The Longjohn Flap"	William Wiard	Alan Alda	February 18, 1973 (1973-02-18)	J319
In the middle of a cold snap, Hawkeye receives a pair of longjohns from home. Hawkeye gives them to an ill Trapper out of sympathy and Trapper loses them to Radar in a poker game. The longjohns pass through the hands of almost everyone in the camp before coming back to Hawkeye. This is the first episode written by Alan Alda.

20	20	"The Army-Navy Game"	Gene Reynolds	McLean Stevenson (story) Sid Dorfman (teleplay)	February 25, 1973 (1973-02-25)	J322
December 1951: The 4077th is under enemy fire and an unexploded bomb lands in the compound. Henry calls the Army and Navy for aid, but both are too busy listening to the football game to provide sufficient help. The Navy eventually identifies the bomb as belonging to the CIA and gives them advice on how to disarm it. The bomb explodes after the doctors cut the wrong wire, but it turns out to be a leaflet bomb. A different version of the theme song "Suicide Is Painless" is used in this episode.

21	21	"Sticky Wicket"	Don Weis	Richard Baer (story) Larry Gelbart, Laurence Marks (teleplay)	March 4, 1973 (1973-03-04)	J321
Hawkeye has always teased Frank about how incompetent he is as a doctor, but now one of Hawkeye's patients is failing. After for once being on the receiving end of insults from Frank, Hawkeye becomes obsessed with saving his patient to protect his ego. In the end, Hawkeye is forced to admit to himself that he cannot win them all. But he does find the problem, which was so well hidden that Frank says "anyone could have missed that." A different version of the theme song "Suicide Is Painless" is used in this episode.

22	22	"Major Fred C. Dobbs"	Don Weis	Sid Dorfman	March 11, 1973 (1973-03-11)	J320
Hawkeye and Trapper's latest scheme succeeds where no other one has; Frank has finally demanded that he be transferred to another unit and Hot Lips has followed suit. However, when Hawkeye and Trapper discover they will be assigned double duty until replacements are found, they decide to trick Frank into staying by convincing him there a fortune in gold to be found near the camp. A different version of the theme song "Suicide Is Painless" is used in this episode.

23	23	"Ceasefire"	Earl Bellamy	Robert Klane (story) Laurence Marks, Larry Gelbart (teleplay)	March 18, 1973 (1973-03-18)	J323
News of a ceasefire has reached the 4077th. Everyone celebrates and says their good-byes, except Trapper who remains skeptical as to whether the ceasefire is for real or not. In the end the ceasefire turns out to be a rumor, but not before Hawkeye tells several potential dates that he is married and forgives more than a thousand dollars worth of gambling debts.
24	24	"Showtime"	Jackie Cooper	Larry Gelbart (story and teleplay) Robert Klane (teleplay)	March 25, 1973 (1973-03-25)	J324
As a USO stand-up comic (Joey Forman) performs at the 4077th, Henry's wife[n 5] back home gives birth to a son. The camp's dentist receives his discharge papers and takes great pains to make sure he is not injured before he sets off for home.

Footnotes

1. ^ Long, David (2010). "Best Care Anywhere". http://www.bestcareanywhere.net/episodes.htm. Retrieved May 12, 2010.  (Note: Database in Microsoft Access form needs to be downloaded)

See also

M*A*S*H portal

• List of M*A*S*H episodes

References

Books

• Kalter, Suzy (1984). The Complete Book of M*A*S*H. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-1319-4. 
• Reiss, David S (1980). of M*A*S*H: the exclusive inside story of TV's most popular show. Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. ISBN 0-672-52656-5. 

Web site

• Long, David (2010). "Best Care Anywhere". http://www.bestcareanywhere.net/. Retrieved May 6, 2010. 

Notes

1. ^ Titles taken from DVD
2. ^ ^{a b} Credits from episode title cards
3. ^ Production Code from end credits
4. ^ In the episode's end credits, Captain Tuttle was credited as playing "himself."
5. ^ We hear Henry Blake's wife's name as Mildred. It is later changed to Lorraine.

References

1. ^ Long, David (2010). "Best Care Anywhere". http://www.bestcareanywhere.net/episodes.htm. Retrieved May 12, 2010.  (Note: Database in Microsoft Access form needs to be downloaded)