18. Dear Dad... Again

Episode number, production number

Written by: Written by Sheldon Keller and Larry Gelbart
Directed by: Jackie Cooper.
Guest Stars: Alex Henteloff as Captain/Sergeant/Reverend Casey/Schwartz. Gail Bowman as a nurse.
Semi-regulars: William Christopher as Father Mulcahy, Jamie Farr as Corporal Klinger, Odessa Cleveland as Nurse Ginger.

Plot: In Hawkeye's latest letter to this father, the following happens: there's a new guy called Captain Casey who's really helpful all round. Klinger's attempts to get out have led him to mail order a new wedding dress, which Hawkeye says is tasteful without being gaudy (but needs a slip). Father Mulcahy is planting a garden when his back starts to hurt, and after fixing it, Captain Casey admits to the Father that he's not really a doctor. The boys have a bet that results in Hawkeye walking into the mess tent naked. It nearly works - nobody notices til one guy does and drops his tray, leading to a large round of applause for Hawk. Henry's very dependent on Radar's powers. Radar takes a correspondence high school diploma (and cheats, although Henry can't be bothered making him go through it properly). Burns and Hot Lips have had a fight and are temporarily no longer dating; Burns gets drunk and hangs out with the boys instead, driving them mad. Eventually Casey is caught; it appears that he's an unqualified sergeant called Schwartz, who has also been a teacher, a lawyer, an engineer and a whole bunch of other stuff, all unqualified. Hawkeye thanks his dad for the loan of his tuxedo - he wore it at the camp's No-Talent night, a fundraiser for the Korean refugee fund. In the end, Casey leaves just as Hawkeye finishes his letter; this time, Casey has become a priest!

Glitches: This is really needly, but Hawkeye wasn't really naked: he was wearing a hat, dogtags and boots. And moreover, in the mess tent, it's possible (with the miracle of DVD) to see that he has actually got pants on.

BIMOL: Hot Lips argues with Burns a bit and sings (very badly) but doesn't do much else.

Great Lines: Hawkeye writes, 'Korea's pretty much the same story. The fighting goes on. The hatred, the violence, the senseless brutality. Men fighting like animals. And then there's the war.'
Trapper: 'Oh, wow, what a mess...stomach...kidney...liver...' Hawkeye: 'What is this, an organ recital?'
Burns: 'Can't you ever be serious?' Hawkeye: 'I tried it once. Everybody laughed.' Now haven't we all felt like that sometimes?
Hawkeye: 'I told you not to disturb me during the Korean War.'

The Klinger Collection: He dons an extremely ugly wedding dress from a mail-order catalogue, which Hawkeye advises him needs a slip underneath. It's white. ('I'm a virgin.')
He also wears a bright yellow-green dress with a frilly collar, a pale mauve scarf and a bright orange beret.

Continuity is for Wimps: Hawkeye writes his dad to 'kiss Mom and Sis' for him. Well, according to 233. Sons and Bowlers (Season 10), and 142. Potter's Retirement (Season 6) his mother is dead, and in 90. Hawkeye (Season 4), he says that he has no siblings. (OK, that should probably be listed later, but if I didn't put it here, I'd forget.)

Notes: Father Mulcahy's back troubles started in Jesuit School - all that kneeling.
Burns's brother used to call him Ferret-Face (and so does everyone else by the end of his appearance in the series).
Radar plays the drums in this episode, and again at the end of the season. Gary Burghoff played as a drummer for a time in a jazz band called The We Three.

Comments: Don't you just love the version of the theme music they use toward the start of this episode? Yikes.
Another episode based around the relationship between Hawkeye and his father, one of the best touches of the series. A much better effort than the first Dear Dad episode, which was lacking on rhythm and was paced just a little wrong. This episode, like a lot of the letter home episodes, was very good for character exploration all round. The continuing story about Captain Casey made a nice linking theme.

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