20. The Army-Navy Game

February 25, 1973 (J-322)

Written by: Sid Dorfman
Directed by: Gene Reynolds
Guest Stars: John A. Zee as Commander Sturner. Alan Manson as Colonel Hersh.
Semi-regulars: William Christopher as Father Mulcahy. Jamie Farr as Corporal Klinger. John Orchard as Ugly John. Bobbie Mitchell as Nurse Mason. Sheila Lauritsen as Nurse Hardy.

Plot: While listening to an Army vs Navy football match, shelling begins at the 4077th. One of the shells comes down unexploded, and is still ticking. The gang do some phoning around to try to identify it and get some defusing instructions. Turns out it's probably a US Navy bomb. A feeling of fatality starts to drift through the camp. The Navy finally sort out that it's not theirs, it's from the CIA. The boys try to defuse it with instructions from Henry on a megaphone from the bunker. Despite the expert instructions, the bomb goes off anyway, spraying the place with flyers - it was a propaganda bomb. The final score of the game is Navy 42, Army 36, and Father Mulcahy wins the football pool.

Glitches: After the wires on the bomb are cut, in the long shots they appear to have just been pulled out of the bottom section.

Great Lines: Henry admonishes Mulcahy, 'Notre Dame is not playing.' A deflated Mulcahy wonders, 'Oh. Well, what's all the fuss about?'
Radar, upon encountering Klinger in his suit: 'Don't I know your sister?'
Henry: 'Pierce - are you scared?' Hawkeye: 'Don't be silly, I'm too frightened to be scared.'
The height-challenged Radar confesses his crush on a nurse: 'I have worshipped you from below.'

The Klinger Collection: First a neat WAC uniform, then an orange golfing outfit with blue highlights. Then, later, he has a double-breasted grey suit with a yellow shirt and grey fedora. And back into the WAC uniform at the end.

Continuity is for Wimps: Mulcahy and Klinger say that this is the first time the former has seen the latter not wearing a dress. Not so - Klinger was wearing uniform trousers and shirt when they faced off in Episode 12. Dear Dad.

Notes: Henry's wife's name is Mildred (at the moment; it changes to Lorraine later).
When he was drafted, Klinger ate the eye-chart, licked the doctor's ear, jammed a letter-opener in his heel, and wore the suit he wears in this episode.

Comments: I don't know about anybody else, but I find Bobbie Mitchell exceptionally annoying, particularly her voice. I much preferred Nurse Cutler as Hawkeye's main squeeze.
There is a very different rendition of the opening theme on this episode. Very excited-sounding brass, even reminiscent of the Flintstones theme at times.
It's nice to see in this episode some evidence that the boys and Burns can get along without bickering if they really need to. Father Mulcahy wins the football pool in this episode, and the evening with a nurse in the pilot. He wins everything, he does. Maybe someone he knows is helping him out.

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