33. Dear Dad...Three

November 10, 1973 (K-409)

Written by: Larry Gelbart and Laurence Marks.
Directed by: Don Weis
Guest Stars: Mills Watson as Condon, Kathleen Hughes as Lorraine Blake, Arthur Abelson as Milt Jaffe, Louise Vienna as Sylvia Jaffe, Sivi Aberg as Nurse Anna Lindstrom.
Semi-regulars: Odessa Cleveland as Nurse Ginger, William Christopher as Father Mulcahy, Bobbie Mitchell as Nurse Gilbert and Jamie Farr as Corporal Klinger.

Plot: Hawkeye is writing another letter to his dad. He describes the professional relationships in the OR, a racist who doesn't want any 'darkie' blood, a soldier who comes in with an unexploded grenade in him. The boys decide to mess with Condon's (the racist's) head by putting some colour on his skin while he's asleep. He later worries about the wrong colour blood, and Trapper tells him the story of the doctor who invented the technique for blood storage - Dr Charles Drew, a black man who died because a whites-only hospital wouldn't treat him. Henry shows the guys a movie of his daughter's birthday. Burns and Hot Lips have a stilted liaison and she complains that he only likes her for her body, not her brain. After an abortive attempt at a staff meeting (in which they vote to stop the war), Hawkeye finishes his letter, just as Condon comes in to thank Hawkeye for fixing him and giving him something to think about. He salutes Nurse (Lieutenant) Ginger, a black woman, as he leaves.

Glitches: On the DVD release at least, the home movie comes across as better picture quality than the real events in Korea!
Poignant as Trapper's story is, it's inaccurate. Charles Drew did indeed develop the technique for separating out blood plasma for storage, but his death wasn't like in the story. On April 1 1950, Dr Charles Drew died in a car crash on his way from a medical function, but he wasn't left to bleed to death outside a whites-only hospital. He crashed, went to hospital, and was treated properly. He died simply because his injuries were too much. The part about segregation is an urban legend that has come out since the event. While the story has a sense of unjust irony and compares to other real cases, it's not true.
How does Hawkeye describe the events of Hot Lips and Burns's evening? He obviously wasn't there, and it wasn't the usual sort of thing, so he can't have guessed.

Great Lines: Hawkeye: 'I've taken to writing obscene prescriptions and throwing them into the nurses' tent.'
Mulcahy tops off a rather gross story of Henry's: 'The enema's loss was our gain.'
After Radar gets in a couple of jibes, Henry asks, 'Giving up your plans to become a sergeant, Radar?'
Nurse Ginger, in on the joke, teases the darkened racist: 'They got you down as white. Good work, baby!'
Burns: 'I'm not in the mood for fooling around tonight!' Hawkeye: 'You hear that, Margaret?'
Mulcahy refuses the booze: 'Not too much, I'm praying later.'

The Klinger Collection: A low-cut red cocktail dress at Happy Hour, and the old favourite nurse outfit later. Then the cocktail dress again.

Continuity is for Wimps: It's been mentioned before, but here it is again: Burns's middle name here is Marion, which flies in the face of his name earlier being 'Franklin D Burns'.
Bobbie Mitchell's character is now called Nurse Gilbert. Oh, whatever.

Notes: Radar says he's not sure if he's a virgin, which might explain his fluctuating affairs with the ladies.
Hawkeye says that their greatest enemy isn't distance, death, pain or fatigue, but boredom!
Some more bits of names for our heroes: Benjamin Franklin Pierce (Hawkeye), John FX (very likely Francis Xavier) MacIntyre (Trapper), Franklin Marion Burns. (That doesn't start with a D!)
Of course, if Charles Drew died last year, then it's 1951 again.

Comments: A mishmash that doesn't hold together as well as it should. We're kind of left waiting for the A plot to start, even though by now we know there isn't one. (Maybe the parts about Condon, but it doesn't feel like an A-plot, really.) Sometimes the letters to home feel like the writers had a bunch of ideas lying around that they didn't think would amount to full episodes on their own and whacked into a framing sequence. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.
There were a few nice bits, like Condon saluting Ginger, or the staff meeting, but there have been better efforts.

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