35. Carry On, Hawkeye

November 24, 1973 (K-411)

Written by: Bernard Dilbert, Larry Gelbart and Laurence Marks. Story by Bernard Dilbert.
Directed by: Jackie Cooper
Semi-regulars: Gwen Farrell as Nurse Wilson, Lynnette Mettey as Nurse Sheila Anderson. William Christopher as Father Mulcahy, Kellye Nakahara as Nurse Kellye, Marcia Gelman as Nurse Jacobs.

Plot: The 4077th is in the middle of a flu epidemic. Every surgeon but Hawkeye is out of the picture. With everyone dropping like flies, Hawkeye and Hot Lips take command. They are ordered by HQ to give each other flu shots. This proves to be a bad move - Hawkeye gets the flu after having the shot, just as a chopperful of casualties arrive. He manages to carry on regardless with the help of the remaining non-surgicals.

Glitches: Trapper changes position and expression between shots at the start of the episodes.
Radar says that they don't need a pediatrician because they rarely get any pregnant soldiers. He's probably thinking of an obstetrician - they're the ones who deliver babies. Pediatricians take care of them when they're already out.
Post-Op looks pretty full with the flu victims. Where are the actual casualties going to go later in the episode? No-one seems to worry.
Not really a nit, but thought I'd mention it: Nurse Anderson has a huge root-line up the middle of her hair. (It's not really a nit because there's no reason the character couldn't have one.)
Apparently the crisis-stricken 4077th has been offered a gynaecologist and a vet, but they're not much use. I don't know about the vet, but surely even if the gynaecologist's off-specialty, they'll be some use in surgery? Certainly more so than a clerk and a priest, anyway. (Put it like that, may as well get the vet along too.)

BIMOL: So many of the cast just turn up and faint, really.

Great Lines: Mulcahy on medical instruments: 'You do give them complicated names.' Hawkeye: 'That's the cross we bear, Father.'
Radar: 'He changed to psychiatry? That's crazy!'
Hawkeye uses the cute 'You look like an ad for death' again.
Henry: 'Boy, if I was back home in Bloomington, Illinois, my wife'd be taking care of me. She'd be leaning over my bed with her hair in curlers and cold cream on her face and those chipped fingernails...the kids playing ball up against the side of the house...my dog at the foot of my bed having an accident... Boy, am I glad I'm here.'
Hawkeye: 'We've been offered a veterinarian and a gynecologist. That'll be very helpful if we get a horse that's going through menopause.'
Radar: 'She outranks you. She's got more things on her uniform.'
Hawkeye: 'You're not gonna operate, you're gonna help!' Radar: 'How is my fainting going to help?'

Continuity is for Wimps: Dr Ralph Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize. He'd done a lot of work sorting out affairs in the Middle East (where there was a lot of sorting out to be done - still is, actually). Thing is, he won that in 1950, so time's rolled back again.

Suction: Hawkeye makes a couple of calls.

Notes: Burns has a catalogue from a Japanese sex-shop (that sounds interesting, doesn't it?).
Henry has a bright orange mug with 'Hank' on it. (Does anyone ever really call him 'Hank'? He's not a 'Hank'.)
Hawkeye used to spend all his weekends watching films.
Burns' wife is called Louise, and he had a receptionist called Nancy (whom he may have had a fling with).
Hawkeye makes fun of Hot Lips by calling her 'Madam President'. Just a minor aside, but Loretta Swit would play the President of the United States in the film version of Whoops Apocalypse. Come to that, Alan Alda would get to play the President himself in Canadian Bacon.

Comments: I thought Father Mulcahy had the flu too, but I guess he was just tired.
It starts off quite well, this episode, but then dissolves towards the end. Hawkeye realises he needs to rally round and do all these operations with his campmates' help, and, well, he does and that's it. We get some great character moments amongst the 'survivors', as they were all shown to be out of their depth but somehow managing. Hot Lips in particular really is a different person when you get her away from Frank Burns, isn't she?
Oh, and that appearance from 'Dr' Radar at the end was very cute.

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