40. Henry in Love

January 5, 1974 (K-416)

Written by: Larry Gelbart and Laurence Marks
Directed by: Don Weis
Guest Stars: Kathrine Baumann as Nancy Sue Parker. (And may I be the first to say yowza).
Semi-regulars: Sheila Lauritsen as Nurse Sheila Watson, Odessa Cleveland as Nurse Ginger, Clyde Kusatsu as Kwang Duk, Gwen Farrell as a nurse.

Plot: Henry returns after an extended trip to Tokyo. The reason he extended his trip was because he has fallen in love with 20-year-old Nancy Sue Parker. The boys let him gush in his happiness before reminding him that he's married. When she visits camp, everyone's appalled by the little bubblehead she seems to be. Hawkeye's even more appalled when she hits on him, especially as it seems Henry might be willing to risk his marriage for her. But it seems that her spell has broken without anybody's interfering and she leaves, with Henry realising that his wife is really the woman for him.

Glitches: Radar tells Burns he doesn't smoke. Sure'n that's why he's been chuffing away at cigars for the past season and a half!
Hawkeye says that Miss Parker's twenty-one. No, Henry said that she'd be twenty-one soon, right now she's only 20.
Henry says that he's 44 years old. That can't be right at all. References from episodes such as 34. The Sniper tell us that Henry was drafted. During the Korean War, males aged 18-and-a-half to 35 were conscripted, so Henry's too old for that. (In 1952, the rules were changed slightly to add an eight-year reserve period afterwards, but 1952's usually too late to have Henry around. But it doesn't mathematically help anyway.) Either he's not forty-four or he's not a conscript. Which is it?

Great Lines: Burns: 'Just slip the message under the door.' Radar: 'It's verbal. I'll get my mouth dirty.'
Hawkeye on Miss Parker: 'I'm a doctor, you can believe me. That's a great leg.'
Hot Lips: 'Frank, is that your knee?' Burns: 'I thought it was yours.' Hot Lips: 'As long as it's ours.'
Hot Lips: '"Nice to be nice to the nice"?' Burns: 'Just making conversation.' Hot Lips: 'Next time, do it with your mouth closed.'
Henry: 'I couldn't wait till she got here, now I'm glad she's gone.' Ah, love...

Continuity is for Wimps: Henry says his wife's name is Lorraine. In 22. Major Fred C. Dobbs, she was called Mildred. I guess if your husband's off in Korea then you resort to things like changing your name to keep busy.
Come to that, not only has she been changing her name, but also her age. In 38. Hot Lips and Empty Arms, she was thirty-five. Now Hawkeye says she's forty-two. Maybe she mail-ordered a new birth certificate. Or...hey! Different name, different age...maybe that's a different woman! That'd explain a lot, Henry having two wives, wouldn't it? (It's incredibly tempting to believe this, given the number of strange inconsistencies in stories about his home life.) Guess he was just grooming Miss Parker to be Number Three, eh?

They All Look the Same to Me: Here's Clyde Kusatsu again. Isn't he great?

Notes: Eww! Hot Lips's diary called Burns 'My Scrumptious Major FB'!
Mel Rosenbloom is a UN gynaecologist. That's an eyebrow-raiser.
Nancy Sue Parker is a typist with the Air Force and a former cheerleader with Ohio State.
Here we find out that Burns has three daughters with that ever-distant wife of his. (At least we assume they're his, who knows what kind of state the Burnses' marriage might be in!)

Comments: Henry touching up his grey bits is cute, especially when we remember that's so often how Hot Lips is to be found.
An interesting visual homage (or possibly just an accident) - when Nancy is alighting from the jeep, she shows off her very nice leg in a style almost identical to the first we see of Sally Kellerman's Major Hot Lips Houlihan in the film version of M*A*S*H.
Who can resist an 'awwwww' at that last scene with Henry and Radar.
While some bits of this week's installment are less than satisfactory, it is a good week for Henry. He's not made of stone, and he can be tempted by what he thinks is a pretty face, but when all is said and done, he's an ordinary guy who loves his wife. (Ratbat: I'd only take up with Miss Parker if there were some very strange circumstances and that was how we'd repopulate the Earth, and even then I wouldn't call her. Leila: I'd be more inclined if I could make sure she wouldn't say anything...). Radar, too, gets major points (sorry, corporal points) here by being the one who puts through the unexpected call to Mrs Blake. Most anything involving those two (Henry and Radar) together is just great.

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