A Full Rich Day was the 12th episode of Season 3 of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H, also the 60th overall series episode. Written by John D. Hess, and directed by Gene Reynolds, it first aired on December 3, 1974.
Synopsis[]
Hawkeye records a letter to his dad, detailing the exploits of a crazy Turkish soldier, the loss of a dead Luxembourg soldier who was actually still alive, and a gun-happy officer who demanded his sergeant be operated on first - all of this happening in the course of a single day.
Full episode summary[]
A member of the 4077th MASH stole a tape recorder from a Tokyo PX and later gave it to a nurse as a "carnal bribe"; the nurse then gave it to Father Mulcahy in what Hawkeye called "a gin-induced fit of remorse"; in turn, Mulcahy quickly gave the recorder to Hawkeye because he didn't want anybody to think he was taping confessions. So Hawkeye decides to use it to dictate a letter to his dad back home. In his recording, Hawkeye regales his father with numerous stories about the day before, which he describes as “a full, rich day”.
A busload of wounded arrive, including a soldier with no tags, whom Klinger thinks may be a wounded lieutenant from Luxembourg. When Hawkeye and Trapper are summoned to surgery, Frank is left to run triage, and another soldier, a raving Turk, is brought out as a “sandwich case” (meaning he is bound between two stretchers for his own safety). Seemingly impervious to sedation, he cuts through the top stretcher with a long knife, earning major crazy points with Klinger, and Frank orders the Turk to be re-sedated.
A Jeep pulls up, and the driver, a Lieutenant Smith, gets out brandishing his rifle. He accosts Frank at gunpoint and demands that he immediately tend to his wounded company sergeant, Bryan, in the Jeep. Frank runs to tell Colonel Blake in Pre Op, and Smith forces Radar to take Bryan to Pre Op. Still armed, Smith tells Hawkeye, Henry, and Frank that they are going to give Bryan top priority. Hawkeye takes Smith outside to explain how they treat patients with the worst injuries first, but Smith ignores him and orders him back in to take care of Bryan.
Henry attempts to operate on the re-sedated Turk who has an injured left shoulder, but he wakes up on the operating table. Henry orders Kwang to sedate him yet again, but the Turk subdues Kwang and arms himself with the hypodermic needle shouting in Turkish at Henry, who tries to calm him down, but when Henry grabs for the needle, he unintentionally injects himself and passes out onto the floor as the Turk runs out of the OR.
Henry is later visited by Colonel Blanche, commander of Luxembourg forces in Korea, who wants to see one of his men, Lieutenant Henri Batiste LeClerq. Radar informs the Colonels that LeClerq is dead, but when Blanche mentions he wants to retrieve the body for appropriate military honors, Radar admits they can't find the body. Blanche is mortified, and Henry orders Radar to track him down, warning, "There'll be no not finding him!"
Hawkeye and Radar find the Turk hiding in the kitchen and now wielding a meat cleaver. Using a Turkish/English dictionary, Hawkeye decides to imitate the Turk and figures out that he wants to go back up to the front to kill more Chinese, so when Hawkeye promises the Turk that he'll be taken back to the front by Jeep, the Turk calms down and gives Hawkeye a friendly slap in the face, calling him a “damn good Joe.” Hawkeye gives the Turk Radar's uniform and a glass of prune juice spiked with chloral hydrate. He then instructs Radar to drive away with the Turk until he passes out, and then bring him right back to camp for surgery.
Meanwhile, under the constant eye and gun of Lieutenant Smith, Trapper and Frank successfully operate on Sergeant Bryan. Afterwards, Trapper informs Smith that he can knock off the heroics, but then Smith himself collapses. When they discover that Smith was wounded much worse than Bryan, Hawkeye remarks "The recruiting office got their money's worth outta this guy". Hawkeye and Trapper take Smith into the OR for his own surgery.
LeClerq still has not been found, so Henry suggests to Blanche they have a brief ceremony in camp to honor his death. As the whole camp assembles outside, the national anthem of Luxembourg is played, and LeClerq, who has been recuperating in Post Op the whole time, is filled with patriotic pride and gets up to stagger outside. He stands at attention and salutes (as best he can; his whole right arm is in a cast) next to Colonel Blanche, who is overjoyed to see him still alive.
Moments later, the Turk returns to camp in the Jeep with Radar out cold in the passenger seat (seems Radar got the Turk's drink by mistake). He drops Radar off, and when Hawkeye tries to detain the Turk for surgery, he gives him another friendly slap in the face again calling him a "damn good Joe", and then shoves him away and speeds off for the front. As he drives off, Hawkeye remarks, "Well, that's how it is: You lose a few, and... you lose a few."
Hawkeye later finishes his tape to his dad by getting parting comments from Trapper, Frank, Henry, and a snore from the still-sedated Radar.
Research notes/Fun facts[]
- The tale of a doctor having to operate at gunpoint did happen, but in 1944 during Operation Market Garden. See the Cornelius Ryan book (and later movie) A Bridge Too Far.
- Although she receives billing, Loretta Swit does not appear in this episode. No explanation is offered for the absence of her character; this is the second episode in a row (in broadcast order) that she missed.
- Coincidentally, in a episode of Gunsmoke, Swit and Watson appear together - she was the girlfriend of a prisoner who escaped from Marshal Dillon.
- Kellye Nakahara receives billing as "Nurse Able", although her character is not referred to by name and has no lines. She can be hard to see clearly behind her mask, but she can be spotted assisting Trapper and Frank as they operate on Ryan.
- The offscreen P.A. announcer is actually referred to by name for the only time in the series, when Henry tells him "Tony... Hit it!" (when it comes time to play the national anthem of Luxembourg).
- Hawkeye's father is a doctor, yet in his dictated letter, Hawkeye gives him a detailed explanation of what "triage" means.
- Hawkeye explains the origin of his nickname: it's from a character in The Last of The Mohicans, which he claims is the only book his father ever read.
- Even though the device Hawkeye is using to record his voice with is referred to as a tape recorder, it in fact is not a tape recorder. Reel-to-reel tape recorders of the time were much larger and bulkier. The device Hawkeye is using is an Edison Voicewriter, which used a plastic disc (much like a 45rpm record) as the recording medium.
- It's still not clear why Radar said LeClerq was dead, when he didn't even know who he was - or why it didn't occur to him that LeClerq might have been an unidentified soldier that arrived at the 4077th earlier in the episode.
Guests/Recurring cast[]
- William Watson as Lieutenant Smith
- Jamie Farr as Corporal Klinger
- Curt Lowens as Colonel Blanche
- Michael Keller as Lieutenant Henri-Batiste LeClerq
- Kellye Nakahara as Nurse
- Sirri Murad as Turkish Soldier with Knife
Uncredited appareances by
- Todd Susman as the P.A. Announcer "Tony" (voice)
- Jeff Maxwell as Igor (unloading Radar from the Jeep)
- Dennis Troy as "Dennis" (unloading Radar from the Jeep)