Captain Leo Bardonaro, an old practical joking college buddy of B.J. Hunnicutt, appeared in the Season 6 episode of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H titled "Last Laugh". The part of Leo is played in the episode by James Cromwell.
About Leo[]
Leo, who served as the best man at B.J.'s wedding, and attended Stanford University with him, poses as a "Provost Colonel Bardonaro" and serves the notice to Potter that he is coming to the 4077th to investigate B.J., who might be an impostor and not a real doctor. Potter is bewildered but passes the news to B.J. When he hears the name, B.J. begins laughing, explaining that it's Leo's way of saying he is coming to visit.
Leo arrives full throttle, complete with hand buzzers, and loaded cigars, and he says he was headed to Kimpo Airbase to catch his flight stateside, and he wanted to say "goodbye" to B.J. before he left. As he leaves, he gets B.J. with a trick cigar that explodes in his face.
A few days later, some MPs drop by the 4077th, visiting Post-Op, prepared to arrest B.J. Thinking it's another joke, B.J. tries to explain it to the MP's, but they are dead serious and are having none of it. When all of them go to Potter's office to sort it all out, Potter discovers that the charges are real, coming from General Fox. It seems someone claiming to be B.J. had thrown a noisy wild party with some girls at a hotel (where Bardonaro was spending R&R). The party goers started barbecuing steaks on the balcony. It turns out the General was in the room next door, and it started to fill with smoke. Somebody yelled fire, forcing the General and his secretary to run into the hallway, naked: He had been "dictating" to her in the bath tub.
The General demands that B.J. be brought to see him. Potter and Hawkeye go along with evidence that B.J. was actually at the MASH on the day in question. However, the General rejects the evidence, saying it could have been forged. The General says he has convincing evidence—he has the hat left by the officer who put on the party. The General forces B.J. to put on the hat but it doesn't fit him at all; it's too big.
Later, Leo is forced to returned to the 4077th because B.J. swiped Leo's travel orders upon his initial visit. Leo apologizes to B.J. about the party in the Seoul hotel, laughing, saying that he didn't know that General Fox, was there. B.J. and Hawkeye deny they have the travel orders but return them to Leo after he promises B.J. not to play any more practical jokes.
When Leo says he has to leave for Kimpo, but doesn't have transportation to get there, B.J. suggests he take the jeep that Hawkeye, B.J. and Potter drove back from the meeting with General Fox in. Moments after Leo leaves camp, B.J., who had been drinking with Hawkeye and Potter on the way back to camp from General Fox's office, receives a bill from the hotel for about $580 in damages Leo did to the hotel room he was in. But B.J. starts laughing, saying: "He'll be walking back in about an hour!" Hawkeye asks why, and he explains: "The only thing that was gassed up in that jeep was us!"
Trivia[]
- A continuity error is that as B.J. was 28 when he arrived in Korea (September 1952); and that he's been married for 10 years:it means he graduated from Medical College at age 18, meaning he entered College at age 14; he also would have been subject to the World War II draft 1942-1946.
- Both Farrell and Cromwell are just over 6 feet tall.