Der Tag was the 90th episode of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H, and also the 18th episode of the fourth season of the series. Written by Everett Greenbaum and Jim Fritzell, and directed by Gene Reynolds, it first aired on January 6, 1976.
Synopsis[]
Hawkeye and B.J. place a toe tag on a passed-out Frank as part of a drunken practical joke. But the joke backfires on them when he is accidentally shipped out to the front lines.
Full episode summary[]
With Margaret in Tokyo for a medical conference, Frank is miserable - even more so than usual. He's so miserable that Col. Potter asks Hawkeye and B.J. to do him - and the whole camp - a favor: be nice to Frank, buddy up to him. Reluctantly, they agree, first by having him play in the regular poker game. Even though he doesn't know the rules, he wins a bunch of the hands, giggling maniacally after each time (thanks to a few rounds of gin from the still).
Later, they take him to the Officers Club, where Frank gets even more loaded, flirts with Nurse Kellye (ironic, since he chewed her out in OR earlier), and then passes out. Hawkeye and B.J. drag Frank home, and in their own drunkenness, write up a toe-tag and put it on Frank, declaring the body is "emotionally exhausted and morally bankrupt."
In the middle of the night, Frank gets up to go the latrine, still drunk. An ambulance arrives with a wounded soldier, and while he's being brought into Pre Op, Frank wanders by and falls into its open back door. He's carted off to the front without anyone noticing.
The next morning, Radar comes looking for Frank, since it's his turn to be on duty, but he can't be found anywhere in camp. Potter thinks Hawkeye and B.J. are up to some shenanigans, but they deny any wrongdoing. Captain Saunders, a surgeon at a battalion aid station, calls Col. Potter, telling him they have one of his doctors there. Potter instructs Hawkeye and B.J. to go get him, and while on their way there, Potter gets another call from Saunders, saying the aid station is under enemy attack.
Hawkeye and B.J. arrive as bombs are falling and help with wounded. They don't even bother to wake up Frank, who is still passed out. Eventually, the shelling subsides and they cart Frank home. They toss him in his bunk, then collapse into their own. Just a few minutes later, Radar wakes up Frank for his shift, and surprisingly, he's refreshed and ready to go. He also tries to stir Hawkeye and B.J., who are exhausted. Frank assumes everyone is still friends, and is confused when Hawkeye and B.J. - sick of the sheer effort it takes to be friends with Frank Burns - tell him they're back to hating his guts, and being his friends was all a dream. Frank is happy again, though, when he sees Margaret return (their subsequent reunion conversation in her tent is usually cut from syndicated airings).
Later in the Mess Tent, Margaret is telling Frank about her visit to Tokyo, which is only making Frank more miserable, as she goes on about all the fun she had with the other nurses - and "Fred".
Research notes/Fun facts[]
- Probably Kellye Nakahara's biggest role on the show up to this point, as she has several lines and even a tiny subplot with Frank (who goes from ineptly trying to berate Nurse Kellye in the OR, to ineptly trying to seduce her in the Officers Club,) Despite the size of her role, Nakahara is uncredited.
- The P.A. announcer notes that Ralph Kiner just hit his 47th home run. The only season during the Korean War in which Kiner hit as many as 47 home runs was 1950; he hit his 47th (and last) of the 1950 season on September 27.
- Potter dictates a letter to Lt. General Harrison Hardcastle at Letterman General Hospital, San Francisco, California - an actual hospital that was located in the Presidio in San Francisco. Built in 1898 and named after Civil War Army surgeon Major Jonathan Letterman, the hospital became the Letterman General Hospital. It was renamed the Letterman Army Hospital in 1950, and then the Letterman Army Medical Center in 1969. The hospital was closed in 1994 when the Presidio army base was handed over to the National Park Service. The Letterman Digital Arts Center opened in 2005 on the site of the old hospital. Jonathan Letterman developed methods of battlefield medical management and is credited as being the "Father of Modern Battlefield Medicine."
- "Der Tag" is German for "The Day".
- This is one of a few episodes where Colonel Potter manages to call Major Burns "Frank" when he usually refers him as "Burns" or "Major".
- The comic book resting on Radar as he sleeps is Avengers #60, which was not published until 1969.
Guest stars/Recurring cast[]
- William Christopher as Father Mulcahy
- Joe Morton as Captain Saunders
- Uncredited appearances:
- Todd Susman as the P.A. announcer
- Gwen Farrell
- Kellye Nakahara - O.R. and then dancing with Radar/Frank in O Club
- Jo Ann Thompson - Possibly. Assists Potter in O.R. Later dancing in background in O Club. See Lieutenant Jo Ann.