Doctor Kaplan was a recurring character who made two appearances on the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H, appearing in the Season 1 episodes "Major Fred C. Dobbs" and "Showtime".
Kaplan was played by comedic character actor Harvey J. Goldenberg, whose tongue-in-cheek depiction of the erstwhile, rather neurotic dentist is similar to Woody Allen's performance as nerdish store owner Miles Monroe in the 1973 blockbuster comedy film Sleeper.
About Dr. Kaplan[]
Dr. Kaplan was a dentist, and though his rank is never shown in the series, he was addressed as Captain by his jeep driver in Showtime.
He appeared in two M*A*S*H episodes:
First, as a minor character, is in Major Fred C. Dobbs. While he is performing some dental work on Henry, Frank comes in demanding a transfer, and berates Henry about Hawkeye and Trapper's latest pranks on him. A funny subplot is how Colonel Blake is in extreme pain due to a temporary filling for his tooth-apparetly Blake is extremely sentive to tooth pain or Kaplan is borderline incompent or a combination of both.
Kaplan's second and final appearance is in Showtime, in which he has gotten his travel orders and is about to go home, but he is overly fearful that something might happen to him before he leaves. Citing a friend who had broken a leg when he got it tangled in a nurse at his farewell party, Kaplan has decided to go to great measures to avoid any mishaps, even minor ones:
- In the Mess Tent, after refusing to pass the salt, Kaplan has Hawkeye take his orders out of his shirt pocket to look at them, for fear that he might get a paper cut,
- He reveals that he hasn't even used the latrine in the last 18 hours (which was too much information for Hawkeye)
- He eschews a goodbye kiss from one of the nurses
When his jeep arrives he decides to drive himself while the driver, an 18-year old private, becomes a passenger. When Kaplan gets behind the wheel he sprays it with disinfectant. But then as he drives away (off-camera) he mistakenly steps on the accelerator instead of the brake and has an accident which temporarily costs him an arm and a leg. In Post Op, when he is told the driver is okay, Kaplan says, "Figures! I'm going home, I'm in pieces. He's staying here, he didn't bust a pimple! Know how I'm getting home when the time comes? I'm walking!" His ranting continues as Hawkeye can only walk away laughing.