Reruns
During the sweltering heat of last weekend, I spend a few hours flipping channels in the air conditioning. I came across a channel that was showing M*A*S*H reruns and put the remote down. M*A*S*H was a staple of my television viewing diet both on the air in its original broadcasts and on the reruns before the evening news. It was one of the rare shows that my entire family would sit together and watch. In the course of watching the reruns over and over, I started to memorize episodes and could quote much of the dialogue. I can still, after 20 years, quote a few of them.
I had one of those flashbacks while watching this episode. It was after Frank burns had left the show and Colonel Potter was firmly in charge. Hawkeye is trying to keep an officer that is using his men as cannon fodder by giving him fake appendicitis symptoms. He figures that he can stop some of the killing by keeping this officer off of the front lines during the next attack. Hawkeye gives the officer something in his drink, diagnosis him and then performs the appendectomy. He gets back to the swamp after the surgery and says to BJ, “It was pink and perfect and I removed it anyway” or something close. The look of remorse on his face for breaking his doctor’s oath made you realize that he knew he was wrong. The war would continue and men would keep dying, no matter what Hawkeye did.
Although the actors from M*A*S*H ended up to be mostly Hollywood liberals, the show almost always provided a strong message about man’s reaction to his surroundings. Hawkeye was faced with making a decision on how to stop bloodshed. He had several decision trees to follow; to act or not to act. Once he chose action, he had several different avenues to take but ended up with an invasive procedure that took the officer out of action for an extended period of time. It was probably the longest term he could create given his circumstances. Right, wrong or indifferent, he acted. Unfortunately, it did little good in the long run and proved to be a poor solution to the immediate problem. It was a decision that he immediately regretted. Of course that is television but M*A*S*H did a great job of showing off the emotional side of being human. I know I’ll watch the next time I see reruns.
Icool
Cobb
I had one of those flashbacks while watching this episode. It was after Frank burns had left the show and Colonel Potter was firmly in charge. Hawkeye is trying to keep an officer that is using his men as cannon fodder by giving him fake appendicitis symptoms. He figures that he can stop some of the killing by keeping this officer off of the front lines during the next attack. Hawkeye gives the officer something in his drink, diagnosis him and then performs the appendectomy. He gets back to the swamp after the surgery and says to BJ, “It was pink and perfect and I removed it anyway” or something close. The look of remorse on his face for breaking his doctor’s oath made you realize that he knew he was wrong. The war would continue and men would keep dying, no matter what Hawkeye did.
Although the actors from M*A*S*H ended up to be mostly Hollywood liberals, the show almost always provided a strong message about man’s reaction to his surroundings. Hawkeye was faced with making a decision on how to stop bloodshed. He had several decision trees to follow; to act or not to act. Once he chose action, he had several different avenues to take but ended up with an invasive procedure that took the officer out of action for an extended period of time. It was probably the longest term he could create given his circumstances. Right, wrong or indifferent, he acted. Unfortunately, it did little good in the long run and proved to be a poor solution to the immediate problem. It was a decision that he immediately regretted. Of course that is television but M*A*S*H did a great job of showing off the emotional side of being human. I know I’ll watch the next time I see reruns.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
6:42 AM
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