A Classic TV Christmas- Advent 2017 Day 13

After a brief jump to the future, I am going back to the 70s AND the 50s to check out another classic TV series that had some dynamic Christmas episodes over the years. The show in question today is M*A*S*H*! (For the rest of this post I will just refer to it as MASH.)

MASH ran for 11 seasons, from 1972 to 1983. The sitcom based on an Army surgical hospital set during the Korean War ran for 3 times longer than the war lasted. With a number of great holiday themed episodes, it's really hard to choose a favorite. So, since the war lasted for 3 years, I am going to highlight 3 episodes, one for each Christmas away troops like my grandfather had to spend away from family and friends.

Dear Dad- Aired December 17, 1972

It's almost Christmas and Hawkeye is writing to his father about how the whole outfit is trying to make it through the season away from home. Father Mulcahy helps a standard issue dressed Klinger cool off after a spat with Major Burns. Col. Blake tries to give a lecture on sex to the enlisted men and fails miserably. But the part that stands out the most to me is when a wounded solider is in need of field surgery and Hawkeye takes a chopper dressed as Santa to answer the call.

Dear Sis- Aired December 18, 1978

Once again it is Christmas at the 4077th. Father Mulcahy is writing his sister the sister about how he feels unappreciated around the MASH because he's just a priest and not a doctor. But throughout the whole episode, it's revealed that Mulcahy is the soul of the camp as he helps Major Winchester get over his homesickness by gifting him a present from home. Well, the good Father does punch a solider, but the GI man did hit the head nurse first! The episode ends with the camp singing a Christmas carol in Latin to Mulcahy right before an ambulance arrives with wounded. The frozen end scene of the doctors rushing out in the snow to no soundtrack or laughter is eerily poignant.

Twas The Day After Christmas- Aired December 21, 1981

This very well may be my favorite of the holiday episodes. On Christmas night, the camp is having their normal holiday party. The guests of honor are a pair of British officers who have gifted the 4077th with some much needed fuel for the generators until delivery service begins again on the 26th. Here, Klinger learns that the British troops do a thing every year called Boxing Day where officers and enlisted men trade roles on the day after Christmas. So Colonel Potter agrees to do it as long as there are no medical emergencies. It's a great role reversal episode and plus it has my favorite thing- SNOW!

So there you have a look at some of the holiday escapades of the doctors of the 4077th MASH. For my Advent present today, I am showing you a full-length Christmas episode of the MASH spin-off After MASH. The show isn't really held in high regards so if you want to consider this a lump of coal in your stocking, I completely understand. ENJOY if you can and until next time- Merry Christmas!

Two-Fisted Tales #9 (Banned Comics Week)

 

Not everything EC published was considered subversive. William Gaines, who would eventually go on to publish Mad Magazine, published comics based on the Bible, classic works of fiction, and reprints of comic strips from highly circulated newspapers. But perhaps the most well regarded series published by EC was Two-Fisted Tales.

   These were macho stories that starred fighting men and dastardly villains. Many stories were to some degree historically accurate, if only in means of dress, armament and procedures of the soldiers depicted in this books. Two-Fisted Tales not only flew under the radar of the Senate hearings on Juvenile Delinquency but was also revived, albeit very briefly, after the establishment of the Comics Code Authority.

  Two-Fisted Tales has appeared in many movies and TV shows, often as a prop used by servicemen or 50s youths. The book is discussed as a favorite of Corey Feldman’s character in the film Stand By Me. The series was used as reading material by servicemen in various episodes of MASH.

   It’s interesting that I mention MASH because this issue which reprints Two-Fisted Tales #26, like the long-running classic sitcom, is set during the Korean War. This issue is devoted to an account of the Marine retreat at the Changjin Reservoir after over a million Chinese soldiers poured into North Korean to assist those armies that were looking at sure defeat by UN forces. (This event is also the focus of at least 2 episodes of MASH, when the camp has to bug-out and is mentioned again as a news flash over the intercom during a surgery scene.)

The retreat is broken down into 4 chapters drawn by such greats as Jack Davis, Harvey Kurtzman and of course, the master of EC war comics, John Severin. Chapter one explores how the Marines were literally ‘this close’ to victory in North Korea before the Chi-Com forces entered the war. Chapter 2 looks at both the American retreat as well as the advancement of the Chinese by focusing on both an American pilot and a Communist ensign who are trying to gain as much ground as possible.

Chapter 3 has the Americans almost ready to regroup before being attacked by ‘Banzai forces.” This forces which would attack after a series of vicious mortar barrages and then scare their American opponents by striking in complete darkness while banging cymbals and blaring trumpets. The attack causes one soldier to undergo ‘shell shock’ and again this experience was the plot of several episodes of MASH.

Lastly, we see the mass evacuation of the last remaining free port in UN control in North Korea. As troops manage to remove the citizens by boat and plane, American soldiers were destroying tons of food, ammo, and gasoline to prevent it from getting in the hands of the advancing enemy. This tragic tale of wanton destruction and pure waste is witnessed through the eyes of a tiny dog. It’s perhaps the saddest part of the entire story both making feel terrible sympathy for the puppy, that I know isn’t real and how this scene was played our 25 years later during the surrender of Saigon.

Hardly a gory comic, yes the spoils of war are real and they’re not downplayed. But EC didn’t hype the trauma for dramatic effect like in their other war comic Front-line Combat. If anything, the tone of this book was very patriotic and also a prayer for servicemen and women that were still over in Korea when this issue was first published in 1951.

To me, this was like reading an issue of MASH (if that ever existed but wouldn’t it have been awesome if it did?) The only things missing were a laugh track and a serviceman in drag.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

"Star Trek #19 (DC Comics 1989-1996, 2nd Series)"

WORTH CONSUMING!

After about a half dozen of really poor stories, ST finally hits a winner.

Kirk finds himself having to write a eulogy for a “red shirt” who died in the line of duty saving the captain. The only problem, Kirk gets writers block because the crewmember hadn’t been assigned for very longer and the crew and himself didn’t really get to know him at all.

I wish that this was a totally original story. However, this was the plot to an episode of MASH, in which Hawkeye has the same problem when it comes to the death of a nurse.

Still, it’s a valiant effort on the DC staff and so, I give this the full 10 star rating.