Season 5 (M*A*S*H)

M*A*S*H* Season 5
"M*A*S*H* - Season Five"
DVD cover for M*A*S*H Season 5.
Season:	Season 5
Original network:	CBS-TV
Country/Language	United States
Original Run:
First episode:	September 21, 1976
Final episode:	March 15, 1977
Number of episodes	25
Created by:	Larry Gelbart
Executive producer(s):	Gene Reynolds (executive producer) Burt Metcalfe (associate producer)
Season guides
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The first two episodes of Season 5 of M*A*S*H, part of a 2-part arc, "Bug Out", aired on CBS-TV on September 21, 1976. The final episode, "Margaret's Marriage", aired March 18, 1976. Larry Gelbart, who developed the series, left the show to develop the original pilot for what eventually became the popular ABC-TV series Three's Company, making co-executive producer Gene Reynolds the lone executive producer; Burt Metcalfe, who had been with the series since season 1 as a line producer, was promoted to associate producer under Reynolds. Metcalfe would become the series' new executive producer the very next season when Reynolds left the series to produce another popular CBS-TV series, the Emmy Award-winning hour-long drama/news series Lou Grant.

Major events

• Margaret gets married to Donald Penobscott.
• Frank Burns has a breakdown while on leave in Tokyo and gets reassigned to a Veterans Hospital stateside in his home state of Indiana.
• He's promoted to Lt. Colonel, as Larry Linville leaves the cast after the season.

Season 5 (1976-1977): List of Episodes

• This table lists the episodes in the order they were first broadcast. The episodes were not all broadcast in the same order as they were produced. The broadcast order is also the order of episodes in the DVD set. However, syndicated reruns and paid streaming services such as Netflix sometimes follow the production order (e.g.U-801, U-802, U-803....)
• In Season 5 there is a great disparity between the Broadcast and the Production Order. As a hypothesis, note that the last few episodes in Production Order tended to be those which were set mainly indoors so that the Fox ranch need not be used for location shooting.
• There is a major continuity issue with trying to watch the episodes in Production Order. Margaret's Marriage (U820) was clearly intended to be the finale for Season 5 but was produced ahead of 5 other episodes.

Season 5 episodes
Ep.#	# in Series	Date aired	Episode title	Directed by	Written by	Prod. code
1 2	98 99	September 21, 1976	"Bug Out"	Gene Reynolds	Jim Fritzell & Everett Greenbaum	U-801 U-802
When a rumor for a camp relocation turns out to be real, Hawkeye, Margaret and Radar volunteer to stay behind for a patient who cannot be moved.
3	100	September 28, 1976	"Margaret's Engagement"	Alan Alda	Gary Markowitz	U-803
Margaret's sudden engagement comes as a surprise to everyone, but Frank predictably takes it the hardest.
4	101	October 5, 1976	"Out of Sight, Out of Mind"	Gene Reynolds	Ken Levine & David Isaacs	U-806
Hawkeye is temporarily blinded while trying to fix the nurses' furnace, and Frank finds a sure-fire way to win bets on baseball games.
5	102	October 12, 1976	"Lt. Radar O’Reilly"	Alan Rafkin	Everett Greenbaum & Jim Fritzell	U-805
To settle a poker debt, an officer forges promotion papers for Radar to become a Lieutenant
6	103	October 19, 1976	"The Nurses"	Joan Darling	Linda Bloodworth	U-809
The nurses go behind Margaret's back so that a fellow nurse confined to her tent can spend the night with her soldier husband who is paying her a surprise visit.
7	104	October 26, 1976	"The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan"	Gene Reynolds	Story by: Gene Reynolds Teleplay by: Allan Katz & Don Reo	U-808
Margaret takes off in the middle of the night to help deliver a Korean baby. Nobody knows of her whereabouts, and Colonel Flagg (Edward Winter in guest appearance) is brought in to help investigate her disappearance.
8	105	November 9, 1976	"Dear Sigmund"	Alan Alda	Alan Alda	U-810
Psychiatrist Major Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus) composes a letter to Sigmund Freud during a visit to the 4077, while the rest of the camp endures the hijinks of a mystery prankster.
9	106	November 16, 1976	"Mulcahy’s War"	George Tyne	Richard Cogan	U-812
Father Mulcahy, troubled by his lack of experience at the front, insists on accompanying Radar for an errand there.
10	107	November 23, 1976	"The Korean Surgeon"	Gene Reynolds	Bill Idelson	U-814
Instead of turning him in as a prisoner of war, Hawkeye and B.J. pull some strings to get a wounded North Korean surgeon a spot on the staff.
11	108	November 30, 1976	"Hawkeye Get Your Gun"	Gene Reynolds	Gene Reynolds (story/teleplay) & Jay Folb (teleplay)	U-813
Hawkeye and Potter provide assistance at a Korean clinic, and run into an enemy attack on the way home. Meanwhile, Klinger begins posing as a Gypsy to help get his discharge papers.
12	109	December 7, 1976	"The Colonel’s Horse"	Burt Metcalfe	Jim Fritzell & Everett Greenbaum	U-811
Everybody pitches in to save Colonel Potter's horse, who becomes sick while Potter is away in Tokyo. And Margaret asks Hawkeye, not Frank, to operate on her appendix.
13	110	December 14, 1976	"Exorcism"	Alan Alda	Story by: Gene Reynolds & Jay Folb Teleplay by: Jay Folb	U-815
Against Frank's objections, Colonel Potter allows an Korean exorcism ceremony to be performed for a local civilian who rejects an operation because of the bad spirits that surround the 4077th.
14	111	December 21, 1976	"Hawk’s Nightmare"	Burt Metcalfe	Burt Prelutsky	U-804
Hawkeye starts sleepwalking and having horrific nightmares. He begins to think that he may be starting to lose his "war against the war."
15	112	January 4, 1977	"The Most Unforgettable Characters"	Burt Metcalfe	Ken Levine & David Isaacs	U-818
Radar becomes an aspiring writer after ordering a flier from a comic book, and Hawkeye and B.J. give Frank a surprise birthday present that only he will appreciate.
16	113	January 11, 1977	"38 Across"	Burt Metcalfe	Jim Fritzell & Everett Greenbaum	U-821
A fouled radio call for help on a crossword puzzle leads to a senior officer coming to the 4077th to help with a supposed serious medical problem.
17	114	January 18, 1977	"Ping Pong"	William Jurgensen	Sid Dorfman	U-817
The 4077th hosts a traditional Korean wedding, much to Frank's objections. And Colonel Potter runs into an old friend who has put his troops in jeopardy so that he could receive a promotion.
18	115	January 25, 1977	"End Run"	Harry Morgan	John D. Hess	U-816
A former star college football player (Henry Brown) suffers a severe leg injury in combat and must deal with the consequences, and Major Burns goes behind Colonel Potter's back to set up a boxing match between Klinger and Zale.
19	116	February 1, 1977	"Hanky Panky"	Gene Reynolds	Gene Reynolds	U-822
B.J. falls off the fidelity wagon while trying to provide consolation to a nurse (Ann Sweeny) whose marriage has just ended. But will he confess his infidelity to his wife?
20	117	February 8, 1977	"Hepatitis"	Alan Alda	Alan Alda	U-823
The 4077th has an outbreak of hepatitis and Hawkeye needs to inoculate the reluctant staff while dealing with back pain.
21	118	February 15, 1977	"The General’s Practitioner"	Alan Rafkin	Burt Prelutsky	U-807
General Korshak wants Hawkeye to be his personal practitioner, despite his constant snottiness. And Radar helps take care of a soldier's half-Korean baby after he is shipped back home.
22	119	February 22, 1977	"Movie Tonight"	Burt Metcalfe	Gene Reynolds, Don Reo, Allan Katz & Jay Folb	U-824
Colonel Potter hopes a Western will be the cure for the 4077th's morale problem. But during the show, the staff of the camp is forced to make its own entertainment during the frequent film breakages.
23	120	March 1, 1977	"Souvenirs"	Joshua Shelley	Burt Prelutsky (teleplay/story) & Reinhold Weege (story)	U-819
Hawkeye and BJ try to stop a chopper pilot (Michael Bell) from selling souvenirs derived from war materials derived from locals facing danger getting them, and Klinger becomes a pole-sitter in his latest attempt to get a Section Eight.
24	121	March 8, 1977	"Post Op"	Gene Reynolds	Story by: Gene Reynolds & Jay Folb Teleplay by: Ken Levine & David Isaacs	U-825
The 4077th is deluged with patients and their individual medical histories. Then they run out of blood and everyone is donating at 48-hour intervals.
25	122	March 15, 1977	"Margaret’s Marriage"	Gene Reynolds	Everett Greenbaum & Jim Fritzell	U-820
Pressured by Frank, Margaret decides to marry Lt. Colonel Donald Penobscott at the 4077th. When Donald (Beeson Carroll) arrives in camp, he is treated to a bachelor party and a practical joke while the nurses give Margaret a bridal shower.