Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscott was played by two actors, Beeson Carroll and former NFL football player and Tarzan film actor Mike Henry.
About Donald Penobscott[]
Donald is introduced in name only at the start of the fifth season. Tall, dark, handsome, and muscular, he is a Lieutenant Colonel whom Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Loretta Swit) meets while she is on leave in Tokyo. She falls madly in love with him on the spot, and he quickly asks her to marry him. Margaret promptly accepts, leading to a falling out with her former flame Frank Burns.
Lt. Colonel Penobscott is not actually seen until the season-ending episode "Margaret's Marriage," wherein Donald (played by Carroll) arrives to marry Margaret at the 4077th. Hawkeye and B.J. have a bachelor party for him, and after he passes out from drunkenness, the hosts, also inebriated, decide to play a joke on Penobscott by plastering him from his chest to his toes, intending to tell him that he had broken his leg during the night. The cast is still on during the wedding ceremony, and he is unable to move without assistance. The wedding is cut short by incoming wounded, which leaves Donald in the mess hall, unable to move in his body cast. As Margaret leaves for her honeymoon, they make a halfhearted attempt to tell her that the cast could be removed, but she doesn't hear them over the sound of the helicopter.
He is not seen again until the sixth-season episode "The M*A*S*H Olympics," in which Donald (played this time by Henry) arrives to visit Margaret and ends up taking part in the 4077th's amateur Olympics competition, and almost wins a race against portly Sgt. First Class Ames, but trips over himself while showing off.
He is mentioned frequently throughout the 6th and 7th seasons, particularly in reference to problems Margaret and Donald are having. For example, in the episode "In Love and War," a new nurse arrives at the 4077th. After saying she was recently involved with a Lieutenant Colonel named Donald, Margaret comes to the conclusion that Donald has cheated on her, and she flies into a rage against the nurse Lieutenant Gleason. In "Comrades in Arms, Part 1," Margaret receives a letter from Donald that was meant for another woman—a letter that says unkind things about Margaret and hints at Donald having an affair with a new woman. Finally, in the season 7 episode "Peace on Us," Margaret announces she's getting a divorce due to Donald transferring himself to San Francisco without telling her. Margaret receives her official divorce decree from Donald later that season in the episode "Hot Lips is Back in Town."
Trivia[]
- Penobscott is not only a cheat on Houlihan, he is also a cheapskate; the wedding ring Houlihan values so highly was bought by him in Tokyo. According to Mr. Shinn, "Guy in Tokyo. .. makes them by the dozen... cheap setting... easy job... miracle glue." Thus Winchester's remark that the ring was bought in a 5 and dime store comes close to the truth (Patent 4077).
- If he had been Regular army he would have been a bit older than Margaret since being a Lt. Col. only came about after 21 years as a career officer. The only exceptions would have been in the US army Aviation service; the USAF or the Paratroopers where would have been Lt Cols in their late 20's and early 30's. Considering the Korean War, the only exception to 21 years would have been commanders of Infantry Battalion or that of a regiment, not a military bureaucrat in Tokyo.
Episodes[]
SEASON 5 (1/25)
- Margaret's Marriage (5x25)
SEASON 6 (1/25)
- The M*A*S*H Olympics (6x11)
MENTIONS
- Margaret's Engagement (5x11)
- Fade Out, Fade In, Part 1 (6x01)
- Fade Out, Fade In, Part 2 (6x02)
- In Love and War (6x08)
- Comrades in Arms — Part 1 & 2 (6x13-14)
- The Merchant of Korea (6x15)
- Peace On Us (7x02)
- Hot Lips is Back in Town (7x20)
- Stars and Stripe (8x14)