Season 1 (M*A*S*H)

Best of M*A*S*H - Season 1

Best of M*A*S*H - Season 1

M*A*S*H* Season 1
"M*A*S*H* - Season One"
DVD cover for M*A*S*H Season 1.
Season:	Season 1
Original network:	CBS-TV
Country/Language	United States
Original Run:
First episode:	September 17, 1972
Final episode:	March 25, 1973
Number of episodes	24
Created by:	Larry Gelbart
Executive producer(s):	Larry Gelbart & Gene Reynolds
Season guides
Previous N/A	Next Season 2

The first episode of Season 1 of M*A*S*H, M*A*S*H the Pilot aired on CBS-TV on September 17, 1972; the final episode, Showtime aired on March 25, 1973.

Major episodic events

• Spearchucker Jones comes and goes, appearing in six episodes (first appearance: "M*A*S*H the Pilot" and last appearance: "I Hate a Mystery").
• Hawkeye Pierce is appointed chief surgeon over Frank Burns (episode: Chief Surgeon Who?) which is in fact legal in the military as long as they do a good job.
• Tommy Gillis, a longtime friend of Hawkeye's, dies on his table (episode: Sometimes You Hear The Bullet). After that episode, the show would never be the same.

Research notes/Fun facts

• Season 1 is also the season where a large number of recurring supporting characters were tried out. Besides Spearchucker Jones, there was also Ugly John and nurses Margie Cutler, Dish Schneider, Barbara Bannerman, Leslie Scorch, Nancy Griffin.
• Almost all the supporting characters who were tried out came and then went with Season 1. Dish only appeared for two episodes. Only Leslie Scorch would reappear in Season 2 and then only for the first episode. Probably the producers did not want supporting characters to become too recognizable and distract from the main cast. Only around Season 5 would recognizable recurring supporting characters like Peggy Bigelow become a fixture.
• Two successful supporting characters were Klinger (Jamie Farr and Father Mulcahy (William Christopher). These two became recurring characters and eventually main cast members in later seasons.
• "Sticky Wicket" shows a hint of the relationship between Hawkeye and Margaret that would be further developed in later seasons.
• Captain Tuttle is introduced as Hawkeye's imaginary friend in the episode Tuttle, where Hawkeye and Trapper send supplies to Sister Theresa's orphanage and credit him for it. As Tuttle is listed in the end credits as having played "himself", he has an entry in the Internet Movie Database.

Season 1: 1972-1973

List of Episodes (in broadcast order)

Note: 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. J-301, J-302, J-303....)

In Season 1 there is a great disparity between the broadcast and production order but watching them in either order does not present serious continuity issues.

Ep.#	Date aired	Episode title	Production No.	Summary
1	September 17, 1972	M*A*S*H the Pilot	J-301	The Swamp's resident houseboy, Ho-Jon, is accepted into Hawkeye's alma mater. To raise money for his tuition, a raffle is held with the prize to be a weekend in Tokyo with (engaged) Nurse Dish. Hawkeye rigs the raffle so Father Mulcahy is declared the winner.
2	September 24, 1972	To Market, to Market	J-303	The black market has made off with the 4077th's supply of hydrocortisone, so Hawkeye and Trapper make a deal with the marketeers to trade Henry's vintage desk for the supplies.
3	October 1, 1972	Requiem for a Lightweight	J-308	Nurse Cutler arrives at the 4077th but is promptly transferred out again after Major Margaret Houlihan finds she is a distraction for Hawkeye and Trapper. Henry agrees to attempt getting Cutler back if one of them fights a boxing match against someone from Cutler's new unit, to which the pair agree. Hawkeye coats Trapper's boxing gloves in ether in an attempt to secure victory.
4	October 8, 1972	Chief Surgeon Who?	J-307	Henry appoints Hawkeye chief surgeon over Frank, to Frank's intense annoyance. He and Margaret call over General Barker to inspect the 4077th and bring about order. However, after meeting Klinger (his first appearance in the series), he declares the camp nuts and Hawkeye a brilliant surgeon worthy of his title of "Chief Surgeon."
5	October 15, 1972	The Moose	J-305	Hawkeye wins a young Korean girl, Young-Hi, off a visiting Sergeant in a card game with the intention of freeing her, but then Young-Hi thinks she belongs to Hawkeye. He and the other doctors attempt to show her that she is free.
6	October 22, 1972	Yankee Doodle Doctor	J-310	Lieutenant Bricker arrives at the 4077th to film a documentary about M*A*S*H units, on the recommendation of General Clayton. However, when Trapper and Hawkeye find out it is little more than propaganda, they wreck it and make their own version.
7	November 5, 1972	Bananas, Crackers and Nuts	J-311	When Hawkeye is desperate for R/R but Henry won't grant it to him, he begins to fake insanity. Captain Sherman is brought over to analyze if Hawkeye's madness is real and decides to put Hawkeye under observation. To avoid this, Trapper, Radar and Hawkeye cook up a scheme to make it appear as if Sherman sexually assaulted Hot Lips.
8	November 12, 1972	Cowboy	J-309	After being refused a stateside trip to make sure his wife is not committing adultery, a displeased chopper pilot, known as the Cowboy, tries to kill Henry.
9	November 19, 1972	Henry Please Come Home	J-302	Henry is transferred to Tokyo for administrative duties - and the 4077th is run Frank's way. Hawkeye and Trapper try to convince Henry to return to the 4077th.
10	November 26, 1972	I Hate a Mystery	J-306	A crime wave hits the 4077th and the stolen items are found in Hawkeye's footlocker, making him the chief suspect. How can he prove to the disgruntled camp he is innocent?
11	December 10, 1972	Germ Warfare	J-304	Hawkeye and Trapper play Dracula when they secretly steal some of Frank's blood in the night to aid a North Korean with a matching rare blood type. However, they fear Frank is a carrier of hepatitis when the patient develops it and plot to keep him away from everyone, including Hot Lips.
12	December 17, 1972	Dear Dad	J-313	Hawkeye writes his father about the Christmastide happenings at the 4077th, including Henry's mandatory sex talk and Hawkeye doing field surgery dressed as Santa Claus.
13	December 24, 1972	Edwina	J-312	Edwina, a nurse, is unlucky in love at the 4077th and the other nurses agree to hold off their romances until one of the men agrees to date her. Hawkeye draws the short straw and spends a night with Edwina.
14	January 7, 1973	Love Story	J-314	Radar receives a "Dear John" from his fiancée and becomes depressed until a new nurse arrives, when he instantly falls in love with her. Majors Houlihan and Burns plot to break up the pair as their relationship is against regulations, forgetting that theirs isn't the only one...
15	January 14, 1973	Tuttle	J-315	Hawkeye and Trapper invent a fictional officer, Captain Jonathon S. Tuttle, however soon everyone believes Tuttle is real (without ever having seen him). When General Clayton hears of his exploits and arrives to personally congratulate him, Hawkeye claims Tuttle accidentally leapt to his death off a chopper without a parachute.
16	January 21, 1973	The Ringbanger	J-316	A colonel, Buzz Brighton (played by guest star Leslie Nielsen) arrives at the 4077th with a high casualty record. Trapper and Hawkeye attempt to have him shipped home by convincing him he is insane.
17	January 28, 1973	Sometimes You Hear The Bullet	J-318	Frank throws out his back and applies for the Purple Heart, while Hawkeye finds out one of his patients (played by Ron Howard) is an underage soldier. Sergeant Tommy Gillis, an old friend of Hawkeye's, is wounded and rushed to the 4077th, but Hawkeye fails to save him, causing Hawkeye immense grief. He then decides to turn the underage soldier in for his own good.
18	February 4, 1973	Dear Dad...Again	J-317	Hawkeye again writes his father about the happenings at the 4077th, including Frank getting drunk, Margaret attempting to sing "My Blue Heaven" and the discovery of a fraud passing himself off as a doctor.
19	February 18, 1973	The Longjohn Flap	J-319	Hawkeye receives a pair of longjohns in the mail, much to everyone's envy. He lends them to an ill Trapper out of sympathy, who promptly loses them to Radar in a poker game. The longjohns pass through the hands of just about everyone in the camp before finally ending up in Hawkeye's possession again.
20	February 25, 1973	The Army-Navy Game	J-322	An unexploded bomb lands in the compound during heavy shelling, but everyone at HQ is too busy listening to the Army-Navy football game to aid them. When Trapper and Hawkeye attempt to diffuse the bomb, it explodes - with CIA propaganda leaflets.
21	March 4, 1973	Sticky Wicket	J-321	While Hawkeye has always teased Frank about his surgical incompetence, the tables are turned when one of Hawkeye's patients starts failing. He obsesses over saving this patient to protect his ego, but eventually is forced to admit he cannot win them all.
22	March 11, 1973	Major Fred C. Dobbs	J-320	After another Hawkeye and Trapper scheme to get rid of Frank, he finally demands a transfer with Hot Lips following suit. However, the scheming pair realize they will be doing double duties until a replacement is found. Not wishing to do extra work, they convince Frank to stay by claiming they have found a fortune of gold at the camp.
23	March 18, 1973	Ceasefire	J-323	Rumors of a ceasefire reach the 4077th. Everyone is jubilant and says their goodbyes, except for Trapper who is skeptical about it. Of course, the rumor proves to be unfounded, but not after Hawkeye waives over a thousand dollars' worth of poker debts and tells several nurses he is married.
24	March 25, 1973	Showtime	J-324	Henry's wife, Lorraine, gives birth to a son stateside while a stand-up comic arrives to perform at the 4077th. The camp dentist receives his discharge papers and takes great care not to injure himself before his departure.