Monster M*A*S*H
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"Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice: Pull down your pants and slide on the ice."

(~Sidney Freedman, in O.R., and again in Goodbye, Farewell & Amen)

Dr. Sidney Freedman is a recurring character in the M*A*S*H TV series, played by Allan Arbus. He is a Divisional Medical Staff Psychiatrist frequently summoned to the 4077th to help with mental and emotional health problems suffered by patients who come through, and also with much of the staff of the 4077th itself, with Hawkeye being his most frequent patient. He is on a first name basis with nearly everyone in camp, including Colonel Potter.

First appearance[]

Sidney first appeared in Season 2's Radar's Report, though in this episode he is referred to as Milton Freedman by Radar. In this episode, Sidney is summoned to the camp by Colonel Blake (under duress from Majors Burns and Houlihan) to do a psychiatric evaluation of Klinger who, as always, was bucking for his "Section Eight". Sidney was incredulous when he first sees Klinger, asking Henry, "You got me up here to ask me about him? About that?! Whether he needs a girdle under that?! Whether his seams are straight?!"

He reluctantly proceeds with the examination (which he begins by asking Klinger "What's your name, Honey?") Eventually he finishes the report, in which he states that Klinger is a transvestite and a homosexual, and "may even have post-nasal drip". He gives the report to Klinger to sign, with the provision that it will remain on his record permanently meaning that he'll have to keep wearing dresses, but Klinger, wanting only his devoutly-wished Section Eight discharge, angrily refuses and is about to storm out of the office before Freedman reminds him that he forgot his purse.

Subsequent appearances[]

Sidney often found his visits to the camp to be a welcome break from his regular duties. He seemed to find comfort in the people at MASH as he would visit for card games, but on at least one occasion staying for an extended respite when he was feeling depressed; in Dear Sigmund, after coming one night to play cards he wound up staying in camp for two weeks. He opened up to Hawkeye and B.J. about one of his patients committing suicide, and decided he wanted to get insight into how the 4077th staff withstood their experiences writing a letter to Sigmund Freud as a form of self-therapy. As a psychiatrist, he'd also been to medical school, and was able to assist the surgeons when emergencies arose.) Following his initial appearance in Season 2, Sidney made at least one visit to the 4077th in every successive season:

Season 2[]

In Deal Me Out, Sidney is in camp for a "conference", which turns out to be the weekly poker game, which is his sole purpose in camp except for a few moments of psychiatric pointers for which he filches a poker chip or two for "making a house call". When a patient (John Ritter) goes berserk and starts firing haphazardly, Hawkeye calls Sidney out to take care of him, but he responds, "I'm not going out there without a bulletproof couch!"

Season 3[]

In O.R., Sidney pays a visit expecting to play some poker, but arrives right in the middle of a deluge of wounded. When Klinger asks again if he's fit for a Section Eight, Sidney only tells him that "there's 17 other guys wearing dresses ahead of you". He is about to leave, but Hawkeye recruits him to help out in surgery. Afterwards, he goes on his way back to Seoul, but not without a parting shot to the others: "Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice: pull down your pants and slide on the ice."

Sidney is referenced, but does not appear, in Mad Dogs and Servicemen, during which a Corporal Travis is brought into camp uninjured but unable to move his legs. Hawkeye calls Sidney on the phone to tell him, but Sidney is too busy to visit and coaches Hawkeye over the phone on how to deal with Travis: Hawkeye treats Travis brusquely insisting that his legs do work, but initially to no avail until Frank later informs them that he saw Travis crawling toward the Mess Tent. Trapper tries his luck with Travis and gets him to open up about what happened at the front: Travis saw many of his colleagues getting run over by enemy tanks while he just lay there paralyzed with fear. He initially brands himself a coward with Survivor's Guilt, but he soon begins to recover, finally standing up again on his own two feet.

Season 4[]

In Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler, Freedman treats a bomber pilot whose horror over the deaths of the civilians his bombs killed led him to believe he was Jesus Christ. He recommended that the pilot be encouraged to remember and resume his identity, but not his military role. This infuriates another visitor, Colonel Flagg, who quickly concludes that Freedman is subversive. But Sidney refuses to be intimidated, and Flagg's subsequent investigations of the doctor evidently turn up nothing useful against him.

Season 5[]

In Dear Sigmund, Sidney, reeling after one of his patients commits suicide which he should have seen coming, visits camp to take a break from his normal duties, and using the frequent "Letter Home" storyline cathartically writes a letter to Sigmund Freud, making observations of each member of the senior staff.

In Hawk's Nightmare (six episodes after Dear Sigmund), Hawkeye begins sleepwalking and having nightmares about his childhood friends, rendering him afraid to fall asleep. Potter calls Sidney in for an informal chat with Hawkeye, and deduces that his dreams are an attempt to escape, but the horrific realities of the war are invading his dreams. Sidney reassures Hawkeye that once the war is over most of his nightmares should go away, but he can't dream away the suffering going on.

Season 6[]

In War of Nerves, Sidney comes to camp as a casualty; he was doing a follow-up in a foxhole with a soldier who suffered emotional problems after seeing three of his buddies killed within 24 hours, but Sidney and the soldier, named Tom (played by Michael O'Keefe, who played Corporal Travis in Mad Dogs and Servicemen), were both injured by shellfire, and while Sidney's head wound was only superficial, Tom was wounded worse, and before being shipped home swore that he would never forgive Sidney for what he put him through. In the same episode Sidney was asked by Potter to give some counseling to the overworked staff as most of them were on the verge of cracking up. As a way to cope, the camp began making a burn pile of carefully selected bits of the camp, which Sidney remarked to Potter could be "the pressure valve they've been looking for". When the pile is ignited, Sidney joins in the revelry by taking off his army shirt and tossing it on the fire, closely followed by his pants.

In this same episode, Sidney is visited by Radar, who confides in him that he feels as though he has become too reliant on his teddy bear. Sidney assures him that he has done no such thing, and that once he is back home he won't need his teddy bear anymore. This prognosis turns out to be prophetic when, in Good-Bye, Radar (Part 2), Radar leaves his teddy bear behind on Hawkeye's cot when he leaves camp for the final time.

Season 7[]

In The Billfold Syndrome, when a medic named Sgt. Nielsen becomes dazed and doesn't recognize himself, Sidney diagnoses his condition as "Billfold Syndrome" and enlists Hawkeye and B.J. to re-enact a scene at the front replete with banging books on shelves to simulate shellfire; eventually it comes out that Nielsen's younger brother had been killed before he could get out of the bunker, which caused his condition.

Season 8[]

In Goodbye, Cruel World, Sidney used a post-hypnotic suggestion to curb the suicidal thoughts of a Chinese-American sergeant and bona fide hero named Michael Yee, who had served during World War II, but in Europe, not the Pacific Theater. Freedman tells Hawkeye that Yee is conflicted by his guilt, "This is the first time he's fought an Asian enemy," pointing out the Asian sense of honor, in that "He has to kill Chinese to be a good American, and he has to kill himself to be a good Chinese"; he then adds that Yee has been trying to kill himself since he arrived in Korea, which is why he volunteered for so many dangerous missions.

Season 9[]

In Bless You, Hawkeye, Hawkeye begins sneezing uncontrollably and breaks out in some kind of rash. All surgical tests turn up negative and Potter can only conclude that Hawkeye's symptoms are psychosomatic, so Sidney is called in. He gets Hawkeye to open up about an episode in his childhood when his beloved cousin deliberately pushed him out of a boat only to pull him back in again smelling like a wet burlap sack and sneezing, and then rebuking him for his "clumsiness", which Hawkeye inwardly despised him for. Hawkeye had suppressed the incident until a wounded soldier came into camp after falling in a ditch of moldy water, the similar odor of which re-triggered the incident from Hawkeye's past and brought on the symptoms.

Season 10[]

In Pressure Points, Sidney's patient this time is Colonel Potter, who began to doubt his own surgical skills following a surgical error that Hawkeye had corrected. Potter goes back and forth on him several times asking him for consultation, but then not saying anything. Sidney gets him to finally open up about his fears, and then tells him not to let his fears dictate his actions. Potter gets the message and reluctantly, but successfully goes back into surgery.

Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen[]

At the beginning of the series finale, Sidney, for reasons we don't yet know, is treating Hawkeye at the psychiatric hospital in Seoul; Hawkeye had finally gone over the edge from the strains of war. He tells of an event where most of the staff, on a bus riding back to camp from a Fourth of July party at Inchon, were parked in a grove of trees silently waiting for an enemy patrol to pass by, when a chicken, being held by one of the local women, began clucking loudly. Hawkeye quietly hissed at the woman to "Keep that damned chicken quiet", and moments later the clucking stopped, but it turned out that it was not a chicken, but a baby; the woman had smothered her own infant to avoid capture. When Hawkeye rebuked Sidney for making him remember what actually happened, Sidney replied, "You had to get it out in the open. Now we're halfway home."

After the truth finally re-emerged, Hawkeye had gotten over the hump and Sidney sent him back to the 4077th, but Potter soon calls Sidney for a follow-up after Hawkeye took control of a tank that was drawing enemy fire and drove it out to the camp's remote garbage dump, far enough away to not cause damage or bodily harm. They have a discussion about what's been going through Hawkeye's mind, and later during surgery when an eight-year old girl is brought in for Hawkeye, Potter offers to switch, but Hawkeye declines, which convinces Sidney that Hawkeye's recovery is complete. Right before he leaves for the final time, Sidney repeats the "Pull down your pants and slide on the ice" line he used during his departure in O.R., which met with a much more jovial response.

Trivia[]

  • Originally, when Radar was written out of the series, it was planned for Sidney to join the cast of M*A*S*H as a regular. But Allan Arbus did not want to commit to be anything more than a recurring role, so the character continued making at least one appearance per season.
  • A character in the popular 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V named "Dr. Isiah Friedlander" may have been based upon Sidney, as the two have similar mannerisms, names, & appearance.
  • Freedman has been described in Psychology Today as the finest positive fictional depiction of a psychiatrist on television: respected, caring, skilled and professional using reasonable methods to help the mentally ill.

Quotes[]

  • "Dear Sigmund, I've been feeling somewhat frustrated lately and so I came to a kind of spa. The waters are pretty good here, and the inmates have an interesting defense against carnage; insanity in the service of health.
  • "There's something special about this place. You give life here. I'm running a little low on that right now."
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