Rumor at the Top was the fourth episode of Season 10 of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H, also the 222nd overall series episode. Written by David Pollock and Elias Davis and directed by Charles S. Dubin, it originally aired on November 9, 1981.
Synopsis[]
The Army is starting a new MASH unit, and the surgeons and staff of the 4077th fear they will be split up and reassigned. So they act completely unprofessional, uncouth, and incompetent in front of an army rep hoping he will reconsider.
Full episode summary[]
Col. Potter and Klinger get word that an old nemesis of Potter's, a General named Torgeson from Logistics and Support, is sending someone to visit the 4077th on a fact-finding tour. Later, Klinger orders some supplies from HQ, but they won't send any for the moment. When Klinger asks why, he's told it's "classified", a strange and cryptic answer.
In the O Club, Klinger mentions this and Gen. Torgeson to Hawkeye, and Hawkeye happens to mention that Torgeson's signature is on the orders that sent Hawkeye to the 4077th - "He's a MASH-maker." This sends Klinger into a panic, and he imagines that all the fact-finding and supply-hoarding is for creating a new MASH. Hawkeye at first dismisses Klinger's paranoia, but quickly buys into it.
He shares this info with B.J., and they realize that if there's a new MASH, they'll be separated. They quickly come up with a plan, by dropping "hints" to Winchester, suggesting that Torgeson's assistant is in fact looking for a personal doctor for Torgeson, a cushy assignment right up Winchester's alley. Winchester turns to Margaret for advice about Gen. Torgeson, and she also begins to panic, assuming that the first person from the 4077th Torgeson would take for the new MASH is Col. Potter, something she couldn't live with.
Torgeson's aid, Major Burnum (Nicholas Pryor), arrives, and is beset on all sides - Margaret keeps dropping hints that Col. Potter is a doddering, senile old man, Winchester keeps trying to find out info about Torgeson, and Klinger goes the Section 8 route, dressing up as a religious zealot.
Hawkeye and B.J. get into the act too, pretending that they are lousy, careless doctors, and that overall the 4077th is a mess. Burnum can't believe what he's seeing, especially when Hawkeye and B.J. pretend to let a wounded patient suffer while they go on a date and do laundry.
Finally, Burnum has had enough, and storms off, disgusted. But before he can leave, wounded arrive, and he sees the 4077th snap into action. He hangs back, watching, and realizes he's been had.
Later, in the Mess Tent, everyone is worried about what's going to happen now that Burnum has seen how the 4077th really operates. Burnum, Winchester, and Potter join them, and Burnum reveals what he's here for: to gather information about creating a new MASH.
But he's not there to pull someone out of the 4077th - he's simply there to learn how they do it, so they could copy it in hopes to create another MASH as effective as the 4077th. Everyone is relieved when Burnum admits, "Pulling somebody out of here would be like breaking up the Yankees!"
Guest stars/Recurring cast[]
- Jeff Maxwell as Igor Straminsky
- Nicholas Pryor as Major Nathaniel Burnham
- Roy Goldman as Corporal Roy Goldman
- Uncredited appearances