MASH Minute

Find your fellow MASH nerds and just cling to them. Tierney, Megan, and Chris Henry (from EAA and Apollo 13 Minute) are back and we get all of each other's obscure references to the TV show. First Tierney explains the Doctor's Draft and the Barry Plan (badly) before we dive into who's the real Radar O'Reilly and plenty of book talk. On screen, Blake goes off screen, leaving Burns in charge while he's away. Sounds like a great plan that could not possibly backfire on them!

Chris Henry from the EAA is back today and he has some amazing suggestions for field trips related to our podcast. Tierney is swept away by the awesomeness of well acted fights, while Megan drops a major spoiler for the 20th century. In between we have a lot to say about lobsters in Korea, the use of model airplanes and helicopters in MASH, and that time Chris got to hang out with the actual Bell 47 from the show's opening credits.

After a brief detour to talk about astronauts, we get back to discussing Hawkeye and Houlihan discussing the nurses. MASH expert Chris Henry confirms that real MASHes in a blackout would have had people holding flashlights just like in Hawkeye's story, although no word on how much singing was involved. Before you feel too light-hearted, we go deep for a Monday into the symbolism of the song "When the Lights Come On Again", Chris shares a story of the real Hawkeye dealing with death in the OR, and we explore the Circle of Life for Anti-Communist Dictators and debate the lessons of the Vietnam War.

Hawkeye is joined by Margaret Houlihan and we are joined by Chris Henry. Chris is an aviation expert so of course he's going to talk to us about... this mess tent conversation. He has some fascinating insight into why Houlihan is so proud to think of the Army as her home. Also, Tierney mentions Laura Tierney and that's not a person; she means Gene Tierney who starred in Laura, obviously.

You know what they say: Generals have more fun! Thomas Howeth is back for another minute in which we transition away from the Swamp to Henry fishing to Hawkeye kissing a puppy before going into the Mess Tent. Along the way we are thoroughly confused about what Leslie's doing hanging out with Blake and we ponder the appropropriateness of showing When Willie Comes Marching Home to soldiers overseas.

After the cardiovascular surgeon provided cathartic relief in the last minute, Trapper John is about to face the consequences of punching Frank Burns. But what's Henry gonna do? Not wash any coffee mugs belonging to the Navy! Thomas Howeth of CritStormCast joins us and is subjected to discussion of urinalysis, Tierney's weird family stories, and Megan's concept of "instant relatives". But then we're all reunited in dunking on Natty Ice and how cute Trapper looks in his sleeping bag.

Active... Confident... Secure! Pull on your favorite all-white outfit and enjoy watching this "fight" between Trapper and Frank Burns (really just one fantastic punch). Have you ever wanted to hear Megan and Tierney go from discussing toxic masculinity to the history of Tampax to how tall David Arkin was to the controversy surrounding movie The Last Temptation of Christ? We're joined by Captain Tuttle to talk about all this and more as each character on screen reacts perfectly to the literal falling down of Frank Burns.

The return of Jeff Ferry means it's storytime once more: today we're going to hear about the time he basically lived an episode of MASH while in Turkey. If Megan seems a bit quiet this episode, it's because she was visited by our guest co-host The Littlest Podcaster. Whatever you do, don't forget about poor Dennis Murrhardt. Remember? He carried your bags. It's not his fault he's overshadowed by the movie's medical advisor appearing onscreen AND Tierney finding all the best Sally Kellerman stories.

Jeff Ferry is back to share his military and medical knowledge with us, with training details regarding both CPR and 18-year-olds in the army. Burns's patient dies and we all agree he reacts in the worst possible way: by blaming Boone. Boone cries and Tierney cannot handle it. Today we're talking about Bud Cort, what inaccuracies in tv shows set in hospitals drive us nuts, and how to build a respectful work environment. (Hint: the first step is making sure that Burns is never in charge.)

We've brought in a ringer: Jeff Ferry is here to tell us what it's REALLY like to be around military medical staff. He also has some valuable insight in to how to act around helicopters... Basically everything Houlihan's doing? Don't do that. Jeff traded in the inappropriate shenanigans of Mallrats (as part of The Jay and Silent Bob Minute podcast) to watch Robert Duvall play a Class A jerk as Burns enlists Boone's help in saving his patient.