"M*A*S*H" Fallen Idol (1977)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Alan Alda

Writer:

Alan Alda (writer)

TV Series:

"M*A*S*H" (1972)

Original Air Date:

27 September 1977 (Season 6, Episode 2)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Plot:

Radar has always looked up to Hawkeye and admired him as his hero. But after suffering a Jeep accident en route to R&R at Hawkeye's behest. Radar questions his own hero worship. Particularly when he and his hero have a falling out.

Plot Keywords:

Alcoholic | Directed By Star | Nurse | Colonel | Doctor

US TV Schedule:

Wed. July 22

5:30 AM

TVLAND

Fallen Idol

#6.2

Cast

Alan Alda	...	Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce
Mike Farrell	...	Captain B.J. Hunnicut
Harry Morgan	...	Colonel Sherman T. Potter
Loretta Swit	...	Major Margaret Houlihan
David Ogden Stiers	...	Major Charles Winchester
Gary Burghoff	...	Corporal Walter Eugene O'Reilly
Jamie Farr	...	Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger
William Christopher	...	Father Francis Mulcahy
Frances Fong	...	Rosie
Patricia Stevens	...	Nurse Baker
Robin Riker	...	Nurse Perry
Larry Gilman	...	G.I. #1
Michael Talbott	...	G.I. #2

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone Sound Recording)

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Quotes:

Radar: You walked out on a patient, and Major Winchester had to finish for you.
Hawkeye: So? I'd have done the same for him if he were sick.
Radar: Well a lot of people don't look at it like you were sick, Hawkeye. A lot of people look up to you here. They admire you and they kinda feel they want to be like you. And... Gee, when you walk out on an operation, you make them feel like you've let them down. If they can't depend on you, well, they figure, well, maybe there's no point in depending on anything.
Hawkeye: Look you can't lay all that on my shoulders. Don't you know how much this place stinks? Don't you know what it's like to stand day after day in blood? The blood of children.
[slams down a pillow]
Hawkeye: I hate this place. And if I can't stand up to it to your satisfaction, then the hell with it.
[stands up; turns around]
Hawkeye: How DARE you! The hell with your Iowa naivete and the hell with your hero worship and your teddy bear and while you're at it, the hell with *you*. Why don't you grow up, for crying out loud? I'm not here for you to admire. I'm here to pull bodies out of a sausage grinder. If possible, without going crazy. Period.
[Radar stifles crying]
Hawkeye: Come on, cut it out. Stop it, will you? You NINNY!
[...]

Excellent.

This is one of the best episodes of this series, which for a series that ran for eleven years is saying a lot. Powerful acting coupled with an excellent script makes this episode worthy of special mention. Although a comedy, MASH covers many themes that portray various aspects of the human condition, here the theme being hero worship and what happens when your hero fails and you are forced to confront the reality of the situation, that your hero has imperfections and could even let you down. Oh how smug one can get when they believe that they can rely on someone else to help them out until the time comes when help is needed and the "hero" fails. Okay, it's not comedy, but in this case it's better than comedy because it's dramatic, compelling and real.