On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 6:56 PM, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > If you just want the news, skip to the bottom of this message. > > When I was nine, our family moved to the suburbs of Chicago. All of our > extended family was in the Detroit area. This meant frequent travel back and > forth from Chicago to Detroit. Usually when we traveled, it was on a Friday > night after school has let out. This usually meant getting into Detroit > right around 11:00. At the time, WJBK (which was the CBS affiliate at the > time) would always show Mash at 11:30. This fed into a tradition: we would > look forward to getting to my paternal grandparent's house and ordering > Little Caesar's and watching Mash when we'd get there, exhausted. This lead > me to kinda fall for the show: both my dad and grandpa loved the show, and > the show's writing got to me, especially when it came to Hawkeye (a guy who > was generally smarter than everyone else). > > Over the years, I fell in love with one particular episode. It focused > around a weekly poker game that took place in The Swamp, and the events that > transpired during one of those poker games. Because the series was having > budget issues at this time, Loretta Swit didn't appear, but quite a few > guest regulars did: Captain Pak, Sidney Friedman, and the first appearance > of Colonel Flagg (who was named Halloran in this episode). Additionally > there was one patient (Private Carter) that snaps when Frank Burns pushes > him once too often. > > I remembered the episode vividly when I was younger because of a line that > was omitted in the syndication version: after Carter takes Burns hostage at > gun point, Friedman tries to talk to him. He refers to Burns as "a good man: > a terrific doctor and a great human being." The syndicated cuts the next two > lines: Henry Blake runs up to Hawkeye and says "Maybe we should get Father > Mulcahy" (another no show in the episode). Hawkeye replies, "Yeah: he can > give the truth the last rites." In the syndicated episode, the laugh-track > bled past the cut point. I was thrilled when it came out on DVD and I could > watch the full scene again. > > The episode hit my sweet spot for a couple reasons: the idea of a poker > night; the connection between guys (which I never experienced when I was > growing up); and the back and forth between the players during the game. For > someone with no friends and no male role model, it seemed like an ideal of > what could be. > > The patient was played by John Ritter. When he died, I remember thinking > there were just enough people who had already died that it became a tontine > in my mind: who would be the last actor from that episode to remain alive? > > The actors in that episode: > Alan Alda > Wayne Rogers > McLean Stevenson > Larry Linville > Gary Burghoff > Pat Morita (Sam Pak) > Allan Arbus (Sidney Freedman) > Edward Winter (Captain Halloran) > Jamie Farr > Jerry Fujikawa (Whiplash Wang) > John Ritter > Gwen Farrell (Nurse Wilson) > Tom Dever (Lieutenant Rogers) > > Fujikawa died in 1983. Stevenson in 1996. Linville in 2000. Winter in 2001. > Ritter in 2003. Morita in 2005. And it's remained static until today. > > Allan Arbus, who played Sidney Freedman, died aged 95. As his character said > twice in the series (in "OR" and as his final line in "Goodbye, Farewell, > And Amen"): "Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice: pull down your pants and > slide on the ice."
Thanks for sharing your story. I do marvel at the ways television has affected so many of us. You weren't the only one looking for a male role model on the small screen. I set my sights on someone so out of character for me that it was an impossible standard to try to reach: Jim West/Pappy Boyington/Robert Conrad. I wasted a lot of years trying to be that suave, tough as nails, take no prisoners guy. I only wish I'd selected Hawkeye. Heck, I wish I'd selected Klinger. Arbus was a natural in that role. It was a great character and he played it with warmth and compassion and sincerity. A lesser actor would have hammed it up -- made it overdramatic or overcampy. He did it just right. Gonna have to tune in to MeTV and see if they show a Syndey episode today. -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
