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"Dear Dad" was episode twelve of the first season of the TV series M*A*S*H. It originally aired on December 17, 1972 and was repeated on May 20, 1973.
Hawkeye writes home to his father during the Christmas season, relating a number of amusing and personal anecdotes including Radar's effort to mail home a jeep piece-by-piece, the monthly morality lecture, Trapper's local medical philanthropy, and the ongoing non-secret relationship between Frank and Hot Lips. Hawkeye dresses to play Santa Claus for the local children, but is required to go to the front line via helicopter to treat an emergency, which he does in-costume.
[edit] Trivia and continuity notes
- Trapper quotes a football score during a surgery session - "The Bears beat the Packers 21-10". There was no such scoreline between the Bears and the Packers during the Korean War; the Bears did beat the Packers 28-14 in their second meeting of the 1950 season on October 14.
- Klinger appears in this episode in regular (male) uniform except for a red choker ribbon, which he refuses to remove on the grounds that it is a good-luck memento from his mother. This contradicts Klinger's established character (dress-wearing would-be Section 8 Discharge) as seen in the earlier screened episode Chief Surgeon Who? Six episodes later, Klinger is re-established as a transvestite in Dear Dad ... Again.
- This is the first of numerous episodes which use a character's letter home as a linking technique for otherwise unrelated short comedy sketches. These letter-home episodes often have a major internal story arc along with the many side stories. During the first three seasons, only Hawkeye is used as the focal character for this type of episode, but from Season 4 every major character (except Major Houlihan) was given at least one such episode; in some cases (B.J., Winchester and Potter) the letter-home episodes were also important as a technique for highlighting the recently-new character.
[edit] Errors
- In this episode Hawkeye says that he is writing to Vermont whereas in the rest of the show he is said to be from Crabapple Cove, Maine
[edit] Quotes
- (Trapper) Sir, what happens in the event that figure A is attracted to figure B and wants to get married, but figure A is already married to figure C and figure B is engaged to figure D, but figure A can't keep his hands off of figure B because shes got a great figure?
- (Frank) Pierce, I'm here to relieve you
- (Hawkeye)You do resemble an enema
- (M.P) What's going on here Father?
- (Father)Shh, please he's exhausted.
- (M.P)Alright Where's the guys that exhausted him?
- (Father)Let me deal with it please?
- (M.P)I'm not even catholic.
- (Father)Would you like to be?
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