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Television ObscuritiesThe Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.
And the Winner Is: Mrs. Frank Burns, who correctly identified “Foreign Affairs.”
The Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.
And the Winner Is: TrapperJoe, who correctly identified “Bombshells.”
Believe it or not, M*A*S*H premiered in Canada before its debut in the United States. According to television listings in The Montreal Gazette the first episode of M*A*S*H was seen on Friday, September 15th, 1972 from 8-8:30PM. That’s two days before it aired on CBS on Sunday, September 17th. The show was broadcast by the CBC and was preceded by The Dick Van Dyke Show and followed by All in the Family. I wrote about a review of M*A*S*H from The Montreal Gazette earlier today.
Canada getting new shows or new episodes before the United States was not uncommon and continues to this day.
Sources:
“TV Today.” The Gazette (Montreal). 15 Sep. 1972: 15. (Read Online at Google News Archive)
According to a September 28th, 1972 article in The Montreal Gazette, M*A*S*H was broadcast in Canada on the CBC, Fridays at 8PM. L. Ian MacDonald reviewed the series, suggesting that “successful television series are seldom derived from the cinema and, at first glance, MASH seemed a most unlikely prospect.” He continued, writing that “the film’s essentially anti-bureaucratic plot was certain to be diluted and its rollicking sexual aspects deleted so that TV might employ yet another safe sit-com — a sort of medical Hogan’s Heroes.” And yet, according to MacDonald, “the television treatment of MASH is remarkably faithful and, in its half-hour format, ideally suited to the film’s episodic quality.”
Discussing the second episode (“To Market, to Market,” originally broadcast September 24th, 1972 on CBS), MacDonald noted that its black market theme, “even in the lighest [sic] context, was unthinkable in television’s recent past. Equally inadmissible was most dialogue connoting sex, however funny.” MacDonald ended the review with a look at the cast:
Alan Alda’s perception of Hawkeye is just right. His frivolous carryings-on never entirely conceal a simmering rage against the Catch-22 syndrome and other forms of incompetence.
McLean Stevenson’s reading of the status conscious colonel is not so one sided that his essentially decent qualities are forgotten. Loretta Swit’s Hot Lips, while a bit below Sally Kellerman’s unforgettable film characterization, is nevertheless firm enough, while Larry Linville is perfect as Hotlips’ lover, the hapless Maj. Frank Burns.
The series is a hopeful stirring for television.
Sources:
MacDonald, L. Ian. “Against the odds M.A.S.H. is good TV fare.” The Gazette (Montreal). 28 Sep. 1972: 29. (Read Online at Google News Archive)
The Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.
And the Winner Is: chuckles, who correctly identified “Hepatitis.”
Note: All images taken from completed eBay auctions.
Yesterday I wrote about the two M*A*S*H action figures released by Durham Industries Inc. in 1975. Today I’ll tackle the remainder of Durham’s M*A*S*H toy line: a helicopter and a motorcycle, both also released in 1975. Or at least these are the only other additional toys I’m aware of. But until recently I didn’t know the motorcycle existed. First up is the 6″ long M*A*S*H Copter, which looks nothing like the helicopters used in the series.
As the box advertises, the toy is friction powered and needs no batteries. Grasping the white plastic piece on the bottom of the copter’s tail and squeezing it makes the propeller twirl. At least that’s my best guess at what the toy does. The white “ski” at the front is likely only included to keep the copter level when on the ground. I assume the wheels also spin but it doesn’t look like the green plastic windshield opens. There’s also what looks like a white knob on the back of the toy that may or may not do something. The copter was sold boxed/carded, safely secured by wires behind a plastic bubble. A black and white picture of Alan Alda as Hawkeye adorns the card. One of these copters sold for $38 on eBay in December of 2009 (from Australia of all places).
This next toy was a complete mystery to me when I stumbled upon it on eBay last month. It’s called a Freewheeler Cycle and Rider and comes in an open package with no plastic bubble to protect the toy. A hole on the back of the box suggests that the toy was once wired to the box to keep it from moving around. The rider is obviously supposed to be Hawkeye and can be removed from the cycle (although whether it is supposed to come off is another question). A sticker on the back of the cycle, perhaps intended as a sort of license plate, says M*A*S*H 4077.
I don’t know exactly what the cycle does. The back wheel seems to be quite a bit thicker than the front wheel, which might allow it to stand upright on the ground. Does the cycle move if pulled back? Or is it human powered? If anyone has information about the cycle (or the copter) please let me know. The only cycle I have seen sold for $23 on eBay last month, but the auction also included a Durham Hot Lips action figure.
Durham Industries Inc. also produced cast metal miniatures, wind-up toys (including a Spider-Man one), bendable toys, cars, trains, squirt guns (Batman and Superman) and generic action figures (safari hunter, kung fu fighter, cowboy, robot, etc.). The company was sold to View-Master International in 1985.