I struggled to find an episode with a “love” theme for February and Valentine’s Day. It may be cliche, but I wrote about a love story episode last year with “In Love and War” (06×07), and I already wrote about “Henry in Love” (02×16). So I thought about an episode with a theme that is the opposite of love. When a character is tricked by “love.” The one that came to mind, though admittedly not my favorite episode, was “Taking the Fifth” (09×09). This episode has a stronger story with Col. Potter, Klinger, and Charles than it does with Hawkeye, but we’ll review that later. When I pulled out the script for this episode, I saw Albert Frankel’s name on the cover, and immediately knew that it would be a good one. So let’s dig in!
The Script
This script is dated October 17, 1980 and was written by the writing team of Elias Davis and David Pollock. They are credited with writing 18 episodes of M*A*S*H and went on to write for other popular series including Cheers and Fraiser. This is a final draft, and it has a bright yellow cover (you can’t miss it). The writing on the front cover indicates that this script belonged to “Albert” in “Wardrobe.” If you’ve followed my site for awhile, you know I have several of Frankel’s scripts including “Letters” (09×02), “No Sweat” (09×11), “A War for All Seasons” (09×06), “Death Takes a Holiday” (09×05), “No Laughing Matter” (09×13), and the production documents for the finale. I owe a lot to Frankel for the collection I have today.
The best thing about Frankel’s scripts is that they are what I consider “complete” with the primary production documents. This script is no different as it includes the Call Sheet for each day of filming and the Shooting Schedule. The Call Sheet was the daily requirements. It listed which scenes were planned for filming, which actors were required, the location of filming, and other notes about upcoming or past episode reshoots or rehearsals. On the back of the Call Sheet was a page of Production Requirements. This page lists everything that is needed on set from the number of camera operators, key grips, makeup people, wardrobe people, props, vehicles, food, and even how many gallons of coffee were needed. Everything was listed. The Shooting Schedule included all four days of filming and detailed the location of filming, the cast members required, and the scenes to be filmed. This was the basis of each day’s Call Sheet. They typically only had four days per episode, so staying on schedule was key. Frankel added additional pages to the back of his script specifically for his wardrobe duties. He had one (or maybe two) page per actor, a list of their scenes, the set on which they were filming, and a full description of their wardrobe, right down their boots and dog tags!
Frankel also received the revised pages as they were released. Any character change or scene change that was made could affect wardrobe, so it wasimportant for him to keep up with it. He made markings on each page highlighting scene information in black ink and character information in red ink. For this episode, there only appears to be one set of revised pages dated November 3, 1980 (blue pages). This seems a little unusual because there are some scripts that have two to four sets of revised pages. While there is only set of revised pages, 20 pages were revised out of 32 total. The one set of revisions seems fairly complete.
I always enjoy reading through one of Frankel’s scripts. The Call Sheets, Production Requirements, Shooting Schedule, and wardrobe pages provide great insight into the amount of detail and the number of people it took to produce each 26 minute episode. I also have a very strong personal connection to these scripts as they were the first scripts from M*A*S*H that I bought, and they were the first M*A*S*H objects I purchased besides the DVDs that were being released in the mid-2000s. In 2007, a 22 script lot that included the name “Albert” on each cover began the collection that I take great pride in today.
The Final Episode
The episode opens in the O.R. with the doctors discussing how difficult it is to operate due to an Army regulation banning the use of the anesthetic curare. Col. Potter points out that other countries use it, but it has only been banned by the U.S. Army. After the operating session, Klinger is visited by a company clerk from a Canadian unit, and that prompts Col. Potter to work out a trade with the Canadian unit for some curare. While the Canadian clerk was the 4077th, he gave Klinger a bottle of wine that he then gave to Hawkeye to forgive a debt of $5. Charles notices the vintage of the wine, and offers to buy it, but Hawkeye has other plans for the wine. He wants to use it to win a date with a nurse because has been striking out. Since Col. Potter and Klinger are going to the Canadian unit for the curare, Klinger makes a deal with Charles to get more of the wine (making a hefty profit for himself). In the end, Klinger, Charles, and Hawkeye all strike out as Hawkeye’s date backfires and the wine ends up in the radiator of a Jeep!
For me this, “Taking the Fifth” is a mixed episode. I really like the storyline with Col. Potter, Klinger, and Charles. Potter breaking regulations by getting curare, and going to the Canadian unit himself, says a lot about his character. Col. Potter wanted to do what was right for the patients, but he didn’t want anyone to take the blame if they were caught. The storylines of Charles wanting the fancy wine and Klinger’s opportunism are not new to the series, but the scene with the wine going into the Jeep’s radiator is great! Where the episode falls flat is the storyline with Hawkeye and the nurses. He keeps striking out because the nurses are all familiar with his one liners, so he hopes to “win” a date with a bottle of wine. The three letters he gets in response to his “date with Hawkeye” contest are funny, but the storyline isn’t the strongest. I suppose that it pays off in the end with the nurses getting the last laugh.
There were not too many changes between the script and the final episode for this one. The only major change was on page five when the server in the Mess Tent was supposed to the Igor, but Igor’s name is marked out in the script and changed it to “Cook” and Roy Goldman was serving the food (page 5). Two pages later, Igor is still referenced by Klinger despite not being in the episode. I wonder why there was a sudden change? Perhaps Jeff Maxwell was busy. There are a few other things I noticed as I watched. Charles mentioned that the wine is a “1947 Margaux,” which B.J. then comments to Hawkeye that they should drink the wine because it is “already four years old.” So it’s still 1951? Col. Potter arrived in September 1952, and the episode that aired three weeks before this one was “A War for All Seasons” (09×06) in which we saw New Year’s Eve of 1951! Continuity was not M*A*S*H‘s strong point. My final thought was regarding the scene of Hawkeye with the nurses in the supply room. How many nurses did the 4077th have? It was great to see the regular nurses, but there were several that we only see this one time.
I wouldn’t say that this is one of the strongest episodes of the series, but it is far from the worst. It has some funny moments such as the “Just Married” sign on the back of the Jeep that Col. Potter and Klinger take to the Canadian unit. However, the script for this episode is one of my originals from 2007. It was those 22 scripts that really started my collection, and ultimately led to the creation of this site. Even for an episode that isn’t one of my favorites, seeing a script from Albert Frankel always puts a smile on my face.
The M*A*S*H Historian 
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