M*A*S*H Rewatch: Season 1

Throughout 2025, I am rewatching M*A*S*H and reviewing each season on the final day of each month. I am watching the episodes in broadcast order using the DVDs from the 2000s with the laugh track left on. You can find an archive of these rewatch posts here.

Before 2025 began, I wanted to bring some fresh, new content to the site. I thought that a great way to do this would be to rewatch the series. I didn’t want to do an episode-by-episode breakdown of the series (there are great podcasts currently doing that you can see listed on the Links page), but I did want to provide some overall thoughts on each season. Of course, that meant beginning with season one…the beginning of M*A*S*H. The story of M*A*S*H’s first season not having the best ratings is widely known, but I had a preconceived opinion of season one before I started watching. I didn’t think season one was as good as others. I believed that the first season struggled because it was a new show that was based on a movie that had been based on a novel. The source material from the novel had been largely used by the movie, so Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds really had to create something new. That is no easy task, and I remembered the results being a fairly bumpy start. But I am happy to say that after rewatching the full season, my preconceived impressions of the seasons were overblown. The season is better than I had remembered!

Season 1 Episode List

Episodes are listed in broadcast order. Hyperlinks direct to “Script Spotlight” posts for that episode.

Episode #	Season X Episode	Episode Title
1	01×01	M*A*S*H — The Pilot
2	01×02	To Market, To Market
3	01×03	Requiem for a Lightweight
4	01×04	Chief Surgeon Who?
5	01×05	The Moose
6	01×06	Yankee Doodle Doctor
7	01×07	Bananas, Crackers and Nuts
8	01×08	Cowboy
9	01×09	Henry, Please Come Home
10	01×10	I Hate A Mystery
11	01×11	Germ Warfare
12	01×12	Dear Dad
13	01×13	Edwina
14	01×14	Love Story
15	01×15	Tuttle
16	01×16	The Ringbanger
17	01×17	Sometimes You Hear the Bullet
18	01×18	Dear Dad, Again
19	01×19	The Long-John Flap
20	01×20	The Army-Navy Game
21	01×21	Sticky Wicket
22	01×22	Major Fred C. Dobbs
23	01×23	Ceasefire
24	01×24	Showtime

Favorite Episodes

These are the top five episodes of the season that I believe contribute something important to the series as a whole. The episodes are listed in the order in which they aired.

• “Chief Surgeon Who?” (01×04) – From the first episode, Frank is set up as a rival for Hawkeye and Trapper, but I believe that this is the first episode where we see a justified reason for Frank’s animosity. He believed that, being superior in rank, he was entitled to the “chief surgeon” role. But when Henry appoints Hawkeye, that sets off a firestorm. Did Frank deserve the title based on qualifications? No. Would regulations at the time dictate that Frank be chief surgery? Most likely. So he definitely had a gripe. Hawkeye would be chief surgeon for the rest of the series, and Frank would remain Hawkeye’s chief foil until he left the series at the end of season five.
• “Dear Dad” (01×12) – A lot of M*A*S*H episodes use the “Dear…” plot device to frame episodes, and I believe it is a successful plot device. This is the first time it was used (and it was used again this season with “Dear Dad, Again” (01×18)). It is a very well written episode. It balances comedy and drama, and by episode 12, it feels like M*A*S*H found its footing for the most part. I believe “Dear Dad” is a pivotal episode for that reason. Looking back to the pilot episode, it begins with Hawkeye writing to his dad. I believe this episode could have been used as the pilot episode, and the audience would have gotten a good introduction to each character.
• “Tuttle” (01×15) – There isn’t a lot to say about “Tuttle” that hasn’t already been said. It is a fan favorite, and I actually forgot that it is in season one because it feels more like a season two episode. The clever writing and the great one-liners make it one of the best M*A*S*H episodes from the early seasons.
• “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet” (01×17) – I know it is cliché, but this is a pivotal episode of M*A*S*H. “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet” is the first time M*A*S*H showed a death on screen, and it was a character that we, had just met, and we liked quickly because of his friendship with Hawkeye. The network censors were very sensitive about blood and death on television in M*A*S*H‘s first season, so getting this episode on the air so early in the show’s run enabled M*A*S*H to push other envelopes. I would argue that without “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet,” there would have been no “Abyssinia, Henry” (03×24).
• “The Army-Navy Game” (01×20) – I don’t know how to describe why, but this episode feels like the perfect early episode. It has an appropriate amount of drama and tension, and the comedy in the episode feels real. The doctors are faced with an unexploded bomb in the compound, and the use of comedy to relieve the tension is a very human reaction. That cuts straight to the point of M*A*S*H showing genuine human reaction in different situations. Plus, for the bomb to go off and be filled with propaganda leaflets is just a great way to end the episode!

Least Favorite Episodes

Liking or disliking an episode is subjective, so I have tried to be fair in my criticism of why certain episodes are not my favorites. The episodes are listed in the order in which they aired.

• “To Market, To Market” (01×02) – There are some memorable lines in this episode, but the overall premise has bothered me. How did Henry get the desk shipped to Korea? A big, heavy desk would not have been appropriate in a “Mobile” medical unit. Then the scene with the helicopter hanging from the helicopter…it’s a lot to take in for Henry, and it is still a lot for me to accept today!
• “Edwina” (01×13) – There has been a lot said and written about “Edwina,” and I have a full review of the script with my thoughts. After rewatching the episode, I do think there was a way the writers could have redeemed this episode. If it had been written initially that Hawkeye had always struck out when he asked Edwina on a date. Then, after finding out she is leaving in two weeks, she finally agrees to a date with him. He gets everything ready for the big night, but Hawkeye gets more than he bargains for when Edwina turns out to be a klutz. Edwina was treated so poorly in this episode that her having any illusion of a choice in the matter would have helped!
• “Major Fred C. Dobbs” (01×22) – Every time I watch this episode, I always question where Hawkeye and Trapper got all of the gold paint? Also, where did they find the time to paint everything gold?! The beginning of the show starts out fairly well with Hawkeye and Trapper going too far and forcing Frank and Margaret to request transfers. Henry’s response by making Hawkeye and Trapper cover for both Frank and Margaret until their replacements are found is justified. It’s just the ending that doesn’t pay off. They convince Frank to stay by convincing him there is gold, and that convinces Margaret to stay too? I don’t buy it!

Continuity Errors/Mistakes

There are minor issues in every episode that have been well documented, so I am choosing to focus on ones that really stand out to me.

• “The Pilot” (01×01) – When Hawkeye and Trapper hear General Hammond call Margaret “Hot Lips,” they act like it is the first time they’ve heard the nickname. But Hawkeye called her “Hot Lips” a few scenes before!
• “Requiem for a Lightweight” (01×03) – After Lt. Cutler returns to the 4077th, Trapper is talking to her in the Swamp with his black eye, and there is a voiceover with Trapper’s line, but his mouth does not move!
• “Chief Surgeon Who?” (01×04) – In the O.R., when Hawkeye is going from patient to patient to help the other doctors, he never changes his gloves, so he is cross-contaminating patients.
• “Yankee Doodle Doctor” (01×06) – If Hawkeye and Trapper exposed all of the film, where did the get the opening film of General Clayton? Did they have him refilm his opening speech?
• “Cowboy” (01×08) – Why does Cowboy still have his firearms in post op? We later see how the wounded’s weapons are stored in “The Gun” (04×13).
• “I Hate a Mystery” (01×10) – There are two here that really stand out to me. Frank calls Margaret “Major Houlihand” instead of Houlihan. Hawkeye says it is 1951, but when it is 1951, 1952, or 1953 is never really clear in M*A*S*H!
• “Germ Warfare” (01×11) – The fact that Hawkeye and Trapper send Frank’s urine sample to Seoul in a non-sterile bucket always bothers me. Can they really trust those test results?
• “Dear Dad” (01×12), Ceasefire (01×23) – Hawkeye says he is from Vermont.
• “Tuttle” (01×15) – Where is the PA announcer? The PA system is in Radar’s office, but we hear PA announcements while in the office. This is a mistake that continues throughout the series.
• “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet” (01×17) – Hawkeye and Trapper drink before surgery. In fact, Trapper FINISHES his drink before heading to triage. A huge deal is made about this in “Fallen Idol” (06×02).
• “The Army-Navy Game” (01×20) – After talking to the Navy, they tell Henry that they will call him back. How did they know where to call him back? The admiral clearly thought he was on a ship!
• “Sticky Wicket” (01×21), “Showtime” (01×24) – Henry’s wife is named “Mildred” in season one, but in seasons two and three, she is named “Lorraine.”

Season 1 Wrap-Up

As I rewatched season one of M*A*S*H over the last month, my initial opinion of the seasons started to change. It was probably a bad idea to come into a rewatch with a preconceived opinion, but I did. I honestly didn’t remember the first season being the best. While there are some rocky episodes, I was quickly proven wrong. There are some very well written, and series defining episodes in this season. That makes sense since the first season sets the tone for the series. That’s no easy task, but some episodes made it look very easy. It has been quite a while since I have watched M*A*S*H from start to finish, but I still watch modern shows. I quickly realized that I had to adjust my mindset because M*A*S*H is not serialized like modern shows. You can pretty much select any episode to watch, and all problems are resolved by the end of the episode. That was television in the M*A*S*H era, but that has changed drastically today. I have to admit that it was nice that every episode didn’t begin with “previously on…” to catch the viewer up on what had happened so far in the season.

As I watched, I noted some things that we saw in season one that we did not see as the show continued. Since the tone of the show was changing so quickly in the early episodes, this is one of the few seasons that I could easily tell which episodes were shot out of sequence. Other things in season one that we don’t see later that I noted include: Hawkeye’s hat in early episodes, Henry’s clothing taking a few episodes to get settled, little/no blood in the O.R., Radar smoking and drinking, characters smoking in the Mess Tent, plates in the Mess Tent instead of trays, Mulcahy’s nickname “Red,” Radar having a fiancé that we never hear about again (“Love Story” (01×14)), and Henry’s 3rd child that he anxiously awaits the birth of in “Showtime” (01×24). On the topic of “Showtime,” I know it is not a fan favorite, but there was one aspect of it that I really enjoyed. Frank’s pranks on Hawkeye are really fun to see, and it’s too bad we only saw that side of Frank this one time. There were also characters that we only see in season one such as Lt. Cutler and Ginger, but a few of the seasons one only characters stuck around longer than I remembered. Oliver “Spearchucker” Jones appeared in six episodes. Ho-Jon, despite raising the money to go to college in the United States in the pilot episode, is in seven episodes. And Ugly John is in nine episodes! Ugly John even makes an appearance as late as “Ceasefire” (01×23).

Rewatching the first season of M*A*S*H this past month brought back so many memories of watching the series as a kid and having rewatches in college. It was refreshing to watch the show with fairly fresh eyes since I haven’t seen it in so long. Yes, I know the show by heart, but that enables me to watch for little things in the background that I would only notice because this is the 42nd time I’ve seen a certain episode! When I planned to rewatch and write these posts each month, it seemed liked a daunting task. Now, I look forward to watching an episode or two of the show each evening. Season one taught me that I need to curb my expectations because it exceeded my expectations. M*A*S*H season two is my favorite season, though, so now I wonder if that will still be the case after my rewatch next month?