"Yankee Doodle Doctor" is an episode of the television series ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. T ...

''. It was the sixth episode broadcast and aired on October 22, 1972, and it was rerun April 8, 1973. It was written by Laurence Marks and directed by

Lee Philips Lee Philips (born Leon Friedman; January 10, 1927 – March 3, 1999) was an American actor, film director and television director. Life and career Philips was born in New York. His acting career started on Broadway, and peaked with a starring ...

. Guest cast is

Ed Flanders Edward Paul Flanders (December 29, 1934 – February 22, 1995) was an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. Donald Westphall in the medical drama series ''St. Elsewhere'' (1982–1988). Flanders was nominated for eight Primetime Emm ...

as Lt. Bricker,

Bert Kramer Bert Kramer (October 10, 1934 – June 20, 2001) was an American actor, who was born in San Diego. He appeared in many different television shows including '' Kojak'', '' The Bionic Woman'', ''The Rockford Files'', '' Dallas'', '' Dynasty'', ...

as Sgt. Martin, Tom Sparks as Corpsman,

Marcia Strassman Marcia Ann Strassman (April 28, 1948 – October 24, 2014) was an American actress and singer. She played Nurse Margie Cutler on ''M*A*S*H'', Julie Kotter on '' Welcome Back, Kotter'', and Diane Szalinski in the film ''Honey, I Shrunk the Ki ...

as Nurse Margie Cutler and Herb Voland as Brig. Gen. Crandell Clayton.

Overview

Lieutenant Bricker is making a documentary about

Mobile Army Surgical Hospital Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals were U.S. Army field hospital units conceptualized in 1946 as replacements for the World War II-era Auxiliary Surgical Group hospital units, which had become obsolete. MASH Units were in operation from the Korean ...

(MASH) units and General Clayton recommends the 4077th. However, when Hawkeye and Trapper discover the "documentary" is little more than Army propaganda, they destroy it and make their own version. Bricker wants one of the doctors to "star" in his documentary and

Hawkeye Pierce This is a list of characters from the ''M*A*S*H'' franchise, covering the various fictional characters appearing in the novel '' MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors'' and its sequels, the 1970 film adaptation of the novel, and the televisio ...

agrees when faced with the possibility that the role could go to Frank Burns. The documentary is nothing more than turgid propaganda. In the night, Pierce and McIntyre destroy the film by exposing it to light. They persuade Blake to let them make their own film and turn it into a comedy, casting Hawkeye as a

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...

-type doctor, Trapper as a

Harpo Marx Arthur "Harpo" Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and harpist, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Grou ...

-esque surgeon, and Radar as their hapless patient. The final scene is a somber monologue by Hawkeye about the grim realities of war, delivered at the bedside of a patient in the post-op ward. Blake is mortified and Clayton is unimpressed at first, while the rest of the crowd loves the film. Afterward, Clayton tells Blake to destroy it but save one copy for him, so that he can have something to laugh at once the war is over, and he will also use the final scene in his own documentary.

Themes and reception

This is one of the first episodes of ''M*A*S*H'' to deal strongly with

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to p ...

themes. In April 1973, this episode was cited by ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' as an example of "irony at its most abrasive".Wittebols, p. 37 This is the first episode Frank Burns shares a tent with Trapper and Pierce, an unexplained replacement for Spearchucker Jones.

References

External links

* {{M*A*S*H episodes 1972 American television episodes M*A*S*H (season 1) episodes Cultural depictions of the Marx Brothers