u/J_Scarbrough

Who remembers the time George Costanza tangled with a mob of biddies who chased him on their motor scooters?

Well, the ring leader of that biddy mob was Everett Greenbaum. If the name seems familiar, it should; he became a character actor much later in his career, but back in the golden age of television, he was one of the most prolific sitcoms writers along with his writing partner Jim Fritzell, both of whom wrote extensively for M*A*S*H from Seasons 3-6. They were were among Andy Griffith and Don Knotts's personal favorite ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW writers.

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Hawkeye was often highly regarded for his surgical skills and the compassion he extended to many of his patients - it seemed to keep him out of trouble a lot of the time, despite of how unmilitary, undisciplined, and uncouth he was. He also had his flaws, as all people do, and sometimes he would have to be called out for such, a lot of which, according to others, stemmed from his ego: whether it was Henry noting he was taking the condition of a patient who wasn't improving too personally, or Margaret pointing out he couldn't handle being out-operated (pun intended) by a woman.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this, because characters need flaws to give them depth and to help drive their plots and storylines: a flawless person may make for an admirable individial in real life, but a rather boring character in fiction. However, there was one flaw of Hawkeye's that I feel wasn't really addressed, and that was his occasional hypocrisy.

One very specific example I can think of is "The Consultant." Hawkeye is upset at Borelli for being drunk when he was needed for a very important surgery, and even after the surgery itself when he retires to the Swamp for a drink himself, he even goes so far as to mock Borelli for his condition. Here's the thing though: Hawkeye himself was often drunk - just earlier that same season, we had an entire episode dedicated to Frank outlawing all consumption of alcohol in camp because some of the personnel (namely Hawkeye and Trapper) were clearly alcoholics. Hawkeye spent much of his off-duty hours downing one martini after another, and had even occasionally been blotto or even hungover before going in for surgery - so what right did he have to be upset at Borelli for being drunk and unfit to operate? It'd be like if Frank, of all people, got upset over another surgeon being so incompetent that he botches a surgery and nearly kills a patient as a result.

These are the episodes that I love the most; I never tire of revisiting them, and they're always a pleasure to revisit whenever I get the chance. Of course, these are just my personal opinions, so you don't have to agree with any of them if you don't want to, because M*A*S*H has so many great episodes, there's something for everyone.

Either way, these are my personal Top 10 M*A*S*H episodes:

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We know that during the filming of GFA, Malibu Creek State Park endured a brush fire that destroyed pretty much all of the exterior 4077th compound set, and as such, the fire had to be worked into the script.

However, if you pay close attention, there are a few scenes that took place before the fire in the episode that were actually filmed after the fire. There are a few signs to look for: trees in the immediate surrounding of the compound is covered in jarringly fake-looking green leaves while trees along the mountains are either completely bare or have some brown leaves on them; tents look like they were just thrown together in a hurry (with the exception of the Swamp); the main hospital building already has brown burn marks that look like they attempted to clean off.

Perhaps the most obvious and noteworthy example of such is the scene in which Hawkeye drives the tank out of the compound and into the garbage dump because, as some fans have pointed out, it's an entirely different tank than the one that was driven into camp and left where it was.

Every once in a blue moon, one of the Heroes would be absent from an episode, and whenever that happened, another entirely random one-shot character would be written in their absence. Case in point: LeBeau is absent from "Go Light on the Heavy Water," and in his place is a POW named Scotty, who apparently was Hogan's "petty theft man" (but isn't that Newkirk?) Just the same, Carter is absent from "War Takes a Holiday," so instead, we had Father Mulcahy, I mean yet another random POW named Thomas.

The only time I can think of this not being the case was when it was Kinch who was absent from an episode.

I can't think of too many other shows that did this - at least, not specifically for just one character in just one episode (although, I do remember when the original Gladys Kravitz, Alice Pearce, passed away, they temporarily brought in Mary Grace Canfield as Abner's sister to be the one who witnesses and freaks out over Samantha's magical mishaps on BEWITCHED until Gladys was recast the following season). Even in those two episodes, I feel like they could have gotten by without having to substitute either LeBeau or Carter altogether; neither Scotty nor Thomulachy seemed particularly vital to those episodes' plots anyway. Even so, there's tons of episodes where all of the Heroes are present, yet not all of them even contribute anything significant to the plot, other than just simply being there (something that Robert Clary claims was often the case with him and Ivan Dixon).

I'm fairly certain I've seen every episode of Season 6 at least once, but I for the life of me cannot remember a single point in that season when it was revealed that Baker's first name is Richard, yet it's common knowledge with this show. If that's really Baker's first name, when was that ever said?

Come to think of it, I've watched the pilot several times, and similarly, it's common knowledge that Vladimir's full name is Vladimir Minsk, yet that was never mentioned or stated in the episode, just Vladimir.

Where does any of this information come from?

(On a related note, Richard Dawson once said that Peter was originally intended to be Carter's first name, but Larry Hovis hated that name, so it became Newkirk's instead).

Wouldn't it be awesome if this were an actual commercially-available Lego set? This is amazing! Certainly more tasteful than that other Lego HH video on YouTube.

Although HOGAN'S HEROES was one of those shows that didn't have a proper finale (mainly because it was canceled before another season could filmed), it seems to me that the last two episodes of the series (chronologically that is; "Look at the Pretty Snowflakes" was the last one to be filmed) actually work as reasonable facsimilies of a finale, because they both break away from the traditional formula of the show. Both "Hogan's Double Life" and "Rockets and Romance" split up our main heroes; in the former, Hogan is finally in the crosshairs of the Gestapo after an agent identifies him as an Underground member who blew up a bridge, putting him in hot water and having to figure how to save his own neck; in the latter, while Hogan has to leave camp to carry out one part of a mission with Lily Frankel, the rest of the boys are left behind in camp to figure out how to accomplish another part of the mission on their own, without his guidance. As I say, with both episodes breaking away from the traditional HH formula of all of the Heroes being in it together, either one of these episodes feel like they do work for an improper finale for the series - even if they weren't the last ones to be filmed, it feels fitting that the network saved them to be aired last.

M*A*S*H and HOGAN'S HEROES shared a number of familiar faces, see if you can recognize and name any of them.

The final round:

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For context, the last bunny I owned I had adopted from an owner who was rather neglectful and hardly had anything to do with her - they had a menagerie of pets, and were trying to downsize, hence why the bunny was put up for adoption. She was already about a year old when I adopted her, but she and her hutch were kept down in a dark basement, and just about the only human interaction she had was when her owner's mother would go down everyday to feed her and freshen her water, and that was it (the girl who owned her apparently saw a snake in the basement, freaked out, and refused to go back down).

Needless to say, the bunny, whose name was Tommie (because they thought she was a boy, but when we took her to a vet, they confirmed she was a girl, so we just changed the spelling of her name), was very standoffish around people - including myself. I did everything I could try to bond with her, show her love and affection, but she always rebuffed and repulsed me.

Or, so I thought.

Sometimes when I would try to bond with her - petting her, cuddling with her, brushing her, and the like - she would make noises akin to a little pig grunting. At the time, bunny behavior resources cited this was a sign of annoyance and agitation . . . but now, I see bunny behavior resources claim just the opposite: that the "oinking" noise they make is actually them expressing their love and appreciation for their human. So, did my persistence actually pay off in the end, and I just didn't know it? Granted, she only seemed to tolerate human interaction for a short while before she's start thumping her hind feet wanting to be left alone, but was her "oinking" trying to tell me she actually didn't hate me after all? It seems like a lot of bunny care guides say the opposite of what they said in years past.

I've been partaking in my annual tradition of binging M*A*S*H and HOGAN'S HEROES from beginning to end all summer long - something I've been doing for years.

One thing I will say about both shows is they definitely got better with age in terms of how the seasons progressed, but whereas I was instantly hooked on M*A*S*H when I first started watching it, I had a harder time getting into HOGAN'S HEROES, and for a time really couldn't - but, I stuck with it, and it did eventually grow on me. Again, like M*A*S*H, HOGAN'S HEROES definitely got better with age.

After binging this year, I think I've finally hit on why I had trouble getting into HH at first - and not just because it was such a silly show in the beginning. Looking at the first couple of seasons, especially the very first, I find that with the exception of Hogan, Klink, and Schultz, none of the Heroes are really defined. Sure, they have their specialities that we see from the beginning (LeBeau being the chef, Newkirk being the conman, Kinch being the radioman, Carter making bombs and such), but that seems to be all there was to their respective characters - they were just there to do their part in helping Hogan with his plans, but that's about it . . . if anything, Season 1 feels more like Abbott and Costello routines between Hogan and Klink and/or Schultz, with the Heroes being more of an afterthought most of the time.

And it seems to me, looking at it now, the two who suffered from this the most were Newkirk and Carter. Aside from their default positions as Hogan's conman and bombmaker, they both were almost completely devoid of any personality; Newkirk certainly wasn't the quickwitted snarker we come to know and love in later seasons, nor was Carter the goofball he became (or even arugably Flanderized as). They in particular were so flat and generic that they feel like totally different characters in the beginning - and not exactly in a good way. (Not to mention, Richard Dawson really went overboard with Newkirk's cockney accent in the beginning, that it's almost cringey to listen to).

Granted, as with most shows, it clearly took a while for HH to jell and settle into what it became, and like I say, I feel like the show definitely improved with each season as the writers got a better handle on the not only the characters, but also finding a better balance between Hogan pulling the wool over Klink and Schultz's eyes, and Hogan scheming with his men, while the Heroes themselves became far more refined. A lot of casual viewers seem to point out that if you were to watch a random episode of HH from any season, you wouldn't discern a difference, but I feel like that really isn't the case: watching a Season 1 (or even a Season 2) episode is actually quite a contrast from, say, a Season 5 or 6 episode.

That's just my opinion anyway, but I'm glad that I continued to give the show a chance and let it grow on me, because it is a good one. Admittedly, if you were ask me to choose between the two, I would go with M*A*S*H, as it did have more to offer and it did truly grow and evolve overtime in terms of character development and storytelling style (something that wasn't common in the 60s when HOGAN'S HEROES was part of the television landscape), but HOGAN'S HEROES does still rank up there (pun intended).

M*A*S*H and HOGAN'S HEROES shared a number of familiar faces, see if you can recognize and name any of them.

Round 11:

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You may have heard of Elvis impersonators, well I'm a Radar O'Reilly impersonator, and I occasionally look for new ways to add to the effect as it were, and recently I decided to look into trying to find Radar's messenger bag for when he would deliver letters to other personnel during mail call, but I'm not having the best of luck.

It would appear there were two different bags he used interchangably.

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One of these bags appears to be brown and features a flap with what appears to be either button or snap closures and diagonally cut corners, and a fitted shoulder strap. The other looks like a simpler OD7 tote bag of sorts with an adjustable webbed shoulder strap, and no sort of closure that I can tell.

Needless to say, the brown one looks slightly more GI than the OD one, but I don't even know if either of these are actually military issued messenger bags, or they may have been civilian bags; I'm not finding anything - original or reproduction - that resembles either of these bags exactly (some close enough for jazz though).

Does anybody recognize and/or could possibly identify exactly what one or either of these bags might be in terms of actual wartime messenger bags, or is it possible they were just civilian bags procured by the prop department?