M*A*S*H "Dreams" Episode -- What if.....?

[Stanislav]

I was thinking about the famous M*A*S*H 8th season episode "Dreams," in which the nightmarish dreams of the then principal characters (Hawkeye, B.J., Potter, Klinger, Margaret, Charles, and Father Mulcahy) are surrealistically dramatized. I recall reading that the concept for the episode was something that Alan Alda had been wanting to do for several years. So......

What if.....some combination of the episode coming to fruition several seasons earlier and/or some members of the original cast sticking around a bit longer meant that instead of the dreams of Potter, Klinger, B.J., and Charles, we instead glimpsed the dreams of Henry, Radar, Trapper, and Frank? Given the sort of material used in the eventual episode, what would they have been like? Ideas?

I figure Radar's dream would have to have something to do with Iowa and his Mom. I dunno.....maybe he tries to plow his farm and it becomes a Korean minefield or something. Trapper was such an underdeveloped cipher as a character that it's hard to think of what sort of "hook" would have been used. Maybe something to do with his two young daughters, whom he mentions lovingly in a few episodes (and who represent just about the only glimpse into his feelings and personal life that we ever get).

For Henry, if McLean Stevenson had stayed on, what if the mechanism they used to write him out of the show were instead the subject matter of his dream? I.e., he gets his discharge and flies home, only to find himself on a plane that is about to crash. I can picture him waking up screaming in a cold sweat from that.

And the joke would probably be that Frank, out of all of them, slept peacefully like a baby. Psychopaths usually do.

 

[RicoGregg]

In Trapper's dream, I would invoke Adam's Rib, like Klinger's Tony Packo's, a real place in Chicago that was referred to on the show earlier. Perhaps Trap is there, ordering ribs & cole slaw, but looking for someone or something that isn't there.

For Frank, I would have him dreaming about something he always wanted on MASH, but couldn't have - male peer acceptance. He always wanted to be one of the guys, but didn't know how to get there.

I would re-do Margaret's dream. In the Dreams episode, she was shown in a wedding gown with a befuddled look on her face just before it's covered in blood. I figure that she had way too much independence to make marriage a high priority. Instead, I would give her a "flashback" back to her childhood, where her father, Howitzer Al Houlihan, informs a young, preteen Margaret that the family is moving again. This would be the third time in two years. Margaret then wakes up in a cold sweat with a cold-blooded scream. Come to think of it, maybe she WOULD make marriage a high priority after all...

 

[Stanislav]

In Trapper's dream, I would invoke Adam's Rib, like Klinger's Tony Packo's, a real place in Chicago that was referred to on the show earlier. Perhaps Trap is there, ordering ribs & cole slaw, but looking for someone or something that isn't there.

Except that in the "ribs" episode (a 3rd season classic), it was Hawkeye who had the experience of having visited Adam's Ribs, not Trapper. Trapper even thought Hawkeye was a little meshuggah about
the whole idea at first (although he went along with the plan happily when it became apparent that they might actually pull it off).

For Frank, I would have him dreaming about something he always wanted on MASH, but couldn't have - male peer acceptance. He always wanted to be one of the guys, but didn't know how to get there.

Actually, that's a pretty good concept. In the dream, he could be buddying around with Hawkeye and Trapper, who show him respect and enjoy his company. Then when he is awaken, it would be H & T who rouse him with the same old cutting insults (or a typically sadistic prank) just as always.

I would re-do Margaret's dream. In the Dreams episode, she was shown in a wedding gown with a befuddled look on her face just before it's covered in blood. I figure that she had way too much independence to make marriage a high priority. Instead, I would give her a "flashback" back to her childhood, where her father, Howitzer Al Houlihan, informs a young, preteen Margaret that the family is moving again. This would be the third time in two years. Margaret then wakes up in a cold sweat with a cold-blooded scream. Come to think of it, maybe she WOULD make marriage a high priority after all...

Despite the trauma that "Army brats" go through, I'm not sure such a memory would be sufficiently nightmarish. The wedding gown sequence works because if you follow the evolution of her character over the years, she indeed has a strong, independent streak, but at the same time is torn because she also yearns for the comfort and stability of a "normal" relationship with a man. There are many examples in earlier episodes of her covering her insecurity and vulnerability with bluster and bravado. And think of the "rabbit test" episode in which at the end she is clearly torn between relief and sadness when the test comes out negative.

 

[RicoGregg]

In Trapper's dream, I would invoke Adam's Rib, like Klinger's Tony Packo's, a real place in Chicago that was referred to on the show earlier. Perhaps Trap is there, ordering ribs & cole slaw, but looking for someone or something that isn't there.

Except that in the "ribs" episode (a 3rd season classic), it was Hawkeye who had the experience of having visited Adam's Ribs, not Trapper. Trapper even thought Hawkeye was a little meshuggah about
the whole idea at first (although he went along with the plan happily when it became apparent that they might actually pull it off).

Forgive me if this is nit-picky, but even though it was Hawkeye who went to Adam's Rib, it was Trapper who had a former girlfriend in Chicago to both pay for and pick up the ribs, so obviously he had been to the Windy City before. Just about anybody who did any kind of cross country traveling before 9/11 passed through either O'Hare or Midway airports at least once, if not more. Like Tony Packo's in Toledo, Adam's Rib in Chicago got tourists going there because of that one MASH episode.

I'm just glad that MASH never mentioned Canter's here in L.A. Oops! :-X