Plot A: The 4077th receives a large shipment of record albums, and Radar plays disc jockey to help everyone get through a long deluge of patients.
Plot B: AB negative blood is needed for a patient, and the search goes out for a bomb specialist on R & R.
Plot C: Bed space is at a premium, and Charles must search for a place to sleep.

When Potter describes his love affair with Doris Day, watch the roll of toilet paper behind BJ. It shift positions depending on the shot.

Am I the only one who wondered whyg Charles and Klinger didn't ante up when it came to the blood shortage? Was there not one storyline where both were AB- type?

Not to mention Father Mulcahy. All three supposedly had AB negative, although Klinger once had B positive. Perhaps in the uncut version there's a line to the effect that they had all donated recently? Then again, in an emergency, they could have hooked them up with plasma or something and allowed them to donate anyway.

Nope, nothing in the DVD episode mentions Charles, Klinger, or Father Mulcahy's blood type.

Hey! An episode with Radar in it this season!

Hard to believe that Charles has the only record player in camp. In the past we've seen that Margaret has had one, there's been one in the Swamp that Pierce and Hunnicutt (and McIntyre) have used. What happened to those players?

When informed that there's no room for all the wounded, Potter says they'll move the help. He starts to name tents that will be used for the wounded. One thing that caught my attention - the Colonel said, "...Post-Ops 2, 3, and 4." The camp had four Post-Ops? I've only known of the one Post-Op. How come we never saw the other three?

When Radar's announcing the next record he'll play ("Wish - Wish You. I can't read it 'cos the record's spinning."), he doesn't have a hand on the microphone. Shouldn't he be pushing the button of the mike in order to talk into it?

There's a scene in the Mess Tent where Klinger goes from patient to patient distributing thermometers. He puts one thermometer in each patient's mouth. Who read the thermometer? Who was timing how long they were in the patient's mouth? (Thermometers are left in the mouth for only so long in order to get a temperature reading.)

Then again, in an emergency, they could have hooked them up with plasma or something and allowed them to donate anyway. - D.K. Henderson

Actually, there's a line of dialogue in the Swamp (where Harker, the patient, was kept), in which it's noted that after they had filtered his own blood back to him they were going to start him back on plasma.

Was Radar ever on the phone looking for AB negative blood? About the only time we see him in this ep is when he's playing a record. We only see him take one call concerning the AB negative. Beyond that...

Interesting how it seems that all of the records Radar played were instrumentals. Not all jazz recordings are instrumentals. Many have vocals. You'd think at least one of the records Walter played would have singing on it.

The position of the arms of Sgt. Gribble, the bomb disposer and blood donor, changes between shots when sits down in the Swamp during the tag to this ep.

Did no one tell Gribble that he donated blood? When he entered the Swamp, he was talking about how he dismantled a bomb for the 4077^th.

"Gentlemen, please. Mozart."

By the way, if a patient is AB-, then he can accept *ANY* Rh- blood.

"AB" is commonly called "universal receiver", though the Rh factor is important.
"O" is known as the universal donor (trust me, the Red Cross can't get enough of my blood), and can give to anyone. The Red Cross really, REALLY loves O- types, because they can give to absolutely ANYONE!

CUT SCENE:

Radar: Hmm...hey, I wonder what would happen if I played a record with singing on it...

(Anthony Fremont appears in Radar's office.)

Anthony (points at Radar): You're a bad man...a very bad man.

(Radar turns into a jack-in-the-box.)

Charles: That little monster is here? No wonder this war never seems to end!

Potter (to Anthony): Think it into the minefield, son.

Anthony (nods): More wounded are on the way.

Potter: There are always wounded...they'll never stop coming...never...but (smiles at Anthony) that's a good thing...a real good thing.

Upon arrival of Sgt Gribble, who is drunk yet has the blood type in need, Potter comments that he's seen successful transfusions with blood that is 20% alcohol. Could a person actually be alive with 20% BAC? Isn't the BAC limit for driving 0.08%?

Could a person actually be alive with 20% BAC?

I doubt that, too.

Isn't the BAC limit for driving 0.08%?

But that is the safety level, not the one where you survive. Heavy drinkers (in other words, they have "training") are sometimes found with 3.5%, which would be lethal to a normal person. Also the acutal bloodlevel depends on several factors besides the amount of alcohol inbibed.

I guess Potter was trying to make a joke to lighten the atmophere. Although I'm no doctor, I'm sure that blood without alcohol would benefit the patient more, but blood with alcohol is better than none at all.

Normally, .08 would mean 8%. But a blood alcohol level of .08 means eight-hundredths of one percent. If Potter said 20% alcohol that would be 20.00, 250 times that. Assuming he meant ".20" (twenty-hundredths of one percent), Wikipedia calls that "very serious intoxication," but not fatal.

RE: AB- blood donors. Maybe Fr. Mulchahy could maybe donate a pint but Klinger and certainly Charles could not if they had already had.

In "Life Time" Charles give a pint to the aorta patient that Hawk is operating on and passes out before long, even tho' he is hooked up to plasma. And even tho' Kilnger is not operating they need every able body during the crisis.

Also when BJ is playing "Name That Tune" with Hawk in the OR Charles is over Hawk's left shoulder and is not operating but just staring while the scene is played out.

O + and O - are the two blood types considered universal donors.AB - is the rarest blood type.
So why didn't Colonel Potter simply have everyone with type O line up and give blood?Aside from the fact it would shorten the episode.

Uhh...we may be forgetting something. This is the 50s. While we know now exactly what blood types mix were we positive that it was 100% back then? I seem to remember having this discussion in high-school biology. At one point it was believed that feeding the 'wrong' blood type would be problematic. For example, someone AB+ can only accept AB- and AB+ blood. OB- would only be able to take B-....and AB- would only be able to take AB-. Now, of course, we know it doesn't work that way, but in the 50s? I'm not sure.

Not quite. Back then, I believe it was known that AB was "universal receiver" and O was "universal donor".

People had problems with blood transfusions before discovering blood types, but when they discovered A, B and O, they got also the idea of universal donor/receiver, as Scott pointed out.

When I learned about blood types in biology class (80s), we learned to give blood only in the same group, not about universal donors and receivers, because we talked about the antibodies. (Though if the serum and cells are seperated, more possibilites are available. But in the series, we only see full-blood transfusion - put a tube in the donor's arm and connect him to the receiver, done.) Crossing over groups like AB and O would work for small amounts, or in a pinch, but sticking to your own group is just safer.

BJ got the title of one of the songs Radar played wrong. He called it "Musical Clock". The correct title is "Syncopated Clock". It was written by Leroy Anderson, who also wrote "Sleigh Ride" and "The Typewriter". And, it was used for years as the title theme for our local CBS station's Late Show. This was in the days long before Letterman and Colbert.

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The Red Cross really, REALLY loves O- types, because they can give to absolutely ANYONE!

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