Plot: Col. Potter writes home about his new assignment. Frank and Hot Lips commission a bust of Potter for his anniversary. Radar rescues a wounded horse, then gives it to Potter.
Note that the horse is described as being male.
I find it hard to believe that the Chinese or North Koreans would have abandoned a horse with such a minor injury.
The scene where the horse is kicking through the walls ranks with Klinger's hang glider for rotten special effects.
Wonder what Potter did with that bust?
Just how did Margaret and Frank know that Col. Potter's anniversary was coming up?
One thing that's not brought up--using human medications on a horse is very dangerous. Some human tranquilizers, for example, have the exact opposite effect on a horse.
At one point, Potter is writing in his tent, having just gone to Rosie's to pick up some cans of beer (he had them in a basket). He mentions having seen Frank and Margaret there. In between statements that he minds his own business, etc, he comments that he has seen Frank with lipstick smudges, Margaret with whisker burns on her face, and once Frank came into O.R. with teeth marks on his neck (but he could have just been playing with the camp dog.) As he reiterates that he doesn't pry into other peoples' business, he lifts the flap on the side of his tent to peek outside.
At the beginning, they showed Radar whistling cheerfully as he laid out pieces of paper, stapled them, folded them, and then tucked the folded paper under a desk leg to level it out. Why would he need to staple the papers?
B.J. must have been very anxious to get some mail. He rode up to the helipad without bothering to get dressed. He's lucky that he didn't flash the audience as he leaped out of the Jeep wearing only his robe.
I almost forgot--they had a flashback sequence, when Pottor was writing about Father Mulcahy. Everyone was watching a movie Western, when the film broke. While Klinger was splicing it, Father Mulcahy and a nurse got up to sing a duet that they had been practicing for a charity talent show. The refrain (and possibly the title) was "All dressed up and no place to go." They showed the audience smiling, rather than looking bored or exasperated.
Judging by how Frank and Margaret try to kiss up to Colonel Potter, and how in his letter to his wife, Mildred, Colonel Potter still feels like an outsider to the unit, and how nervous Radar feels around the Colonel, this episode probably takes place just after "Change of Command". It's certainly an early in the season ep.
There's a scene missing where Radar asks Frank to take a picture of the Corporal for the camp's yearbook. Frank, for the second time in the series, states "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." He sure was fond of that phrase. The edit ends with a brief scene of Radar wanting to talk to Hawkeye while the Captain is propositioning a nurse.
The rotors to the chopper that brought mail to the 4077th should stopped rotating quickly. By the time, B.J., Hawkeye and Radar arrive at the chopper pad, the blades have stopped moving. Normally in the series, the blades are still spinning.
Two different horses are clearly used during the scene where B.J., Hawkeye and Radar try to lasso it. As B.J. gets ready to lasso the horse, there’s an insert shot of the horse. Its nose is pink and the white stripe is broader than it is on the horse Radar approaches. Also, one horse has a white right foreleg. On the other horse, only hindlegs are white.
How long has Radar kept that horse in behind the motor pool? When Colonel Potter inspects the horse, we’re given a view of the side on which the horse was wounded. Yet, no wound can be seen.
The horse Potter rides in the tag is not the same horse Radar gave him. It has a wider stripe on its muzzle, a pink nose and white forelegs.
Horse hockey!
Two notes (not nit-picks, however) about Father Mulcahy's duet:
1. The song is indeed called "All Dressed Up And No Place To Go", but a Googling of the lyrics reveals only this rendition. It is therefore most likely that the song was created specifically for that episode, rather than a performance of an existing song.
2. More interesting: The nurse with whom Fr. Mulcahy sings is none other than the wife of William Christopher, Barbara. In this episode, her name is "Nurse O'Connor" -- inside joke, seeing that "O'Connor" is Barbara's maiden name. Sweet of the producers to allow such a beautiful irrelevancy.
I've just looked up the song on All Music Guide. There was an old Artie Shaw number called "All Dressed Up and No Place to Go" back in the Thirties. My guess is that they are the same song.
"Horse hockey!"
Very true! Especially since he has a rendition of "My Blue Heaven". It seems that no one knows the lyrics, however!
The lyrics I've found for "My Blue Heaven" tend to credit the song to Sinatra or Rudy Vallee. It's possible that Artie Shaw's version was an instrumental only or just not a hit version.
"Horse hockey!"
Risking redundancy, I have to note something else from this very scene (having just now reviewed the episode).
When the Christophers get up to sing, Bill, apparently unaware of what he's doing, puts his hand on Barbara's shoulder. She kind of glances and him, but he realizes on his own a second later, and quickly drops his arm as if it had never happened. He then looks slightly uneasy for the next few bars, but it's nothing that would ruin the song. The whole thing is almost imperceptible, but it's hard to mistake the rapidity with which he removes his hand from sight.