Review of "Henry, Please Come Home," episode 9 of season 1 of M*A*S*H television series

Review of

Henry, Please Come Home, episode 9 of season 1 of M*A*S*H television series

Four out of five stars

 Henry Blake can be decisive when motivated

 Like all new television shows, it took a few rounds of episodes until M*A*S*H managed to hit its stride. This episode is not quite halfway through the first season and seasoned viewers of the show will note that there are still some rough edges.

 Due to the high level of success of the 4077, Henry Blake is given a commendation and promoted to a position in Tokyo, leaving Frank Burns in charge. Always one to throw his weight around when he can, Frank tries to make the atmosphere more military and advances his command and control. He of course alienates the people under his command.

 Desperate to get out from under Frank Burns, Hawkeye and Trapper concoct a scheme to convince Henry to come back and retake command. They succeed and things quickly get back to “normal” at the 4077.

 One interesting feature of these early episodes was the character of Spearchucker Jones, a black doctor. The character disappeared shortly after this episode in an attempt to maintain what was thought to be the historical fact that there were no black doctors in the Korean War. That was in fact not the case, so the character was removed without justification.