Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Trapper John, M.D.

I was watching some Battle of the Network Stars reruns on ESPN Classic the other night, and the CBS team featured several members of the Trapper John, M.D. cast. I was 11 when that show debuted Sept. 23, 1979, and it seems like I watched it pretty much every time it was on the air--at least for the first several seasons. Trapper got the One Day at a Time-Alice-Jeffersons lead-in, and I watched all of those CBS shows. Only ABC from 7 to 7:30 Central, with Mork & Mindy vs. CBS's Archie Bunker's Place, got me off of CBS during prime-time Sunday nights in fall 1979.

So, anyway, here's the pilot. I'll put stuff in the comments as I watch. But I'll go ahead and say thank you to all the people who take the time to post stuff on YouTube--I really appreciate your effort and its product.



54 comments:

  1. Jack Gilford is the first named guest star in this episode. My mom and I met Jack Gilford in the elevator of the Arlington, Ill., Hilton--probably right around 1979.

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  2. It appears to me, per Hoptown's Kentucky New Era, that this Trapper pilot actually aired in the spring of 1979.

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  3. This woman, Mary McCarty, who played Trapper's head nurse, "Starch," is going to die after the first season of the show. She had a heck of a career.

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  4. OK, here we go ... the minister's a crook, marriage is a sham, rules are meaningless, ...

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  5. OK, so Trapper John McIntyre is now head of surgery at a hospital in San Francisco, ... wait, here's Gregory Harrison in a shower singing "Amazing Grace" ... hey, he's pretty good ...

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  6. This script sounds like it might've been written by Dick Schaap.

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  7. G. Alonzo Gates ... "Gonzo," for short.

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  8. "DAMN IT, GATES, THIS IS SERIOUS! ... YOU BE IN MY OFFICE IN 20 MINUTES! WE'VE GOT A LOT OF TALKING TO DO! ..."

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  9. OK, to recap the first 15 minutes, "Trapper" John McIntyre--a former Korean War MASH-unit surgeon--is 30 years later chief of surgery at a San Francisco hospital. A San Francisco hotel has exploded, and the emergency room is a madhouse.

    Trapper has a sassy nurse, "Starch."

    The head of ER is a stuffed-shirt son of the head of the hospital's board of directors. He's a competent surgeon, but he's more concerned with his golf game than the patients--and he moves a TV preacher, Rev. Barnaby Something (played by Roddy McDowell), ahead of some patients with significantly more serious injuries. This guy's name is Dr. Stanley Riverside.

    There's Nurse "Ripples," who is trying to get the doctors to take her seriously.

    And Gonzo is, basically, hot Hawkeye. He was a MASH surgeon in Vietnam, and, after driving around the country in an RV that he won in a poker game, he decided to apply at the San Francisco hospital because of Trapper, whose famous in MASH lore. He is not yet on staff and jumped in during the crisis to illegally perform a couple of (successful, of course) surgeries.

    So, the rub here is that Trapper has to decide whether to hire talented Gonzo despite his lack of respect for procedure and authority. "He acts like you did when you were his age," Starch chides Trapper.

    The explosion of a San Francisco high-rise hotel has gotten surprisingly little play in the first 15 minutes of this 9 p.m. Central drama.

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    1. This recap, which is excellent, reminds me of how stunned I was a few years after this when shows like "SCTV" and "Late Night with David Letterman" actually started doing things that were surprising. If you watched the first five minutes of almost any network show that aired during the 1970's -- and you had any experience with TV at all -- you could pretty much see where everything was going.

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  10. There's my main man, Jack Gilford!

    I don't think he's going to make it.

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  11. When I was 11, I thought Gonzo's life--living in the parking lot of the hospital, in his RV--looked really, really cool ... and yet not quite as cool as B.J. McKay's. Actually, I still pretty much feel this same way.

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    1. What was the deal with chimpanzees and TV back in the 1970's? The executives back then seem to have believed that almost any concept would be better if you added a chimpanzee.

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  12. Whoa ... the pilot of B.J. and the Bear is also up on YouTube!

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  13. What the heck is the deal with Jack Gilford's character? Oh, of course, he hates his kids and grandkids.

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  14. Wait ... is Jack Gilford already dead in this show?

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  15. Here's Jack Gilford's daughter. She seems nice enough.

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  16. Jack Gilford apparently is so disturbed by his daughter and son-in-law that he almost died.

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  17. OK, Dr. Riverside, whose nickname among the staff is "The Serpent," is trying to get Trapper fired. Lots of nicknames in this show: Trapper, Starch, Gonzo, Ripples, The Serpent, ...

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  18. Here's Trapper's ex-wife, played by terrific Jessica Walter. She's getting remarried next week--to her boss. This scene is pretty gripping.

    John Prine's "All the Best" is just a fantastic song.

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  19. Pernell Roberts and Jessica Walter ... pretty steamy.

    "Something tells me this is a very shaky divorce," says Gonzo.

    That's the best line of the show so far.

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  20. Oh, here we go ... we need a blood donor for Jack Gilford, and only Rev. Roddy McDowell's blood qualifies ... of course, he doesn't want to do it ...

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  21. All right, now Gonzo and another doctor, nicknamed "Jackpot," are tricking the minister into thinking he's hearing the voice of God tell him to donate the blood.

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  22. OK, Jack Gilford has gotten the transfusion, and he's recovering well. He wants to move away from his daughter's house and into a retirement home.

    "And do me a favor. Don't bring the kids--they drive me crazy."

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  23. Trapper's ex-wife has decided to call off her wedding.

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  24. And Rev. Roddy McDowell is flying to the Vatican to tell the Pope about his visitation.

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  25. Well, OK, that's it ... we end the episode with Trapper and Gonzo sharing wine, finger sandwiches and sardonic laughter on the roof of the RV in the hospital parking lot.

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  26. On the other hand, I am thrilled to learn that Gregory Harrison went on to marry Randi Oakes of CHiPs, a former girlfriend of Joe Namath's. Per her Wikipedia page, Gregory Harrison and Randi Oakes met during competition for a 1979 episode of Battle of the Network Stars!

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  27. A couple of other things from those Kentucky New Era editions ...

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  28. Replies
    1. I will watch that game, and suffer the first of many big disappointments between November 1979 and March 1996.

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  29. Replies
    1. From 1977 to 1979, Heath went 26-5. I'm pretty sure they went 26-2 against teams not called the Mayfield Cardinals. They were playing a 2-A schedule at a time when Kentucky only had four classes. Personally, I always thought those were the best teams Heath ever had.

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    2. Actually, I should give special credit to the 1975 team, which was the only Heath team ever to beat Mayfield. And of course Heath won the state championship in 1986. But those teams were in Class A, not Class 2-A. And Mayfield was really loaded in the late 1970's.

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    3. By the way, in 42 seasons of varsity football, Heath went 257-209-1. Here are the records by coach:

      Jack Haskins (1971-84): 105-40-1
      Rodney Bushong (1985-95): 92-46
      Mike Archer (1996-97): 1-20
      Robert Dew (1998-2000): 10-23
      Vernon Edwards (2001-07): 37-38
      Cory Tilford (2008-10): 6-26
      John Adams (2011-12): 6-16

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    4. From 1977 to 1979, Mayfield went 35-3 and won two state championships.

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    5. Coach Edwards did an amazing job.

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    6. Also, to back up your point, I will say that the adults in the early 1980s who had been around and really watched all of those teams talked about the 1979 team with a particular combination of awe and melancholy. There was a lot of talk about the Wright brothers or cousins ... something--Greg and Duane, I think--being the best individual players to come through the team to that point.

      Now I do think that all changed with the state championship and Jamie Jones in 1986.

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