Ten Favorite MASH Episodes: April Fools (#8)

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We survived Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and now Cyber Monday! Hooray! No internets were broken! To celebrate, I’ll highlight another favorite episode from the classic TV series M*A*S*H. Here’s today’s selection. #8: April Fools A brilliantly funny episode, harkening back to the early days of the series (where it was more comedy than drama/political commentary/Alan Alda and his guest stars), “April Fools” is pretty much what the title implies: the camp staff goes on an April Fools joke binge, incurring the wrath of visiting Inspector General officer Colonel Daniel Webster Tucker (a superb performance by Pat Hingle). As military, GI, and no-nonsense as they come, Tucker shows up just as the denizens of The Swamp have stolen Margaret’s tent (“We pitched it,” Hawkeye says, trumped by BJ’s quip, “We gave it to a dog, now it’s a pup tent”). Tucker isn’t impressed with their hijinks and decides he’s going to put them on report for a laundry list of charges, which will lead to their courts-martial. (Great moment: when Charles says they’ll be shipped to Leavenworth, then realizes “that’s in Kansas.” ) As they have nothing to lose, the doctors and nurse pull an “ultimate” April Fools trick on Colonel Tucker...who has a heart attack. But, as it turns out, he is the king of the April Fools: Tucker and Potter, old friends, set up a prank hoping the staff would fall for it. And they did. It’s a great, strictly-for-laughs episode, which was something I found sorely missing in latter years of the series. April Fools Written by Dennis Koenig Directed by Charles S. Dubin Season 8, episode 25 The beer’s on you!