A standard plot element in MASH was confronting the black market. In this episode, they have commandeered a load of medical supplies, including cortisone, which is critical to saving lives. Instead, a hundred year old oak desk arrives for Henry Blake. Hawkeye and Trapper take off to see a guy named Lee (Jack Soo) who literally runs the black market. He is willing to sell the stuff back to them for an exorbitant price and they end up offering Henry's desk in exchange. This leads to a hilarious effort to get the desk unto a truck at 4:00 a.m. Of course, Frank and Margaret get in the way and things aren't so easy. Jack Soo is hilarious as the marketeer, portraying a general at one point, and the clueless Henry has no idea what is going on, of course. The final scene is hilarious.
6 Reviews
One of the best of season one
dominik-8171712 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Most certainly one of the best season one episodes. Henry wanting to brag about his desk being made of oak while everybody already knows cracks me up. The scene with Frank and the watch-seller is quite funny as well. But the stand out scene for me is the one at the end in Henrys office. Frank being at an absolute loss for words at the sight of the entire back wall of Henrys office missing, while Henry is just concerned about his alcohol and his desk. That is probably the funniest scene of season one, and as I said, this is definitely a highlight of the season and an iconic episode. Even outside of season one (which yes, I do consider to be the worst season of the show), it's still an above average episode.
To Market, to Market
Prismark1012 May 2020
I would have thought making a television comedy of army life in a conflict zone could had been deemed inappropriate when the Vietnam war was still going on.
MASH quickly made the leap from an Oscar winning movie to a television show.
Luckily for me when the BBC broadcast it in Britain. They had taken out the laughter track and it worked much better. I think British audience only realised that this was a traditional comedy when an episode was broadcast with a laughter track by mistake.
The opening episode of the series see Hawkeye and Trapper John running low on Hydrocortisone. In fact they have none left and new supplies are hijacked by black marketeers.
They locate supplies but have to trade it for Colonel Blake's valuable oak desk.
There is a lot of knockabout comedy in this early episode as Hawkeye and Trapper John try to take the desk outside. It is black comedy and funny as Major Burns is hot on their heels.
MASH quickly made the leap from an Oscar winning movie to a television show.
Luckily for me when the BBC broadcast it in Britain. They had taken out the laughter track and it worked much better. I think British audience only realised that this was a traditional comedy when an episode was broadcast with a laughter track by mistake.
The opening episode of the series see Hawkeye and Trapper John running low on Hydrocortisone. In fact they have none left and new supplies are hijacked by black marketeers.
They locate supplies but have to trade it for Colonel Blake's valuable oak desk.
There is a lot of knockabout comedy in this early episode as Hawkeye and Trapper John try to take the desk outside. It is black comedy and funny as Major Burns is hot on their heels.
The one where a desk flies through the air
jarrodmcdonald-14 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
There are some genuinely absurd moments in this fun first season episode of the series. One wonders how Henry Blake ever made it through med school and rose to the rank of colonel, since his ineptitude and cluelessness is on full display in this story. The plot involves an antique oak desk of his that will be "traded" by Hawkeye and Trapper for much-needed supplies on the black market.
Jack Soo, two years before he started on Barney Miller, plays the black marketeer who strikes a deal with Hawkeye and Trapper for the desk. In early scenes the two doctors travel off the base into another area, filmed on the Fox backlot, where Soo's operations are located. Soo is a good comedian whose combination of deviousness and daftness helps him steal scenes opposite Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers and McLean Stevenson.
The funniest moments involve the quandary that Hawkeye and Trapper find themselves in when they get locked inside Henry's office thanks to Frank and Margaret, and must find a way out (by knocking down one of the walls). We then see them carrying the heavy desk around, trying to reach a truck driven by one of Soo's men (Robert Ito, who at age 41 looks like he's in his late 20s). The truck takes off without Hawkeye and Trapper, so the desk is airlifted by helicopter which creates a hilarious sight gag.
Radar doesn't have much to do, except to help make sure Frank doesn't get wise to everything or report the guys to Henry or the MP. Father Mulcahy is mentioned but not seen. And General Hammond is heard on the phone. For the most part, this is a light-hearted jab at army bureaucracy. The script was written by Burt Styler, the first of two episodes penned by him. He had scripted a Bob Hope movie in the 1960s, and there is a reference to Bob Hope in the dialogue of this episode.
Jack Soo, two years before he started on Barney Miller, plays the black marketeer who strikes a deal with Hawkeye and Trapper for the desk. In early scenes the two doctors travel off the base into another area, filmed on the Fox backlot, where Soo's operations are located. Soo is a good comedian whose combination of deviousness and daftness helps him steal scenes opposite Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers and McLean Stevenson.
The funniest moments involve the quandary that Hawkeye and Trapper find themselves in when they get locked inside Henry's office thanks to Frank and Margaret, and must find a way out (by knocking down one of the walls). We then see them carrying the heavy desk around, trying to reach a truck driven by one of Soo's men (Robert Ito, who at age 41 looks like he's in his late 20s). The truck takes off without Hawkeye and Trapper, so the desk is airlifted by helicopter which creates a hilarious sight gag.
Radar doesn't have much to do, except to help make sure Frank doesn't get wise to everything or report the guys to Henry or the MP. Father Mulcahy is mentioned but not seen. And General Hammond is heard on the phone. For the most part, this is a light-hearted jab at army bureaucracy. The script was written by Burt Styler, the first of two episodes penned by him. He had scripted a Bob Hope movie in the 1960s, and there is a reference to Bob Hope in the dialogue of this episode.
Drugs
bevo-1367827 October 2021
Henry's desk
safenoe7 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
I think I can say I've seen every M*A*S*H episode at least once, and this first season episode, To Market, to Market, sees Colonel Blake lose his 100 year old antique oak desk, and it's quite remarkable he managed to get it to the 4077th in the first place. Anyway, I'm gaining more of an appreciation of Henry Blake after listening to the M*A*S*H Matters podcast hosted by M*A*S*H uberfan Ryan Patrick and Jeff Maxwell, who is famous for his role as Igor in M*A*S*H. Anyway, To Market, to Market guest stars Jack Soo, who later gained fame in Barney Miller, and Robert Ito, who later gained fame in Quincy, M. E..
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