SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 23:01 Min.
During its second season, CBS-TV placed AfterMASH on an extended hiatus in December 1984. At the time, this short-lived MASH sequel was faring poorly in the ratings against NBC’s The A-Team. Held over until May 31, 1985, “Saturday’s Heroes” would be AfterMASH’s last aired episode in the United States. MASH producer/writer/director Burt Metcalfe helmed “Saturday’s Heroes” off a script from staff writers Ken Levine & David Isaacs.
Evidently set in 1954, at River Bend, Missouri, Max Klinger (Farr) is still evading jail time by hiding out in General Pershing Veterans Hospital’s (aka General General) psychiatric ward. Due to multiple incidents of patient misconduct, hospital administrator Wally Wainwright (Goetz) abruptly suspends all of the ward’s off-site passes. Defying the prickly Wainwright, Klinger sneaks out to visit his wife, Soon-Lee (Chao), and their still-unnamed infant son.
Excited to reunite with them for a few days, an amorous Klinger is even more anxious to further expand his family with Soon-Lee. For the time being, Soon-Lee is residing with the Potters (Morgan & Pitoniak) as a surrogate daughter-in-law.
Leaving the Klingers at home (so both couples have some marital privacy), Col. Potter & Mildred’s vacation is then scuttled by an unwanted passenger (Kemp) and car trouble. Elsewhere, a resentful Dr. Boyer (Ackroyd) and Wainwright unexpectedly bond while boozing together in the hospital’s recovery room/bar.
Returning home, the Potters and Alma attend the Klinger baby’s christening by Father Mulcahy (Christopher). The same applies to various uninvited guests, who attend the naming of Klinger and Soon-Lee’s son.
Col. Sherman T. Potter: Harry Morgan
Sgt. Maxwell Klinger: Jamie Farr
Father Francis Mulcahy: William Christopher
Soon-Lee Klinger: Rosalind Chao
Mildred Potter: Anne Pitoniak
Wally Wainwright: Peter Michael Goetz
Alma Cox: Brandis Kemp
Dr. Mark Boyer: David Ackroyd
Dr. Lenore Dudziak: Wendy Girard
Nurse Stella: Leslie Bevis
Mrs. Poulous: Kathleen Freeman
Bartender: Wally Dalton
Hundley: Paul Wilson
Patient: John Achorn
Boempke: Armin Shimerman
Psychiatric Ward Extras: Uncredited
Hospital Security Guards: Uncredited
Hospital Extras: Uncredited
Bar Extras: Uncredited.
Notes: Chao and Shimerman later co-starred on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. A second leftover AfterMASH episode, “Wet Feet,” evidently aired at some point in 1984-85 overseas.
REVIEW:
Unmistakably, this episode confirms AfterMASH’s dubious reputation in television history forty years ago. The combined talents of four reliable MASH stars (Morgan, Farr, Christopher, & Chao), along with Burt Metcalfe’s backstage expertise, sadly prove no match for the utter dreck entitled “Saturday’s Heroes.” Glaringly absent is the savvy quality control that Alan Alda and others had infused MASH with. As seen in this installment, some of the subject matter is in unintentionally poor taste.
Case in point: the bland sitcom treatment of the show’s psychiatric ward veterans does nothing to boost AfterMASH’s credibility. The same applies to Klinger’s desperate get-out-of-jail-free angle. Suffice to say, what was once hilarious on MASH re: Klinger’s wacky efforts to escape the Army isn’t remotely funny in this rehashed context.
For that matter, a supposedly humorous scene where names of various baseball legends are pitched (pardon the expression) for Klinger & Soon-Lee’s baby name reeks of eye-rolling mediocrity. And simply the less said the better as to the last scene revealing where the Klingers have finally found some romantic peace and quiet.
Given a meager script generating far too few chuckles, it is no wonder that Harry Morgan, Jamie Farr, and William Christopher phone in their performances. Along with Chao, they are left to coast by on charm. Long before he became Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s ‘Quark,’ Armin Shimerman’s bit part scores the episode’s one decent laugh.
For just cause, CBS-TV officially gave AfterMASH a mercy cancellation following“Saturday’s Heroes.” In that sense, this episode’s cringe-worthy scripting conjures up only the worst kind of mid-80’s TV nostalgia. Unlike other notorious TV losers of this era (i.e. Manimal), AfterMASH, at least, sported a potentially good premise and a solid main cast. A third vital necessity: a rich source for mining the sitcom’s topical humor, unsurprisingly, became a far iffier prospect.
Still, had there been an inspired backstage team (in spite of hiring several MASH alums), first-rate stories and a better sense of devising its new characters should have been attainable. AfterMASH, with such effort, might well have been a modest precursor for what Frasier accomplished after Cheers.
All wishful thinking aside, this production inexplicably squandered its decent resources in only thirty-one episodes. Exploring post-war repercussions in the mid-1950’s is an intriguing TV series notion, but how AfterMASH does it makes no sense.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 2½ Stars
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