M*A*S*H (TV Series) Requiem for a Lightweight (1972) User Reviews

Fine Trapper Episode

[dominik-81717 · 7/10 · 13 September 2023]

It's a good Trapper episode about him training for a boxing fight, which they need to win, in order for Nurse Cuttler to be allowed to return to camp.

There's no particularly great moments that stuck with me, but there also wasn't anything bad, and Henry is funny as always.

It's quite clear however that the show has not found its groove yet (but to be fair, I'd argue that doesn't happen until season 3).

This also marks the first appearance of William Christopher as Father Mulcahy, whose presence isn't really integral to the show yet, but I still wanted to mention it anyways, as he will be important later on and I needed to hit the minimum word count.

They'd Die for Those Nurses

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 20 February 2015]

As the heavies at the MASH unit, Margaret and Frank send a nurse packing as a distraction to the doctors. As the episode opens, she is interrupted as she runs from a shower and Hawkeye ends up with her towel. She is really quite attractive (Marcia Strassman who would have made a great regular on the show) and that's enough. Hawkeye and Trapper work a deal where she will be sent back if they win a boxing match against another MASH unit. Trapper is the chosen one because he has a basic knowledge of boxing. The hope is that by putting ether on his gloves (big time cheating), the opponent will start to doze off. Of course, Frank and Margaret get wind of it an substitute water for the ether; hence, Trapper gets his clock cleaned. All is not lost, however, as a nurse is certainly worth getting yourself killed. I'm sure there is a little political incorrectness here. Three episodes and two of them about a pretty nurse being used as a bargaining chip.

Boxed in

[safenoe · 7/10 · 7 March 2024]

I think I can say I've seen every M*A*S*H episode at least once, and this first season episode Requiem for a Lightweight, sees Trapper John entering the boxing ring to save one of the nurses, Maggie Cutler, played by Marcia Strassman, who became a big star in Welcome Back, Kotter. Requiem for a Lightweight also starred Sorrell Booke, who later became a big star in The Dukes of Hazzard (the TV series, not the movie directed by Indian-American Jay Chandrasekhar) and I didn't know he could speak so many languages and that he served in the Korean War. Anyway, it's hard to believe M*A*S*H debuted over 50 years ago.

The one where Trapper steps into the ring

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 4 March 2023]

The title is a pun on the Rod Serling drama 'Requiem for a Heavyweight' which was about a boxer. There's a lot of sexual innuendo in this episode, and some of the comments that Hawkeye and Trapper make about an attractive nurse's anatomy would probably not get left in a script today. A scene at the beginning has Hawkeye suggest the nurse kiss him during surgery, which would certainly be construed as sexual harassment today.

The nurse, Margie Cutler, is played by Marcia Strassman before she got her big TV break on Welcome Back Kotter. This is the first of six episodes in which she appears as this character on M*A*S*H and in this initial installment, it is interesting to see how Margaret who's in charge of nursing personnel, is bothered by Margie. Despite similarity in names, Margaret does not feel close to the new nurse and is eager to transfer her away from the 4077th, presumably so Hawkeye and Trapper cannot continue to ogle her. Though I suspect Margaret may have been jealous!

The episode is helmed by Hy Averback who would direct a total of twenty episodes of the series as well as provide the voice for the loudspeaker announcements. Averback seems to allow the actors to overlap each other with some of their dialogue, especially the amusing scene in which Henry is on the phone with a brigadier general (Sorrell Booke) and Radar is trying to get him to sign some blank pieces of paper.

Getting back to the title, there is to be an inter-camp boxing tournament between the general's unit and the 4077th. Trapper agrees to fight, with Hawkeye serving as his manager, if Henry will help override the transfer Margaret put in, so that nurse Margie can stay. Not sure if these leaders would want good surgeons to risk getting their hands damaged in the ring, but I guess we can overlook that.

There's some gay humor with Hawkeye telling Trapper he has a cute body and how some of the other guys sneak peaks at him, including the married guys. Wayne Rogers is in pretty good shape as 'Kid Doctor,' despite a line of dialogue where Trapper tells Hawkeye the opposite.

Trivia bits...We learn Henry has a brother who's a prison warden. Also, Trapper's weight is said to be 175 pounds. This is the first episode in which William Christopher appears as Father Mulcahy, hosting the fight.