Trapper John, M.D.

Episode Guide

Season One (1979-80)

1. PILOT (09/23/79)

Twenty-eight years after the Korean War, former M*A*S*H surgeon "Trapper" John McIntyre, now Chief of Surgery at San Francisco Memorial Hospital, is faced with a younger copy of himself - Vietnam vet Dr. "Gonzo" Gates.

Director: Jackie Cooper
Writer: Don Brinkley
Guest Stars: Jack Gilford, Barbara Stuart, Jessica Walter, Roddy McDowell

2. LOVE IS A THREE-WAY STREET

A persistent swain of his ex-wife, Melanie, causes both professional and romantic turmoil for Trapper. Stanley is determined to get rid of the "Titanic".

Director: Marc Daniels.
Writer: Don Brinkley
Guest Stars: Monte Markham, Bill Adler, Jessica Walter

3. WHOSE LITTLE HERO ARE YOU?

Trapper and Stanley are able to save the life of a critically injured girl at an accident scene. Stanley is thrilled to take the credit, until the girl's father launches a law suit.

Director: Robert Douglas
Writers: Don Brinkley, Frank Glicksman
Guest Stars: Alan Feinstein, Katy Kurtzman

4. FLASHBACK

Trapper and Gonzo deal with a deranged Vietnam vet, while Stanley tries to save on taxes by incorporating himself.

Director: Murray Golden
Guest Stars: James Coco, David Huffman, Lonny Chapman, Jane Actman

5. THE SHATTERED IMAGE

A wealthy socialite injured in a car accident tries to cover up the fact that she has no real friends by sending herself flowers and gifts. Shelley Long plays an ex-con who lies on her application to get a job as a nurses aide.

Director: Corey Allen
Writer: Shimon Wincelberg
Guest Stars: Celeste Holm, Shelley Long, Patricia Smith

6. THE SURROGATE

An injured boy is torn between the mother he ran away from and the man he considers to be his father. A grateful sheik gives Gonzo a present he can't refuse - his daughter.

Director: Alex March
Writer: Don Brinkley
Guest Stars: Joan Hackett, Christopher Connelly, Kim Cattrall, Robbie Rist, Albert Paulsen

7. HAVE YOU HUGGED YOUR NURSE TODAY?

Gloria falls for a man in a wheelchair - who happens to already have a wife. Trapper resents Starch labelling him "predictable", and decides to do something about it.

Director: Ralph H. Levy
Writers: Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Steve Marachuk, Elizabeth Halliday, Barbara Cason

8. DEADLY EXPOSURE

When an employee from a local nuclear power plant is admitted to SFM with signs of radiation poisoning, Gonzo cannot understand why it appears that nothing is being done to protect other workers from exposure.

Director: Joe Pevney
Story: Jim Rogers
Teleplay: Don Brinkley, Jim Rogers
Guest Stars:Jayne Kennedy, Dee Wallace, Jack Kruschen, Carl Franklin, Paul Lambert, Joey Aresco

9. WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR?

A medic who once saved Gonzo's life in Vietnam now wants his friend's help in a fraudulent medical claim.

Director: Ralph Sensensky
Writer: Ray Brenner
Guest Stars: Richard Gilliland, Roxanne Gregory, Paul Lambert

10. ONE FOR MY BABY

A young widow with a stomach tumour leans heavily on her 14-year-old son, who has dealt with the pressure by becoming a closet alcoholic.

Director: Bernard McEveety
Writers: Charles Larson, Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Penny Fuller, Patrick Laborteaux, Mark Withers

11. TAXI IN THE RAIN

A local street person known as "Harry the Hinge" is admitted to SFM with kidney failure, and manages to convince to convince a wealthy hospital patron to keep the free clinic open.

Director: Barry Crane
Story: Shimon Wincelberg, Larry Arnstein, David Hurwitz
Teleplay: Shimon Wincelberg
Guest Stars: William Windom, Anita Gillette, Paul Lambert, Clifton James

12. LICENSED TO KILL

A group of radicals kidnaps Melanie, and gives Trapper an ultimatum: either he kills a policeman who has survived two earlier murder attempts, or they will kill his ex-wife. Simon Scott is introduced as Deputy Hospital Administrator Arnold Slocum in this episode.

Director: Bernard McEveety
Writers: Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Sheila Larkin, Kristoffer Tabori, Robert Davi, John Crawford, Simon Scott, Jessica Walter

13. BOOM!

There is a bomb somewhere in the hospital set to go off at midnight. The bomb squad can't find it, and the man who planted it is dying from bullet wounds. Can Trapper and Gonzo save his life in time to save San Francisco Memorial?

Director: Seymour Robbie
Writer: Don Brinkley
Guest Stars: Kathleen Lloyd, Robert Hooks, Simon Scott, Burr De Benning

14. WARNING--I MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

Stanley thinks he has finally found the love of his life in the hospital's excellent new neurosurgeon, until he learns how she made the money to get through medical school. A sleazy reporter looking for dirt around the hospital gets more than he bargained for.

Director: Alf Kjellin
Writers: Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Lloyd Bochner, Allen Goorwitz, Lynn Carlin, Simon Scott, Joanna Cassidy

15. MISSIONARY'S DOWNFALL

A former patient who recovered from terminal cancer using a holistic approach he devised has written a book and is looking for converts. He convinces a lupus patient to stop all medical treatment, and nearly allows her to die before accepting that she needs help he cannot give her.

Director: Joseph Pevney
Story: Ray Brenner
Teleplay: Don Brinkley
Guest Stars: Jesse Welles, David Spielberg, Simon Scott, Barry Miller

16. IT'S A WISE SURGEON

A young half-white Korean man comes to the hospital claiming to be Trapper's son, but when John accepts and tries to help him, he runs.

Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: Jack Guss
Guest Stars: Barrie Youngfellow, George Kee Cheung

17. IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT

At first Trapper is not concerned when an old friend starts to behave erratically, but Gonzo suspects that something is wrong, especially when the doctor freezes during an emergency.

Director: Murray Golden
Writers: Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Molly Picon, Ed Winter

18. 'TIL LIFE US DO PART

A man diagnosed with terminal cancer tries to come to terms with the fact that he only has months to live, then must deal with something almost equally disturbing: he has gone into remission while the new friend he has made continues to get worse.

Director: Bernard McEveety
Writer: Jack Guss
Guest Stars: Gary Lockwood, Lynne Marta, Marcia Rodd, Jayne Meadows

19. STRIKE!

A strike by the nurses at San Francisco Memorial is a threat to patient care and Gonzo's sex life.

Director: Alex March
Writer: Kenneth Berg
Guest Stars: John Randolph, Mimi Maynard, Simon Scott, Barbara Cason, David Opatoshu

20. SHORT ODDS

A new female surgeon at SFM suffers a crisis of confidence after she loses a young patient and has to deal with a cowboy who believes all women belong in the kitchen.

Director: Murray Golden
Writer: Jeff Stuart
Guest Stars: Trish Stewart, William Smith

21. QUARANTINE

When Melanie finds an abandoned baby in the department store she works for, she is ready to adopt him. However, she runs into a couple of problems - the baby has pneumonic plague, and a mother who wants him back.

Director: Seymour Robbie
Writers: Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Kaye Ballard, Phil Bruns, Simon Scott, James Staley, Imogene Coca, Jessica Walter

22. HOT LINE

The only hope for a girl going blind from a brain tumour is an alcoholic retired surgeon. Gonzo starts a telephone help line service at SFM.

Director: Barry Crane
Writer: J. B. Hall
Guest Stars: Paul Burke, Deborah Morgan-Weldon, Beverly Sanders, Jerry Orbach, Julie Adams

Episode Guide copyright

1998 by Karen Millard.