Trapper John, M.D.

Episode Guide

Season Six (1984-85)

111. A CHANGE OF HEART

The heart of a brain-dead hockey player could save a twelve-year-old boy who needs a transplant, but the lawyer for the man who injured the player in a game gets an injunction saying that Gonzo cannot pronouce him legally dead.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: Barry H. Pollack
Guest Stars: Jason Presson, Hunter von Leer, Jack Andreozzi, Lincoln Kilpatrick

112. MY SON THE DOCTOR (04/28/85)

When a prank at his medical school graduation ceremony gets Trapper's son thrown out of his internship at a Boston hospital, Trapper somewhat reluctantly gets him a place in the SFM internship programme. This episode introduces Timothy Busfield as J.T. McIntyre.

Director: Leo Penn
Writers: Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Carl Ballantine, Eric Christmas, Jessica Walter

113. BUCKAROO BOB RIDES AGAIN

Buckaroo Bob, a fifties cowboy who is still playing the role, needs heart surgery, but he loses the will to recover when he learns that he will have to hang up his spurs. Trapper's love life suffers when he ends up with Gonzo and Stanley as room mates.

Director: Robert Sweeney
Writer: Kimmer Ringwald
Guest Stars: Noah Beery, Janet MacLachlan, Sandra Kearns, Ray Walston, Marcia Rodd

114. SCHOOL NURSE

When Shoop's best friend, a teacher at a local high school, is attacked by a student, Ernie takes a job as the school nurse to try and identify the assailant. Back at the hospital, Stanley gets more than he bargained for when he hires a man to paint his office.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: Pamela Douglas
Guest Stars: J.A. Preston, Willard E. Pugh, Forest Whitaker, James Martinez, Fran Bennett, Rosalind Cash

115. ETERNALLY YOURS

A mortician with an ulcer challenges family tradition with the support of a new friend, while Gonzo fears he has become a jinx after reading his fortune cookie.

Director: Earl Bellamy
Writers: Holly Durham, Greg Thorneycroft
Guest Stars: Calvin Jung, R.G. Armstrong, Priscilla Lopez, Keye Luke

116. OF CATS, CRASHES, AND CREEPS

When a cash-strapped ambulance driver is involved in an accident, he allows a lawyer to bring a suit against the innocent driver of the other vehicle. Stanley helps a dying lady find homes for her family of cats.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: Robert Malcolm Young
Guest Stars: Oliver Clark, Greg Monaghan, Michael Laskin, Toni Kalem, Mary Wickes

117. PROMISES, PROMISES

A small town puts one of their own through med school so that they will have a doctor, and feel betrayed when he gets a better offer.

Director: Earl Bellamy
Teleplay: John Whelpley
Story: Clyde Phillips, John Whelpley
Guest Stars: Bert Remsen, Edie McClurg, Bettye Ackerman, Sandy Ward, Dennis Christopher

118. A FALL TO GRACE

Guillain-Barré Syndrome leaves Trapper totally paralysed for an unknown length of time, causing him to re-evaluate some of the decisions he has made in his life, and resign as Chief of Surgery at SFM.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: Kimmer Ringwald
Guest Stars: Barbara Barrie, Jessica Walter

119. DARK SIDE OF THE LOON

During a full moon the hospital gets a bunch of odd cases - including a hungry vampire.

Director: Gregory Harrison
Writer: John Whelpley
Stars: Marc McLure, William Marquez, Richard Schaal, Marcia Rodd

120. DOUBLE BUBBLE

A six-year-old orphan needs bone marrow from a relative to stay alive. A woman who is unable to stop laughing has Gloria doing some research.

Director: Michael Caffey
Teleplay: Nancy Bond, Jon Breakfield
Story: Jon Breakfield
Guest Stars: Nancy Bond, Lillian Lehman, Martin E. Brooks, Albert Salmi, Lukas Haas

121. LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY

A nurse who worked in Vietnam during the war is having flashbacks which put her current patients at risk. This episode is dedicated to the nurses who served in Vietnam.

Director: Earl Bellamy
Writers: Emilie R. Small, Garn Stephens
Guest Star: Frances Lee McCain

122. MUDDLE OF THE KNIGHT

A 46-year-old woman discovers she is pregnant, and has to decide if she should have the baby. Trapper turns fund-raiser when he is challenged to find the money for the laser centre he is demanding for the hospital.

Director: Lorraine S. Ferrara
Writer: Nancy Bond
Guest Stars: Pat Hingle, Jonathan Goldsmith, Gene Ross, Edie Adams

123. LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

Gloria receives an eviction notice, is hurt in a car accident and has an apartment fire. It seems like nothing is going right - until she falls in love with her landlord.

Director: Charles Siebert
Writer: John Whelpley
Guest Stars: Michael Halsey, Tanya Fenmore

124. HIGH TIME

Gloria knows that something is wrong with Andrea, but it is not until her daughter's best friend dies of an overdose that she is forced to realize that the 12-year-old is experimenting with drugs. J.T.'s kind heart gets him into trouble when he meets up with a con artist.

Director: Earl Bellamy
Writers: Kimmer Ringwald, Holly Durham, Greg Thorneycroft, Nancy Bond
Guest Stars:Tanya Fenmore, Katie O'Neill, Mark Everett, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Kate Murtagh

125. SO LITTLE, GONE

A 38-year-old "flower child" who is unable to accept the death of her newborn son kidnaps Little Stanley, and leaves Stan and E.J. blaming each other while Gonzo and J.T. play detective.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: Kimmer Ringwald
Guest Stars: Ronee Blakley, James A. Watson, Jr., Dennis Cole, Marcia Rodd

126. BAD BREAKS

A young child brought to the hospital with a broken leg turns out to have had several previous fractures, causing the doctors to suspect that he has been abused. Stanley tries to withdraw his deposit to a sperm bank after he finds out that E.J. is opposed to them.

Director: Walter Grauman
Teleplay: Barry H. Pollack, John Whelpley
Story: Barry H. Pollack
Guest Stars: Lance Kerwin, Lynnette Mettey, Freddye Chapman, Stuart Pankin, Karlene Crockett, Marcia Rodd

127. THE UNHOLY GHOST

While Trapper hunts for the notes of a brilliant surgeon who died of a heart attack while performing a new procedure he developed, J.T. is convinced that the ghost of the doctor is haunting him.

Director: Leo Penn
Writers: Robert Malcolm Young, Nancy Bond
Guest Stars: Sheree North, Tony Barr, Richard Schaal, Kathleen Lloyd

128. A FALSE START

When top athletes from a nearby university are admitted to SFM with a variety of health problems, Jackpot and Trapper suspect they are using steroids. Two ornithologists fall off a cliff while fighting each other to view a rare bird, and Trapper's cousin "Honest Wayne" checks in, convinced by a dream that he is dying.

Director: Gregory Harrison
Writers: Debra Gilliland, Robert Sonntag
Guest Stars: Jesse Vint, Renee Jones, Tom Simcox, Walter Brooke, Robert Morse, Bob & Ray

129. IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER (03/24/85)

The parents of a boy who died after a car crash sue the hospital. The story of what happened when the boy was brought in is then told from the point of view of the father, Trapper, J.T. and another patient.

Director: Arthur Allan Seidelman
Writer: Barry H. Pollack
Guest Stars: Richard Alfieri, Joanna Barnes, Marta Kristen, Allan Rich, William Wintersole

130. ALL THE KING'S HORSES... (03/31/85)

Trapper induces a coma in a little girl who was under icey water for fifteen minutes, hoping to save the child's life, but her uncle attacks him for not "allowing nature to take it's course" and letting her die.

Director: Charles Siebert
Writers: Gene O'Neill, Noreen Tobin
Guest Stars: Tony Roberts, Pamela Dunlap, Miguel Ferrer, Gwen Verdon

131. GO FOR BROKER

The fiancee of a doctor refuses to marry him after she finds out that she is not completely healthy. Stanley catches J.T. and Gloria taking old hospital supplies.

Director: Gregory Harrison
Writer: Carl Sautter

132. ALL OF ME (05/05/85)

An old friend of Trapper's is admitted for ulcers, and introduces everyone to his new wife. The problem is, as J.T. soon learns, that the woman is also the wife of another patient.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: Nancy Bond
Guest Stars: Dick O'Neill, Paul Sand, Joan Sweeny

Episode Guide copyright

1998 by Karen Millard.