Trapper John, M.D.

Episode Guide

Season Seven (1985-86)

133. GAME OF HEARTS pt. I

Trapper is forced to consider transplanting an artificial heart into a man who is dying, when no donor heart can be found. Gonzo refuses to accept test results that show that his girlfriend has developed Multple Sclerosis.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: John Whelpley
Guest Stars: Hoyt Axton, Janis Paige, Lynn Carlin, Andrea Marcovicci, Pat Carroll

134. GAME OF HEARTS pt. II

Trapper performs a successful artificial heart transplant, but feels guilty that he ends up spending no time with his visiting sister. Gonzo and Fran begin to come to terms with her MS, and Fran decides that she will take a trip to Africa while she is still well enough.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: John Whelpley
Guest Stars: Hoyt Axton, Janis Paige, Lynn Carlin, Andrea Marcovicci, Pat Carroll

135. THE WUNDERKIND

A respected surgeon, and friend of Trapper, is accused of having been a Nazi responsible for 120,000 deaths during WWII.

Director: Leo Penn
Writer: Kimmer Ringwald
Guest Stars: Harold Gould, Suzanne Lederer, Wendy Brainard, Marianne McAndrew, Signe Hasso

136. HOT SHOT

Gonzo finds an excellent medic who runs an independent helicopter rescue service, and convinces the hospital to hire him. Trapper then discovers that the man is a former surgeon who was fired for malpractice.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writers: Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Beau Gravitte, Michael Pniewski, Nancy Lane, R.G. Armstrong

137. JUST AROUND THE CORONER

J.T. is working in pathology for a month, and comes across a case that looks like a surgical error. The surgeon was Trapper, who puts himself on suspension pending a review by the board then breaks his own rules when a woman requires emergency surgery.

Director: Leo Penn
Writer: Barry Howard Pollack
Guest Stars: Barbara Rhoades, Devon Ericson, Jonathan Goldsmith, Billy Drago, Dennis Burkley

138. A WHEEL IN A WHEEL

A nurse who was paralysed in an accident returns to work without letting anyone know she now uses a wheelchair. Jackpot considers becoming a professional musician.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writers: Gene O'Neill, Noreen Tobin
Guest Stars: Diana Canova, Danny Colby, Whitman Mayo, Louis Nye

139. FRIENDS AND LOVERS

Libby is thrilled to have an old love come back into her life, but devastated when she learns that he has AIDS. Trapper discovers that it is SFM policy to transfer all AIDS patients to another hospital, and decides to do something about it.

Director: Leo Penn
Writers: Carl Sautter, Debra Frank
Guest Stars: Terry Kiser, Robert Desiderio

140. THE SECOND BEST MAN

Melanie is about to marry a serious, practical politician, but begins to get gifts from a secret admirer. A teenaged gang member who is admitted to SFM after a fight claims that his name is Jesus Riverside, and he is Stanley's little brother.

Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: Kimmer Ringwald
Guest Stars: David Hedison, Richard Schaal, Israel Juarbe, Marcia Rodd, Jessica Walter

141. HEART AND SEOUL (01/28/86)

A Korean refugee needs a kidney transplant from his brother back home, and Trapper is sent to Korea to set it up. At the Seoul hospital he meets a woman he fell in love with 30 years earlier, and wanted to bring back with him.

Director: Charles Siebert
Teleplay: Jon Breakfield, Robert C. Thompson, Nancy Bond
Story: Jon Breakfield, Robert C. Thompson
Guest Stars: Irene Tsu, Clyde Kusatsu, Phil Bruns, Donovan Scott

142. BILLBOARD BARNEY (12/29/85)

When a boy is poisoned by toxic waste, his father climbs a billboard belonging to the company that dumped it, and refuses to come down. Gonzo and Fran get engaged, and run into a few adjustment problems.

Director: Howard Morris
Teleplay: Robert Malcolm Young, Kimmer Ringwald
Story: Robert Malcolm Young
Guest Stars: Rebecca Balding, Carl Steven, Dana Elcar, Andrea Marcovicci, Max Gail

143. GOING, GOING, GONZO

Following a stroke, Gonzo is forced to re-evaluate his future as a surgeon. Gregory Harrison's final episode.

Director: Victor Lobl
Writer: John Whelpley
Guest Stars: Byron Stewart, Jonathan Goldsmith, Andrea Marcovicci

144. LIFE, DEATH, AND DR. CHRISTMAS

Neurosurgeon and young father Jake Christmas is frightened and angry following his wife's sudden death in a car accident, and lashes out at Trapper and J.T.

Director: Howard Morris
Writer: Kimmer Ringwald
Guest Stars: Shecky Greene, Laurie O'Brien

145. RESEARCH AND DESTROY

Picketers surround SFM after the hospital hires a researcher who was once convicted of doing illegal research that caused unnecessary harm to animals. When the animal-rights people go too far, however, it is people who are at risk of harm.

Director: Michael Caffey
Teleplay: Kimmer Ringwald, Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Story: Nancy Bond, John Whelpley
Guest Stars: Gary Lockwood, Allan Rich, Carl Weintraub, Radha Delamarter, Cheryl-Ann Wilson, Phil Rubenstein, William Bogert

146. FALL OF THE WILD

J.T. finds a filthy, malnourished little boy living in a dumpster and brings him into the hospital for care. "John Doe" is violent and has little language. His mother, who arrives to claim him, is in a similar condition, but she loves her son. Should the boy be taken away for his own good?

Director: Victor Lobl
Teleplay: Kimmer Ringwald, Nancy Bond, John Whelpley
Story: Deborah Zoe Dawson, Victoria Johns
Guest Stars: Denise DuBarry, Jason Marin, Lisa Nelson, Zohra Lampert

147. JUDGEMENT DAY (03/04/86)

A friend of Jackpot's, dying of a lung disease, has gotten a court order to force the hospital to take her off the respirator that is keeping her alive. This is especially difficult for Jackpot, because his father is the judge that issued the order.

Director: Michael Caffey
Writer: John Whelpley
Guest Stars: Doran Clark, Stanley Brock, James McEachin, Marcia Rodd

148. THE ELUSIVE BUTTERFLY (09/04/86)

A famous rock singer who is diagnosed with melanoma comes under J.T.'s care, and turns out to be somewhat different than he expected. Jackpot wins a lottery, but loses the ticket.

Director: Charles Dubin
Writers: Gene O'Neill, Noreen Tobin
Guest Stars: Jean Sagal, Ron Palillo, Ann Doran, Geoff Edwards, Ray Abruzzo

149. SELF-DIAGNOSIS

An intern is afraid that she might have cancer, but even more afraid of checking into the hospital and losing her internship. Stanley finally tells off his father!

Director: Michael Caffey
Writers: Lawrence H. Levy, John Whelpley, Don Brinkley
Guest Stars: Lisa Nelson, Hedley Mattingly, Anne Wyndham, David Wayne

150. THE CURMUDGEON (03/18/86)

The crotchety old doctor who left Nurse Andrews at the alter 38 years previously comes under her care for rehabilitation following a heart attack, and Andrews learns that he never stopped loving her. Actress Sarah Cunningham (Andrews) died six days after this episode aired. John Randolph really was her husband.

Director: Douglas E. Wise
Writer: Kimmer Ringwald
Guest Stars: John Randolph, Sarah Cunningham, Barney Martin

151. STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

Stanley is impressed that Jesus has gotten a job as an orderly, and seems to be "going straight". But when the teen is admitted for stomach pains, it turns out that the cause is the drug-filled balloons he swallowed. J.T. is elected the intern representative to the hospital board, and discovers that there is more involved than free doughnuts.

Director: Charles Siebert
Writer: Barry H. Pollack
Guest Stars: Roxie Roker, Jesse D. Goins, Stewart Wilson-Turner, Israel Juarbe

Episode Guide copyright

1998 by Karen Millard.