Hawk's Nightmare

Episode aired Dec 21, 1976
TV-PG
25m

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

618

YOUR RATING

Comedy Drama War

Hawkeye starts sleepwalking and having horrific nightmares. He begins to think that he may be starting to lose his "war against the war."Hawkeye starts sleepwalking and having horrific nightmares. He begins to think that he may be starting to lose his "war against the war."Hawkeye starts sleepwalking and having horrific nightmares. He begins to think that he may be starting to lose his "war against the war."

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

618

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos2

User reviews4

7.6618

Featured reviews

7billey-1

I think this episode is one of the better...

The rating for this episode seems a bit to low from my point of wiew. I must say just love the episodes with Sidney in... The humble anti-war stuff gives me a feeling of hope for humanity. When Alan Alda/Hawkeye Pierce lets go of all his giggle-making antics and changes over to seriousness the entire series of M*A*S*H turns into it's absolutely best - a critical wiewpoint on life as it is and war as it has to be. Or, has it? Sidney, I feel, is the perfect condensator for Hawkeye's and the other characters feeling of disbelieve in the idea of war. Thus, they - as being doctors and not soldiers - have their out-of-battle wiew of the Korean war , he -as their shrink - has a wiew even further out, as a wiewer of their inner thoughts.

8Hitchcoc

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

After an extensive period in surgery, Hawkeye goes to bed. Soon, he rises and goes out the door. He is sleepwalking, thinking he is playing basketball. This becomes chronic as once again, the next night, he is playing marbles and acting like a child. He is also having horrific nightmares where his childhood friends are meeting tragic ends. It turns out they are fine and he tries to figure out what is going on. This is another chance for my favorite character, Sidney Freedman, to come in and check things out. There is so much written about what sleep does for the human species, especially sleep deprivation. Hawkeye is fighting a battle against his own demons and the physiological consequences of no sleep. This is a really interesting episode. There will be a couple more in the future where Hawkeye must deal with the subconscious.

8safenoe

A game changing episode of MAS*H

This episode was screened just days before Christmas 1976. No yuletide cheer, but rather the realities of war, that presaged Hawkeye's infamous breakdown in Goodbye, Farewell and Amen. It's hard to imagine this episode being run with Blake and Trapper John.

Trivia
Hawkeye: "How long can you live without sleep?" BJ: "Two weeks but you gotta keep dancing." That was a reference to the 1920s and 1930s dance marathon craze; one 27-year-old man died after dancing for 87 consecutive hours (3.6 days) in 1923.

Goofs
Major Frank Burns mentions to Hawkeye that he had a Popeye night-light when he was a boy. Burns would have been a young boy in the early 1920s, and Popeye was not created until 1929.

Burns did not say "young boy," he said "little." Since his exact age is never mentioned, one could gauge his age by the actor's real age. Larry Linville was 37 during filming. The war occurred approximately 1951-53. That would make Burns' date of birth approximately 1914-16. Since Burns came from money, he would most likely have gotten new toys when they came out. That would have made him, at most, 15 (still little). And since Frank was pampered as a child and constantly exhibits signs of stunted growth, having a child's night light and still considering himself "little" at age 13-15 would not be out of character or anachronistic. Correction: Actually, Frank did NOT come from money. That's why he was so anxious when his wife threatened divorce. He married her for her money and everything was in her name.

Quotes
Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger: [watching Hawkeye and Sidney play basketball without a basketball] Is it any wonder I can't get a section 8? In this outfit, you wanna be crazy you gotta stand in line.