RIP Allen Arbus/Dr. Sydney Freedman - Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.

               Allan Arbus died this week at the age of 95. He was an excellent actor and known by most for his role on MASH as Major Sidney Freedman, an Army psychiatrist.

                I am a fan of MASH and would place it in any Top Ten list of best TV shows. Others disagree of course. My father, a Korean War veteran, hated the show. Just hated it. He insisted the Scooby Doo cartoons I watched were more realistic.

                On a whim I got on International Movie Data Base and looked at the episodes Allan Arbus was on. Twelve. Only twelve episodes. Hard to believe. I went down the list and looked at the episode descriptions. “Oh, I loved that one.” “That’s one of my favorites.” …and on and on.

                All twelve shows were excellent. Was it luck? Was Allan Arbus that great an actor that the shows in which he appeared rose above the others? Were the writers so inspired by the actor and character the shows were synergistically better than any others? I suspect it is a little of each.

                Here were his twelve episodes:

                Radar's Report, Season 2: Dr. Freedman goes to the 4077 to evaluate Klinger and to decide if he should be discharged. It includes the immortal line, “So, what’s your name, honey?” 

                Deal Me Out, Season 2: This is the legendary episode featuring a never-ending poker game. It features John Ritter as a shell shocked soldier, Pat Morita as Captain Pak, the character Whiplash Wang and the debut of Colonel Flagg. This is my favorite episode of MASH.

                O.R., Season 3: Another poker game interrupted by heavy casualties. This was the episode featuring Dr. Freedman’s famous line repeated on the series finale, "Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice."

                Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?, Season 4: another Top Ten individual episode. A wounded soldier thinks he’s Jesus Christ. It’s the episode in which we learn Radar’s first name and one of the few shows with no laugh track. And again Freedman clashes wits – so to speak – with Colonel Flagg. Flagg appeared in seven MASH episodes. All of which are in my Top Seven MASH episodes … hee hee …

                Dear Sigmund, Season 5: MASH was good at epistolary episodes – shows narrated by someone while writing in a letter. A staple in fiction, I think MASH was the first TV show to do it regularly. Here, the narrator/letter-writer was Freedman, writing a “Lincoln Letter” to Sigmund Freud (as opposed to an actual letter to Sigmund Freud…) as a catharsis from his depression. This is the episode that reveals BJ as a practical joker.

                Hawk's Nightmare, Season 5: Hawkeye is having night terrors and walking and playing basketball in his sleep.

                War of Nerves, Season 6: An injured Freedman is sent to the 4077^th to treat his minor head wound. Morale is especially bad at the camp and Potter asks Freedman to help.

                The Billfold Syndrome, Season 7: A soldier is sent to the 4077^th with a loss of memory. Freedman and the MASH crew re-enact the soldier’s last battle. In it, his little brother is killed, hence the memory loss. Very sad ending – I think some of tears from the cast members were real. A great episode.

                Goodbye, Cruel World, Season 8: another favorite of mine. An Asian-American war hero tries to commit suicide. Why?

                Bless You, Hawkeye, Season 9: Hawkeye can’t stop sneezing.

                Pressure Points, Season 10: Potter calls in Freedman to see a special patient – Colonel Potter.

                Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen, Season 11. The last show. Sydney helps Hawkeye get back to the 4077^th after a mental meltdown. The finale has its problems, but Arbus was excellent in it.

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                I would like to quote artist/illustrator Stephen Bissette’s Facebook post to tell us about Arbus’ other work:

       

                “R.I.P. Allan Arbus, who I first "met" onscreen playing Mr. Bad News in Robert Downey's incredible PUTNEY SWOPE (1969) and "Jesse" (aka Jesus Christ) in Downey's even-more-incredible GREASER'S PALACE (1972), with "the boogie in my fingers/the hubba-hubba in my soul," and he was forever in my heart thereafter. He was on the drive-in screens in VT in my youth: Sim Valensi in CISCO PIKE (1972), Arturo in Jack Hill's COFFY (1973), Greg LaCava in W.C. FIELDS AND ME (1976), and once I was at the Kubert School, he was the corporate visionary (Pasarian) who explained to us all, in one succinct blink-or-sneeze-and-you'd-miss-it bit of dialogue, precisely what and where real-world Monsanto was heading in DAMIEN: OMEN II (1978): corporate control of the world's food supply. From Christ to serving the Anti-Christ, Arbus did it all BEFORE his plethora of TV character roles made him a fixture in the pop pantheon.”     

                          

Any applicable copyright to the preceding paragraph is owned by Stephen Bissette.

Reprinted here with permission of the author.

You can follow his blog posts here: http://srbissette.com 

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                He died at age 95. This means through most of MASH he was in his late fifties and sixty-six when the show ended. Incredible. He lived a long life, had a distinguished career of which anyone would be proud, and (from what I have read) was a very nice man.

                Rest in Peace, Mr.Arbus, and thank you for your twelve wonderful episodes. 

Superman turns 75 ...

Happy Birthday to comic book's greatest creation and to one of comic book's greatest creators...

            Seventy-five years ago today thousands of children (the vast majority of them boys) went with their parents (the vast majority of them the mothers) to drug stores, to grocery stores and past magazine stands.  There they spotted a new magazine, published on that very day (the vast majority on the northern east coast of the United States).

            It wasn’t a new type of magazine – it was a comic magazine. There have been magazines featuring comic strips as long as there have been magazines and comic strips.

            This one featured new comic strips – never published anywhere else. This WAS fairly new. Comic magazines featuring new material had only been around a few years. Most of them were comical, had funny animals or reprinted adventure strips - retreads of the popular pulps of the day.

            On the cover of this magazine was a man in blue tights and a red cape lifting a car over his head and smashing it to the ground while other men ran in panic. He was called Superman and his 14-page story was the first feature.

            Other stories in Action Comics #1 were boxer Pep Morgan, Marco Polo, ace reporter Scoop Scanlon, two stories of crime-fighting cowboys – one set in the Wild West and one in modern times in England, and master magician and crime fighter Zatarra – whose daughter is still around in the comics.

            Nearly all the stories were serials – part one of who-knows-how-many.

            The comic book was a hit. It marked the birth of the superhero.

            Happy 75^th birthday to Superman.

            Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. In their mind they created a comic strip along the lines of pulp hero Doc Savage; they had similar powers and even a Fortress of Solitude. An early advertisement for Doc Savage called him a “superman”.

            They did not know they created an new literary archetype.

            The superhero is one of only two purely American archetypes – the other being the cowboy. The superhero is also the last archetype to have been created. Well, with any lasting power, that is. You could argue the hippie was also a lasting archetype. At one time it was, true, but now the hippie is used for laughs or otherwise has a negative connotation.

            Look at the upcoming summer movie schedule to see what affect Superman has had on our culture. Look at the cartoons on television; even sit-coms. Do you think there would have been a “Big Bang Theory” without him?

            I have written in a previous blog about the rotten treatment of Siegel and Shuster and their heirs – receiving hardly a penny from the Superman franchise. Many comic book professionals are making very valid points about this on their blogs and on their Facebook pages today. I join in their chorus. But I still wish Superman a happy birthday.

***

            It is also Carl Burgos’ birthday. 75 years ago he turned 22. At this time he was drawing backgrounds and panel borders while working for Harry Chesler, a comic book magazine publisher. Did he pick up a copy of Action Comics #1 on his birthday? Probably not. Did he ever read Superman comics? I don’t know for sure, but I would suspect the answer is “Oh yes!”

            Some time before October 1939 Burgos sold a character he created to Timely Comics, a rival of National Comics – Superman’s company. It was another superhero of the Superman archetype, but different enough to avoid being a mere copy of Superman 

            The character was the Human Torch. While not as popular as Superman at the time, it was still a success.

            So much so that there is still a Human Torch (albeit with a different origin and identity) to this day.

            So much so that the company, Timely, is still around (albeit with a different name – Marvel Comics, home of Spider-Man and the Avengers; you might have heard of them…).

            Except for the 1950s, the Human Torch has been a published character since its creation. Only Batman, Wonder Woman and, oh yes, Superman, have been published longer and/or more continuously.

           

            75 years ago a character was published that created an industry and through it America’s last great literary archetype.  97 years ago a man was born who would help launch one of that industry’s biggest publishers.

            And on a personal note, happy birthday to my friend Don – born some time after Burgos and Superman – whose infectious love of comics and pulp magazines is greater than anyone I know!

            Happy Birthday to them all!