Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: A once-struggling magician, Charles "Corky" Williams, finds success after adding a risqué-talking ventriloquist dummy, Fats, to his act. Just as he is about to get his best break ever, a television series, Corky sabotages the deal by refusing to take a physical and instead flees the city to his hometown in the Catskills, renting a cabin from his high school crush, Peggy. Despite Peggy being married, they end up having an affair and she seems ready to leave her husband for him. However, it soon becomes apparent Fats is more than just a prop for Corky's act and is instead a manifestation of a second, domineering and sometimes violent personality. Who's in it? The movie stars Anthony Hopkins , Ann-Margaret , Burgess Meredith , Ed Lauter and David Ogden Stiers . Review: I remember first seeing the film Magic on display at a video rental store (remember those?). However, despite the movie being out for nearly 30 years, I never took the time to watch the film ...

Synopsis: With truce talks making progress and the war about to wind down, the staff of the 4077th looks forward to saying their goodbyes and finally going home to their families. But, first, they must deal with being the target of enemy shells, a wildfire that threatens to destroy the camp and their chief surgeon's mental breakdown. You can read my review here:  https://wizzley.com/m-a-s-h-episode-review-goodbye-farewell-and-amen-1983/

Synopsis : Members of the 4077th resort to trades and blackmail to avoid being the charity collection officer while a private ( Craig Wasson ) learns a painful lesson when the North Korean soldier he shot ( Dereck Wong ) is placed in the hospital bed next to his. Review : I ended up watching this episode yesterday evening while my wife/youngest daughter were at dance class and I was waiting until it was time to start dinner. It's an episode I remember seeing once before. But, it had been a long while since I watched it and, because of that, I couldn't remember anything about it. As it turns out, it was actually a pretty decent episode. OK, to tell you the truth, I wasn't a huge fan of the charity officer part of this episode, mostly because having the various characters resort to trades (and blackmail) was something I've seen from this show before. I think that part of the episode would have been better had Charles ( David Ogden Stiers ) kept the duty from start ...

Synopsis: Almost the entire 4077th comes down with food poisoning after eating tainted turkey for Thanksgiving. Hawkeye ( Alan Alda ) and B. J. ( Mike Farrell ) are returning home with the necessary antibiotics but are hindered when they get lost and crash their jeep. To make matters worse, they run into an armed North Korean soldier. Review: I've seen pretty much every episode of this series. However, I do, on occasion, come across one that I haven't seen in a long while and don't remember as a result. That was the case with this particular episode, which I had an opportunity to watch a couple days ago. As I've said in the past, the best M*A*S*H episodes are the ones that make full use of their ensemble cast (rather than just focusing on Hawkeye) and this episode falls into that category. While Hawkeye and B. J. are lost and jeep-less, the camp is being run by only three people, Margaret ( Loretta Swit ), Father Mulcahy ( William Christopher ) and a very relu...