Taratupa, we learn, has been subjected to a daily air raid for a whole month-one that is a nuisance more than a danger. A lone Jap Zero flies over and drops one bomb, harmlessly, each day. Because he is there and gone, the men of Taratupa have so far been unable to shoot down this enemy plane.
McHale and crew were all set for (yet another) vacation pass to let them go to New Caledonia where they planned to make money selling war souvenirs, including the wing tip of a Japanese Zero that Gruber paid $50 for. It seems this hunk of metal has a 50-caliber hole that makes it a perfect beer bottle opener.
But the Admiral has ordered all leaves cancelled until the Japanese bomber, nicknamed "Washing Machine Charlie" has been stopped. While McHale is called away to plan which islands to search for to find Charlie's hidden air strip, Gruber leads the men on one of his most insane schemes yet. They will use the wing tip Gruber bought and tell the captain that Virgil shot down Charlie that afternoon.
The scheme seems to have worked, as McHale and Parker return and the crew is all set to take their trip. But McHale learns about the lie. Before he can ask Gruber what in the world he was thinking of...didn't he realize he would be caught in his lie when Charlie attacked the following day?-Captain Binghamton shows up furious because he had examined the wing tip they left him, and saw that it reads inside "Property of USN."
He wants to put the men in the brig, but McHale points out that Binghamton will be in a jam if the admiral learns he sent in an incorrect report. So Binghamton lets McHale and men go out to try to find Charlie and actually do what was previously claimed.
They find Charlie and a small company of Japanese soldiers on an island. Most of the crew is captured. McHale KOs the real pilot, put Parker in his uniform with directions to go across the compound to release the captured men. But other Japanese crew members put Parker (thinking he is their guy) into the plane and while McHale frees the others, Parker is somehow able to get the plane to take off.
He flies haphazardly, but somehow gets to where he is over Taratupa. This time he is shot down and he parachutes out, calling out "Hiawatha" as he jumps, not remembering the traditional "Geronimo" call.
Of course much of this is hard to believe-particularly that Ensign Parker could get the plane to take off without crashing---but this episode was packed with laughs. Parker was at his funniest as he tried to slink around disguised as the Japanese pilot.
You can get a brief glimpse of Mike Farrell near the end, in his TV debut. Of course, Farrell is known as B.J. from M*A*S*H*. Before he joined M*A*S*H* a decade later, that series had a parallel plot named "5 O'Clock Charlie" whereby the Army hospital suddenly had an ammo dump near the edge of camp, and they too were subjected to a wayward solo bomber who came by every day-at 5 O'Clock-and drops one bomb trying to destroy the ammo dump.
I use this occasion to note the different attitudes toward our country's military between the two episodes. In McHale, the crew stole and destroyed the enemy plane and captured the Japanese crew on the island where they were stationed. In MASH, our doctors helped make it possible for the enemy to destroy the US ammunition dump and get away cleanly, with the regular characters happy that their "Charlie" won't be bothering them any more.
This McHale show had some logical problems but it was a really, really funny show, worthy of a 9 from me.
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