Cowboy (M*A*S*H) Cowboy (M*A*S*H) "Cowboy" was the eighth episode of the M*A*S*H television series. Originally shown on November 12, 1972 and repeated May 6, 1973, it was written by Bob Klane and directed by Don Weis. It is the only first-season episode listed in "TV Guide" as a "classic episode". The episode's guest stars are Billy Green Bush as John "Cowboy" Hodges, Patrick Adiarte as Ho-Jon, Timothy Brown as Spearchucker Jones, Mike Robello as the cook, Jean Powell as a nurse, Joe Corey as Goldstein, and John Orchard as Capt. "Ugly John" Black. "The Cowboy", a chopper pilot whose nickname stems from
M*A*S*H (TV series) Larry Linville, Wayne Rogers and Gary Burghoff. Series co-creator and joke writer Larry Gelbart departed after Season 4, the first featuring Mike Farrell and Harry Morgan. This resulted in Farrell and Morgan having only a single season reading scripts featuring Gelbart's masterful comic timing, which defined the feel and rhythm of Seasons 1–4 featuring predecessors Rogers and Stevenson, respectively. Larry Linville (the show's comic foil) and Executive Producer Gene Reynolds both departed at the conclusion of Season 5 in 1977, resulting in "M*A*S*H" being fully stripped of its original tight comedic foundation by the beginning of Season 6 — the