[s20]

Any one out there mash fans? Even though it only shows reruns now....I can't get enough. The characters are just great, although I could do with out that pesky annoying Burns.

Peirce, Huneycut, Trapper....they just made the show with all their antics.......and Radar with his teddy bear, Klinger in his dresses and heels always trying to find a way out of there.

Speaking of which, remember the episode where Klinger got the glider and was sailing off into the sunset........oh that one was priceless.

[barend]

that show shaped my moral code as a child, and entertains me still...

one of the best shows ever...

they lasted longer than the actual korean war did...

[Despondent]

three times as long.

Potter was from my hometown. Alda was too preachy.

I know many of you love him and can find no wrong. No Problem. We can disagree on this.
I liked it as a youth but I got over that.

[Just your average movie goer]

I think it's the best television show ever made. M*A*S*H* should be compulsory viewing for everyone. It has wonderful characters and really promotes good values.

That's a bit of a cliche, I know. But with M*A*S*H*, it's true. When I watch that show, it makes me want to be a better man.

It's genuine, heartfelt, has a real familiarity to it and is just wonderful.

And with the exception of Major Burns, I fell in love with all the characters. It was wonderful last time the re-runs were on, tuning in everyday to see what was happening with them all. I look forward to the next round of re-runs.

[Lord Aquaman]

I loved Hot Lips...

However, I can't stand Alan Alda on the whole. He was okay for a while, but a little bit of Alda can go a long way, and M*A*S*H, I'm sorry to say, had too much Alda for my taste.

That and 11 seasons was not a good idea for the show.

[s20]

Every once in awhile they will have a day on t.v. of M*A*S*H* marathon, Im always tuning in because I love to watch from the first to the last. It's usually an all nighter, but it's worth it and I love it because the final shows are always on there and it's a real tear jerker. They tried to make several reruns which you can read more about on there page.

I know there was one that stayed on for quite some time which was Trapper Jhon MD.......they also made one called AFTER M*A*S*H* which had a few of the characters on but it didn't last long. The other one was a show about Radar, just don't remember the name of it but I think it only had one episode.

[s20]

I need to correct myself.......when I said they tried to make several reruns, I meant to say sequels.

[Xombie]

Once again I dissent.

MASH was good so for about a season and a half. It was certainly somewhat plausible until they killed Col. Blake. The laid back leadership made the eccentricities of the cast believable. As soon as regular army Col. Potter arrived the idea that Klinger would have been allowed to continue to wear a dress was absurd and that Alda's behavior would have been put up with equally unlikely.
More importantly the edge was quickly lost. Characters who hated each other grew to like each other and soon they were one big happy family. In the end they were actually sad to go home.
SAD TO GO HOME??!! From the fucking Korean War? Talk about losing the point.

I always compare MASH unfavorably to my friends with a much better Hellhole location series: OZ. That show was on the air for seven years and in all that time the cons did not become one iota more cuddly and no one EVER was sorry to leave the place. (Also, on occassion, Oz could make me laugh. MASH never could)

[Just your average movie goer]

I think you might have missed the point there, Xombie. The characters getting to like each other was interesting because we were seeing how the experience changed them and taught them to appreciate each other.

They helped each other through.

And they weren't sad about going home. What they were sad about was the fact that they probably wouldn't see each other again, after everything they had been through. That's what they were sad about.

[Xombie]

No, I think the whole point of the series, at least initially, was that war was hell and insanity. At least that's what Alan Alda kept whining on about.
Yet at no point did I feel that insanity or hellishness. The MASH set had all the generic warm fuzziness of any other three camera sitcom set. No one watching this show was thinking "This is a place I never ever want to be" which is exactly what I suspect anyone watching more than 30 random seconds of Oz would be reciting as a mantra.

As the characters got softer, and more likable, and became one big happy family, whatever minor cut of social commentary the show once posessed was blunted.

[Just your average movie goer]

I think it had to be that way otherwise, how many people would watch it?

But do you really think they didn't show how horrible war could be in the later episodes? We saw quite a few patients die, some tough moral dilemnas... the guys getting frustrated and trying to make a difference. The final two episodes had a lot of terrible things happen in them.

Yes, M*A*S*H was a warm show. But I don't think in the end, it was lightweight. The later episodes were often quite serious. Yes, fun was had as well still. But I think the show was always a mixture between the two.

And the warmth of the show is what made it so accessible to so many people. And the warmth came because the show was genuine.

[Xombie]

How many people would watch a show that depicted war as horror? Well, I don't know. I will say that similar questions probably were asked about other shows. How many people would watch a medical show that dealt with E.R. carnage in a medically realistic way? (Answer: a lot) How many people would watch a show about unrepentent murderers? (In the case of the Sopranoes, a lot.) How many people would watch a show about a prison where all the characters deserve to be there and the tone is unrelentingly grim (In the case of Oz, enough to keep it on the air for seven seasons). These shows, and shows like Homicide: Life On the Streets, became beloved by their fans at least partially because the creators treated them like grown-ups. I realize this is a relatively new development and back in the 70s TV producers were far more likely to see the viewing public as passive consumers who didn't want to be challenged or jolted out of their semi-comatose viewing state. That's why nearly all 70s television sucks.

Now I'm sure the MASH producers or the CBS honchoes had this discussion about whether or not the public would watch a show that was honest about war. They obviously decided the viewers would not. This doesn't single MASH out as a particularly bad tv show. It wasn't.

On the contrary, it ended up being pretty much like every other show on television.

[Just your average movie goer]

But you see, it's not. That's the thing. It's not like the popular sitcoms of today. No-one will remember those shows tomorrow. But people will still be watching M*A*S*H.

Also, you're wrong about the show being about the horrors of war. That's not the central theme at all. It's about how keeping a sense of humour and having a good friend at your side can get you through a difficult situation. It's about comraderie and the value of friendship more than the horrors of war ~ and I think it does that well.

[Despondent]

I remember MASH doing some "breakthrough" techniques for the time. Wasn't there a "real-time" episode with a clock running in the corner? (Real-time purists, this is your cue.)

Also a non-laugh track episode? Or maybe they Never used the laugh-track.

There were "news reports" episodes as well as recurring characters. There was a lot of emotional exchange between the characters, witnessed by the fourth wall. It was a gripping show. As gripping as comedy in the seventies could get I suppose, but they lasted the decade so they Could incorporate a lot.

It was when Alan Alda became a flash point for the new feminist male I turned the cynical eye. I can't detract from the success of the show. Doesn't mean I want to watch it.









Granted: with so much material, at times one can't keep from laughing.

(ok. now I remember the laugh-track)

[s20]

There was an episode that showed a clock....it was the one where they did the operating scene and they were just having a bad day...there was also another one where they had a reporter come in and do interviews with them and also another episode where there was this guy that was not aware that he was dead, the only one that was able to see him was Klinger who had a really high fever.

The show did have a lot of episodes that were very serious. It was not all laughs but just the same the show was genuine.