I settled down to watch an episode of MASH today, not knowing that it wasn’t an ordinary half-hour episode but the two-and-a-half-hour series finale. After watching it I started reading about it on Wikipedia (I obsess over things) and came across the description of the final scene. It says the following:
It also shows this picture, clearly showing someone standing next to the word GOODBYE.
Now, I’m prepared to swear up and down that he got on a motorcycle and rode away, then the helicopter took off and Pierce saw the word spelled out in rocks, and there was no-one standing there at the time. I just saw this twenty minutes ago.
So, am I crazy or is Wikipedia evil and trying to convince me that I’m crazy?
The wiki article says “promotional photo”. So it’s probably a still shot from the production, not a direct screen capture. Someone could have been standing there during the photo.
Yeah, I strongly recall him riding the motorbike down the hill, and coming pretty close to wiping out. But this also is 25 year old memory, strong or not.
Priceguy isn’t disputing that. He’s disputing that someone was standing next to the words written in rocks.
I saw that episode when it aired originally which was during my freshman year of college, and not since. My memory, which is admittedly clouded by a lot of recreational drug use for the several years following the event, is that there was no one standing by the rocks.
I think the article is poorly worded. I believe it is right about the chopper lifting off before BJ starts his ride down the hill but we don’t see the “GOODBYE” until Hawkeye gets high enough to see it himself, at which time BJ is already down the hill.
Meant to edit that but was having trouble reloading the page.
We now know what message BJ was referring to when he was talking to Hawkeye in the chopper but the article implies we had already seen it, which was not the case.
Anyway, my recollection is this: The helicopter is on the ground and Hunnicutt is giving Hawkeye a ride on his motorcycle to the helicopter. Pierce gives a little emotional speech and they say they’re going to miss each other. Pierce enters the helicopter and Hunnicutt mounts the motorcycle. He shouts to Pierce that he left him a message, but Pierce doesn’t hear him over the helicopter engine. Hunnicutt takes off down the hill (the ride is looking shaky; for a moment I thought he was going to crash and die) and Pierce gives the pilot a thumbs up signal. The helicopter takes off, and once it gets high enough Pierce sees the GOODBYE through the glass canopy. Roll credits.
This sequence of events, given that Pierce and Hunnicutt were the last two to leave, makes it pretty much impossible that someone was standing next to the GOODBYE, and especially impossible that Hunnicutt was.
I remember B.J. riding off, and being chased by the Germans, and then he jumped this fence with his motorcycle and it was awesome, but then he got tangled up in some barbed wire. But I haven’t seen the show in a while.
Well I’m glad somebody cleared that up for me. I was watching that episode back in – what, 1983? – when the power went out. There was a severe thunderstorm going on outside, and as I recall the lights were out throughout much of northern California (I lived near Monterey at the time).
Then Hawkeye’s chopper arrived. It was his turn to say goodbye. “Look, Beej, I know it’s tough for you to say good-bye, so I’ll say it. Maybe we will see each other again. In any case, I want you to know how much you meant to me.” The men hugged. B.J. drove off on his motorcycle. Hawkeye’s ‘Huey’ lifted off the chopper pad for its ascent over the Korean hills. As he looked down at the deserted 4077, Hawkeye smiled. B.J had left him a final message spelled out in stones.
Huey??? I just slammed my head into the table repeatedly. The OH-13 Sioux was the aircraft seen in MAS*H. The UH-1 Iroquois better known as the Huey didn’t enter service with the military until 1959.
