Like “Frasier”? I’ll grant you that evil characters make things easier (gods, I love John C. McGinley on “Scrubs”), but good writing, which “MAS*H” was consistently blessed with, will overcome that. Hell, the war itself was the ultimate bad guy.
However I think the writers did a disservice to all those who served in MASH units and those who served in the Korean War. I especially find it difficult that Hawkeye had difficulty seeing the difference between either side in the conflict.
Marc
I used to be obsessed with this show.
Here’s my take on it:
I liked Burns (well, not liked, but you know what I mean) better than Winchester because Winchester seemed so snotty. At times he could be pretty cool but Burns was pretty funny. And that was the point–for him to be funny.
I also preferred both Trapper and “BJ Without a Mustache” to “BJ With a Mustache”. Some of the gags with BJ’s mustache were funny but I liked the character without it, and I liked Trapper because he was funny.
On the “Potter vs. Blake” and “Klinger vs. Radar” I can’t make a decision. I liked both characters in both sets. Klinger got annoying but sometimes Radar did as well, and the same goes for Potter and Blake.
I don’t think Hawkeye had that trouble – what he had a problem with was more specific instances of military idiocy (the major instance being the commander who would sacrifice more people to recover bodies – I’m all in favor of not leaving our own behind, but there are limits). Not to mention the argument (to which I do not subscribe) that Korea hadn’t ever done anything to or for him, so why was he helping to fight a war there? Remember, as Robert Altman has said many times, the movie of “MAS*H” was only about Korea because the studio wouldn’t let him make it about Vietnam. The TV show was much the same, minus some of the pathos.
Hawkeye is, to me, one of the great figures in the television canon – he disagreed passionately with the war, but he was a doctor, and a damn good one, so he was damn well going to save every kid he could.
And to answer your first point – the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which was active in Korea up until just a few years ago, bore its association with the show with pride, and even played “Suicide Is Painless” at the unit deactivation (yes, grown men actually cried).
Klinger and Father Mulcahy had only guest appearances in the first season. They became regulars after that. Perhaps that was the fault. Klinger should maybe have been a regular after Radar left the show.
this is a question about the last episode:
I have heard that the fire (that forced them to move the camp) was for real.
MASH was filmed somewhere in California, wasn’t it ?
True. Klinger was a one-note character who was originally supposed to be on just one episode, but they decided they liked Jamie Farr (who was, of course, the only cast member who had actually fought in Korea) and saw more potential in the character. Which there was, but perhaps not eleven seasons worth of wackiness. I liked Klinger a lot more after he toned down the Gotta-get-out-of-the-Army shtick in the later years.
Father Mulcahy, on the other hand, was a guest star who eventually was in so many episodes they had to put him in primary cast. I got no grief with Father Mulcahy. He was used well.
And yes, the fire was real. Random brush fire in the hills where they filmed outdoor shots, so they wrote it into the show.
Okay, I’ve exhausted most of my “MAS*H” trivia, so I’ll just take a nap now.
Burns was never a likeable character at all, not even in that love-to-hate-him way.
Winchester was on the show a bit longer, and I think his character was better developed, so we saw a more human side of him (the storyline about the stutterer and his sister, the Christmas candy for the orphans, the hat he had as a child, etc.). Burns had just become a bad caricature of that moronic power-mad officer, and they really had no choice but to get rid of him.
Just FTR: I liked both the Col. Blake/Trapper John and the Col. Potter/BJ episodes, but just slightly prefer the Potter/BJ ones. As stankow said, I liked Klinger much better when he gave up the dresses after Radar left. The last few seasons did get way too sappy, and I think the show should have quit perhaps 2-3 years before it did.
Another good episode: The camp accidentally gets some tomato juice and Potter mentions that he loves it. A series of trades ensues as Radar tries to get more tomato juice for him. After much wrangling and trading back and forth (all unknown to Potter), he gets it, only to have Potter brush it off, saying, “No, thanks, I forgot I’m allegic to it.”
“The Rooster Crowed At Midnight” by Miss Abigail Porterfield. Who did it? Another good one.
For your enjoyment: MAS*H Episode Guide
Scroll over to the right for more MAS*H things. Check out the goofs section.
I have a tape called “Making MAS*H”, a great documentary shot late in the show’s life. It’s narrated by Mary Tyler Moore. In that documentary, Garry Burghoff talks about that scene when Henry is shot down.
He said that the last page was handed to him that day that it was shot, and indeed, nobody else knew.
I adored the show, from the week it premiered right up till it became a maudlin touchy-feely ghost of itself. I cried when Henry died, but I cried when Winchester wrote the letter to the little girl who mailed him the oak leaf.
The writing, at it’s best, was the best thing going on t.v. in the 1970’s, IMHO. I miss that kind of depth.
Cartooniverse
[heading for GD]
MASH was an ok show for the first few seasons, when it was an innocent, goofy little comedy series. However, as it ever so slowly (and later not so slowly) morphed into The Alan Alda Commie-Pinko Show it became repetitive and, eventually, just sickening. It was like, how many different ways can we say we don’t like America and absolutely hate the military?
One of the more ridiculous examples was the episode where they sneak the NK doctor over to their side. I mean, peace, love, stop the war, can’t we all just get along has it’s merits, but they left out the part at the end where Hawkeye, BJ, Radar, Klinger and Potter are all hung for treason.
**
It seemed to me that most of the regular army combat officers weren’t potrayed in such a positive light. There’s the guy who didn’t care how many casualties he took in order to take a hill, there’s the guy who intentionally put black soldiers at higher risk then white soldiers, Col. Potters incompetant pal who didn’t care how many med died so long as he got combat experience before retirement, and I’m sure there are others I’m missing.
**
If I recall correctly the movie never mentioned anything about Korea. The television show on the other hand made all sorts of references to Korea. For the tv show to treat Korea like viet-nam was unfair to everyone who served in Korea as well as the Koreans themselves. You know that most of the labor in the MASH units was performed by South Koreans? You’d never know that from the show though.
**
I wonder how Hawkeye would feel 30 years after the war. When he had the advatange of seeing how well off S. Korea was compared to N. Korea.
How many of those who shut down the 4077th were there during the Korean War?
Marc
what do you people think about the movie.
I thought it was lousy.
True. But there were also good ones – the (I think) Luxembourger who was trying to find his lost man springs to mind.
Keep in mind that the show was about officers. When Hawkeye gets into an argument with a sergeant, he wins. No dramatic tension unless you have higher ranking guys for him to play off of.
The prologue of the movie, but that was it. Altman made sure that it was as ambiguous as possible, but the studio made him put on the prologue that said it was Korea.
**
Because it was an American show. The early episodes had some other nationalities, but they didn’t work as well, so they got rid of them.
**
Have to agree with you there.
**
There were in fact a few veterans there for the ceremony. They were damn proud that their unit was portrayed as it was – a bunch of professionals doing their damnedest to heal the wounded.
The movie was lousy??? :eek: That’s sacrilege!
You simply can’t compare the two. Apples and oranges. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time, and the show is one of my favorite shows. But in the final analysis, one has little to do with the other.
Might I just add that Donald Sutherland was so freakin’ hot in that movie! What the heck happened to that guy??
As a child I took a disliking to Trapper because he was married, but yet he chased after the nurses. That offended my childish sensiblities. It just seemed like a not-very-nice thing to do.
I like B.J., prefer Potter to Blake, prefer Winchester to Burns, and what do you mean Radar left? Must have missed that… but I do understand what you mean about the softening of Margaret’s character, although I think that started before Frank left. I recall one episode when he was left in charge and banned alcohol, and then walked into the Swamp where she was whooping it up with the guys over martinis.
I guess my favorite parts are the movie nights, it gives such a sense of the time period and of the comraderie of being stuck in a wretched place and still trying to keep it together with familiar things.
Not meaning to speak ill of the dead, but several years ago I had the opportunity to go hear Larry Linville speak. He showed a few montages of MAS*H episodes, and the talk was very entertaining. However, Linville had to be one of most arrogant and pompous people I’ve ever met. It was almost as if he was doing a caricature of Winchester, only this was real. I almost regretted going to see him.
Anybody remember Harry Morgan’s first appearance on MAS*H? It wasn’t as Col. Potter. He played a general who went crazy. As I recall, he had Hawkeye and Trapper dead to rights on some military charge, and was convening a court-martial against them when he cracked up.
Yeah! he sang
Hey hey, Uncle Dud,
It’s a treat to beat your feet on the Mississippi Mud!
It’s also fun to spot future starts in MASH episodes. For example, in one episode, one random soldier in the post-op was Tim Robbins.
If any of you would be interested in a book about medical care during the Korean War, this one is excellent:
Cowdry, Albert E. The Medics’ War. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1987.
This title is volume 4 of the series The United States Army in the Korean War. The section on MASH units makes it clear how much the series was inspired by the actual conditions and events in such units. You should be able to track it down through a public library.
Yeah, Patrick Swayze has a part in Post-Op, too.
IIRC, The Complete Book of MAS*H says he wasn’t in-country until after the war. He may have been in Tokyo prior to going to Korea, as indicated at the IMDb.
Without the fire, the finale probably would have run two hours instead of 2½.
BTW: the property where the outdoor sets were is part of the Malibu Creek State Park.