Help with final assignment please: a M*A*S*H Survey

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Another character that I kinda liked, but when he made an appearance you just knew it would turn syrupy is the Shrink , Sydney.

22

MY ANSWERS WILL BE IN CAPS

Part One: the demographic questions:

  1. Gender (please pick either a or b folks):
    a) Male
    b) Female
    FEMALE

  2. Age Group:
    a) Younger than 10
    b) 11 – 20
    c) 21 – 30
    d) 31 – 40
    e) 41 +
    f) I’d really rather not say
    21-30

  3. Province/State/Other and Country (main residence)
    NEW JERSEY

Part Two: the MAS*H questions

  1. Did you watch MASH during it’s original run?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    YES

  2. Favorite Colonel?
    a) Henry Blake
    b) Sherman T. Potter
    SHERMAN T. POTTER

    2.1) Why?
    BLAKE WAS AN IDIOT

  3. Favorite combination?
    a) Hawkeye – Trapper – Frank
    b) Hawkeye – BJ – Frank
    c) Hawkeye – BJ – Charles
    HAWKEYE–BJ–FRANK
    3.1) Why?
    I DIDN’T LIKE TRAPPER MUCH–A WEAK CHARACTER. CHARLES WAS PRETTY GOOD, BUT FRANK WAS A BETTER FOIL FOR HAWKEYE AND BJ’S ANTICS.

  4. Favorite Company Clerk?
    a) Radar
    b) Klinger
    RADAR

  5. Favorite character (not the actor):
    COL. POTTER

  6. Least liked character:
    TRAPPER

  7. Favorite episode (brief synopsis):
    THE ONE WHERE COL. POTTER GAVE HIS HORSE TO THE OLD KOREAN GENERAL.

  8. Least like episode (brief synopsis):
    ANY ONE IN THE LAST SEASON WHERE HAWKEYE IS MR. SENSITIVE, HOTLIPS AND CHARLES HAVE BECOME “GOOD GUYS” AND NOTHING IS FUNNY ANYMORE.

  9. Tell me, does the show stand up to the test of time? Or “yuck, this show sucks” would be more appropriate? Why?
    IT STANDS THE TEST OF TIME. GOOD WRITING, MEMORABLE CHARACTERS, GOOD BALANCE BETWEEN THE SERIOUS AND THE COMIC (EXCEPT THE LAST COUPLE OF SEASONS WHEN IT GOT TOO SERIOUS). IT IS A “CLASSIC,” AND ALWAYS WILL BE!

  10. Comment you’d like to make (MASH related please).
    I WAS PLAYING THE “DESERT ISLAND GAME” RECENTLY–WHERE YOU ASK “WHO WOULD YOU RATHER BE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WITH, A OR B?” SOMEONE ASKED WHETHER I WOULD RATHER BE WITH HAWKEYE OR BJ. I SAID BJ–AND THEN I REALIZED THAT I HAD MARRIED BJ!! MY HUSBAND IS JUST LIKE HIM IN A LOT OF WAYS. MAKES ME WONDER HOW MUCH OF MY VALUE SYSTEM IS MADE UP OF LESSONS LEARNED FROM MAS*H.

Off topic:
11) Would you like to have the results posted when the numbers have been crunched?
a) Yeah, that’d be great.
b) Nah, couldn’t care less.
PLEASE POST THEM. THANKS.

23
  1. (a) Male
  2. © 21-30
  3. Massachusettes

Part two

  1. I think a little bit of both, I watched the tail end of MASH in The Original run but mostly I watched them in reruns.

  2. I liked Sherman Potter better

2.1. Because he seemed more realistic a character. Besides, it was the best thing I ever saw Harry Morgan ever do.

  1. I liked the “Hawkeye, BJ, Charles” combo

3.1 Because I hated the Character of Frank Burns. He was an unbelievable character with no redeeming qualities. I felt Charles (as pompous and egotistical as he was) was a much more well conceived character - you could really like him despite his foibles. The writers allowed Charles’ humanity to show through. Burns was just paper thin, he acted like a moron and you were supposed to hate him. I felt it was an insult to the audience’s intelligence to accept such a one dimensional character.

  1. Radar. This is tough. I loved Clinger and Radar. But I have to go with Radar.

  2. BJ Honeycutt.

  3. I hated Frank Burns’ Character (but you should be able to figure that out from reading my comments above).

  4. This is tough. The episode where Colonel Blake dies was a great episode - very poignant. Love it when Blake says good bye to Radar.

  5. Any episode that was heavy on the Colonel Flag / Burns-Hoolahan patriotic paranoia schtick. That stuff was too silly. Can’t remember any of them in particular though.

  6. To me this show has a certain timeless quality about it. Like truly great literature, MASH is character driven. The characters are developed in such a way as to make the audience REALLY CARE about them, and because of this the show will stand the test of time. Further, The wartime setting of MASH allowed for its writers to explore the characters in a variety of unusual and extreme situtations. We get to see these characters go through intense experiences. Experiences that give us insight to who they really are. Experiences that change them. Experiences that changed ME as a viewer! This was not your average sitcom.

  7. Sure, post the results

24

  1. Did you watch MASH during it’s original run?
    b) No

  2. Favorite Colonel?
    a) Henry Blake

2.1) Why?
Better MASH menagerie type. It was never supposed to show regular army dicipline.

  1. Favorite combination?
    b) Hawkeye – BJ – Frank
    3.1) Why?
    Because my favorite episode is ‘Dear Sigmund’ where that is the combo. Close second is Hawkeye/Trapper/Frank. C is a very distant third.

  2. Favorite Company Clerk?
    a) Radar

  3. Favorite character (not the actor):
    Sidney Freedman

  4. Least liked character:
    Most of the sactimonious prats that trickled in during the last four years.

  5. Favorite episode (brief synopsis): Dear Sigmund. Sidney comes to 4077 for personal R&R and a secret practical joker is stalking the compound.

  6. Least like episode (brief synopsis): Most of the last four years – anything where BJ has grown the mustache.

  7. Tell me, does the show stand up to the test of time? Or “yuck, this show sucks” would be more appropriate? Why?
    It’s still worth watching in a nostalgic kind of way, but there are other sitcoms that have weathered better, admittedly more that have fared worse. Writing inconsistancies are probably it’s biggest problems.

Off topic:
11) Would you like to have the results posted when the numbers have been crunched?
a) Yeah, that’d be great.

25

  1. Gender (please pick either a or b folks):
    a) Male

  2. Age Group:
    d) 31 40

  3. Province/State/Other and Country (main residence)
    Virginia, USA

Part Two: the MAS*H questions

  1. Did you watch MASH during it s original run?
    a) Yes

  2. Favorite Colonel?
    a) Henry Blake

    2.1) Why? Funnier

  3. Favorite combination?
    b) Hawkeye BJ Frank

    3.1) Why? Good balance. Hawkeye/Trapper/Frank was too slapstick, H/BJ/Winchester got too serious

  4. Favorite Company Clerk?
    a) Radar

  5. Favorite character (not the actor):
    BJ

  6. Least liked character:
    Rizzo

  7. Favorite episode (brief synopsis):
    Hawkeye needs new boots. He has to go through a complex barter system involving about 7 people to get them. It falls apart when Frank won’t sign Klinger’s Section 8 papers.

  8. Least like episode (brief synopsis):
    A female North Korean spy is treated at the hospital while Col. Flagg awaits to take her for trial and execution.

  9. Tell me, does the show stand up to the test of time? Or yuck, this show sucks would be more appropriate? Why?
    It does stand the test of time, because the humor is universal.

  10. Comment you d like to make (MASH related please).
    It’s only drawback is that it lasted 3-4 times longer than the actual war, which made its continuity hard to follow.

Off topic:
11) Would you like to have the results posted when the numbers have been crunched?
a) Yeah, that’d be great.

26

Hope this helps
Mr. Bear

27

My response…

1)Gender
a) Male

2)Age Group
c) 21-30

3)Area of Residence
California

II

  1. Yes.
  2. Potter.
    Potter was the more developed character, and was not simply there to be more “proof” that the millitary was inept. Blake was a good guy, but was just to bumbling to be realistic. Blake did deliver one of the best quotes from the show though, the quote about young men dying and not being able to change that.

3)Hawkeye-BJ-Charles.
Again, this is in large part because the show shifted more towards the fact that while war was horrible, but that didn’t mean that everyone who was in the millitary was inept idiots. I know people complain that Hawkeye had become more self-righteous as the seasons went on, but at the same time, the show as a whole became less so. The early shows were basically all about the same thing. Everyone in the military is an idiot, Hawkeye and Trapper are the only people in Korea with any brains, and they get away with murder. Basically, the earlier shows made everyone one dimensional, and the later shows made them deeper. Which is why I prefer them.

4)Radar
Klinger was decent as clerk, but Radar fit the position perfectly, though in a slight discontinuity to my preference for the later eps, I prefered the original boyish wheeler-dealer of the earlier episode Radars to the immposibly niave radar of later eps.

5)Potter [sub]regular[/sub] Sidney [sub]guest[/sub]
Potter often reminded me of my grandfather, also he was the levelheadest of the bunch. Sidney was just plain enjoyable, especially in the ep with Flagg or in the practical joker ep.

6)Burns
Frank was just too one dimensional, no redeming qualities. He started to become interesting right before he left, but it was too late. Frank Burns became a doctor because he wanted to be rich, and could care less about his patients. Charles, for all his snobishness and elitism, cared.

7)Hard to say.
This one is generally a tossup between the episodes where you see the humanity in Charles. Of these, the episode with the pianist who looses the abilty to use his right hand, is my favorite. Charles could be a snob, but he had things that could easily strip away that veneer to show he had his faults. The episode where the general wants Hawkeye for his personal physician is also pretty good.

8)Again, hard to say.
Pretty much any of the episodes where hawkeye has thumbed his nose at the military/burns is facing charges, which get dropped because ‘he’s such a great surgeon’. Ugh.

9)Yes, the show stands the test of time.
The show will last for several reasons. For all its faults, it was generally well concieved. The humor wasn’t based on insulting the audience, it was based on people going crazy to stay sane, and the strange duality in that. The humor almost never made light of the truth of what these people were going through. War is hell.

10)Comments.
I prefered the later episodes to the earlier ones, so it seems I am in the minority here. My reasons for this are varied, but the base of them is that I prefer deeper characters with flaws, where the humor can be derived not from people insulting each other, but from the more realistic nature of humans to react to a bad situation by using humor. Another reason that I prefer the later episodes is because as I pointed out earlier, the later episodes showed that even though they weren’t perfect, there were career military people whom were good men, not bloodthirsty idiots without redeming qualities. People do their best, and while there are a-holes in any organization, they are not all encompassing.

  1. Yes, please let me know the results.
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Part One: the demographic questions:

  1. Gender (please pick either a or b folks):
    a) Male

  2. Age Group:
    d) 31 – 40

  3. Province/State/Other and Country (main residence)
    Ohio, USA

               Part Two: the M*A*S*H questions

  4. Did you watch MASH during it’s original run?
    a) Yes

  5. Favorite Colonel?
    a) Henry Blake

2.1) Why? It was a sitcom and Blake was funnier and was insightful. I loved his quote about war, “Rule No. 1 is young men die. Rule No. 2 is doctors can’t change Rule No. 1.”

  1. Favorite combination? c) Hawkeye – BJ – Charles

3.1) Why? Charles, until they mellowed him. He was funnier when he and Hawkeye/BJ didn’t get along, but he was their equal and not their punching bag.

  1. Favorite Company Clerk?
    a) Radar, but only in the first season, when he shrewd and was really running the outfit, not after that when they dumbed him down and decided to change him into a naive farmboy. Or at least, those in charge of the show’s ignorant view of a naive farmboy, because a real farmboy wouldn’t have got so upset when a lamb got slaughtered for Easter dinner. After the first season Radar was as much a cardboard cutout as Burns was.

  2. Favorite character (not the actor): Klinger, for his novel attempts to get out of the Army.

  3. Least liked character: Hawkeye, because he acted like he was so clever when his best material had been done before, and done better, by Groucho Marx.

  4. Favorite episode (brief synopsis): Blake goes home and gets killed on the way. War is hell.

  5. Least like episode (brief synopsis): The one where they showed everybody’s dreams. It was just a gross out fest.

  6. Tell me, does the show stand up to the test of time? Or “yuck, this show sucks” would be more appropriate? Why?

It was a great show up until about year 6, when they ran out of ideas but kept making the show anyway.

  1. Comment you’d like to make (MASH related please). After the first year of the show you’d never know that blacks served in the US Army, except for when they were expressly part of the plot to show that somebody else was a racist. Nurse Ginger disappeared, and so did Spearchucker Jones, so that the 4077th appeared to be lilly white.

Off topic:
11) Would you like to have the results posted when the numbers have been crunched?

              b) Nah, couldn’t care less.

Good luck.

29
  1. b
  2. b
    3.Vermont
    4.b (maybe, I don’t remember the original run, though)
    5.b I enjoy a col. with a backbone.
    6.a (I dunno. Frank was always so whiney and fun, and Trapper was just more devious, methinks.)
    7.a
  3. Hawkeye
    9.Radar’s Bear. (kidding. I don’t know)
    10.Last Episode. The brilliant illustration of Hawkeye’s dissociation was the first time psychology jazzed me.
  4. Last Episode. It’s so painful to watch. Or when Col. Blake got killed. Ouch.
  5. Definately. I’m 20 and I respect it a lot.
    Happy number crunching!
30

Part One: the demographic questions:

  1. Gender (please pick either a or b folks):
    b) Female

  2. Age Group:
    c) 21 – 30

  3. Province/State/Other and Country (main residence)
    Illinois, USA

Part Two: the MAS*H questions

  1. Did you watch MASH during it’s original run?
    a) Yes

  2. Favorite Colonel?
    b) Sherman T. Potter

    2.1) Why?
    First, he was a more interesting, more 3-dimensional, more believable character. Second, because it was more interesting to see Hawkeye et al have to pull something off behind his back or under his nose because he wasn’t oblivious to everything.

  3. Favorite combination?
    c) Hawkeye – BJ – Charles

    3.1) Why?
    Because Charles gave as good as he got (as evidenced by the snake situation in his first episode). The ideal combination would have been Hawkeye - Trapper - Charles, though.

  4. Favorite Company Clerk?
    a) Radar

  5. Favorite character (not the actor):
    Margaret in the middle years of the show, or Trapper.

  6. Least liked character:
    As a person, Frank, but he was intended that way, so as a character he was a success. And BJ in the moustache phase just sucked.

  7. Favorite episode (brief synopsis):
    Any Colonel Flagg episode.

  8. Least like episode (brief synopsis):
    The series finale. And not merely because the show was ending. Also, the episode where BJ tries to prove himself the greatest practical joker of all time be “getting” each of the other characters.

  9. Tell me, does the show stand up to the test of time? Or “yuck, this show sucks” would be more appropriate? Why?
    Well, I still like it, so it has stood the test of time to me. Very little of the humor is dependent on knowing about the trends or pop culture of the time.

  10. Comment you’d like to make (MASH related please).
    Random MASH-related comments, neither important or profound:
    -BJ’s moustache had one redeeming feature: the caterpillar comment.
    -AfterMASH sucked.

Off topic:
11) Would you like to have the results posted when the numbers have been crunched?
a) Yeah, that’d be great.

31

Part one

  1. a
  2. e

Part two

  1. a
  2. b I’m a Henry Morgan fan (do you know he’s been a regular in more TV series than anyone except for Robert Ulrich?)
  3. a – The scripts were better than.
  4. a – Radar was more interesting.
  5. Duke Forrest. :slight_smile: Second choice, Trapper John
  1. Least liked character: Klinger
  2. Favorite episode (brief synopsis): Don’t really have one. Maybe Henry’s last. Or the ones where Loudon Wainwright III was a regular. :slight_smile:
  3. Least like episode (brief synopsis): When Hawkeye suddenly remembered his long-held fear of cold water or some such. I stopped watching after that.
  4. Tell me, does the show stand up to the test of time?
    Yes. The same thing for any show: good writing
32

  1. female

  2. 21-30

  3. TX

  4. b.no

  5. b. Sherman T. Potter
    2.1 he was more credible, and I feel the writers told the viewers more about him, which made him more real

  6. c. Hawkeye - BJ - Charles
    3.1 I really disliked Frank’s character- this group was more evenly matched in mischieviousness and likability

  7. a. Radar

  8. Hawkeye

  9. Frank Burns

  10. tie between the episode where Hawk tries to get Adam’s Ribs and the one where Hawk is accidentally declared dead

  11. the North Korean spy comes to the camp as Charles’s manservant

  12. this satire applies to the ridiculousness of the govt even today

  13. yeah, that’d be great

33

Pt. I
1)a. male
2)d. 31
3)NYC

Pt. II
1)yes
2)Col. Potter
2.1)He just seemed more real to me than Henry Blake. Blake seemed like a “wacky sitcom character”, while the actor playing Potter (can’t remember his name) I would imagine actually being somewhat like the role he played.
3)Hawkeye - BJ - Charles
3.1)Hawkeye and Trapper were too alike and I couldn’t really tell them apart (aside from the obvious physical differences). Burns just was a terrible character all around and existed only to be the butt of anti-“army prig” jokes.
4)Radar
5)Father Mulcahey – no particular reason, I just thought he was cool.
6) As mentioned above, Major Burns.
7)the dream episode in which, one after the other, the cast members fall asleep and have nightmares. {Particularly good was Winchester’s dream that he is performing magic tricks while a soldier is wheeled in to the O.R. and bleeds to death. That image was very haunting.}
8) No one episode stands out in my mind as being particularly bad, but a lot of the episodes do hammer home the same “War and armed forces are bad” message over and over again.
9) Although I still do like the show and watch re-runs from time to time, some of it’s attitudes are dated and one-sided. I don’t think every last person who voluntarily joins the army is a violent son-of-a-bitch. Nor do I think that every high ranking official is a cold-blooded bureaucrat. The show also tends to be maudlin and sentimental.
10)M.A.S.H., when it was good, was one of the best sitcoms ever on t.v. But like any series that runs on too long (it was on, what, 11 years?) there were many repetitive, clunker episodes which tend to degrade the impact of the better episodes.
11) Yeah I’d like to see the numbers crunched.

I hopes this helps you, how it will I can’t fathom, but oh well…

34

Part One: the demographic questions:

  1. Gender (please pick either a or b folks):
    a) Male

  2. Age Group:
    f) I’d really rather not say

  3. Province/State/Other and Country (main residence)
    Oregon

Part Two: the MAS*H questions

  1. Did you watch MASH during it’s original run?
    a) Yes

  2. Favorite Colonel?
    a) Henry Blake

    2.1) Why?
    Potter was a more well-rounded and realistic character. This one was a tough call. I just think that Blake being in charge explains how the rest of the camp can get away with all that, much better than Potter’s command did. Also, I really found him a charismatic character, always leaning on the 19-year-old company clerk for help.

  3. Favorite combination?
    a) Hawkeye – Trapper – Frank

    3.1) Why?
    Also a tough one. Winchester was a much better character than Burns, but Trapper was a better character than B.J. I felt like B.J. was way too elastic - he was whatever they wanted him to be, from week to week. Trapper was much funnier and more consistent.

  4. Favorite Company Clerk?
    a) Radar

  5. Favorite character (not the actor):
    O’Reilly. Very likeable, very vulnerable. Almost unrealistic in his vulnerability (teddy bear?). Anyway, I dig the way he and Blake play off each other.

  6. Least liked character:
    Mulcahy. Very one-dimensional. Never got used to his voice.

  7. Favorite episode (brief synopsis):
    Blake’s girlfriend comes around starts hitting on Hawkeye. Burns utters the line, “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.”

  8. Least liked episode (brief synopsis):

  9. I haven’t seen it for a while, but having seen it as an adult, I’d say it hasn’t stood the test of time very well. Every line Hawkeye utters to a female is demeaning and would qualify as sexual harassment had the concept existed at the time. Alan Alda rips off Groucho Marx quite shamelessly, and having seen a couple of Marx Brothers movies I have to say I prefer the original. I don’t quite know what to make of its treatment of U.S. allies. South Koreans are portrayed from time to time, usually as helpless civilians. The only U.N. combatant portrayed in the show (that I can think of) other than the U.S. is Luxembourg. Hmmm.

  10. Comment you’d like to make (MASH related please).
    I don’t think the earlier episodes are objectively better than the later ones, I just like them more since they’re more about funny dialogue and less about simplistic morality.

Off topic:
11) Would you like to have the results posted when the numbers have been crunched?
a) Yeah, that’d be great.

35

Part One: the demographic questions:

  1. Gender (please pick either a or b folks):
    b) Female

  2. Age Group:
    c) 21 – 30

  3. Province/State/Other and Country (main residence)

Nevada (being in Texas is merely a temporary condition)

Part Two: the MAS*H questions

  1. Did you watch MASH during it’s original run?
    a) Yes (A qualified yes. I think I did, but was really young. I do recall watching the final ep and liking it.)

  2. Favorite Colonel?
    b) Sherman T. Potter

    2.1) Why?
    I liked his mix of gruffness and soft-heartedness.

  3. Favorite combination?
    c) Hawkeye – BJ – Charles

    3.1) Why?
    I really like the dynamic of the group. Charles was usually the butt of the jokes, but unlike Frank he had the ability to fight back.

  4. Favorite Company Clerk?
    c) oh, don’t make me decide between the two. They both had their equal appeal.

  5. Favorite character (not the actor):
    Charles. basically based on the final episode. sniff, wipes tear from eye.

  6. Least liked character:
    Frank. His was a one-note character.

  7. Favorite episode (brief synopsis):
    The one where Hawkeye has to give the eulogy for the nurse that hardly anyone knew. A real tearjerker.

  8. Least like episode (brief synopsis):
    Hmmmm, none come to mind. I probably blocked them out. Though…I tend to dislike the eps where Hawkeye goes crazy.

  9. Tell me, does the show stand up to the test of time? Or “yuck, this show sucks” would be more appropriate? Why?

Test of time baby. By basing itself in a during a historical period, it avoided the pop culture references that give other shows limited life spans. Also, the main issue it dealt with, the value of humanity, is pretty timeless.

  1. Comment you’d like to make (MASH related please).
    Off topic:
  2. Would you like to have the results posted when the numbers have been crunched?
    a) Yeah, that’d be great.

Hopefully I chimed in before the final project.

36

Part One: the demographic questions:

  1. Gender (please pick either a or b folks):
    a) Male
    b) Female

  2. Age Group:
    a) Younger than 10
    b) 11 – 20
    c) 21 – 30
    d) 31 – 40
    e) 41 +
    f) I’d really rather not say

  3. Province/State/Other and Country (main residence) Michigan

Part Two: the MAS*H questions

  1. Did you watch MASH during it’s original run?
    a) Yes, but only the last couple of seasons.
    b) No

  2. Favorite Colonel?
    a) Henry Blake
    b) Sherman T. Potter

    2.1) Why?
    Because even though he was a buffoon who was completely incapable of leading over his troops, he still makes me laugh harder than any other character on the show.

  3. Favorite combination?
    a) Hawkeye – Trapper – Frank
    b) Hawkeye – BJ – Frank
    c) Hawkeye – BJ – Charles

    3.1) Why?
    Because in those early shows, the pranks that Hawkeye and Trapper would pull on Frank, especially when they were in an intoxicated state, were absolutely priceless.

  4. Favorite Company Clerk?
    a) Radar
    b) Klinger

  5. Favorite character (not the actor): A toss up between Henry Blake and Hawkeye in the early years of the show.

  6. Least liked character: Father Mulcahy

  7. Favorite episode (brief synopsis): The episode where Hawkeye came back to the camp after R&R, only to find out that Trapper was shipped home while he was away. This is the same episode where BJ makes his first appearance.

  8. Least like episode (brief synopsis): ** Like someone else mentioned, the episode where Hawkeye gets into an accident and ends up spending the evening at a Korean home, ranting and raving about stupid stuff the whole time.**

  9. Tell me, does the show stand up to the test of time? Or “yuck, this show sucks” would be more appropriate? Why? I think this show was probably the best TV show ever made. Of course, I’m biased because I love all medical shows in general.

  10. Comment you’d like to make (MASH related please).I agree with most other people that the show did get very preachy and self-righteous the last couple of seasons. I think they should have ended it a couple of years before they did.

Off topic:
11) Would you like to have the results posted when the numbers have been crunched?
a) Yeah, that’d be great.
b) Nah, couldn’t care less.