# I just watched the entire 11-season run of M\*A\*S\*H **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 4, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282 "2011-06-04T03:09:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/21 "2011-06-05T01:13:17Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Yes that is it, and I still think that this is first episode where find out Radar’s real first name. Hmmm…I’m not sure about that. Anyone know how we can find out? I thought we knew his name from before. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/22 "2011-06-05T01:55:47Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Hmmm…I’m not sure about that. Anyone know how we can find out? I thought we knew his name from before. My recollection from some of the anniversary get togethers is that they said this was the first time his actual name is given. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/23 "2011-06-05T01:56:11Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Hmmm…I’m not sure about that. Anyone know how we can find out? I thought we knew his name from before. I am not certain, but I would bet serious coin that Radar’s given name of Walter had been known about for several seasons before this episode. (Afterall, it had BJ on it, telling Frank that just because he prayed for chocolate pudding and didn’t get any, that it didn’t mean the guy wasn’t really Jesus, so it was at least in the 3rd or 4th season—It also had Col. Potter, who was pissed off at Major Sidney Freedman for saying that as far as he could tell, the guy might just be The Real Deal…) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/24 "2011-06-05T02:09:05Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Hmmm…I’m not sure about that. Anyone know how we can find out? I thought we knew his name from before. AFAICT, his given name was only used four times: by himself in episodes nine & 14 of season four, by Winchester in episode five of season 8, and by “Jesus” in episode 9 of season four. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/25 "2011-06-05T03:02:55Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Those were my favourite episodes, too, and the interview with Mulcahey is why. > > NB: Paraphrase, based on memory. I think this is pretty close, though. > > _Reporter:_ Has being here changed you in any way? > _Mulcahey:_ Sometimes, when it’s cold, like it is today, the surgeons will cut into the patient’s body, and steam rises from the wound. And the surgeons will warm their hands in the steam before getting to work. How can anyone witness that and not be changed? I read somewhere that that anecdote was told (as factual) to the screenwriters by someone who served in a real MASH unit. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/26 "2011-06-05T03:03:08Z")
Wikipedia is so damn smart: > [@](#): > > Radar’s given first name is revealed in the Season 4 episode “Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?” when he asks a disturbed patient (who believes he is Jesus Christ) to bless his teddy bear. The patient complies, then blesses “Radar,” who answers him “I’m Walter.” > > His name was revealed to the other members of 4077th during the viewing of a home movie sent by his mother, who addressed it to Walter (and says “I love you, Walter” to the camera). When Radar confirmed that this was his given name, Hawkeye suggested that he “give it back.” > > The only M_A_S\*H staff member to address Radar by his real name was Major Charles Winchester, as they said goodbye when Radar went home: “The best to you in your bucolic endeavors.” “The same to you, sir.” “Thank you, Walter.” mmm ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/27 "2011-06-05T03:15:54Z")
Since we’re doing favorite Frank Burns quotes: “I don’t chew my cabbage twice.” And while I’m at it, one of my favorite Hawkeye quotes: (He and Margaret are in a jeep when they get a flat tire. Margaret insists on changing the tire so as not to endanger Hawkeye’s surgeon hands. She begins jacking the Jeep up while Hawkeye is still sitting in it. Margaret pauses and says, “the least you can do is get out of the Jeep.”) Hawkeye: “Never let it be said that I didn’t do the least I could have done.” mmm ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/28 "2011-06-05T06:38:34Z")
_flips the switch from “irreverent” to “maudlin”_ ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/29 "2011-06-05T06:43:25Z")
I like the Hawkeye quote when he was talking about refusing to carry a gun. [QUOTE=Hawkeye] I will not carry a gun… I’ll carry your books, I’ll carry a torch, I’ll carry a tune, I’ll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I’ll even hari-kari if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun! [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/30 "2011-06-05T07:26:43Z")
I enjoyed M_A_S\*H years ago, but two things have always bugged me about the show: - Klinger’s attempts to get a section 8 dischage because he was “crazy”. Now, I was fairly young when the series first aired, but by the time I got to college and watched the show it reruns, it was pretty clear he was intending to fake homosexuality, but the standards and practices folks in the 60’s-70’s thought that was just too provocative, hence the coding of "crazy (BTW, is the army regualtion against homosexuality called something liek “section 8”?). - “Spearchucker” Jones; around for just the first few episodes, I guess the writers figured out pretty fast that this kind of blatant racism was a really, really bad idea. A shame, because I think M_A_S\*H could have benefitted from a regular African-American character (and a little less of the 4-5 interchangeable asian guest stars playing Korean; really, how many times was Mako on the show?). ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/31 "2011-06-05T08:19:12Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > I enjoyed M_A_S\*H years ago, but two things have always bugged me about the show: > > - Klinger’s attempts to get a section 8 dischage because he was “crazy”. Now, I was fairly young when the series first aired, but by the time I got to college and watched the show it reruns, it was pretty clear he was intending to fake homosexuality, but the standards and practices folks in the 60’s-70’s thought that was just too provocative, hence the coding of "crazy (BTW, is the army regualtion against homosexuality called something liek “section 8”?). Actually, he really just wanted them to think he was crazy. When they had Dr. Freedman come to interview him, the good doctor said straight out that he would note that Klinger was a homosexual and a transvestite and that he’d be sent home. Klinger was outraged at this assessment and refused to accept a discharge on these grounds. [Cite.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar%E2%80%99s_Report) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/32 "2011-06-05T08:39:15Z")
Potter and Father Mulcahy were my favorites. I loved the episode that taught the meaning of the word tontine Also the episode where a solider asks for sanctuary inside the “church”. The Father wants to give it to him but others argue that it is really a mess tent. That was great episode. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/33 "2011-06-05T16:02:28Z")
I love love love M_A_S\*H. One of my favorite episodes that hasn’t been mentioned: Blood Brothers (that’s the one where Father Mulcahy is tying to impress a visiting Cardinal. but when he talks to the soldier with leukemia, realizes he has been rather selfish. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/34 "2011-06-05T16:24:54Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#): > > Actually, he really just wanted them to think he was crazy. When they had Dr. Freedman come to interview him, the good doctor said straight out that he would note that Klinger was a homosexual and a transvestite and that he’d be sent home. Klinger was outraged at this assessment and refused to accept a discharge on these grounds. [Cite.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar%E2%80%99s_Report) A strong secondary motivation was using his cross-dressing ways as a coping mechanism given the horrors around him, even if Klinger would deny it if you pointed it out to him. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/35 "2011-06-05T16:47:24Z")
I also recently finished watching it. It definitely suffered later in the run, but to me, it wasn’t so much Hawkeye’s increased preachiness, but the fact that the writers seem to have forgotten how to end an episode with a decent punch line. One example is when someone was writing a letter home, and one of the events described was Colonel Potter’s attempt to break a free-throw shooting record, which at the time was 31, but in the letter incident, he fails. Then, as the writer finishes his letter, Colonel Potter walks in and triumphantly yells, “32!” - and that’s how the episode ends. That’s…not dramatic, nor funny. From approximately season 7 and on, that flatness is sort of how most of the episodes ended. It seems to me that Hawkeye is more screwed up than anyone else in the camp. I remember he’s claustrophobic in the C_A_V\*E episode, he has repressed memories of his buddy trying to drown him, and there must have been other issues. Winchester was by far my favorite character on the show, his haughty manner made his human moments that much more memorable. My favorite episode is the one in which he is introduced, where Hawkeye discovers that Winchester had moved the snake Hawkeye had put in his bed to Hawkeye’s bed, screams, and Winchester calmly says (in echo of Hawkeye’s earlier sarcastic comment) “Please…Mozart.” Beautiful. The final episode was definitely above the level of the average episode of the later seasons. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/36 "2011-06-05T17:29:40Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > It seems to me that Hawkeye is more screwed up than anyone else in the camp. I remember he’s claustrophobic in the C_A_V\*E episode, he has repressed memories of his buddy trying to drown him, and there must have been other issues. > . He also had psychosomatic hiccups, if that is the right term. He thinks about his friend the pushed him into the water as a kid, nearly drowning him. Honestly, the over-simplification of psychology is one thing the show was weak about. They have that episode where the soldier suffers from amnesia and hypnosis reveals he found his dead brother after a battle…the whole thing is a bit lame. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/37 "2011-06-05T17:46:09Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#): > > **Dreams** (season 8, episode 22): During a long stretch of work, each of the main characters takes a nap and has a dream. Each is disturbing and somewhat surreal. I distinctly remembered the sounds from this episode in particular. There is a moment when Winchester dreams there is a patient in front of him, bleeding through the sheet, and he’s helpless to do anything about it. The man makes gurgling noises as he dies. I loved that one. I remember Hawkeye’s dream really creeping me out as a kid. ISTR hearing the cast members wrote their own dreams? I remember watching _Major Fred C. Dobbs_ (S01E22) on a black and white TV. I didn’t know what Frank was pointing out on the ground at the end, or understand the humor of the jeep, until years later. “Tonight’s double feature is _Greed_, and _The Major was a Miner_, starring Frank “There goes my transfer” Burns.” ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/38 "2011-06-05T18:39:00Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > He also had psychosomatic hiccups, if that is the right term. He thinks about his friend the pushed him into the water as a kid, nearly drowning him. It was sneezing, not hiccups. And really, really badly done sneezing. They should have had a stunt sneezer for Alan Alda, because his sneezes sounded like very fake screams. I agree, a lot of the psychology was done very poorly. I especially groaned at Dr. Friedman meeting the Asian-American soldier just once, figuring out what was wrong with him and hypnotizing him to twitch his wrist. Thought of another funny moment from early in the series. Radar talking to Burns about the time difference between Korea and the U.S. when trying to make a phone call: > [@M\*A\*S\*H season 2](#): > > - > > Radar: I can’t reach them now sir, I’ll be calling them yesterday. > Frank: That’s ridiculous! > Radar: Oh no sir, they’re 16 hours behind us. Our today is their yesterday. > Frank: It’s 5 o’clock in the afternoon! > Radar: Well that’s here sir. Back there it’s one oclock yesterday morning. Everyone’s gone to bed and said, ‘see ya tomorrow’. Which, by the time their tomorrow comes will be our yesterday. > Frank: Isn’t it 16 hours later there? > Radar: No, sir. > Frank: Well, what if it is? When would it be now here if it was our today there? > Radar: You see we don’t have the same now, sir. By the time their now becomes our now this’ll be then. > Frank: Ok. I think I got a bead on it. In order for me to talk to them at 9 o’clock in the morning their time what time does it have to be our when? > Radar: Uh, 1 o’clock our tomorrow morning will get you 9 AM their today there, sir. > Frank: Then that’s what we’ll do. > Radar: Yes, sir. As soon as I get a circuit, there’s a two day wait. > Frank: I can’t wait two days, that’ll be three days ago! > Radar: Right. - ---
**Author:** ![Boggette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/39 "2011-06-05T20:01:31Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#): > > My vote for funniest character is Colonel Flagg. I was never a Flagg fan, but some of the lines wrapped around him are wonderful. Flagg: “I have no home, I am the wind.” and out the window he goes. _crash_ Hawkeye: _looking out the window_ “I think the wind just broke his leg” ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/40 "2011-06-05T20:22:40Z")
I just came in to post my favorite Frank Burns bit: Frank: Why does everyone take an instant dislike to me? Trapper/Hawkeye/BJ/Whoever: It saves time Frank. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282.md?page=3)