# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**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 7, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/61 "2011-06-07T16:37:58Z")
Oh, I agree, Shodan, that Winchester’s moments of genuine feeling behind his pompous veneer are far better than Hawkeye’s preachiness. I still think that the “32!” didn’t fit well with the immediate scene. But as in all things, YMMV. Still, many, many episodes from season 7 and onward left me with the sense that the writers just couldn’t come up with a good finishing line. ---
**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 7, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/62 "2011-06-07T16:38:20Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > “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. > [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > No, someone just realized that there were no surgeons of color in MASH units. As for all the repeat Asian guests, same thing happened on other shows. There just weren’t enough Asian actors around Hollywood at the time. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > That’s odd, because [Captain Oliver Harmon “Spearchucker” Jones or Captain Oliver Wendell “Spearchucker” Jones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recurring_characters_in_M*A*S*H#Spearchucker_Jones) was in both the book and the movie. And since Richard Hooker was writing from experience, you’d think he’d know that. Quite right. After a couple decades of “no black surgeons in Korea”, [turns out there was indeed one in the 8055](http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/memoirs/secor_harold/index.htm). Doesn’t seem to be any word on if he was really a neurosurgeon or not. ---
**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 7, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/63 "2011-06-07T16:45:22Z")
“Spearchucker” Jones was, of course, called that because he was a track and field athlete in college and threw javelin. But the average television viewer in 1970s America probably didn’t know that. So to them, it must have seemed to be a racist nickname, regardless of whether it was historically accurate to have a black surgeon in Korea. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/64 "2011-06-07T17:03:43Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > I know I have Margarets dream in reruns. She is in a wedding dress. Maybe parts of it have been edited, but not completely. I think her full dream was shown for a while, put part of Potter’s dream and all of Klinger’s were cut. In later airings they were restored, at the expense of… Margaret’s dream, maybe? My favorite episodes were the ones where Morgan and Farrell were part of the cast, but so was Linville. Those were the funniest episodes and they had not yet gotten preachy. Favorite line: (Mulcahey says something.) Frank: Well it’s none of your business! Margaret: Frank! Frank: Sorry Father. Sorry mother. ---
**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 7, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/65 "2011-06-07T18:27:05Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > “Spearchucker” Jones was, of course, called that because he was a track and field athlete in college and threw javelin. But the average television viewer in 1970s America probably didn’t know that. So to them, it must have seemed to be a racist nickname, regardless of whether it was historically accurate to have a black surgeon in Korea. Also, large ensenble casts wouldn’t come into vogue for another decade. Had the 4077 come in '83 instead of going off there might have been a more realistic cast. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/66 "2011-06-07T18:46:23Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Also, large ensenble casts wouldn’t come into vogue for another decade. Had the 4077 come in '83 instead of going off there might have been a more realistic cast. I wonder if that’s why they didn’t have a Duke character. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282/67 "2011-06-07T19:07:51Z")
Another long time fan chiming in. I don’t think I really saw that many original episodes, definitely not in the first few seasons, as it was probably a little over my head at 7 year old, but I always watched the re-runs. In fact, I can recall watching the entire run of the show over a year or so by watching back-to-back syndicated episodes right after work every day. Make that the entire run, twice. The early episodes are the better ones in my opinion because they all dislike each other. Conflict. Conflict makes funny. When Hawkeye and BJ and Margaret and Winchester and whole rest of the cast link arms and sing Kumbaya – who cares? I want to see them torturing Frank and mocking Winchester and teasing Hot Lips. When they all became friends, it became boring. I still love the scene where they got a hold of Frank’s wedding film and made fun of it ala MST3K. Then the scene is repeated at the end of the episode when he and Margaret go through the same pantomime getting into a Jeep. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-the-entire-11-season-run-of-m-a-s-h/584282.md?page=3)