Definitely the first three seasons for me. If one of those episodes is on TV, I will most likely watch. Any other episode, maybe I’ll watch.
I liked Colonel Blake over Potter, but not by a whole lot.
I liked Burns over Winchester, but I definitely recognize that his character was getting stale so Winchester was a great replacement. As others have stated, it was nice that he was a more worthy opponent.
And Trapper was leaps and bounds better than BJ. Much better pairing for Hawkeye. It’s too bad that the writers focused more on Hawkeye, trying to make Trapper into a sidekick. I always saw them as equals, myself. I never saw that with BJ. I always felt like he was trying to hard, whereas with Trapper it just came naturally.
I wish Trapper would have stuck around, because I would have loved to see how he interacted with Potter and especially Winchester.
So I guess my vote is based on Trapper/BJ, because I think I would have enjoyed more than just those three years if Trapper had stayed.
I only began to watch MAS*H, the television series, because I admired the movie, and wanted to see how close they could come with a 30 minute format on tv. Not very. But the first season, was pretty dark for a “sit-com.” They still performed surgery after drinking, no one, except Hot Lips, had any sense of purpose except to get home alive. Henry Blake and Trapper’s irreverence fit well, and Larry Linville’s incompetence was also fitting.
But the show also finished low in the ratings(76th?) and they almost canceled it. So for season 2, they lightened it up, made Hawkeye a little more noble and Henry Blake a little more disciplined, and Frank Burns a little less dangerous and more of a hapless fool. After that I didn’t really watch it in prime time, although I have seen most of the episodes in reruns.
But you have to assume ‘buffer’. The very first episode was not the first day of the war. Things had been going on and become stable for a while. Must have taken some time for Hawkeye and Trapper to become friends, for Burns and Houlihan to hook up, for Radar to develop his radar, etc. Say somewhere from three to six months from the time the MASH unit was set up, assuming that the main players were the initial staff.
Then, there was that episode that took a whole year (without any cast changes). And the final episode Hawkeye was away in therapy for quite some time (months? I can’t remember), so you lose time at both ends.
And I don’t remember how many Christmas-themed episodes there were, but I bet it was more than 3.
This. I loved Henry, he was way better than Potter, and you are right about BJ. Frank did get pretty annoying, so I wasn’t altogether sorry to see him go, but the change in Margaret was simply absurd. Her character and role in the show completely changed, and lost all its edge. (I always assumed this was Alda’s fault, but maybe it happened even before he got too much control.)
As for losing Radar and having Klinger take over his role, shark completely jumped.:mad:
Tough call. I liked BJ and Winchester better than Trapper John and Frank (all had their merits), but the show did get pretty preachy toward the end. Radar, however, was always much more fun to watch than Klinger.
RADAR: (bursts into the office right before BLAKE calls for him) Yes, sir?
I voted for the first three seasons. Mostly because the episode where Hawkeye had a meltdown and was crying really turned me off as kid watching the show.
I don’t know precisely when in the run this puts it, but Potter is in charge, Radar is present and being uncanny, and Klinger, if he shows up at all (I don’t know how much overlap he had with Radar) must be in drag.
***I liked the early series. I was in the Army stationed at Letterman AMC at the Presidio of San Francisco in the late 70’s when I watched a rerun of the Captain Tuttle episode. While they were making up the fake 201 file for Tuttle they decided that his religion was “Reformed Druid” (they worship shrubbery). The next duty day I went to the Personnel Clerk and had my official religion changed to “Druid, Reformed”. I was also issued with new dog tags showing my religion as “Druid, Reformed” (I used these dog tags throughout my 20 year career and still have them) [the clerk didn’t bat an eyelid about my change of religions. it was San Francisco, after all:)]
That’d roughly be seasons 4-7. Gary Burghoff left in Season 8, and for some time before that Klinger had been transitioning to a company clerk trainee under Radar. They’d been mellowing his ‘character in a dress’ schtick for a while before that, so Seasons 4, 5, 6 were probably the ones you liked most.
My vote was the first 3 seasons because they’re simply by far (IMHO) the funniest.
With the passing of Henry, itself a brilliant move, it appeared like the show felt it had a responsibility to be more grounded, more mature, more realistic. Henry & Frank were ridiculous characters, but Potter and Winchester seemed like types you were more likely to find in an actual MASH. They just weren’t as funny.
I could see how Loretta Swit might’ve fought to be warmer, softer, more well-rounded because as an actor, you want to have a character that will grow and deepen and have more colors after many years. And she became definitely more complex. Just less funny.
Now the show always stayed fairly funny, but after so many episodes, they exhausted a lot of the material they had so had to resort to gazing inward more (dramatic/less funny) or take some of the issues around the war more seriously (gravitas/less funny). The first three years are the fastest, loosest, and most irreverent–and with most comedies, that’s what I want the most.
Sis claims there was a season that had both Frank and Winchester. I don’t remember that, but I do remember that I didn’t like Frank all that much. He was an okay enemoy at first, but he got more annoying. Winchester was insufferable at first, but at least he mellowed out. Klinger as clerk just wasn’t all that exciting.
So that leaves me with choice number 3, just like everyone else. I have no idea when Alda became creative consultant.
She’s wrong. Frank never appeared on screen after the fifth season finale, and Winchester never before the sixth season premiere. Frank was spoken to on the phone in that first Winchester episode, but only the “present” side was ever heard, Frank’s being on the other side is only ever implied.
No, Frank and Winchester were never on the show together. Frank went nuts and got shipped stateside (and promoted), and Winchester was his replacement.
I pretty much liked every episode where Alan Alda’s participation was minimal,* though I do prefer early Radar to later Radar, Klinger in drag to Klinger not in drag, Winchester to Frank, and Potter to Henry (slightly). It’s a pity Trapper wasn’t given more of a role, and that the more diverse early diverse characters were dropped before the end of the first season.
*That said, my favorite episode is still “Captain Tuttle.”
I find the early seasons a little too wacky and slapstick for my taste. After Blake was killed off the show got some more meat to it but kept the humor. But the last few years were just too preachy for my taste. So the middle era was my favorite.
And Larry Linville himself did not like how Frank was still two dimensional while everyone else was developing some depth to their character. So he left the show. I would rather have seen Frank become a more formidable opponent after losing Margaret than to just bring in a new character who was more formidable.
Unfortunately for him they could not treat the character like they did in the movie. He was not only mocked for his hypocrisy, he was mocked for his sincere religious beliefs. Not something that was going to be put on network TV at the time. They had to write him as an incompetent clown. Its hard to come back from that.
