# Things that bother me about M asterisk A asterisk S asterisk H (the TV show)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted
**Created:** [June 4, 2021, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583 "2021-06-04T02:10:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/41 "2021-06-04T17:42:36Z")
The real difference is that Flagg is a comedy antagonist - so anything done to thwart him is comedy material. The other officer was a drama antagonist, so drama rules apply.
See Frank Burns (comedy) vs. Winchester (drama)
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/42 "2021-06-04T17:50:42Z")
I get that. And I said I have no problem with either episode on it’s own.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/43 "2021-06-04T17:53:43Z")
Understood. MASH is just a weird case because it has both comedy and drama opponents, and so the viewer can get whiplash even though either episode alone seems fine.
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### Author:  [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/44 "2021-06-04T18:31:38Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> Well I certainly remembered when I was watching live.
>
> MASH was one of the few shows you could see often even when it was still on the air. MASH was in syndication while it was still on the air in 1979. Before that CBS was airing reruns during daytime TV. It wasn’t as accessible as a streaming show but you could watch old episodes pretty easily and early on.
It’s entirely possible the _writers_ didn’t remember. They might not even have been the same writers from four seasons ago. And even if they were, viewers (and readers) often have a much firmer grasp of continuity issues like that than the writers themselves. Arthur Conan Doyle famously had all sorts of continuity errors in the Sherlock Holmes stories which were spotted by readers. Marvel Comics had a long-standing tradition of the “No-Prize” awarded to readers who spotted a continuity error and then fanwanked a justification for it.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/45 "2021-06-04T18:36:52Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#):
>
> The haircuts weren’t just inappropriate to the time, they were inappropriate to the milieu, as well - these guys were in the military.
I was watching **Kelly’s Heroes** one time and my mother commented: “There weren’t really any hippies in the army in World War 2.”
Gee, thanks for the history lesson, Mom.
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### Author:  [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/46 "2021-06-04T18:37:57Z")
If that bothered you, Harry Morgan appearing as a loon early on and then returning as a different character to command the whole thing must have really driven you nuts! It bothered me, and I barely watched the show (not because I didn’t like it, but because my academic parents weren’t much for TV and so we didn’t have one for most of my childhood).
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/47 "2021-06-04T18:48:14Z")
Henry wasn’t regular Army, was he? So he would have handled the staff differently than a professional officer.
It was in the B&W television interview where Potter emphasized the doctors weren’t regular Army. He understands that and wouldn’t treat them as if they were, because he wouldn’t get the same results.
In the documentary on the making of the show (narrated by Mary Tyler Moore), Alda said they had originally wanted to recycle the appendectomy episode the way it was, but Mike Farrell objected, saying BJ would never do that. They were arguing the point when they realized Farrell’s objections would actually make a much better episode, so they changed it I thought it was interesting that in neither episode did Hawkeye express any remorse for his surgical mutilation.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/48 "2021-06-04T18:50:47Z")
For reference:
[ ](https://imgur.com/tc4AeKX)
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/49 "2021-06-04T18:51:13Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> Henry wasn’t regular Army, was he?
No, he wasn’t – like the others, he was a civilian doctor who got drafted. And, as noted above, when the rest of the 4077th discovered that a “regular Army” officer would be replacing Henry, there was initial trepidation, and fear that he would be running the unit “by the book.”
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/50 "2021-06-04T18:55:17Z")
Seven seconds of research indicates that the movie version may have been an even bigger offender, hair-wise:
[ ](https://imgur.com/8lijJf2)
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/51 "2021-06-04T18:59:56Z")
Living in the field with hair like that, head lice would be a constant problem. Which is why the military insists on men (and I suppose some women too) having short haircuts.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/52 "2021-06-04T19:11:18Z")
A brief aside: _ **MASH** _ wasn’t the only show where hairstyles were a problem. Gene Roddenberry wanted the males on _ **Star Trek** _ to adopt a futuristic cut, by they refused. The pointed sideburns they eventually wore were a kind of compromise solution. (Though one does wonder what they would have done if Shatner had decided to along with the futuristic plan. His rugs would be real collectors’ items today. 😄)
Okay, end of hijack.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/53 "2021-06-04T19:46:09Z")
As someone who was around at that time, I must point out that short hair wasn’t just military discipline, it was the style back then. We kids had to get haircuts every two weeks, and adults were no different.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/54 "2021-06-04T19:56:20Z")
There was one episode of _ **MASH** _ where they were getting a temporary CO. Before he left for wherever he was going, Potter warned Hawkeye and BJ that his stand-in was “a real stickler for military regulations, especially hair length.” I don’t recall how the story ended, but I’m pretty sure no one got their haircut.
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### Author:  [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/55 "2021-06-04T20:41:18Z")
When he first arrived, Col. Potter put the kibosh on Klinger’s cross-dressing (“I’m finished – I gotta burn my bloomers!”) to the extent that Klinger gets a psychosomatic rash from his uniform. After a marathon surgery session Potter, Hawkeye and BJ bond in a drinking session and Hawkeye brings up Klinger. The next scene is Klinger showing up in a girly-sailor suit. Potter says, “Nice outfit!” to which Klinger responds “It’s from the Shirley Temple collection!”
Potter asserted his authority several times in ways Henry Blake never would, but he realized he had good people working for him and that he should let them run through their paces. He never shied away from reprimanding them when they went off the reservation, such as the time Hawkeye got shit-faced before a surgery.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/56 "2021-06-04T21:27:06Z")
> [@phs3](#):
>
> If that bothered you, Harry Morgan appearing as a loon early on and then returning as a different character to command the whole thing must have really driven you nuts! It bothered me, and I barely watched the show (not because I didn’t like it, but because my academic parents weren’t much for TV and so we didn’t have one for most of my childhood).
General Steele!
> [@terentii](#):
>
> Gene Roddenberry wanted the males on _ **Star Trek** _ to adopt a futuristic cut, by they refused. The pointed sideburns they eventually wore were a kind of compromise solution.
Scotty’s third season haircut was weird.
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### Author:  [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/57 "2021-06-04T21:33:49Z")
> [@gdave](#):
>
> > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
> >
> > Haircuts aren’t mentioned, but when Col. Potter takes over the unit, before his arrival the others do mention that he’s regular army and isn’t likely to put up with the general lack of military discipline and regulations like Blake.
>
> It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the episode, but when Potter shows up, isn’t he a lot more lax than they were expecting? I thought he said something along the lines that while he wasn’t going to be as lax as his predecessor, he still understood that he was dealing with skilled civilians with established civilian careers pressed into military service, not career soldiers, and expecting the same level of discipline from them as he would from infantry or career soldiers would be foolish and counter-productive. Of course, I may be misremembering that.
True, and that makes sense for the doctors and nurses. But the 4077th had plenty of grunts, as well - you’d think Potter would be a little more stern with the motor pool guys (like Rizzo) or the cooks (like Igor).
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### Author:  [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/58 "2021-06-04T21:48:57Z")
You can’t maintain good order and discipline in a unit if you let officers break the rules but insist on strict adherence by the enlisted. If there are relaxed hair care standards for the officers, the enlisted have to be allowed the same relaxed standards. And most of those enlisted are also draftees, and Potter knows that the unit works a lot better if he treats draftees differently than he would career soldiers.
Plus, of course, the actors all have 70s hair, and it’s a convenient narrative conceit to justify that.
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### Author:  [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/59 "2021-06-04T21:54:48Z")
True. But on the other hand, RHIP. And the officers only have to answer to Col. Potter. The enlisted guys have sergeants.
Of course, this is all in-universe fanwank. As you say, it’s a bunch of actors with Seventies hair.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/60 "2021-06-04T21:58:52Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#):
>
> As you say, it’s a bunch of actors with Seventies hair.
And Seventies porn 'stache.
[ ](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/15/22/3D438E1B00000578-4228892-image-a-52_1487197902493.jpg)
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