M*A*S*H- a season by season discussion!

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by ohnothimagen, Dec 1, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Characterizing the type of criticism that's occurred in this thread as "Alda bashing" seems not at all accurate. It's certainly possible to be a fan of someone's overall work, yet still find fault with certain aspects of that work, or of a particular direction taken in the work. I would imagine virtually anyone who is a fan of the MASH series overall is a fan of Alda. Describing any criticism of him whatsoever as "bashing" greatly oversimplifies the situation.

    This also seems a straw man argument, if it's intended to characterize the criticism that's appeared here. No one is condemning Alda, nor even criticizing him with the emotionality or stridency you are suggesting. I think MASH (and the Hawkeye character) were better before they started taking themselves so seriously. Alda's writing was a big part of that change. I still enjoyed the show in its later years, just not as much as I had before. If that is "bashing" then the bar for what constitutes bashing has been lowered to the point a flea could not limbo underneath it.[/QUOTE]

    That about sums up how I feel about him.
     
  2. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    If I said that you said that they said something that you didn't really say that they said, then I'm sorry I said that.
     
    RayS likes this.
  3. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    To quote my favorite MASH line ever (I bet I already quoted it in this very thread):

    Hawkeye to Colonel Flagg on his willingness to commit suicide for the cause: "If we had more men like you we'd have less men like you". :)
     
  4. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Fair enough, but there does seem to be a degree of dislike of him both as a person and of his influence on the show that is somewhat surprising to me.
     
  5. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I can only speak for myself, but I really like him as a person. Based on what I've read he seems like a great guy, and I tend to agree with his politics for what that's worth. My only gripe with him is the direction he took the show (and to some degree the character of Hawkeye). MASH is almost like two different series, and I probably judge the second series more harshly because it "replaced" the first series, which I had really loved.
     
  6. Jay_Z

    Jay_Z Forum Resident

    Like it or not, I think we all have to admit that the tone of M*A*S*H changed a lot. Maybe more than most shows of its length of time on the air.

    Now All In The Family changed a lot if you take it all the way through Archie Bunker's Place. All of the characters left except Archie, who mellowed out a lot. The show lost its edge I suppose. But if you loved the Archie character, wanted to see more, well you could. The show as not groundbreaking any more, but I doubt a lot of people really hated Archie Bunker's Place.

    Whereas M*A*S*H was considered to be more confrontational as it went along. So people who liked the more balanced, more easy going earlier years may have been put off by the newer episodes.

    As far as Alda's politics go, I can think of several other actors of his vintage who were also quite liberal. Andy Griffith, Carroll O'Connor, Ed Asner, to name a few. On the flip side, Dixie Carter was a conservative Republican playing an ardent feminist on Designing Women.

    Alda's problem is that he was playing a character perceived to be very close to his own politics, he was very involved on the show's production side, and his character changed to be closer to what the perception of his politics was. I don't know if Alda is really more liberal than Asner et al, I am referring to the perception.

    Alda seems to have moved on from the Hawkeye type of performance, and has played a lot of heels and people very unlike his public persona in recent years. Would he make the same choices with Hawkeye today as he did back then? Dunno.
     
  7. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Yeah I get that. For what it's worth I am working my way through the complete series having recently acquired the box set. Will see how the second half stacks up. May be biased towards that era as that is when I originally started watching. Probably around Season 5.
     
  8. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I'm hard pressed to think of any other show that had so dramatic a shift in tone as MASH did. Roseanne is maybe the closest (since she changed writing staffs the way the rest of us change socks) but in that case the tone was all over the map and switched back and forth from serious to comedic and from realistic to zany several times over. Whereas with MASH it wasn't haphazard, but rather a conscious, deliberate change, a clear march from point A to point B. It really is like two different shows. Comparing later-years MASH to the early-years version is almost like comparing Lou Grant (the series) to The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
     
  9. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    The character that Alda played on "Horace and Pete" was so reprehensible it was almost hard to watch.
     
  10. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I don't think Alda was averse to playing flawed characters even then. As originally conceived, Hawkeye and Trapper were classic avatars of Marx-Brothers-style heroic comedy. The series was obviously more serious than a Marx Brothers film, but the approach to the characters was the same... Hawkeye and Trapper were the instigators of what happened, and never were the butt of the joke. They pretty much always "won." But Alda quite deliberately shifted that. A big part of the change in Hawkeye was Alda very consciously giving him feet of clay in many areas. In the later years he no longer was the best surgeon, he more often than not struck out in his attempts to get dates with nurses, and he often was the butt of jokes. Even his best buddy BJ didn't seem to like him as much. The later years Hawkeye is much less heroic and much more prone to screwing things up.
     
    Luke The Drifter likes this.
  11. torcan

    torcan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    I like most of season 5. My favorite is probably the Col. Flagg episode - one of the funnier ones of the series - but there's a definate change in tone in season 6. I agree with what others have said - it's almost like the beginning of a new series at that point. I realize you sometimes have to "change with the times", but it was too dramatic of a change for my taste.
     
  12. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I've only scratched season 3, and the rest of the episodes are distant (but often well established) memories.

    Based on these 50+ episodes I've just revisited, I can say that many of the tried-and true shticks are wearing thin.

    Hot Lips and Frank work themselves into a lather while commenting on the "disgusting" behavior of others, and agree to meet in the (fill in) tent later. Over and over.
    The Radar reads Henry's mind bit is tired.
    Hot Lips and Frank march into Henry's office to go "over his head" is worn out.
    I never cared for McLean Stevenson's physical comedy - ever, so I've seen his finger get caught on a fish hook quite enough.

    Maybe I'll be shocked when I get to the second era and beyond, but I am remembering why I liked BJ better than Trapper, and why I wasn't the least bit upset to see Henry go. If the show went on as it was, it would have not lasted anywhere nearly as long as it did.
     
    Scooterpiety and adm62 like this.
  13. Scooterpiety

    Scooterpiety Ars Gratia Artis

    Location:
    Oregon
    That's how I feel now that I think of it. I believe the show probably had to evolve the way that it did for it to survive for 11 years.
    Was the alternative for the show to become even more zany? How would that have worked out? Would a lovable alien pay a visit to the 4077th? Would Frank's never before mentioned aristocratic twin brother be transferred to the camp? Funny North Koreans become regulars?
     
    RayS likes this.
  14. Jay_Z

    Jay_Z Forum Resident

    When Cheers had to replace Coach's character, they went for Woody. Woody was younger and more optimistic. But it was still replacing one dim character with another. Same with Night Court and Selma Diamond, Florence Halop, and Marsha Warfield. All deadpan snark in the same character slot. I think that is fairly typical; if the show is not getting stale yet and a character leaves, don't upset the applecart too much. When shows start getting stale then yes, changes are made, younger characters or setting changes are done.

    Sorry, I don't think that people were sick of Henry Blake after three seasons. That's revisionist history. But McLean Stevenson left, and they decided they didn't want to repeat the same type of CO, so they chose to do a more competent regular Army CO. Trapper left, and they decided to replace him with a character who didn't cheat on his wife. Frank left, and they replaced an incompetent antagonist with a competent one. Radar left, and the innocence angle was gone; instead of adding a new, young character, they decided to spend the time on further developing and developing an aging set of characters.

    The showrunners consistently chose to make the show more serious every chance they got. And character development, boy would you get character development. Hawkeye and Hotlips were more like character transfusions, complete morphings from the original concept. NOBODY changes that much if they live to be 100! No matter how long this version of the Korean War was supposed to be!

    What M*A*S*H did and the man "Very Special Episodes" of many '80s sitcoms would eventually be deconstructed by the "no hugging, no learning" shows like Seinfeld. Those shows could go too far in the other direction, but the point was well made.
     
  15. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Another big catch-up post:D
    :laugh::laugh::laugh:
    Wasn't Fox News the network where Wayne Rogers ended up being a talking head on financial matters?
    Okay- here's my take on Alda and his characterization of Hawkeye. What I like most about the character are his flaws- the alcoholism (don't try and tell me Hawkeye isn't an alkie), the womanizing, the self righteous/self indignant sanctimony...truth be told, his constant joking (effectively aping Groucho Marx, especially in the earlier seasons) is what drives me nuts about the character. @czeskleba This is why I actually like the "Fallen Idol" episode- it emphasizes Hawkeye's myriad flaws. Or "Inga"...I like it when Hawkeye gets put in his place by a woman. IMO though he was nowhere near as misanthropic, Hawkeye Pierce was the Gregory House of his time; and in both cases it is the flaws in their characters that I like the most about them, although I admit over time Hawkeye is decidedly easier to stomach than House is. The last time my wife and I tried watching the House series we had to give it up about halfway through the fifth season or so- as my wife put it, "House is just too much of an a-shole to watch after a while." Hawkeye's not that bad. Yes, we know after a while Alda had a lot of influence over the direction of the character, but like I said earlier, he made the character his own, alter ego or not.
    I don't mind that the tone of the show changed...my only issue is how they weren't really subtle about it. You can literally feel the humour being drained from the show, although I think we would be hard to pressed to pinpoint exactly when the changes started...lotta differing opinions on that score. Yeah, season 6 is a major turning point in the series, but one could argue that the tone started shifting when Henry gets killed, or even with an episode like "Sometimes You Hear The Bullet".
    You would really hate the movie version, then, though I imagine you've probably seen it at some point.
    Margaret especially, and to a lesser degree, Radar. I don't think Hawkeye changed that much, or at least not as drastically as Margaret and Radar did. Margaret turns into a completely different person- like my wife said, when we got to about season 8 or so watching the series: "I know it's the same actress, but is she playing a different character?". Margaret's changes seem completely implausible and unrealistic to me. The show is supposed to take place over a three year time period- nobody, I don't care who you are, can change that much as a person in such a short period of time. The writers essentially changed the Margaret character from the "regular Army clown" of the early seasons to a bubbleheaded bimbo who would throw herself at every unattached guy who showed up in the unit (or so it seems)- especially after her failed marriage. Sure, that was always a certain aspect of her personality (seems to me in the early seasons Margaret seemed to know an awful lot of Generals on an intimate basis, for example) but they went too over the top with it IMO. As for Radar...he simply regresses too much IMO. In the early seasons he smokes, drinks, fools around with nurses etc...typical twenty something guy, right? By the end of his tenure on the show his only concerns seem to be his animals and comic books, like a kid or something. I can't help but wonder if Gary Burghoff himself took issue with this: "What are you guys doing with my character?". Again, regarding "Fallen Idol", one of the themes of the episode is Radar's desire to "become a man"- I could almost imagine his little speech he gives Hawk and BJ at the beginning of the episode almost coming verbatim from a conversation between Burghoff and Alda behind the scenes.
    I'd reckon M*A*S*H had a few "Very Special Episodes" of its own...I'd almost be inclined to think that episodes like "Sometimes You Hear The Bullet", "Abyssinia Henry", and "Fallen Idol" (there are undoubtedly more) pioneered that particular "genre" of television show.
     
  16. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    What's weird is that (according to Burghoff himself) he was the one who initiated the dramatic regression in the maturity of Radar's character after the first season. Yet I've also heard it said that the reason he quit the show was that he grew tired of playing a naive man-child when he was really a guy in his mid-30s. I suppose both things could be true... that he initially wanted the change in the character, but grew tired of it as time progressed.
     
  17. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Now that is interesting...especially considering the Radar character in the movie was more in line with the character in the first season of the show, so you'd think Burghoff would have been used to playing as that slightly sleazy youngster. Indeed, by the end of his tenure Burghoff probably figured they'd regressed the character too much...which they did.

    I remember my mum had that Complete Book Of M*A*S*H coffee table book when I was a kid- it was pretty good, episode by episode breakdowns and whatnot. But I remember it also had an interview with Burghoff in it...unfortunately all I can remember about it was him going on about burn out- a malady he claimed to be suffering from for the last few years he was involved with the show, which probably at least partly explains his lesser involvement starting in season 4.

    Well, I be damned:
    https://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Book...5663037&sr=8-2&keywords=complete+book+of+MASH

    And, lo and behold, here's Gary Burghoff's own take on matters:
    https://www.amazon.ca/Gary-Burghoff...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NF2SNAZ0H3A7NEKXD5CR
     
  18. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Actors have huge egos and they often like to say that they influence character's direction, show creativity etc as much as producers, writers etc. This is not always the case, more often they are just doing what they are paid to do .... act.
     
    ohnothimagen likes this.
  19. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    True, actors sometimes like to exaggerate their role in the creative process. I do think though that in both cases where MASH characters were dramatically altered that the actors most likely provided the initial impetus to make the change, and then the heavy lifting of the specifics was done by the writers. But I doubt the writers would have made such wholesale changes (as were done to Radar and Margaret) without the actors asking for it in the first place. I've long suspected (without any evidence, I admit) that Loretta Swit went to the writers and asked that her character be made more likeable. The script for "The Nurses" reads like a deliberate meta-commentary on this subject, with the other nurses at the camp acting as stand-ins for the show's audience. Margaret agonizes over the fact that they don't like her, and by the end of the episode she begins making conscious changes in her behavior that are specifically designed to get them to like and accept her. It seems pretty blatant. It's hard to play a villain and (as I noted in my commentary on Larry Linville) the people who do it are often underappreciated. It's notable that Swit had a couple Emmy nominations in the series' early days, but didn't start actually winning them until the later years, after her character had been altered.
     
  20. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I remain pathetically behind but I did just make it up to "Adam's Ribs". Just as I remembered it - essentially sitcom perfection. Hot Lips and Frank must have been getting some R+R in this one. And good break for Klinger that his "crazy papers" now only need to be signed by 3 doctors instead of 4 like in the new boot episode.
     
    smilin ed and ohnothimagen like this.
  21. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    The changes in Margaret that essentially began with "The Nurses" really began to manifest in season 6. I believe in another M*A*S*H discussion here we concluded that the "Temporary Duty" episode is where the changes in her character more or less reach completion. The way she freaks out on Radar in "Last Laugh" when, already frustrated that she can't get leave to Tokyo to see her husband and then can't even get through on the telephone and begins yelling about "'We need you, Major Houlihan!'- Always me, why, why, why?!!!" is significant to her development as well IMO. She's tired of being taken for granted at that point- by everybody.

    Just some observations I made watching some of season 6 this morning...
     
    Pete Puma likes this.
  22. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    I've just been watching Season Six too and I've found it much better than I remembered - know I'm jumping the gun here...
     
  23. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Nah:D

    The sixth season of M*A*S*H aired Tuesdays at 9:00-9:30PM from September 20, 1977 to January 24, 1978 and Mondays at the same time from January 30 to March 27, 1978.

    Cast
    Actor
    Role
    Alan Alda Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
    Mike Farrell Capt. B.J. Hunnicut
    Harry Morgan Col. Sherman T. Potter
    Loretta Swit Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan
    David Ogden Stiers Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III
    Gary Burghoff Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
    Jamie Farr Cpl. Maxwell Q. Klinger
    William Christopher Father Francis Mulcahy
    Episodes
    123
    124
    12 "Fade Out, Fade In" Hy Averback Jim Fritzell & Everett Greenbaum September 20, 1977 Y-101Y-102
    The 4077th acquires Charles Emerson Winchester III as a replacement surgeon when Frank doesn't return from R&R, while Margaret returns from her honeymoon in a bad mood.
    Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum received a Writers Guild Award nomination for this episode. This is also the first episode in which Larry Linville no longer appears and a new doctor played by David Ogden Stiers is transferred to the unit.

    Guest star Rick Hurst.
    125 3 "Fallen Idol" Alan Alda Alan Alda September 27, 1977 Y-104
    Hawkeye blames himself for Radar getting wounded, then lashes out at him.
    Alan Alda received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for writing this episode.
    126 4 "Last Laugh" Don Weis Everett Greenbaum & Jim Fritzell October 4, 1977 Y-103
    James Cromwell guest stars as an old friend of B.J.'s who plays a practical joke on him.

    Note - David Ogden Stiers does not appear in this episode.
    127 5 "War of Nerves" Alan Alda Alan Alda October 11, 1977 Y-106
    Sidney returns to the 4077th as a casualty, but stays a little longer when personal clashes jeopardize morale at the camp.

    Guest Star Michael O'Keefe
    128 6 "The Winchester Tapes" Burt Metcalfe Everett Greenbaum & Jim Fritzell October 18, 1977 Y-107
    Charles records a message to his parents describing the antics of the 4077th.
    129 7 "The Light That Failed" Charles Dubin Burt Prelutsky October 25, 1977 Y-108
    The 4077th read "The Rooster Crowed at Midnight", a murder mystery by candlelight due to a shortage of lightbulbs – but a page is missing. Also, Charles administers the wrong medicine to a patient in the poor lighting and Hawkeye and B.J. both give him a piece of their mind.

    Note – Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    130 8 "In Love and War" Alan Alda Alan Alda November 1, 1977 Y-112
    Hawkeye falls for a Korean aristocrat who's helping refugees, while Margaret suspects Donald of cheating on her.
    Kieu Chinh was a famous actress and talk-show host in South Vietnam before the country collapsed in 1975.

    Note - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    131 9 "Change Day" Don Weis Laurence Marks November 8, 1977 Y-113
    Hawkeye and B.J. try to foil Charles' scheme to get rich off an upcoming scrip exchange at the base, while Klinger surprises everyone by taking the entrance exam for West Point.

    Note - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    132 10 "Images" Burt Metcalfe Burt Prelutsky November 15, 1977 Y-105
    Margaret tries to kick a soft-hearted nurse out of the Army; Radar considers getting a tattoo.
    133 11 "The M*A*S*H Olympics" Don Weis Ken Levine & David Isaacs November 22, 1977 Y-111
    To get the 4077th fit, Potter organizes the M*A*S*H Olympics with Hawkeye and B.J. as captains of two teams.

    Notes - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode. Events of the episode take place during the 1952 Summer Olympics.
    134 12 "The Grim Reaper" George Tyne Burt Prelutsky November 29, 1977 Y-110
    Hawkeye is furious at a colonel, aptly named Bloodworth, who seems to enjoy predicting casualties.

    Note - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    135 13 "Comrades in Arms: Part 1" Burt Metcalfe and Alan Alda Alan Alda December 6, 1977 Y-116
    The 4077th starts to worry when Hawkeye and Margaret get lost in enemy territory on the way to another M*A*S*H unit.
    Burt Metcalfe and Alan Alda were nominated for Primetime Emmy and Directors Guild Awards for this episode.

    Note - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    136 14 "Comrades in Arms: Part 2" Alan Alda and Burt Metcalfe Alan Alda December 13, 1977 Y-117
    A harrowing night in enemy territory brings Hawkeye and Margaret into each other's arms, but it doesn't take long for them to drive each other crazy.

    Note - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    137 15 "The Merchant of Korea" William Jurgensen Ken Levine & David Isaacs December 20, 1977 Y-118
    When payday is delayed, B.J. and Hawkeye become indebted to Charles.
    138 16 "The Smell of Music" Stuart Millar Jim Fritzell & Everett Greenbaum January 3, 1978 Y-115
    Hawkeye and B.J. go to extremes to get Charles off the French horn, particularly by not bathing. Meanwhile, Col. Potter keeps a suicide watch on a patient with a facial wound.

    Note - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    139 17 "Patent 4077" Harry Morgan Ken Levine & David Isaacs January 10, 1978 Y-114
    Hawkeye turns to a local merchant (Keye Luke) for a special surgical clamp, while Margaret tries to find her wedding ring.

    Note - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    140 18 "Tea and Empathy" Don Weis Bill Idelson January 17, 1978 Y-109
    Penicillin is stolen while wounded British soldiers are being treated in the OR and Hawkeye clashes with the regiment's commander (Bernard Fox).

    Note - Gary Burghoff does not appear in this episode.
    141 19 "Your Hit Parade" George Tyne Ronny Graham January 24, 1978 Y-124
    A stack of records arrives in camp and Radar becomes a DJ by playing them over the P.A. system to calm everyone's nerves during a long OR session. Meanwhile, with the many casualties taking up space around the compound, Charles struggles to find a place to sleep. Gribble, a drunk and trypanophobic sergeant (played by episode writer Ronny Graham), is coerced by Hawkeye and B.J. into giving his blood in a blood transfusion.
    142 20 "What's Up, Doc?" George Tyne Larry Balmagia January 30, 1978 Y-119
    Margaret confides to Hawkeye that she might be pregnant, and they perform surgery on Radar's pet rabbit Fluffy in order to perform a rabbit test. At the same time, a wounded soldier and art major named Lieutenant Martinson (Charles Frank) tries to obtain a chopper so he can return home to Ohio, taking Charles hostage at gunpoint in order for his demands to be met.
    143 21 "Mail Call Three" Charles Dubin Everett Greenbaum & Jim Fritzell February 6, 1978 Y-121
    A third batch of mail from home brings Hawkeye a letter meant for another Benjamin Pierce and unsettling news for others in the camp.
    144 22 "Temporary Duty" Burt Metcalfe Larry Balmagia February 13, 1978 Y-125
    A boorish doctor (George Lindsey) and a fun-loving nurse (who is a longtime friend of Margaret's) from the 8063rd are sent to the 4077th for temporary duty as part of an exchange program.
    145 23 "Potter's Retirement" William Jurgensen Laurence Marks February 20, 1978 Y-120
    Potter considers retirement when someone within his camp files critical reports about his command.
    146 24 "Dr. Winchester and Mr. Hyde" Charles Dubin Ken Levine & David Isaacs and Ronny Graham February 27, 1978 Y-122
    Charles gets hooked on pep pills while Radar challenges some wounded Marines to a mouse race.
    147 25 "Major Topper" Charles Dubin Allyn Freeman March 27, 1978 Y-123
    Klinger welcomes a new guy (Hamilton Camp) who's crazier than he is, while Potter, Hawkeye, B.J. and Charles have to use sugar pills when there is no morphine. In addition, Hawkeye and B.J. try to match Charles tall story for tall story, only for the latter to beat them at every turn.
     
  24. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!" Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Season six was a major turning point for the series..."Fade Out/Fade In" indeed.

    I like quite a few episodes from this season. It's easier to determine the ones I don't like: "In Love And War" and "Images" (that was easy!:laugh:). "War Of Nerves", "The Merchant Of Korea" and "Mail Call Three" are probably my favourites.

    You can tell at first that the writers weren't really sure what direction they wanted to take the Winchester character. I don't like, in some of the early episodes, his and Margaret's flirty behaviour together ("The Light That Failed", "The Grim Reaper", "The Winchester Tapes")- as if the writers were seriously considering making Charles and Hot Lips some sort of "item" before abandoning the idea altogether. They also spend a fair bit of time focusing on Charles' precision as a surgeon and how it conflicted with the unit's "meatball surgery" credo. Fortunately by the end of the season they seemed to have things sorted out; "The Smell Of Music" and "Major Topper" both feature classic Winchester VS Pierce and Hunnicut conflicts.

    Again, it also seems kind of obvious that some of the episodes were written with Frank in mind, then changed to fit Charles. As matter of fact, I almost get the idea that a couple of the episodes could possibly have been leftovers altogether from earlier seasons: "Last Laugh" -which doesn't feature Winchester at all- could easily have been a season 5 episode, and "Change Day" (written by Laurence Marks, contributing his first episode in three years) almost feels like a season 3 episode to me. It's not hard to imagine Frank trying to pull a scam on the Korean villagers like Charles does, or Henry and Trapper proctoring Klinger's West Point entrance exam. It just feels like an episode from the earlier seasons.

    I've always looked upon the infamous "Comrades In Arms" episode as the series' number one "jump the shark" moment. Right...you have Hawkeye and Margaret getting together, albeit temporarily. Where do you go from here? Well, we know where they went- Margaret ceases being an antagonist for the most part. For good or ill...
     
  25. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Count me in as one who likes Fallen Idol. I also like Mail Call Three, Major Topper, Temporary Duty, Your Hit Parade, Patent 4077, War of Nerves. Fade Out/Fade In.

    Those I don't really care for: The MASH Olympics, The Smell of Music, Images and Comrades in Arms.

    Even in some of the weaker shows, there's plenty to laugh at.
     
    RayS and ohnothimagen like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine