M*A*S*H Memories & Jamie Farr Special

WTVG Channel 13 aired a special show it produced on local boy made good Jamie Farr and M*A*S*H. I know there are several M*A*S*H fans here and since the show is now available online here is the link if anyone would like to spend a few minutes watching. Enjoy!

M*A*S*H Memories & Magic Special Now Online »

 

Been watching Mash on Metv. Have to say I think it holds up pretty good. Still great writing and they make me laugh.

 

The middle years are my fave period of the show. The beginning started out a bit too overly-sitcomish. They began to hit their stride in the last year with Henry and Trapper, and cruised nicely in the first couple of years with BJ & Potter, but once it became the Alan Alda drama-fest, it got a bit too overly preachy.

Still, though, for what it is, the end movie is still very watchable.

 

I like how Jamie Farr's Max Klinger character matured during the shows run.

 

Thanks heaps for the link. I will look forward to watching this. Big Mash fan here

 

I prefer the Potter years, because of the drama. I always find it a bit odd when fans say they don't like "drama and preachy MASH", but they love the final episode.

You won't get more drama than the final episode/movie. It embodies everything Alda led MASH was.

 

Show has really held up well.

They kept it interesting.

 

The middle years are my favorite too. I'd say season 3 (last with Trapper/Henry) through season 6 (the first with Winchester).

It really is diminishing returns after BJ shows up with a 'stache in the first episode of the 7th season.

 

I have been revisiting my box set and I'm amazed at how much stuff was cut for syndication. It's like seeing newly recut episodes, with some really great scenes that fleshed out the characters, especially from the Henry Blake years, which always get the rep for being too slapsticky. Many of these cut scenes feature Radar, and we see sides of him that reveal a sweetness early on, that it you were to go by the syndicated versions you'd never know existed.

 

I always felt the show was great right up until the Frank Burns character left. After that it was occasionally good, but usually overly melodramatic with contrived story lines.

 

Some of the episodes, it's ridiculous how much was cut in syndication- the example I always think of is the "Last Laugh" episode from season 6: save for one small scene the entire subplot involving Klinger and his imaginary camel is missing in syndication. The serious syndication cuts last up until season 7 or so, after that it's not as bad. But, yeah, seeing the show on DVD even if you've seen the episode fifty times on TV, it is like seeing it again for the first time (I noticed this with The Simpsons as well, though The Simpsons aren't quite as butchered in reruns as M*A*S*H was)

 

Plus watching the show without the laugh track is a revelation, especially in the early years when it was used excessively.

 

Yeah, that's a real killer once you've seen it without.

 

I can't watch the show with the laugh track now that I've watched it without- many great lines over the years got buried underneath that canned laughter.

 

It was a good show. My parents loved it. True story. In my red neck little town they had what they called a M.A.S.H-A-THON somewhere around where I live. Most of the cast were there signing autographs. My step-dad used to sell cigars and pipe tobacco and found out that Jamie Farr was a cigar smoker so he handed him a bunch of them as a gift. As a result, I have met, spoke with, and have autographs from almost every actor from M.A.S.H. It was an interesting day.

Just thought I would brag just a little.

 

Great show. I watched it back in the day, and still catch some episodes on METV.

 

Great, great show that I enjoyed watching with my dad growing up. Laugh out loud funny with characters that are forever etched in my mind. Hawkeye, Henry, Klinger, Trapper John, Frank, Radar, Hot Lips....they don't make em' like this any more.

 

Glad this has finally surfaced. And, man, doesn't Carol look amazing?

 

I especially liked the "late-in-the-series" episode where Radar met the little nurse while both were waiting for a plane in Japan. The actress is a favorite of mine!

 

MASH was just a great show. Alan Alda's acting job was superb. He doesnt get enough credit as an actor. He was magnificent in a movie called "Same Time Next Year" about two married people who meet once a year for weekend in a hotel.

 

Let me recommend Ken Levine's blog By Ken Levine » . Hilarious former MASH writer (and more importantly to me, wrote two Simpsons episodes). He's not ashamed to reminisce, and I''m glad of it.

 

Levine has also written some very funny books, including Where the Hell Am I? (a travel memoir) and It's Gone! ...No, Wait a Minute... (about his stint as an announcer for the Baltimore Orioles).

 

Alan Alda in Louis CK's web series "Horace and Pete" is a revelation, and a guaranteed Emmy nomination (when Louis gets the show sold to a Netflix or Hulu).

 

What's wrong with the show going more in a drama or "preachy" direction? It still retained plenty of comedy yet it had the added benefit of depth and drama.

 

Nothing at all wrong with it. One of the greatest episodes of the entire series is Henry's farewell episode. To this day it still chokes me up.

The later seasons were a bit off balance when it came to the interplay of comedy and drama. They were nailing it midway through the run, but it started to tip in the drama direction a bit too far towards the end, and the comedy suffered for it.