An interesting fact about the M*A*S*H finale

Exactly. They didn't have writers who knew how to be funny, and there was no longer any satirical edge (as Greenbaum notes above). Too often the b-plots were corny sitcom cliches, and as we've noted the dialogue substituted puns for jokes or wit.

On the flipside, what passed for drama was all too often just one character yelling at another. Almost every episode had a Big Confrontation Scene of this nature.

 

From what I have heard, Robert Altman hated the TV show.

 

I'd be inclined to say that for comedy season 3 was the best and for drama season 8 was the best.

Or what humour there was sorta had a bit of a cynical, mean-spirited aspect to it. Either way, not very funny, but as Jason points out below:

That is true, apparently, but chances are if the show more resembled Altman's film it probably never would have been aired at all due to Standards And Practices (too much blood, sex talk and rough language in general) or wouldn't have made it past the first season. Even as it was on TV it was a near thing. As tame as it may seem now, M*A*S*H was a pretty controversial show in 1972. I find it amazing that they got away with what they did, right from the "Pilot" episode on. Hawkeye's aside to Hot Lips during the first OR scene in the pilot where he says if she doesn't move he'll have to cut around her "B-cups" is one line where I always think "How the hell did they get away with that one?" Hell, the whole scenario where they plan to raffle off a nurse -only for Father Mulcahy to win the raffle- must have shocked the CBS censors as much as it shocked General Hammond

 

Strangely enough, the reason Altman disliked the series is not because he found it tame, or too dissimilar to his film, but because he thought it was racist:
"I didn't like the series because that series to me was the opposite of my main reason for making this film — and this was to talk about a foreign war, an Asian war, that was going on at the time. And to perpetuate that every Sunday night for 12 years — and no matter what platitudes they say about their little messages and everything — the basic image and message is that the brown people with the narrow eyes are the enemy. And so I think that series was quite a racist thing. I didn't approve of it, I don't like it, and I thought it was the antithesis of what we were trying to do."

That's a pretty strange analysis... faulting the cumulative effect of the series' longevity.

Richard Hornberger also disliked the series, but his reason was more straightforward... he resented his book being hijacked for anti-war preaching. He said he did not intend the book to be anti-war (it's clearly anti-authority and anti-conformity more than anything else).

 

That is a strange analysis, especially when you consider how many times Hawkeye, at the very least, could be construed as sympathizing/colluding with the "enemy". If anything, especially in the earlier seasons, the TV series tends to come across as though the U.S. Army itself was the "enemy", the upper echelons essentially being incompetent bungling idiots. Sorta makes ya wonder just how many episodes Altman actually sat down and watched...sure, Frank makes his odd comments about "slant eyed yellow devils" and the like on occasion, but that's Frank for ya. On the show, their sexism in the early seasons aside, the characters were generally much too P.C. to be even remotely considered "racist".

If memory serves in the book Hawkeye is pretty right wing, sorta the diabolical opposite of Alan Alda's p-litical views I can see why Hornberger was like "WTF?!"

 

I bought the final episode DVD as well, not just for the extras but just so I could rewatch the final show without commercials. Besides, it was on sale for $5.00 and I just could not pass it up at that price.

I was able to luck into a relatively clean copy of the first season at Goodwill about a month ago. In my area they charge $1.99 for single discs with multi-sets usually $4.99 and up, depending on the number of discs. This one was unmarked. I was thrilled when the clerk rang it up for $1.99 without giving it a 2nd thought.

 

A shame the remaining cast and crew never did any group audio commentaries for some select episodes on the dvds.
Those would have worth a listen.

Plus, I located my Complete Book of MASH by Suzy Kalter.
Pretty nice coffee table book.
Is there any other good books on the MASH TV show worth getting?

 

It isn't the series finale, but one episode from the later years that I really don't like is the one where they have an "anniversary party" for BJ... Another one I can live without is the one where they have their families meet each other back in the States... Potter and his bottle of wine from WW1 is no picnic either.

 

There is also an episode where BJ his pretty much angry at everyone through the whole episode because he can't be at home with his family , I remember him breaking a pinball machine in that one.

 

Is that the one where back home, Peg picked Radar up at the airport and Erin called Radar "Daddy" and after he read that it sets BJ into a fit? I'm thinking it is? In any case, again, not a winning episode in my book...

 

yup

 

Although there are some plot holes with this ep ("The Party"), I don't mind it at all as there is some funny stuff....and, as the last episode of the seventh season, this is pretty much where I stop watching. This should have been the final year....

 

You guys are conflating two different, but similar, episodes. The one with Erin calling Radar "Daddy" is Season 8's "Period of Adjustment", which has BJ getting drunk, destroying the still, and decking Hawkeye.

The one with BJ breaking the pinball machine is "Wheelers and Dealers" from Season 10. In that one, he's upset because Peg has taken a job as a waitress to make ends meet.

 

Exactly. And that is pretty close to the spirit of the book. Anti-authority, and thereby anti-army since the Army was the primary source of authority that Hawkeye found himself facing. The introduction of Potter was really the turning point for the focus of the series. Potter was the first Army authority figure depicted on the show who was not either hapless, incompetent, idiotic, or malevolent. With his introduction, the focus of the series shifted, with The War becoming the enemy, rather than authority. Aspects of the Army even started being occasionally treated with respect and sympathy.

Hawkeye in the book is apolitical. He doesn't say anything one way or the other. In real life, Hornberger did describe himself as "a conservative Republican" though, so I can imagine his views differed significantly from Alda's.

 

That one is pretty cheesy and implausible. Not to mention, it's kind of snobbish that the eight main characters (apparently) choose to exclude everyone else in the camp from their plans.

 

I'm willing to bet Altman probably never watched any episodes past the first one that aired.

 

Yeah, it seems like he was determined to dislike the series for reasons that had little to do with the actual content of the series itself.

 

I never read the entire book, only a couple of portions.

I don't know how close it came to the book, but I thought in the movie Pierce and company, the supposed "good guys", acted like jerks. Like surgeons who are no doubt very talented people, but are sure to let you know it. I had no desire to hang around with those characters at all. Way too abrasive. Maybe true to life for doctors, but still.

 

My mum had that one...it was a decent coffee table book, good interviews and episode descriptions too.

There aren't many...I've got this one, though- it's an excellent book on the series plus it's relevance to American society in the 1970's:
Watching M.A.S.H, Watching America: A Social History of the 1972-1983 Television Series: James H. Wittebols: 9780786404575: Film & Television: Amazon Canada

Yes, the episodes involving family members tend to be pretty bad...enough to make you reach for an airsick bag, as Hawkeye would put it. Writers Thad Mumford and Dan Wilcox tended to be the main culprits behind those ones.

Indeed- and it's a credit to Harry Morgan's acting abilities that he could play the insane, racist General Steele in season 3's "The General Flipped At Dawn" and then join the cast as the firm-but-fair Colonel Potter the next year. The Steele character is pretty much the peak of how the series portrayed military authority up to that point. Colonel Flagg, of course, would be another example, and a character that wasn't utilized at all in the later seasons. Too bad...Flagg was so over the top you couldn't help but laugh at him

Considering Alan Alda is pretty much yer quintessential Hollywood Liberal, yeah, I'd say Alda and Hornberger are just about diabolical opposites on that score!

Arguably the portrayals in the film were more "realistic" than in the series, yeah. Doctors -especially good ones- can be pretty arrogant and egotistical at times. Not unlike Charles Emerson Winchester, I suppose...or Gregory House as a really extreme example.

 

I never saw Hawkeye as right wing in the book; I did read that Hornberger thought the show was left wing and didn't like it. As for Altman, I suspect he was doing his grumpy old man thing. Geat director, but sometimes you have to take what these people say with a pinch of salt.