M*A*S*H: I Think The Show Got Better As It Went On.

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Mr. Bandora, Aug 18, 2016.

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  1. Mr. Bandora

    Mr. Bandora Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    So, I just finished watching the show in its entirety again. I came to the conclusion that the show got better as it went on. I thought the show early on was very absurd and required a lot of suspended belief. I know most prefer the "comedy years" so to speak but I sometimes found it hard to believe that the unit could even function under Henry Blake. Sherman Potter was much more believable filling that role. I also found it hard to believe in the early shows that Hawkeye and Trapper John wouldn't be jailed for some of the antics they pulled, funny as they were. While the show did change in tone later on, along with the loss and addition of characters, it wasn't quite as absurd and there was less suspension of brief needed. What do you think?
     
  2. jeffcdo

    jeffcdo Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I've read that with the DVDs you can watch the early shows without the laugh track. I would like to try that to see if it might change my opinion (which aligns with yours). Although I seem to remember some fairly broad comedy and mugging in those early shows which definitely went away later, which of course would still be visible without the laugh track.
     
  3. Edgard Varese

    Edgard Varese Royale with Cheese

    Location:
    Te Wai Pounamu
    I think you're wrong. :D

    Seriously, however, I enjoy seasons 2-5 the best where there was a good mix of comedy, pathos and some degree of character development. Season 6 for me was where the actors began to write their own characters too much, and by season 8 they were caricatures.
     
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  4. pdenny

    pdenny 22-Year SHTV Participation Trophy Recipient

    Location:
    Hawthorne CA
    It may have gotten better believability-wise, but it didn't get funnier. Those first three seasons are going in my coffin with me for the big trip.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    MASH in its first three seasons may have been the greatest run any sitcom ever had. But Maclean Stevenson (Henry Blake) and Wayne Rogers (Trapper) left after the third season, replaced by Harry Morgan as Potter and Mike Farrell as BJ. The show's creator, the brilliant comedy writer Larry Gelbart, left soon afterward, allowing Alan Alda to take over creative control of the series.

    So not only were the cast replacements inferior (Stevenson was absolutely perfect as Blake; Rogers was better than Farrell, but the real difference is the Trapper character was much more interesting than dull BJ) but Alda was able to smother the show in preachy '70s liberalism. Few great shows have gone so far downhill (MASH's only real rival in this department is All In The Family).

    So whenever you're talking about MASH, you're really talking about two different shows -- First three seasons (Great) and everything afterward (Blecch)
     
  6. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    I thought seasons two and three were the funniest.
     
  7. Mr. Bandora

    Mr. Bandora Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Where did you copy and paste that from?
     
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  8. Gotta disagree. Got pretty mediocre the last couple of seasons (though I still tried to watch every week). Besides, I liked Trapper. A LOT. BJ was OK, but it wasn't the same.
     
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  9. boyjohn

    boyjohn Senior Member

    What makes 70's liberalism worse that liberalism in other decades?
     
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  10. pdenny

    pdenny 22-Year SHTV Participation Trophy Recipient

    Location:
    Hawthorne CA
    There were some very funny eps after S3--but one has to wade through a lot of pathos to get to 'em. I think FUTURAMA nailed the conundrum:

     
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  11. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    Have to disagree based if on nothing else: Ferret Face > Charrrrles Emerson Winchester III.

    Burns was such a better character and a better foil.
     
  12. joelee

    joelee Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Houston
    Writing stayed pretty strong but the characters got weaker.
     
  13. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I also prefer the "Potter" years.

    Great drama and comedy in the later seasons
     
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  14. guy incognito

    guy incognito Senior Member

    Location:
    Mee-chigan
    This pretty much jibes with my own views, although Season 1 also has a number of classics and even the awful later seasons seem to offer up at least one or two worthwhile eps per year.

    Among individual seasons, I'd rate S4 (the first with Farrell and Morgan, the last with Gilbert) the best in terms of balancing comedy and drama, and probably also in terms of hit-miss ratio among episodes.
     
  15. Edgard Varese

    Edgard Varese Royale with Cheese

    Location:
    Te Wai Pounamu
    I have little memory of the details of individual episodes in seasons 9-11 (apart from the finale), which I watched in their first run, except that they didn't even begin to compare with the reruns of seasons 1-8 I was watching in syndication. Where I lived it was on five times a day, and I would normally watch all five, which explains why I can more or less recite the entirety of "Adam's Rib", for example. :)
     
  16. buzzzx

    buzzzx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cal.
    I stop watching when Frank Burns leaves.
     
  17. Mr. Bandora

    Mr. Bandora Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Frank was great but by the end of his time on the show it was taking too much suspended belief for his credibility and competency as a surgeon.

    I know some are talking about a balance of comedy and drama and how it changed over the course of the show but that to me is barely a factor. Early on it took too much suspension of belief that the unit could even function, let alone under Henry Blake. It was unbelievable how far Hawkeye and Trapper took things and with little to no repercussions.
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2016
  18. ducksdeluxe

    ducksdeluxe A voice in the wilderness.

    Location:
    PNW
    The last four seasons could have had Col. Flagg on every week and they still would have been insufferable. The first five seasons are worth going back to IMO. I liked Potter just fine as Henry's replacement. BJ not so much, but Trapper was no great shakes either. Both could play a pretty good drunk, though. Losing Frank left a hole. The Winchester character wasn't really that well thought out-there's only some many things you can do with a pompous windbag. Seeing Frank get his was far more satisfying. The two lines of demarcation-when BJ grows a mustache, a step down in quality, and when Margaret gets her hair done, that's it. By then it was over for me. And you can't have M*A*S*H without Radar. The last episode is a great one, though.

    My favorite episode is season two with the poker game with Sydney Freedman and Pat Morita playing a South Korean officer. And Col. Flagg shows up. Gold.
     
  19. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    For me, M*A*S*H, along with Law & Order, are like the TV equivalent to "comfort food"- I watch 'em all the time. I don't think it's a case of M*A*S*H getting "better" as the show went on so much as it kindasorta morphed into becoming a completely different program altogether. IMO the humour went out of the show somewhere around season 7 and after that most attempts at humour seemed more forced and the practical joking the characters did to one another -a mainstay of the series- seemed to get more meanspirited as well. That said, I'm not one of these fans who thinks "The show sucked after Trapper/Blake/Frank/Radar left"- I actually think every season had their merits, arguably with seasons nine and eleven being the "weakest". Let's face it, all eleven separate seasons of the show had their iffy episodes. Season 2, though, probably was the most consistent. But you notice that especially in the last three seasons the writers were starting to struggle with coming up with new story ideas; they started recycling ideas- Hawkeye getting fed up and moving out of the Swamp in season 10 ("Picture This") after already trying that back in season 1 ("Sticky Wicket") immediately comes to mind.
     
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  20. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    1/ I don't hold with the view that all the later Alda written episodes were all cr*p. In fact, in the last two/three series, when the show becomes silly and loud and every character has to pun, his are often the best. By far. But...
    2/ The show becomes increasingly submerged in Hollywood-style sentimentality and the humour becomes broad as opposed to the genuine quick-fire sharp-edged wit that graces MOST of the episodes in the first three series and quite a few in four and five. For me, the real tumble occurs after eight, though the signs are apparent as early as five. The really good thing about the later episodes is that Charles is established as an interesting character and not just a snooty Frank Burns knock-off, but by that time, Mulcahy, Potter, Houlihan and Klinger in particular were almost unrecognisable from their earlier incarnations. However...
    3/ Yes, there are some good, fuuny and sharp later shows, just nowhere near as many to justify watching a whole season and...
    4/ It remains one of my favourite shows.
     
  21. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    I prefer the comedy version of M*A*S*H over the later dramedy years...

    I do have all the seasons on DVD, but prefer the "Frank Burns" years, and of those, seasons 1-3 are the best...
     
  22. albert_m

    albert_m Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atl., Ga, USA
    The show was on for a long time. It couldn't do the same thing all of those years. Aside from that, I thought that it was good that it moved on beyond just being silly.
     
  23. I think the 4th and 5th seasons were pretty good too, but after Frank Burns left the show went down hill fast. Still some good episodes here and there like the introduction of Charles Winchester ("lets avoid the Christmas rush and start hating him now").
     
  24. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Considering it's a M*A*S*H discussion, don'tcha mean Frank Burns fans?:p
    True- especially some of the early episodes, such as the "Sierra Madre" episode from season 1 which is considered by the cast and writers to be the "worst" episode. It did take a while for the show to find it's footing but once it did...wow. IMO the "Comrades In Arms" episode from season 6 was the series' 'jump the shark' moment.
     
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  25. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    It took a while for them to fully integrate Winchester...I think quite a few of the season 6 episodes were written with Frank in mind then hastily re-written for Charles ("Change Day" and "The Light That Failed" are good examples). Likewise I think there are a few season 4 episodes that were written for Trapper's character than altered for Hunnicut.
     
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