' M*A*S*H ---Meh....

Classic television show? Check.
Seen all the episodes? Check.
All of them good? Not.

My local library had all the box set seasons of this show and I watched them all over the course of a few months.

Many of the episodes for me remain funny and sometimes poignant but geez Louise there are some howling stinkers in the lot.

The last couple of seasons are weak in any event but there are poor episodes scattered throughout the show's run.

Sometimes the heavyhandedness of some of the episodes is a downer and that 's understandable to a point.

A very poor and dull episode for me was the one where Hawkeye has a jeep accident , suffers a concussion and is taken in by a Korean family.
The entire episode is him talking, singing, dancing and being totally annoying while the family goes about its business. A little Hawkeye can go a long way most times. Too much Hawkeye is too much Hawkeye .
I think the episode must have been, written , produced, directed and catered by Alan Alda.

What are some of your least memorable M*A*S* H episodes?

 

Any time BJ got into a snit because he wasn’t home with Peg and Erin, or because Peg had to get a job, or because Erin called some stranger in an army uniform “Daddy.” These episodes happened at least once per season in the second half of the series, and they were insufferable. At the end of one of them, Margaret rips him a new one. That part, at least, was memorable.

 

This was largely filmed at Malibu Creek State Park. Same as the old show Planet of the Apes. In fact the main climbing anchors on the "Planet of the Apes" rock wall were used to anchor the television cameras. Never got into MASH, just not much into TV in general plus it was a little before my time.

 

Almost all the episodes where Margaret was nice to others are crap.

 

Ha!
Also beware any episode where BJ is wearing a pink shirt.

 

Example?

 

The

The one where she and Hawkeye hook-up.

 

Oh! Check! Terrible episode.
It wasn't believable. She was instantly ' in love ' and he acted like he had made the biggest mistake of his life.
In the last episode when they are going their separate ways and they embrace and kiss is much more real and has some emotion to it.
But that last episode wasn't one if the better ones either....

 

I like the later seasons post Larry Linville, the ones with David Ogden Stiers because they seem less comedic more dramatic.

 

You don't go past season 5, and 1-3 are the best.

 

Any episode with Margaret and her perm auto-stunk in my book.

 

Or where Klinger isn't in drag.

 

After about the fourth season I lost interest with the show. Alan Alda’s heavy handed control was overbearing.

 

Anything after Henry Blake pretty much sucked with a couple exceptions.

 

The thing I liked about Winchester (" Charles ") was he gave as good as he got.
Burns was the perpetual butt of all jokes. Funny though.

 

Yeah it did help with Charles because Hawkeye needed someone that could push back as hard as he could. Unfortunately, Mike Farrell as the replacement for Wayne Rogers, as much as I like him, was lacking and too generic. I’m sure that’s one of the reasons why Larry Linville left; his role was one dimensional.

 

I haven’t watched an episode of M.A.S.H. for at least two decades. The ones that have burned into memory are the dramatic ones notably the Alda ones due to his camera hogging ego surely but Winchester was memorable because his “nice guy” episodes were standouts like the one when he donated chocolate to the orphanage. I should watch everything again.

 

I remember reading somewhere, that Alda threatened to leave the show and demanded a large raise and creative control over the series. The producers caved in and gave him what he wanted.

The worst episode I can remember is one where all the main characters lapsed into individual dream sequences. It was ridiculous and strange on many levels.

 

Nope. Larry Gelbart cowrote that episode with another writer. Alda didn't direct it either. It's too often erroneously cited as an example of Alda taking over.

 

The one where Hawkeye is constantly sneezing because a childhood psychological issue has resurfaced. (“Bless You, Hawkeye,” Season 9).

 

I think one of the great successes of M*A*S*H was, they turned a comedic movie into an ensemble comedy for television. I mean sure, the book and the film were/was one specific thing, but, turning these characters into living, breathing people that come into your home like a family every week? That would be like having Ralphie, Randy and the old man as a tv series that doesn't happen during Christmas: a string of vignette memories, turned into a "television family". Eugghh.

What began as an earnest rewiring of the 4077th as a real place that could exist for 30 weeks each season, took some careful re-thinking. Then of course characters and actors moved in and out as well, but it still had to revolve around what was essentially that one moment of pathos that would let all the hilarity out of the show for the last three minutes, and wrap it up with a punchy wackiness before the credits. And like all television series that revolves around a "family", a "scooby gang" or a "hero" (as opposed to the place and time it was set in, as most movies can do better)...things eventually have to change. Not just to change focus when a favorite character leaves, and there's nobody there to say the catch phrase. One can only take so many years of that rapscallion character being that old, irascible rapscallion, before you have to inject something else in there to give you a reason to (gasp) like them. And once that happens, you need to have another character take over the a-hole role, while the initial a-hole occasionally saves the orphan or gives a well-deserved speech about ethics to a bully.

And that's where most series die-hards start to crow, "jumped the shark", because they can't see, a series can't continue on forever like it has been, without needing an adjustment. Just like Mom needs to move the sofa over there...just to see how the rest of the room fits together. Which is a very natural inclination to somebody who walks through that room every day for months on end without change.

And just so long as you can do it without Rob tripping over that ottoman during the title sequence once that gets old...you're good!

 

I have a pet peeve with the way the writers handled some characters during the series' run.
I'm not saying that people don't or shouldn't change, but some changes were quite radical.
Margaret was a good professional, but evil with the guys and fellow nurses. After a while, she was everybody's chum.
Frank was a horrible guy from day one and a character with terrific potential, one that could actually benefit if they gradually amped his lack of morals and shaky mental health. Imagine him slowly getting mad (yes, "slowly, I turned") and snapping in a truly serious, dramatic way. Instead, he became a complete clown.
Radar was highly smart, practically running the camp business while Blake was a lovable bafoon, but was turned into a preteen in his thirties after Blake's death.
Klinger was a guy desperately trying to get his derriere out of Korea, but in the end he became a pale version of early Radar.
B. J. was a decent guy, but too decent, goody two-shoes to cover for the much missed Trapper, a slightly saner version of Hawkeye, but still naughty.
Hawkeye was the class clown, drunk and womanizer bon vivant (very questionable behavior nowadays), liked by nearly everyone, but eventually he became a perpetually grumpy guy.
I like Winchester, but to me the character was underutilized just like Burns. He was a huge snob, but contrary to his predecessor, a very talented surgeon that also had a good heart, seldom seen during the series.
The most consistent characters in my opinion are Father Mulcahy and Col. Potter.
Even with all its faults, M*A*S*H is my favorite series, the finest writing ever shown in the small screen and I enjoy the pathos of the later years, after all, wars aren't supposed to be fun.
Just my personal opinion.

 

I used to watch MASH when I got home from school back in the 90s when it was still being syndicated on six or seven different local television stations every day. So pre-its first cable syndication deal with FX.

I actually perversely love the last three seasons quite a bit. There's a kitsch factor that I really appreciate. The show just feels really out of place in the 1980s, but I like it. Anything between season six and season nine bores me to tears, though. The film stock even seemed inferior during those seasons. It became the Jame Tayor of television (no offense to JT fans, of course). There's just this sort of stock late 70s blandness about it.

Having said this, I adore the show to no end.

 

I thought Maj. Frank Burns injected a lot of 'funny' into a relatively large percentage of episodes. The officious Col. Flagg, an even larger percentage in his episodes. Likewise, Col. Flagg's analogue over on "Barney Miller" (the oleaginous Lt. Scanlon of Internal Affairs).