M*A*S*H laugh tracks.

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Jamie Tate, Jul 16, 2003.

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  1. guy incognito

    guy incognito Senior Member

    Location:
    Mee-chigan
    And that was one season too many. Nice idea, anyway...

    And wasn't there a "reunion" of sorts with several former cast members--can't remember whether Alda was among them--doing spots for IBM in the mid- or late-'80s?
     
  2. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Don't forget the series "Trapper John M.D." with Pernell Roberts. It had a fairly lengthy run of seven seasons.

    It's hard to imagine a spin-off like this being successful, but other than the one character (played by a different actor, no less), it avoided trying to be anything like its predecessor.

    Hmmm? Maybe for the show "Joey", they could set it in the year 2030 and have an actor in his late 50s play Joey ... :)

    Regards,
     
  3. Jamie Tate

    Jamie Tate New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Nashville
    I remember an episode with Gary Burgoff. I think the series failed because it was based on mostly secondary figures from the series (one of them being a deafened priest!)
     
  4. AKA

    AKA Senior Member

    Wasn't it decided that Trapper John, M.D. was a spinoff of the movie and not the series? I'm not sure of all the specifics on it, though.

    I think they originally approached Wayne Rogers to reprise the Trapper role and have the series take place in the '50s after the Korean War, but he declined, so they got whatsisname instead, and set it in modern times.

    I've become obsessed with M*A*S*H, and have been doing a lot of research on it, and here's something eerie I just found out: Roger Bowen, who played Lt. Col. Henry Blake in the film died the day after McLean Stevenson, who played Lt. Col. Henry Blake in the series. Both men died of a heart attack. McLean died on February 15, 1996 at the age of 66, and Bowen died on February 16, 1996 at the age of 63. Spooky!
     
  5. Mark

    Mark I Am Gort, Hear Me Roar Staff


    It was painful.
     
  6. Mark

    Mark I Am Gort, Hear Me Roar Staff

    There were so many. Do you remember when Harry Morgan played a crazy general, before he got the Col. Potter gig? And, how great were the nurses as "minor" characters?
     
  7. guy incognito

    guy incognito Senior Member

    Location:
    Mee-chigan
    Wow, that *is* uncanny.

    Always liked Bowen, BTW. He did a lot of commercial voiceovers over the years, and was very funny in his (small) role in What About Bob?. "You're right, Bob, lithium probably *would* be more effective in a case like this. I'll change the prescription."
     
  8. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    In NY, he was in many Shoprite Supermarket commercials during the 60s and 70s!
     
  9. ACK!

    ACK! Senior Member

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    That's the way it should be. If you don't know where to find the jokes, then the producers aren't doing their job.

    I always watch the M*A*S*H DVDs with the laugh track off. :righton:
     
  10. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    It actually lasted for two seasons, I think. It's hard to take characters that were designed to be supporting background characters and suddenly move them to the forefront. (Kind of like doing a Star Trek spinoff featuring only Sulu, Nurse Chapel, and Uhura). The writers had been pretty much out of ideas on the last few seasons of MASH anyway, and removing the inherent drama of the War certainly didn't help.
     
  11. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Could be either, I suppose. Besides the first episode, where Trapper hears a helicopter and wakes up from a nightmare yelling for Hawkeye and Radar, the show really makes no references at all to MASH or its characters and plotlines, aside from occasionally mentioning Trapper served in the Korean War.
     
  12. guy incognito

    guy incognito Senior Member

    Location:
    Mee-chigan
    It also didn't help that the show's basic premise was so transparently contrived. For instance, it was explained that Klinger had encountered legal problems in Toledo and was paroled to Potter's custody somehow. I guess they had to come up with *some* reason why Max would leave his beloved hometown, but sheesh!

    Incidentally, there was one other attempted "M*A*S*H" spinoff: a show about Radar's postwar life, entitled--I swear I'm not making this up--"W*A*L*T*E*R". It featured Gary Burghoff in his signature role, now employed as a cop! A pilot was filmed and aired one time in 1984.

    [​IMG]

    Diehard "M*A*S*H" fanatics might be disappointed that this stuff isn't being included as bonus material on the season sets. The rest of us, however, might as well breathe a deeeeep sigh of relief. ;)
     
  13. ACK!

    ACK! Senior Member

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    Yes, you are right W*A*L*T*E*R (clever title, eh?) did have a one-time airing on CBS. The reason was that while the network rejected the pilot, they wanted to try and get some of their money back, so they aired it as a "special". This wasn't the first time a failed pilot was shown as filler programming.

    As for AfterMASH, it's been so long that I forgot pretty much most of the series. It's kind of like Star Trek in that they took too many trips to the well and milked it dry. M*A*S*H should always remain in Korea. :edthumbs:
     
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