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I'm hip.
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I'm hip.
C'est vrai! Yes, better to have the message between the lines. Like I wrote earlier, I can appreciate the talent in front of and behind the camaera, and one can't discount the series's popularity, but it just did not endear itself to me. In college and afterwards, it seemed to be on several times a week.
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I loved the series, watching it as it originally aired as well as reruns at the same time. I was too young to appreciate it when it started (I was, like 3), but latched on to it soon enough and caught up on the stuff I missed as the show reran over on WNEW channel 5. I remember thinking that current TV shows rerunning on sister station WPIX had to alter the names ot the series, like "Emergency One" and "Happy Days Again" while M*A*S*H was still M*A*S*H over on WNEW.
Does anyone else remember the year the show won an Emmy for something (hahahah, God, how vague can one be - it happened often) and Jean Stapleton was the presenter. She read the candidates and when she got to M*A*S*H, she spelled it out: "M-A-S-H Mash."
Anyway, a comment about BJ, who's getting a bad rap here. You have to remember that a LARGE segment of M*A*S*H's core audience was female. Mike Farrell was insanely popular among women, his sensitive, likeable, intelligent characterization won them over. He was, unlike Trapper, totally committed to his wife and wasn't sleeping with every nurse in camp. Alda was also extremely popular, but he was the womanizer. BJ was a picture of the perfect husband. He wasn't meant to be a comedic equal to Hawkeye (Alda was well on his way to being the dominant force of the series), but had his moments. His "air raid" bit, sending Frank Burns into the water filled fox hole was incredibly funny.
However, as the series wore on, the comedy seemed to be relegated to the supporting characters. Alda, Farrell, Morgan and the rest were given meatier dramatic roles, while we suddenly got a lot more from guys like Rizzo. Jamie Farr did lose something when they phased out the cross-dressing, but I give the show props for not adhering rigidly to formula. Even though the series outlasted the war it dramatized by eight years, it was kept fairly fresh for most of the run by allowing the characters to evolve.
I still remember watching the final episode, which was both brilliant and over baked (the equivalent of 5 episodes? Really?). You could smell the ego wafting from Alda's typewriter as Hawkeye was given the most dramatically challenging story. I remember wishing they had dispensed with it, since this Hawkeye was alien to me for most of the episode and he never fully recovered. Actually, his one truly funny line ("well, the mortar merrier") was treated as a sick joke by the characters. Meanwhile, the rest of us at home were laughing.
The rest of the show was excellent, each character given a fitting exit. Each good-bye was gut wrenching, as fans who loved these characters, who truly got used to having the series on year after year, bid farewell also. The final good-bye between Hawkeye and BJ was a tough one (my Mom said "jeez, why does Hawkeye rate a helicopter when everyone else was hitting the road?"). Well, because Mom, we wouldn't have had the final image of the series: BJ's spelling out of Good-bye in rocks.
My God, it was like a family member died. It was the first time I was that moved by the ending of a TV series.
[edited to correct some really bad spelling]
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Posted: |
Oct 5, 2009 - 8:41 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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However, as the series wore on, the comedy seemed to be relegated to the supporting characters. Alda, Farrell, Morgan and the rest were given meaterier dramatic roles, while we suddenly got a lot more from guys like Rizzo. Jamie Farr did lose somethign when they phased out the cross-dressing, but I give the show props for not adhering rigidly to formula. Even though the series outlasted the war it dramatized by eight years, it was kept fairly fresh for most of the run by allowing the characters to evolve.
Klinger IMO got better once the drag schtick was jettisoned. He became quite lovable, being both a scrounger and a teller of tales whenever he mentioned his colorful family back home in Toledo. I think his rapport with Potter was as every bit as good as Radar's had been with Blake. I think that Klinger has become my favorite character.
I liked BJ Hunnicutt, whose delivery of a line was as dry as dry gets; I loved it. I liked that he mentioned his wife and child, too. He really came across as war weary and more "real" than Trapper (until Pernell Roberts took over the character!  )
Oldsmith, I loved your post. Great stuff.
Oh, and "Barney Miller"--which I liked-- never came close to M*A*S*H, even on the best day it ever lived. But I sure liked Harris and his "Blood on the Badge" routine. 
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Oldsmith, I loved your post. Great stuff.
Thanks. :-) I've got lots more.
I had actually forgotten how much I loved this show until thinking about it now. I'm thrilled to have the whole run on DVD and to this day view the last few episodes with a feeling of melancholy and bitter sweetness. In many ways, the series was showing its age. The drama was generally good, but the comedy was starting to fall flat, with mugging and overacting taking the place of genuine comedy. But when a show reaches that length and that status, it feels less like your watching for the laughs as you are just to spend time with the characters. Other shows, like Happy Days, were awful in the final years, but I still watched every week to hang out with whoever was left in the core cast. Same with Dallas, which truly became wretched long before it ended, but I had to sit down with the Ewings week after week.
It is a testament to the actors and the characters that this happens and why it really sucks when some shows end, especially the long running ones. M*A*S*H began its life on TV as a comedy with some bite. It was part of the change from anything goes fantasy comedy of the 1960's to the more serious, darker and cynical television of the 70's. Usually when people think 1970's, all they picture is the disco era. This was such a small part of the decade, lots of folks forget just how much disillusionment ruled the 70's, until we all suddenly cheered up around 1976.
M*A*S*H had to tread lightly with its moral attacks on war as the network and the public got used to each boundary being broken (mostly by Norman Lear, but M*A*S*H more than did its part). There were times the series touched on the horror of war, notably with the death of Hawkeye's friend in "Sometimes You Hear The Bullet." An episode where even Henry Blake has something profound: "The first rule is that young men die. The second rule is that doctors can't change rule number one." This episode got a huge response from the audience, many of whom were shocked to see their comedy take such a dramatic turn. This was only the beginning.
When a show suddenly changes in such a way that it's never the same again, we call it "jumping the shark" (in honor of Fonzie jumping over sharks while on water skies in a two part Happy Days - from that point on, he could do anything). This is normally considered a bad thing, but not necessarily in this case. M*A*S*H jumped the shark when Henry Blake was written out of the show. They could have just sent him home and moved on. Instead, they made television history and after a lively, humorous and touching send off, they killed him. After that, the tone started changing. A few seasons later, all of the goofiness was shaken loose, and M*A*S*H was no longer a comedy. Yet it was still funny even while making me angry or sad or shocked or confused. I still remember the first use of "son of a bitch" on the show (the first time on network TV? I don't know) and it really packed a punch. Honestly, I could go on for days (obviously), but so much has already been said about the series, although the definitive book still needs to be written.
The only thing that tainted the good feeling of the series was the unnecessary follow-up "AfterM*A*S*H." And, no kidding, I guessed the title of a sequel series before this one was announced. I remember telling my sister that they should call a sequel show "the afterMASH." We both laughed at my bad pun…until the following year when the damned thing came on TV! The less said of that series, the better.
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I was stunned to see on IMDB that "AfterMASH" managed to squeak through 1 and a half seasons- I could swear it was only one, but then I didn't watch it.
Interesting observation from a commentor on IMDB:
Another random tidbit I recall is that the people who made MASH never got any royalties from the spin-off. The studio used the absurd excuse that After MASH was really a spin-off of the movie MASH (which they owned) and not the TV series. Nice try, but Mulcahy was the only one of the three in the movie, and he was never deaf. I guess studio execs will do anything for a buck. Anything other than make a worthwhile sequel, that is.
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Actually they used that "spinoff from the movie" excuse for "Trapper John MD", not "AfterMash" which was always billed in the close credits as "a continuation of MASH".
Weak as "AfterMash" was it nonetheless did good ratings wise its first season. What greased the skids for its cancellation was CBS taking it out of the old Monday night MASH timeslot it had enjoyed its first season and moving it opposite "Dynasty" which was the kiss of death for it.
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And of course, it was the soapbox factor to which I was alluding in my earlier post. Better, I feel, to sneak the meaningful content in between the lines rather than to be quite so self-conscious about it.
That's okay. I feel the same way about All in the Family.
I found All in the Family, stomach-churning, and completely unfunny. Everyone on the show was gross to me.
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And of course, it was the soapbox factor to which I was alluding in my earlier post. Better, I feel, to sneak the meaningful content in between the lines rather than to be quite so self-conscious about it.
That's okay. I feel the same way about All in the Family.
I found All in the Family, stomach-churning, and completely unfunny. Everyone on the show was gross to me.
Really? I thought it was the funniest show of it's time.
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When AITF is funny, it's very funny, helped I think because of the live audience element that also enhances other sitcoms that were done that way as opposed to having a laugh trax and also the brilliant comic timing of the actors. When AITF was pretentious it could be very bad.
Time has especially not been kind to the character of Meathead who more and more looks like an ungrateful mooch who if he had any savvy would always try to avoid having any kind of argument with Archie, since the man is doing more than should be expected of him by letting him live under his house with free room and board.
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When AITF is funny, it's very funny, helped I think because of the live audience element that also enhances other sitcoms that were done that way as opposed to having a laugh trax and also the brilliant comic timing of the actors. When AITF was pretentious it could be very bad.
Time has especially not been kind to the character of Meathead who more and more looks like an ungrateful mooch who if he had any savvy would always try to avoid having any kind of argument with Archie, since the man is doing more than should be expected of him by letting him live under his house with free room and board.
True! By the end of the saga, Mike ditched Gloria and their son. Some Husband and Father image.
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