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Post by langford on Feb 28, 2023 18:46:09 GMT -5
I was scrolling through the news today and came across a story noting that today is the 40th anniversary of the last episode of M*A*S*H. The story had some interesting details about the recording-breaking viewership for the show—apparently it claimed an audience share of something like 60 per cent, a feat unlikely to be repeated in our world of a bazillion channels. That's more than impressive. But the piece also went on to fawn over the 2.5-hour episode. I don't remember it that way. I watched it with a couple of friends (including a girl I had a massive, unspoken crush on.) We felt the show was chaotic, racing from crisis to crisis, and ultimately unsatisfying. Does anyone else here remember watching it what their reaction was?
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Post by jazzguy on Feb 28, 2023 20:08:01 GMT -5
Mash started getting a little sappy when they all became friends in the last few seasons but I still enjoyed it.
Liked the finale too.
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Post by K4 on Feb 28, 2023 21:18:18 GMT -5
I thought MASH got to preachy toward the end. I did watch the finale and it was a let down.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Feb 28, 2023 21:20:24 GMT -5
I'm sure I watched but have no specific recollection of the final episode. I do recall talking about the episode where they killed off Henry Blake in school the day after. That was a shocking crossover from comedy to drama.
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Post by K4 on Feb 28, 2023 22:11:55 GMT -5
The show had 3 eras.
1, comedy
2, dramady
3, Alan Alda's soapbox.
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Post by Lesterstrat on Feb 28, 2023 23:03:26 GMT -5
The show had 3 eras. 1, comedy 2, dramady 3, Alan Alda's soapbox. Yup! |
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Post by guildx700 on Feb 28, 2023 23:12:40 GMT -5
Been binge watching it it, I'm digging it !
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Post by gato on Mar 1, 2023 7:57:42 GMT -5
One of my favorite recurring characters in Mash was Colonel Flagg, the "intelligence" numbskull.
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Post by HenryJ on Mar 1, 2023 8:56:14 GMT -5
I thought the MASH finale was rather depressing, especially when the woman smothered her baby so that the enemy would not hear the child crying. Hawkeye had a nervous breakdown and remembered it as the woman smothering a chicken in her lap.
I don't know why anyone would want to see that episode again.
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Post by LeftyMeister on Mar 1, 2023 9:23:09 GMT -5
Like many TV shows that gain fame, MASH became a caricature of itself. That's why I still admire Seinfeld for leaving on a high note.
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Post by rdr on Mar 1, 2023 9:27:40 GMT -5
My dermatologist says the show was based on his Mash unit. I need to ask which character he was.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Mar 1, 2023 10:26:24 GMT -5
I suppose I understand the shift to a more dramatic approach in the series. I recall my dad really being irritated with Hogan's Heroes and it's portrayal of the Nazis. He lived through their horrors as a kid in Europe and thought it marginalized their calculated viciousness. Portaying war in comedy is tricky business. Escapism vs reality.
I've been watching the HBO series "Barry" and it pretty much does the same thing. Chechen mob (pseudonym for Russian mob) and drug cartels presented as inept bumbling fools like Sgt Schultz and Colonel Klink. Funny for anyone that hasn't been touched by their psychopathy, maybe not so much for those who have lived it in real life.
But as an American kid who's realities of war were black and white pictures and anecdotal stories from my parents I found MASH increasingly not funny and yeah, a little preachy. I guess the lesson is to never confuse comedy for history.
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Post by langford on Mar 1, 2023 10:57:04 GMT -5
I guess the lesson is to never confuse comedy for history. Excellent point, Auf. I think we can take it a step further and say, "be careful not to confuse history with the other story you want to tell." |
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Post by guildx700 on Mar 1, 2023 21:52:48 GMT -5
One of my favorite recurring characters in Mash was Colonel Flagg, the "intelligence" numbskull. Flagg is silly funny!!!!  |
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Post by Mfitz804 on Mar 1, 2023 22:28:14 GMT -5
The show had 3 eras. 1, comedy 2, dramady 3, Alan Alda's soapbox. And the #3 episodes were THE WORST. |
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Post by budg on Mar 2, 2023 7:44:18 GMT -5
I was a big fan and still enjoy the Finale. Like every show , eventually they run out of gas in the end . No show that I can think of that had cast changes and never lost a step.
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Post by Mike the marksman on Mar 2, 2023 10:31:18 GMT -5
I'm not the biggest fan of the earlier seasons. I can still watch and enjoy them, but I prefer B.J. Hunnicutt and Col. Potter over their predecessors, who were just a bit too silly, IMO.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Mar 2, 2023 11:38:03 GMT -5
I'm not the biggest fan of the earlier seasons. I can still watch and enjoy them, but I prefer B.J. Hunnicutt and Col. Potter over their predecessors, who were just a bit too silly, IMO. I agree with that. While I did enjoy the earlier seasons for what they were I think Trapper John, Henry Blake and Frank Burns were just falls guys and side kicks to Hawkeye. BJ and Potter were way more dynamic, especially Potter. On a side note it's weird how many of the actors, writers and producers died of cancer. Larry Linville, William Christopher, McClean Stevenson (technically a heart attack but recovering from bladder cancer), David Ogden Stiers (also bladder cancer), Larry Gelbart, Kellye Nakahara Watson (Nurse Kellye), Marcia Strassman (Nurse Margie Cutler), and others. Maybe just the way it is with a production that lasted that long. |
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Post by Mike the marksman on Mar 2, 2023 13:08:38 GMT -5
I also prefer Maj. Winchester as a foil for Hawkeye. He was contemptuous, pompous, and rude, but he was competent at his job, could match wits with Hawkeye, and had moments of humility. Frank Burns was just a childlike baffoon with no redeeming character traits. Winchester is also responsible for one of my favorite TV moments ever, where he's trying to console Pvt. Sheridan, the concert pianist who lost the use of his hand in a mortar attack..
"The gift does not lie in your hands. I have hands, David. Hands that can make a scalpel sing. More than anything in my life I wanted to play, but I do not have the gift. I can play the notes but I cannot make the music. You’ve performed Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Chopin. Even if you never do so again, you’ve already known a joy that I will never know as long as I live. Because the true gift is in your head, and in your heart, and in your soul. Now, you can shut it off forever, or you can find new ways to share your gift with the world– through the baton, the classroom, the pen. As to these works, they’re for you, because you and the piano will always be as one.”
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Post by tahitijack on Mar 2, 2023 15:25:13 GMT -5
Local news said the final episode of MASH was the most watched scripted TV show. But I believe the season ending or the first episode of the following season about "who shot JR" of Dallas was the all time most watched TV show.
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Post by Leftee on Mar 2, 2023 16:51:04 GMT -5
I am proud to say I never saw a single episode of Dallas.
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Post by jazzguy on Mar 2, 2023 16:56:59 GMT -5
I am proud to say I never saw a single episode of Dallas. or Dynasty or any of the other night soaps |
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Post by rickyguitar on Mar 2, 2023 19:38:13 GMT -5
Never watched Dllas, or Dynasty. I did watch Mash as light entertainment. Wore a little thin when it became the Alan Alda show tho.
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Post by WireDog on Mar 3, 2023 11:02:15 GMT -5
It was on the Armed Forces Korea Network (AFKN) both times I was stationed there. It was cool to be in country and watching it.
An episode in particular stands out for me, in which a lot of wounded Greek troops came flooding in to the MASH. They had been ambushed. This happened to tie in with a mission I had to recon a valley and plan our antenna placement in preparation for a big Field Training Exercise (FTX).
We were in a gorgeous lush green valley, with steep jagged hills on either side. The Valley was very narrow. The Lieutenant and I noticed the name on the map: “Greek Valley”, so named to commemorate a large party of the Greek Army who blundered in there during the war and got shredded.
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Post by guildx700 on Apr 7, 2023 23:32:30 GMT -5
Hella a great show, I never get tired of seeing it.
Rare stuff in the endless dreck usually offered on TV.
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Post by LTB on Apr 8, 2023 13:04:21 GMT -5
I like some of the episodes and some not so much. Do not remember the Final Episode. If as HenryJ say’s then if I did watch it I am glad I do not remember it.
Seinfeld was pretty entertaining though.
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Ayns
Wholenote
Posts: 767
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Post by Ayns on Apr 8, 2023 15:39:19 GMT -5
I’ve been watching double episodes of M*A*S*H on a daily basis for the last couple of months. The final episode was shown last week but I only caught a few minutes of it.
“Interesting” fact:- The original UK screenings of M*A*S*H didn’t have a laugh track.
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Post by reverendrob on Apr 10, 2023 2:15:53 GMT -5
The DVD release thankfully let you turn off the laugh track.
The show went downhill fast after Blake bit it, it felt like the entire seasons were "very special episodes" featuring Mr. Drummond and Arnold fighting child sex offenders or whatever the cause d'jour was.
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