Any M*A*S*H fans out there? show that makes you wanna keep tuned in.
#1
Posted 18 January 2005 - 01:46 AM
Peirce, Huneycut, Trapper....they just made the show with all their antics.......and Radar with his teddy bear, Klinger in his dresses and heels always trying to find a way out of there.
Speaking of which, remember the episode where Klinger got the glider and was sailing off into the sunset........oh that one was priceless.
#2
Posted 18 January 2005 - 08:53 AM
one of the best shows ever...
they lasted longer than the actual korean war did...
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#4
Posted 18 January 2005 - 11:10 AM
That's a bit of a cliche, I know. But with M*A*S*H*, it's true. When I watch that show, it makes me want to be a better man.
It's genuine, heartfelt, has a real familiarity to it and is just wonderful.
And with the exception of Major Burns, I fell in love with all the characters. It was wonderful last time the re-runs were on, tuning in everyday to see what was happening with them all. I look forward to the next round of re-runs.
#5
Posted 18 January 2005 - 02:38 PM
However, I can't stand Alan Alda on the whole. He was okay for a while, but a little bit of Alda can go a long way, and M*A*S*H, I'm sorry to say, had too much Alda for my taste.
That and 11 seasons was not a good idea for the show.
I'd like a qui-gon jinn please with an obi-wan to go.
#6
Posted 18 January 2005 - 03:25 PM
I know there was one that stayed on for quite some time which was Trapper Jhon MD.......they also made one called AFTER M*A*S*H* which had a few of the characters on but it didn't last long. The other one was a show about Radar, just don't remember the name of it but I think it only had one episode.
#8
Posted 21 January 2005 - 05:53 AM
MASH was good so for about a season and a half. It was certainly somewhat plausible until they killed Col. Blake. The laid back leadership made the eccentricities of the cast believable. As soon as regular army Col. Potter arrived the idea that Klinger would have been allowed to continue to wear a dress was absurd and that Alda's behavior would have been put up with equally unlikely.
More importantly the edge was quickly lost. Characters who hated each other grew to like each other and soon they were one big happy family. In the end they were actually sad to go home.
SAD TO GO HOME??!! From the fucking Korean War? Talk about losing the point.
I always compare MASH unfavorably to my friends with a much better Hellhole location series: OZ. That show was on the air for seven years and in all that time the cons did not become one iota more cuddly and no one EVER was sorry to leave the place. (Also, on occassion, Oz could make me laugh. MASH never could)
#9
Posted 21 January 2005 - 07:19 AM
They helped each other through.
And they weren't sad about going home. What they were sad about was the fact that they probably wouldn't see each other again, after everything they had been through. That's what they were sad about.
#10
Posted 21 January 2005 - 08:29 AM
Yet at no point did I feel that insanity or hellishness. The MASH set had all the generic warm fuzziness of any other three camera sitcom set. No one watching this show was thinking "This is a place I never ever want to be" which is exactly what I suspect anyone watching more than 30 random seconds of Oz would be reciting as a mantra.
As the characters got softer, and more likable, and became one big happy family, whatever minor cut of social commentary the show once posessed was blunted.
#11
Posted 21 January 2005 - 10:20 AM
But do you really think they didn't show how horrible war could be in the later episodes? We saw quite a few patients die, some tough moral dilemnas... the guys getting frustrated and trying to make a difference. The final two episodes had a lot of terrible things happen in them.
Yes, M*A*S*H was a warm show. But I don't think in the end, it was lightweight. The later episodes were often quite serious. Yes, fun was had as well still. But I think the show was always a mixture between the two.
And the warmth of the show is what made it so accessible to so many people. And the warmth came because the show was genuine.
#12
Posted 22 January 2005 - 05:03 AM
Now I'm sure the MASH producers or the CBS honchoes had this discussion about whether or not the public would watch a show that was honest about war. They obviously decided the viewers would not. This doesn't single MASH out as a particularly bad tv show. It wasn't.
On the contrary, it ended up being pretty much like every other show on television.
#13
Posted 22 January 2005 - 10:37 AM
Also, you're wrong about the show being about the horrors of war. That's not the central theme at all. It's about how keeping a sense of humour and having a good friend at your side can get you through a difficult situation. It's about comraderie and the value of friendship more than the horrors of war ~ and I think it does that well.
#14
Posted 23 January 2005 - 10:09 AM
Also a non-laugh track episode? Or maybe they Never used the laugh-track.
There were "news reports" episodes as well as recurring characters. There was a lot of emotional exchange between the characters, witnessed by the fourth wall. It was a gripping show. As gripping as comedy in the seventies could get I suppose, but they lasted the decade so they Could incorporate a lot.
It was when Alan Alda became a flash point for the new feminist male I turned the cynical eye. I can't detract from the success of the show. Doesn't mean I want to watch it.
Granted: with so much material, at times one can't keep from laughing.
(ok. now I remember the laugh-track)
#15
Posted 24 January 2005 - 03:04 AM
The show did have a lot of episodes that were very serious. It was not all laughs but just the same the show was genuine.