Prime showed "Deal Me Out" last night, with John Ritter as a soldier who tries to take Frank hostage in the shower. (Eeew, naked Frank.) It was somewhat startling to see John Ritter so a) young, b) not playing Jack on Three's Company, the only role I've seen much of him in, and c) waving a gun around!

Aliana, good point about Charles, but I found the episode to be too predictable, and a lot of people seemed out-of-character to me. (Wow, how's that for length of time before reply?)

Disk 2

Alcoholics Unanimous: Frank is left in charge and orders prohibition, and things get very tense. One of the few times that the series actually questioned the casual drinking of its heroes, so it's worth a look just for that.

There is Nothing Like a Nurse: All the nurses are evacuated and the men must go on without them for a while. This is perhaps the only time in the series when the directing style became intrusive, with a close up of Margaret's lips, mini-flashbacks, and split screens. Hy Averback had done a few episodes before, so I don't know what he was up to here. A pretty forgettable affair otherwise.

Adam's Rib: Hawkeye orders a case of spare ribs from Chicago, but has trouble getting them to the camp. An absolutely hilarious episode that is one of the series' best.

A Full Rich Day: Hawkeye sends his father a recording about a search for a missing body and a gun-happy soldier who forces the doctors to operate on his friend before all other casualties. It's obvious that the writer here didn't know how to end things with the way both plotlines end up, but the road there is pretty fun.

Mad Dogs and Servicemen: Radar is bitten by a dog and might have rabies, and Hawkeye tries some reverse psychology on a soldier who can't move. A pretty average episode, though the final chase after the dog is great.

Private Charles Lamb: Radar tries to save a lamb from being the main course at a Greek feast. Another average one, with a plot that takes a little too long to get going.

Bombed: The camp undergoes an intense shelling, leaving Trapper and Margaret trapped in the supply room. The highlight here is Gary Burghoff's growing frustration at a deadpan soldier's refusal to help. A great time all around.

Bulletin Board: As a much-needed barbeque party nears, the doctors are their usual selves. Not much plot again, though it's well worth a watch for the gags.

I "heart" Father Mulcahy - 'jocularity...jocularity'

He and Radar are the best!



This is too funny!
I also hated Frank when I first started watching, but now that I think about it, Larry Linville had a hard job! I'd hate to have to act like such a 'ninny'.

Ferret Face!



Great, now all that I can think of is "SHERMAN....T....POTTER". AARRRGHH!



How about the one where Radar called Charles's mom to get his old sledding hat and he finally started enjoying the party? Or the one where Charles was trying to carry out his family tradition of taking gifts to the poor without being found out?

I liked Trapper better than BJ, but I TOTALLY agree with those who say Charles is better than Frank!

Edited to delete duplicate post

I disagree that Charles despised them. In "Sons and Bowlers," he really connects with Hawkeye, and in episodes before that he was always willing to buck the rules and really became the Third Musketeer in their little schemes. He also showed affection for B.J. For all his posturing in "Rally 'Round the Flagg Boys," he won't commit even minor spying on Hawkeye for the thing he wanted most in the world: the chance to go home.

The one problem I had with the finale is that I didn't like Charles' goodbye to Hawkeye and B.J. But I suppose that it was in character; Charles would've never been all sentimental with them. But I'd like to that Charles knew those two were the best friends he would probably ever have in his life.

In the episode where Hawkeye's new girlfriend Millie dies by stepping on a landmine, what saves the (sub-par) ep for me is when Hawk gives the eulogy at the end and says that he wants to say now that he appreciates everyone there, and "to those closest to me....[he lists them]..I love each and every one of you." And in his list of those closest he had said "Charles" with a kind of tone of "yes, you heard me." One of my favorite moments.

I think Charles did despise them, but only in a sort of official capacity. He knew they were the sort of people (in the eyes of the world he grew up with) whom he should despise, and they frequently did things that drove him nuts, but I think for himself, he grew to like and care about them. There was never going to be the same sort of rapport between him and Hawkeye or BJ that those two shared--but I think he came to understand and respect them. At least when they weren't actively driving him insane. The episode with the French horn and the no showering comes to mind...

Or the "no cleaning" ep, where Charles gets fed up with Hawkeye and BJ's mess, and starts fighting fire with fire. The last scene..... no dialogue, just wonderful facial expressions while they destroy each other's stuff, and finally , Charles roaring and ramming the mattress out the door.

I heart DOS.

(Although, you sorta wonder what the scene was like when they come back from OR and realize what they were doing.)

Just re-watched the 'time capsule' episode this weekend. I liked how Charles & BJ worked together to trick Rizzo with the fake grenade. I also thought that the three of them bringing out their time capsule filled with their meaningful items showed definite team work. This was the last episode before the series finale and I thought the way they mentioned old characters - Radar, Henry Blake, even Frank Burns - was an appropriate tie up for the series before the big two hour movie.

They did just show the series finale on the Hallmark channel. They aren't going to stop showing the re-runs, are they? Hopefully they'll start over at the beginning again.

The time-capsule episode, although the second to last of the series, was filmed after the the 2 hour farewell. Knowing that always makes that show a wee more emotional for me.

Charles definetly connected with Hawkeye and B.J. better than Frank ever did. I forget the title but I love the episode where Hawkeye and a cowboy-type doctor trade...companys? Anyway, seeing Charles and B.J. band together against this guy who wasn't Hawk was great. But I love that the three of them didn't become BFF! That would have been weak.

I just saw Welcome to Korea. Hunnicutt looks so dang young and I love when he and Pierce arrive at the camp completely toasted. Good times.

I was flipping channels Valentine's weekend and saw part of the episode with the little clock at the bottom of the screen. Real-time television a couple of decades before 24.

I watched the last episode the other day. I hope I don't sound stupid, but I was confused by the whole Hawkeye mental depression. Did Hawk kill the chicken ?? Did he smother it or something ?? I couldn't tell if he said he killed chicken or the lady holding it. I just wanted to see exactly what happened.

The woman actually killed her baby, and Hawkeye's mind recalled it as a chicken to make it seem less horrible.

I love, love, LOVE M*A*S*H, but the one thing that bothers me is that it always seemed to be so 'Alda-centric'. I guess since he produced/directed so many of the episodes, they made him the main feature. (Kind of an SJP/SATC thing). There were SO many good actors on that show, but each story had to feature what an INCREDIBLE surgeon 'Hawk' was and how he almost always seemed to save the day.

I love Alan Alda so I may be a bit biased here but I don't think the show was all about The Great Hawkeye Pierce!

A lot of episodes dealt with him being emotionally unstable (childhood friends dying in his dreams, easing up on the drinking after his tab is so high, the finale). One one hand that could be an Alda showcase but on the other hand it shows that Hawkeye was indeed human. He wasn't as "strong" as some of the other characters. I've always liked the one where Radar is injured and Hawkeye blames himself, gets toasted and has to leave the O.R. Radar finally realizing that Hawkeye is flawed is great. Also, Winchester was at least a comparable if not a better surgeon and knocked Pierce down a peg.

Eegah, thanks. Now I really understand all that happened and why he was afraid to go near kids. It makes more sense - thanks.

While I am technically old enough to have seen most of the original run of M*A*S*H (and robably did, because my dad watched it), for the most part, I know the series through reruns, which never seem to play in order. So, I know early versus old on the basis of cast changes, but until the DVDs I've never really been able to watch the series in terms of "progression" of themes, characters, and so on.

On the "Hawkeye-centrism" issue, I agree that he's the focus of more episodes than any other single character (although, to be fair, Alan Alda was a full member of the cast longer than any one except Loretta Swit), but I think there were plenty of episodes in which he came out looking less than wonderful. For example, there's an episode where they get a bunch of British troops, and Hawkeye doesn't like how their commander talks to them, and goes into one of his patented rants. Only to eventually learn that this man knows his troops, is very close to them, and they love and respect him. I really feel that Hawkeye looked like an idiot in that one, and I like that sometimes his moral high-horse dumps him on the ground.

I never thought about it this way.
Both the Hallmark channel and our local channel that shows M*A*S*H have started showing earlier versions. In the 'early days', it seems like more of an ensemble cast. Hawkeye was still the 'ace' surgeon, but I always felt like he had to be to make people care about his character. If he was just a 'malcontent' and a rebel, people wouldn't feel the emotional attachment they do to him. (JMO)

I can see where other actors had to step into roles that were played by much loved characters (Klinger filling the void when my favorite, Radar left or BJ coming in when Trapper left) or a character having to come in to fill a dymanic (Charles had to come in when Frank left and after Frank, there wasn't an antagonist for Hawkeye). It makes me think of ER and all of the new characters they have brought in since the original 9 left. It's still an ok show, but I just don't care about the characters as much. Hawkeye isn't my favorite character and for a while I was only seeing the older episodes and was feeling rather 'meh' to quote a TWOP phrase.

Also, since the series was taped in the 70's (?), I guess they had different rules on what they could show. They couldn't show as much death/suffering as tv seems to now (and that's mostly on the news...) so I guess some 'miraculous' saves had to take place.

Thanks for making me see things differently!

Alda wasn't writing or directing episodes in the early seasons. Later on when he got more power and started doing that, it became more Hawkeye-centric. This is why I like the original episodes (before McLean left) the best. The characters were at their most pure, not polluted by feelings the actors had for them (Swit wanting Hot Lips to show a softer side, Alda wanting Hawkeye to be less of a womanizer).

That was Wayne Rogers' complaint, that Hawkeye was too much the star. However, Alan Alda is an amazing actor, IMO, and Wayne was fairly one-note, thus the reason why Hawkeye was, off the bat, made the focus of the series.

One of my favorite episodes is one I find almost every other fan hates. It's "Commander Pierce," where Potter has to go on a trip and appoint a temporary CO. Charles, the second highest ranked surgeon, is sick with the flu so Hawkeye is appointed, do to seniority. He has to throw over his wacky, laidback rule breaking mode in order for the unit to be run properly. At one point, B.J. leaves to go tend to an injured civilian in the village without Hawkeye's knowledge. They get an influx of wounded and when Hawkeye tells Radar to get B.J. to take over triage, Radar reveals that B.J. is gone. After surgery, Hawkeye vents to Margaret:

Margaret: "If Frank Burns could see you now...It's not easy to be critical when you're the one in charge, is it? Permission to say it serves you right, sir. ::sarcastic salute::"
Hawkeye: "Permission denied. Dismissed, Major."

Then when B.J. returns, Hawkeye goes off on him:

B.J. "I'm a doctor! A patient needed me!"
Hawekeye: "We had patients here that needed you! Potter isn't here, you weren't here, Charles has never been here. While you were off playing savior I was stuck here with fifty wounded and two surgeons!"

It was one of the only times where Hawkeye's rebel attitude was examined, and one of the few episodes with no happy ending (Hawk and B.J. are still fighting at the end of the episode and don't make up).

I always liked Trapper (and to some extent BJ) better. They didn't seem like they were trying SO hard to stand out as the rebel.

Whenever I think of Alan Alda, I can only picture him in that movie 'The Four Seasons' about the three older couples who go on vacations every year. Maybe that's my problem.



This makes me think of the early episode when Hawkeye calls her 'Baby'.

Hawkeye: "See you later, Baby"
Margaret: "That's MAJOR to you"
Hawkeye: "See you later, Major Baby"

Alan Alda is a good actor, and the more I am seeing of the older episodes, the more I realize this. Again, I think that the newer episodes seem to feature him because he is one of the few who 'stayed the same' through the series.

Alda's family stayed in New Jersey for the entire run of the series. He most likely had more free time than the other actors and became more involved with the show. Writing episodes was probably a great way to spend cross country flights every weekend.

I guess I'm of two minds about the Hawkeyenization of the later episodes. I like the earlier ones, because they don't always have a definite plots, which makes it feel less like a silly sitcom and more like the movie. On the other hand, I much prefer BJ to Trapper (who just seemed like Hawkeye Lite, whereas BJ has differences and well as similarities) and Charles to Frank, and generally also Potter to Blake, so I don't generally care that there's a bit more Hawkeye in the later shows. However I do think Charles and Potter were written somewhat inconsistantly at times.

The show took a big risk in replacing characters with ones that were pretty much the complete opposites, and I'm glad it was able to run so long on that. It seems that by the time Radar left the people behind the show had succumbed to the criticisms of the cast changes and replaced him with an existing character instead. I often wonder what a Radar replacement could have been like.

The other cast changes were okay, but I never liked Potter. His constant cries of 'horse hockey' or 'bull biscuits' made me cringe! They went too far in the opposite direction with this change.



Radar was one of my favorite characters so I can't imagine anyone getting the affection that he did, but who would you cast as his replacement?

They couldn't get a replacement Radar because by then all the cast had gotten so old, if they brought in a new 19 year old kid, they would have looked ancient in comparison. Radar was youthful looking, but he was probably over 30 by the time he left. I didn't like Klinger taking over his job, but then again, I didn't like anything much about the last few years of the show.

I actually like that Klinger took over for Radar. For one thing, there was an established dynamic between the characters, and I think a new character could have damaged that. Then there's the fact that it created more reasons to play with the tension between Charles and Klinger, exacerbated by the fact that Klinger now performed important functions that Charles needed.

Can someone tell me which episode the "Jocularity, Jocularity" (from Father Mulcahy) was said?

Also, the one where the movie broke and they did Father Mulcahy impressions and sang that song? (The surgeons in the army .....)

The jocularity quote was actually Potter's contribution to the Father Mulcahy sound-alike contest in Movie Night.

Actually Radar did the impression.

My husband is a M*A*S*H freak (and sometimes just a freak...) and he has alot of the episodes memorized. We have marathon's every night with the Hallmark channel and a local channel that shows two episodes per night. When he saw the movie night episode, he wondered how Radar would have known that Mulcahy said the 'jocularity' comment when he wasn't in the tent when he said it. Of course, a few weeks later, the episode (which had Trapper so it was an early one) aired. Father Mulcahy comes into the swamp and Trapper/Hawkeye are planning one of their schemes and he says, "Jocularity, Jocularity".

The one thing that my M*A*S*H freak can't remember, is the name of either episode (the movie one or the original jocularity one).

Please help!

I saw a later episode recently, the one where the head chaplain comes to the unit for a visit and Father Mulcahy is trying to get everybody in shape. He tells somebody, "No time for jocularity now!" which struck me as the only time I had heard him use the word, though I remembered the line from the Movie Night episode. Maybe that was just a verbal idiocycrancy of his that they picked up on.

Apparently, William Christopher was incredibly well respected by the other actors and the writers. There was a two-parter that was supposed to be a documentary about the doctors in Korea, done by a real Korean-era TV reporter. Christopher improvised a line where he talked about watching the surgeons cut open a body and warming their hands from the heat that came out of the cavity. The writers said it was something they never could have come up with and the actors said, "How do we follow THIS?" They also said he's as much of a sweetheart as Mulcahy himself. I know he and his wife adopted a toddler who soon turned out to have severe autism. The adoption rules said that in circumstances such as those they could, in effect, return the kid, but they kept raised him and became autism advocates instead.

I FINALLY saw the infamous Henry Blake death episode the other day after reading about it for so long. I listened carefully for medical equipment dropping. I could see real sadness on faces as they had to keep working.
I also saw 1st eps with BJ and that was good as well.

D.C, thanks for info on William Christopher. Thats awesome what a great guy he is - no wonder he got the part.

He still does some work with the other actors; a while ago he and Jamie Farr did a tour of The Odd Couple together. Too bad he was part of the ill-considered AfterMASH that completely ignored Mulcahy's hearing loss and Klinger helping his wife find her parents.

This episode makes me cry every time - but I can't not watch it.
I liked Blake so much better than Potter, he was a total boob, but he wasn't so abrasive. When he calls his wife to tell her that they will just walk into the country club and surprise everyone it breaks my heart. (Especially since I've only seen the episode in re-run and know what's going to happen).

It's like the episode where his son is born and he can't be there so Radar brings him the Korean baby. McLean Stevenson could show emotion really well.



William Christopher is awesome!
I've never seen an episode of AfterMash. Did it really suck?

Yesterday I watched the episode where B.J., Potter, Hawkeye, Radar and Frank all get lost coming back from the medical conference in the bus. Continuity error: if all the surgeons were at that conference who was at the 4077th for any incoming wounded?

Anyway, I love the line when Frank wakes up and says, "Radar's not back yet, huh?" Hawkeye replies, "Yeah, huh, that's right, huh." It's just a throwaway line but Alda says it with such vitriol it cracks me up.

Maybe they thought HotLips could handle everything?
I loved Frank trying to call on the broken radio to the plane overhead. And he and Radar going 100 paces...hee!

That was an inconsistency on the show. A big deal was made about how they never knew when wounded would come, they were on call 24/7, yet at other times they did know. Or the characters did things that would be totally inconsistent with being on call all the time, like the doctors all getting completely plastered at once.

In other episodes, a big emphasis was made about who would be temporary CO when Potter left camp, or who would be allowed to leave camp because they needed at least one doctor there.

For example, when Klinger is court martialed for stealing the Polaroid, Potter specifically says that he'd like to go with, "But someone has to stay here in case we get wounded," as Charles, B.J. and Hawkeye all went with Klinger.

I simply hated Margaret in the later seasons, or rather I hate that Loretta Swit's ego overtook the character. Yeah, it's 1952 in Korea, but I want to wear my hair in a perm from the 80s & wear tons of makeup including 80s style eyeliner. Yuk.

I agree that Margaret's hairstyles(s) were out of place for early 50's Korea but then so were those of the men, particularly Hawkeye and BJ. Unlikely hairdos in general were among the anachronisms of the program.

Yeah, they had 70s hair and sideburns, but at least they were consistent throughout the series. They didn't start out with military haircuts & come back after a summer break with a Mike Brady perm.

And, honestly, the hair cuts weren't at all what the show was about. It's not like Friends where fashion is such a big deal for the characters. So the actors didn't want to run around in their real lives wearing hairstyles thrity years out of date. Who can blame them? Besides, this was about the universality of the war experience from the inside--who cares what the hair looked like?

Certainly the universality of the war experience was the overriding theme. However in other areas - medical technology, references to current political issues and figures, baseball pennant races, popular culture, even the use of newsreels - the series made great efforts to reflect the Korean War era. That this did not continue into period hairstyles for both men and women remains a (minor) puzzle.

Charles' humanity was shown many times in small, subtle ways, including remarks he made in the OR, in between being a pompous ass. Also, he wasn't above getting sodding drunk with the guys and even drank their "swill" on occasion!

I think one of my all time favourites is when Radar conspired with Margaret (I think that's right) to communicate with Charles' mom about Charles' Xmas present. They asked her for something that would remind him of home, and she sent his old toboggan hat. Charles was a six-year-old kid for a minute there! He was shown in many later episodes wearing it.

Charles fans unite, KTJ!

It was Father Mulcahy Radar conspired with. It was that Christmas episode where Father Mulcahy was feeling a bit useless thinking he wasn't helping anyone, and Charles' elation over the hat ("Father..you saved me") made him realize he was helping.

Even Charles loved, respected and admired Father Mulcahy from the start, which is saying something, because Charles was so picky and it was hard for him to offer true respect. He eventually did it grudgingly for others, like Potter, Margaret, etc. but with Mulcahy it was easy.

Does anyone remember what the goodbyes to the padre were in "Goodbye Farewell & Amen"? I honestly can't remember, but they were very sweet.

And while on the subject of Charles, does anyone think TPTB should have continued the Charles/Margaret coupling they seemed to be setting up (for about five minutes there)?

To some degree, yes (oh, and I'm with the Charles people here..."shh...Mozart"). I thought that their interplay was interesting, and they were the two people in the camp (excepting Potter) who attempted to be professional in every area of their lives.

I'm not sure that a consumation would have been wise. However, I would have liked to have seen more development in that particular relationship.

Has everybody--or anybody--here seen Woody Allen's Everybody Says I Love You? I ask because I'm a little surprised nobody has brought it up. Both Alan Alda and David Ogden Stiers are in it, as future in-laws. Stiers' son is engaged to Alda's daughter. Alda's the star and Stiers doesn't have a lot to do, but it was fun seeing them together.

That is a cute pairing. Must have been distracted by Ed Burns' "singing".

Charles and Hawkeye...now there's some fun HoYay slashfic.

That was the highlight of Everyone Says I Love You for me. Woody Allen must've been a fan, because he's had David Ogden Stiers in five of his movies, and Alda in four.

I had no problem with the Margaret/Hawkeye pairing, but I found the flirtations between Charles and Margaret intriguing. Charles definitely respected her, and she him, although when he first arrived she was into him because he was both rich and prestigous.

I like the idea of a Charles/Margaret pairing. She didn't make sense to me with Frank. He was too much of a ninny for her.

Yeah, but Margaret also had a very dominating personality. I'm sure she enjoyed being able to boss Frank around.

Speaking of Frank and speaking of other projects...

There was a stage musical called Crazy for You that was making the rounds on PBS over the last couple of years and which, I suppose, could pop up again. I'd recommend watching it if you see it listed. It's very good--a new musical that incorporates a whole bunch of Gershwin songs into a plot that fits well with the time the songs were written but which still has a modern sensibility. Anyway, when it was over I was looking at the credits and recognized nobody, because they're all stage actors and dancers. Except for one name: Larry Linville played the female lead's father, a big part. I didn't recognize him at all! I'm sure much of that was because of the bushy mustache and glasses, but he had gained a lot of weight (though he was so skinny on M*A*S*H* that "a lot of weight" still left him looking okay) and his voice was completely different--husky and a little hoarse. He didn't so much dance as "move" and most of his singing was as part of the chorus, but he was very funny and, at the end he got one of the biggest laughs of the show by singing one line. Sadly, I think this was one of the last things he did before he died.