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My M*A*S*H Challenge, Part II

Back in November, I wrote a blog on how I became a latecomer to the old TV series M*A*S*H. In September, I started watching it on a regular basis, beginning with the pilot episode. (I also watched the movie that led to the development of the TV series.) My goal was to see all 11 seasons of the series over a six-month period.

I’m happy to report that I am on track, save for a brief lag during the Christmas period. To date, I have seen 169 out of the 251 episodes in order of broadcast. That’s all of seasons one to seven. I even took in a handful of episodes outside of those seven seasons, including “Good-Bye Radar” (Season 8) and “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” (Season 11).

Here are my top episodes from the first five seasons:

Season 1: “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet” (1973)
One of the best episodes of the show’s early years is one of the first to strike a perfect balance between comedy and drama. Hawkeye (Alan Alda) meets up with a childhood friend who enlists in the army so he can write about his experiences in the Korean War. The main plot ends tragically when his friend dies on the operating table. This leads Lt. Col. Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) to console Hawkeye with one of M*A*S*H’s greatest lines of dialogue. Ron Howard makes a memorable cameo as an underage soldier.

Season 2: “Deal Me Out” (1973)
Most of the episode revolves around a poker game disguised as an officers’ conference. John Ritter guests as a fatigued officer who at one point threatens to kill Maj. Frank Burns (Larry Linville). The hospital’s psychiatrist Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus) intervenes to help the irate officer. Pat Morita also guests as an officer. Edward Winter makes his series debut as Capt. Halloran. He would later return as the paranoid Col. Sam Flagg.

Season 3: “Abyssinia, Henry” (1975)
Blake is discharged and makes plans to return home. Hawkeye and Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) throw a drunken farewell party for him. There’s also a touching parting exchange between Blake and Radar (Gary Burghoff). Shortly after Blake leaves, his plane is shot down over the Sea of Japan, killing everyone on board. The decision to drop Blake came when McLean Stevenson decided to pursue other projects. This was also the last series appearance of Wayne Rogers and his Trapper John character.

Season 4: “The Interview” (1976)
Real-life news reporter Clete Roberts hosted one of the series’ most innovative episodes by ‘visiting’ the 4077 MASH unit. The entire episode is presented as a documentary, filmed in black and white. It has the hospital team discussing how the war has changed their lives. This was the last episode produced and written by the series’ creator, Larry Gelbart.

Season 5: “Dear Sigmund” (1976)
This episode centres on Dr. Freedman expressing his observations on life at the swamp in a letter addressed to his long-deceased idol, Sigmund Freud. He writes this letter as a means of recovering from a deep depression. It is during this process that he helps BJ Hunnicut (Mike Farrell) pull off a clever prank against Burns. Alan Alda wrote and directed this episode, and considers it one of his favourites. It’s one of mine, too.

Honourable mentions include “The Pilot” (S1), “Tuttle” (S1), “5 O’Clock Charlie” (S2), “Big Mac” (S3), “The General Flipped at Dawn” (S3), “The Novocaine Mutiny” (S4), “Welcome to Korea” (S4) and “Movie Tonight” (S5).

My next M*A*S*H blog will focus on the final seasons, and my impressions of the series as a whole. Time to “bug out” for now.

RIP Conrad Bain

RIP Patti Page