A cartoonist remembers M*A*S*H, 30 years later

My M*A*S*H Challenge, The Conclusion

Late last week, I achieved my goal of watching all 11 seasons and 251 episodes of M*A*S*H. I was able to do this in less than six months. The show that reminded us that war is hell, while making us laugh on occasion, has become one of my favourites.

Following from Part 2 of my blog series, here are my top episodes from the remaining six seasons:

Season 6: “Fade Out, Fade In” (1977)

The one-hour Season 6 opener introduces a new surgeon to the 4077, Maj. Charles E. Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers). The character was created for the series after Larry Linville, the actor who played Maj. Frank Burns, decided to leave following Season 5. It also signaled the series' transition from being a comedy-driven show to a serio-comical show, or dramedy.

Season 7: “Point of View” (1978)

One of the series’ most innovative episodes is seen from a wounded soldier’s point of view. What I also like about it is that it doesn’t contain an annoying laugh track!

Season 8: "Life Time" (1979)

Another innovate episode shows the surgical team frantically working to save the life of a severely injured soldier not far from the MASH unit. What makes this episode innovative is that most of the story is told in real time, with a clock ticking at the bottom right hand of the screen.

Season 9: "The Life You Save" (1981)

By Season 9, the series was starting to show its age. This season's finale is one of the stronger episodes from this late period. Winchester, who often appears self-centered and unapproachable, has a deep, spiritual experience when he is almost killed by a sniper. He then becomes obsessed with death, and starts talking to soldiers who have gone through near-death experiences.

Season 10: "Where There's a Will, There's a War" (1982)

Hawkeye (Alan Alda) is unable to leave an aid station due to heavy shelling. Fearing that he may not return alive, he starts making out his Last Will and Testament. Scenes with his co-workers and friends are shown as he makes his bequeaths.

Season 11: "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" (1983)

The two-hour-plus series finale, directed and co-written by Alan Alda, is set in the final days of the Korean War. The main plot involves Hawkeye seeing psychiatrst Dr. Freedman (Allan Arbus) following a traumatic incident on a bus. Meanwhile, Klinger (Jamie Farr) helps a Korean woman look for her family, BJ (Mike Farrell) is discharged and an explosion gives Fr. Mulcahy (William Christopher) some hearing loss. There's also a story where Winchester teaches some North Korean musicians how to play classical music. The whole episode runs the gamut of emotions, and I'm satisfied with the series' conclusion. "Goodbye" still holds the record for being the most-watched TV show finale ever. (Coincidentally, the 30th anniversary of its initial broadcast is this Thursday, February 28.)

Honourable mentions include “The Merchant of Korea” (S6), “The Smell of Music” (S6), “The Party” (S7), “Rally 'Round the Flagg, Boys” (S7), "Inga" (S7), “Good-Bye Radar" (S8), "Dreams" (S8), "Blood Brothers" (S9), "Death Takes a Holiday" (S9), "Blood and Guts" (S10), "The Tooth Shall Set You Free" (S10) and "As Time Goes By" (S11).

My final M*A*S*H blog will focus on my thoughts on the series, along with the top 10 best episodes.

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.

My M*A*S*H Challenge

Two months ago, at the beginning of September, the famous TV comedy-drama series M*A*S*H celebrated its 40th anniversary. It was also around this time that I started watching it regularly, right from the first episode. I'd known about M*A*S*H for a long time, and remember glancing at the reruns as a kid, including the epic finale. I even had some of the action figures and the jeep.

However I wasn't a fan, mainly because I couldn't understand its content or premise. Now, nearly 30 years after the last episode aired, I found myself hooked. It was worth the long wait.

M*A*S*H is a fictionalized version of the Korean War that lasted from 1950 to 1953, told from the point of view of medics at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. M*A*S*H started as a novel before Robert Altman turned it into a hugely-successful movie in 1970. The TV series, starring Alan Alda, Loretta Swit, Gary Burghoff and Jamie Farr, resulted from the movie's success. It was so popular that it lasted for 11 seasons, from 1972 to 1983 - nearly four times as long as the real Korean War!

The movie with Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman and Gary Burghoff shows the dark side of war in a satirical tone. So far I've seen almost four of the 11 seasons on History TV Canada. I've also watched some of the later episodes, including "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" in its entirety.

I enthusiastically took up the challenge of watching all 251 episodes of this classic TV show. It will likely take me until March 2013 to see it all.

There will be more M*A*S*H in my blog, but for now, as the Col. Henry Blake character would say, "abyssinia."