Strongly disagree with the statement that this is the most important. I think the last episode and the way it was done and how it raps up the war and the show and makes you think about reality and the sadness and finalisation of it, is definitely the most important episode. Not some ep from season 1.
I own all 11 seasons on DVD. I almost got rid of it once, but I realized the need to preserve physical media in this digital age where no one really owns anything anymore. I'm glad I kept them.
I grew up watching MASH, ten years old in 1972 when it first aired. Honestly, I never cared for the slapstick humor of Hawkeye ... But the humor generated by the relationships between the characters. This series was a backbone to the American TV viewers, there were as many tears as laughs. 🏆 💘 📺
Yet, the first 3 seasons were still the best! The writers turned Hawkeye into an arrogant know it all Saint ( didn't he bring a couple of soldiers back to life, lol) and Margaret into a screaming meemy pain.. After the 4th season, I'd say every 3rd or 4th episode was okay. I especially despised the episode where Hawkeye and BJ they would been court martialed for their behavior ( Guerella my Dreams? )
BTW, my father served as a USAF Major at a AF MASH unit in Korea. He had to bug out once when the Manchurians came over the hill. He loved the Altman movie. He would laugh at all the inside jokes... like the "Wassermann test" over the PA speakers. No one else in the theater got that joke, xcept him,
I was a kid that grew up watching M.A.S.H. I still remember watching the finale and crying. I was 10 years old. Shows like this shaped a generation of kids that grew up without hiding hardship or reality from them. To this day I still remember pretty much every episode and how it made my feel and how it changed the way I grew up seeing the world. There aren't shows like this for the current generations. Everything is so sugar coated and safe space. I am quite thankful for the experiences like M.A.S.H. that shaped us.
The movie will always be one of my favorite films. The show will always remind me of my family’s service in the military. A great example of sacrifice for service people.
I have every episode of M*A*S*H on my hard drive ( only 3 episodes with the laugh track still there ) and when I'm feeling down, I select the M*A*S*H group and hit "play random". You don't want to know how many times that randomly selected episode sort of helps me through the day. More often than not the plot-line does not even vaguely resemble whatever BS that I am going through BUT the humor gives me enough of a pick-me-up to shrug it off and carry on. The episode with the "chicken" on the bus gets me crying like a baby EVERY TIME. Sort of deja vu - still have night-mares about my lived version of that episode 40 years after it happened... Life is SO FRAGILE yet the human race survives - somehow. Another movie collection I think is very close to the bone of reality is the "John Rambo" collection. Shows just how little veterans are taken care of IN ANY COUNTRY after the fact and how they are persecuted by the cowards who made sure that they did not serve - its DISGUSTING ! ! !
LIL FEATS there is a Fat Man inhis own blood bath with his own mafia blues...Ask Tracy Ullman what to do whats to be done about the cold war and Big City Blues
"...Dated, and sometimes a bit insensitive...." No more insensitive than New York City Mayor Eric Adams, just yesterday saying that illegal Mexicans are good swimmers, and should be lifeguards.
I think its "intended audience" is any generation that lives in a world where war is actively happening. Which is frankly all of us, ever. The combatants change, the venue and the weapons change, but what always remains true is that a lot of people suffer and die for the goals and orders of a few who never have to dirty their own hands.
Enjoyed your video and commentary. Realize as well that MASH was intended as a commentary on the Vietnam War as much as anything. IMHO, that was the show's biggest gamble and strength.
It’s hard for me to narrow down one favorite episode but I think it would be the one where Hawkeye has to give a eulogy for a nurse he was dating. In the episode Hawkeye comes into the Swamp lamenting on this nurse he was seeing and the night they had together. The next morning at breakfast he learns that she had stepped on a land mine and died. Father Mulkahey is asked by Colonel Potter to give a eulogy and by his own admission he hardly knew her so he opted for a standard eulogy. Hawkeye upon hearing this visits Mulkahey and tells him that he would like to do the eulogy. After going around the camp he finds out that no one really knew her. The nurses thought she was cold and distant and told him that she once gotten a big box of fudge from home only to give out a little bit of it to the nurses. It wasn’t until Mukahey presented Hawkeye with her diary that he began to see her for who she was. When the day of her eulogy came Hawk addressed the fudge incident telling them she gave the rest of it to the wounded and that she may have came off as cold and distant but in reality she was in awe of them. The episode ends with Hawkeye telling them to take a page from her diary and say what you really mean. He goes around the room and tells everyone exactly what they mean to him and finishes by saying “I love you all. I just didn’t know how to say it.” It was one of the ones that stood out for me because I had lost a lot of people in my life that I never got a chance to tell them that I loved them. Truly a beautiful episode.
I've gotta ask, is mash worth watching post-trapper? I can't begin to express how furious the Season 4 premiere made me and it's forced me to consider dropping the show after the first 3 Seasons
I finished rewatching this episode a few hours ago, genuinely one of the funniest, yet realest episodes yet, I loved hawk's monologue at the end of the film, when you think about it, the film they made is a brilliant way of expressing how they use humor to circumvent despair or insanity.
My dad was a Korean War vet, US Navy, and this was his favorite show. He would howl at most of it. He never talked about his time over there, but he did love this show.
I liked MASH as a comedy. Yes, war is not funny. I'm a veteran. My brother was a medic in Viet Nam. My dad was a medic in WW2. Dad loved the show. But, I didn't see MASH as a war comedy. To me it was a comedy about a couple of officers in a MASH unit who used humor to get through it. And when they recognized some of the idiocy that can be typical in a military unit, and just about every unit has some idiocy in it, they acted on it. They never did treat the war as part of the comedy in the show. But over time, MASH quit being the comedy I just described and became a war drama. A war drama that lasted 3 times longer than the actual war. I stopped watching it when it no longer was a comedy.
I appreciate the deeper-thought premise of this summary on M*A*S*H*. At the end of a day, all commercial media are profit-sensitive. Calling it a “cash grab” trivializes the dynamic of commercial media…
I remember watching this and the movie on tv. I went and bought both on dvd. The movie several years ago and have the digital copy. The complete series a couple of months ago. I have watched the series on one of the streaming platforms.
M*A*S*H* was my dad's favorite show. I watched every episode growing up. Turned out, my high school history teacher was the original (the guy who wrote the book) Hawkeye's daughter. She had a lot of interesting stories to tell about all things M*A*S*H*. M*A*S*H* was based on his experiences as a surgeon during the Korean War (he was Hawkeye). Her dad paid for her college education from the royalties he received from the show. "Crabapple Cove" is actually Bear's Cove in Maine. Her dad liked the movie but hated the TV show. His pen name, "Hooker" was because he had a terrible hook in his golf swing. The only character in the TV show he liked was the only one who was never a character in his book...Klinger.
That is very true how the us military medical units are going through at anytime they will always good through every thing to break up between the medical tents and normal things they will do movies and other parties as well
A few years ago on an interview, Loretta (A.k.a-Hot Lips) said that she still received fan letters from people of every age; including kids that became fans of the show. She was surprised and happy to know that they still had many generations of people enjoying the show. I still enjoy watching it. Even in the serious times that happened throughout the episodes.
