M*A*S*H On Netflix, a perspective from somebody who watched the series as it unfolded.

[MohRokTah]

What anybody who binge watches M*A*S*H on Netflix must do is put the series in perspective.

Seasons 1-3 aired between 1972 and 1975. There is historical significance in the Trapper John/Henry Blake era. These three seasons aired as the Vietnam war was winding down. The comedy and misogyny was high and the blood shown in the operating room was low. People wanted to laugh at war, not contemplate it.

The next two seasons were an interregnum of sorts. The war was over, but not forgotten. Frank Burns remained as a character, but the dynamics changed with the regular army commander, Sherman Potter, and the clean cut sidekick for Hawkeye, B.J. Honeycutt. These two season were for growth of the characters and prepared the series for the six seasons to follow.

The following six seasons, which are not yet available on Netflix, were perhaps the most anti-war statement ever piped into American homes for thirty minutes each week. There was no more anti-war television program in the history of the United States, and it's important we remember the series in the context of the times and the message. Remember, this series ran for almost four times longer than the actual hot portion of the Korean war.

Young people will mostly not get this, though young DUers will probably understand this all too well. My hope is the younger DUers will be able to explain the context to their friends of similar age.

[Lint Head]

1. Robert Altman hated the television series.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Good

The movie is overrated. Too much wasted time and shallow character development. Should have been a 45 minute story.

Altman's opinion means nothing to me.

[Blue_Tires]

38. ^^^^The above DUer is getting banned for lack of cinematic taste

[ProfessorGAC]

40. Pfffffffffffffffffffffft!

That's best i can do at spelling a raspberry.

[hughee99]

26. He thought the series was racist

and the opposite of what he was trying to do with the movie.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/889785/MASH-filmmaker-says-he-hates-series.html?pg=all

Personally, I think Altman directed way too many turds for me to put any stock in his opinion of what is good and what isn't.

[deutsey]

32. So did Richard Hooker, who wrote the original book, M*A*S*H

The book was based on his experiences as a doctor at a M*A*S*H unit in Korea.

From what I recall, I think he thought TV Hawkeye was too liberal. He loved Altman's film, though.

[Paladin]

36. I think Altman's movie beat the hell out of the TV series.

Way too much wimpy whining by Alda et al on the TV show. Military doctors patching up soldiers, just to have them sent back to the front lines to get wounded again or killed? We get it, already. The movie never had to call overt, ideological attention to the situation; the TV series slapped you in the face with it. Tiresome.

[pinboy3niner]

39. I saw the movie with some fellow patients from an Army hospital in San Francisco

We were all being treated for our wounds from Vietnam, and we loved the movie. Our hospital floor was all facial casualties and amputees and the irreverence depicted onscreen mirrored our own antics.

[Paladin]

42. You remember the classic "He was drafted" comment by the padre, right?

That line got a 5-minute standing ovation in the Austin, Texas theater where I first saw the movie.

[Lint Head]

43. That was a great line.

[pinboy3niner]

45. That was a huge hoot for us

Especially with many of us being draftees ourselves.

[Control-Z]

2. I watched reruns of MASH

and really loved the show. I started watching after the series had ended. During that time I never thought of it the way you have describe. But, in retrospect, I can see your point.

If it is on Netflix now, I may just start at episode one and watch the whole thing over - with some new found wisdom.

Thanks for the OP!

K&R

[Historic NY]

3. Some damn serious good writing done on that series....

they covered a lot of subjects that must have made some people cringe.

[msongs]

4. it has no needless profanity or profanity at all that I recall. not gonna fly these days nt

[calimary]

5. Oh man, I LOVE that show, MohRokTah! Did, and still do.

We binge watch it a lot. DVDs. We have all 11 seasons.

It really does evolve through its years to become most pointedly anti-war. Heavily anti-war. Very poignant and deliberate. Bittersweet and nuanced.

Back in those days, some TV had a progressive leaning. There were breakthrough shows - Norman Lear stuff like "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons." Dealt with some heavy stuff for sitcoms - prejudice mainly. There were series that featured this new thing known as the single mom. There were series with black families. I personally enjoyed the Frank Burns aspect of "M*A*S*H". It was very satisfying to see the ultra-conservative character as the buffoon of the cast. The lead antagonist. The foil for Hawkeye and Trapper - and later B.J. Personally, I enjoyed seeing a cowardly, hypocritical, and elitist conservative treated the way he deserved to be. As the fools their attitudes render them. Conservatives back then were laughed at. Not taken seriously. Certainly not fawned over - at least until the ascendance of the young conservative Alex Keaton character in "Family Ties". He was a much more sympathetic character. Even so, I remember one episode when one of his lines - "come join the Republican Party!" set off the laugh track in a big way. But things were changing and prime time TV reflected that.

It's a period piece, for sure. Comedic references that got big laughs when "M*A*S*H" originally aired don't make much sense anymore. There's sexism and alcoholism. Serious examinations of the human condition in that era. Wonderful, complex, and compelling characters. Outstanding writing and acting. No wonder it won so many Emmys (14)!

I love those "M*A*S*H" reruns! Sometimes we'll put a disc on and hit "Play All" and then it sends us off to sleep.

[47of74]

14. Larry Linville did a fantastic job playing Frank Burns

Unlike the Burns character he played Linville was a nice man who was well liked by everyone on the show. I remember he said he based the Burns character on every idiot he had known.

[Frank Cannon]

17. I've heard the same about Linville.

It's kind of like Jack Gleeson, the guy that played King Joffrey on Games of Thrones. Wonderful guy in real life, beloved by all fellow cast members. Total believable asshole onscreen.

I have met many incompetent dickheads that I swear were using Frank Burns as a role model.

[hedgehog]

6. Two things shocked me when I went back to look at MASH -

the first was the laugh track - I didn't recall it at all, but now find it very annoying.

the second and more important was the evolution of the attitude toward women. The first few years were probably true to period (Korean War era) but as the series went on, the characters evolved to reflect the rapid changes taking place in society in the late 70's, early 80's.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. When they showed it in the UK, the vast majority of episodes didn't have a laugh track

It's notable enough to get a mention in the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M*A*S*H_%28TV_series%29#Laugh_track

That says the US DVDs have an option to watch without the track ("Just like the actual Korean War", Gelbart remarked dryly).

I think it was a lot better without. When a fair amount of the comedy is the absurdity of the situation, it's better not to feel 'led' into what point you laugh at.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. The producers tried very hard to make MASH the first tv comedy without a laugh track but network

forced their hand, the surgery scenes are without laugh track that is the compromise they struck.

[FLPanhandle]

23. I agree

The laugh track now makes it almost unwatchable now.

[RockaFowler]

7. I watch it nightly on MeTV

I miss shows like this on TV.

But as someone mentioned above that laugh track. I don't miss those. Hogan's Heroes is like that too.

[Cooley Hurd]

9. I remember the first thing that ever brought me to tears on TV was...

...this:

(best copy I could find )

[leftynyc]

22. Those were the days

before spoilers were commonplace. It was a complete surprise when Radar announced Blake had died on his way home. It was heartbreaking.

[Cooley Hurd]

34. According to the wikipedia writeup, no one except the writers and Alda knew...

...before the line was given to Gary Burghoff:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abyssinia,_Henry

Production[edit]

"We didn't want Henry Blake going back to Bloomington, Illinois and going back to the country club and the brown and white shoes, because a lot of guys didn't get back to Bloomington." - Gene Reynolds, Producer[3]

The final scene, in which Radar informs everyone of the death of Henry Blake was unprecedented: it was the first time in American television history that a main character of a series was killed off in a tragic way.[4] When McLean Stevenson decided to leave the series part way through the third season, Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart, the show's producers, decided to make a statement regarding the unexpectedness and horror of war, especially with the Vietnam War fresh in people's minds.[4]

To evoke genuine emotions of shock and sadness, the final O.R. scene was kept a secret from the cast, with the exception of Alan Alda, until immediately before filming; only then did Gelbart hand out the last page of the script.[4][5] As a result, Stevenson was still on the set to see the final scene being filmed.[6] After shooting was completed, a season-ending cast party was planned; however, McLean Stevenson left the set almost immediately after the end of filming, and the party was canceled due to the poor mood of the cast. Stevenson would later state in an interview that he was deeply hurt that his character's death was revealed in that fashion and the party was "ruined."[6] Gelbart later said of the event, "I wish we could say to him, 'We didn't mean it, Mac.'"[7]

[dhill926]

37. that was a real punch in the gut….

can still remember the original viewing.

[MadrasT]

46. I will always remember that.

It was so unexpected, and real, and tragic.

[NaturalHigh]

10. Is it on Netflix streaming or just DVDs?

I love the streaming service, but I cancelled my DVD subscription a year or so ago.

M*A*S*H was a great show. I used to watch it every morning when I got home from the midnight shift.

[MohRokTah]

12. They are currently streaming the first five seasons. eom

[NaturalHigh]

13. Thanks.

[davidpdx]

11. I'm a pretty big fan of MASH and have watched the series several times

The funny thing is that I knew very little about Korea other than from high school history classes and watching MASH until I moved here. I find some of the inaccuracies about Korea and Koreans amusing though.

[LWolf]

15. I don't have Netflix,

but I grew up watching M*A*S*H, and enjoy catching reruns now as much as I did then.

[mucifer]

18. The last few seasons got a little annoying to me

It was the combination of so many episodes about the weather or not being able to get orange juice. Oh and Margret Houlihan having Farrah hair in the '50s. That was a bit odd. But, still there were some really well written episodes in the final seasons.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. I Really Agree

The later seasons were far more involved while still being pretty funny. I still watch the reruns, but seldom until the cycle hits Potter showing up.

[ryan_cats]

21. I grew up watching M*A*S*H

I grew up watching M*A*S*H and had seen the movie in the theater and it wasn't until it was all over that I learned it was really about the Vietnam war.
DUH!

[AndreaCG]

24. I can't watch the Mike Farrell episodes anymore

I know he's a liberal in real life but that character is insufferable, such a goody good compared to Trapper John.

[MohRokTah]

25. That was done to rein in the misogyny.

And BJ Honeycutt was a far more complex character than Trapper John ever was. He was even unfaithful to his wife in one episode.

[Historic NY]

44. Trapper John is an ass hole in real life...

as Wayne Rogers, libertarian.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

27. It is interesting how the show evolved in stages over the years.

Personally I found the later, post-Radar episodes a bit annoying. The dialog got too snappy and 'punchline-y' for me, like they initially wrote everything with Hawkeye's character in mind then distributed the lines to the rest of the main cast.

[adigal]

28. I loved it..in college, we all got together for the finale

One of the most powerful episodes ever shown on television with the reason for Hawkeye's breakdown shown.

No more spoilers, but it is must-see-TV still.

[LeftinOH]

29. Is the canned laughter gone? It would be better without it. n/t

[MohRokTah]

30. Not in the streaming version.

Apparently you can remove it from the DVD version.

[WI_DEM]

31. Even in the earlier, funnier episodes there was a great deal of anti-war sentiment.

The death of Henry Blake for one thing. He was a beloved character and the writers/producers made a statement with his death--that good people, people you love get killed.

[deutsey]

33. I love MASH, grew up watching it, and even played Hawkeye in our senior class play version

I love the movie, too, but I have to be in the right mood to watch it. Altman's experimental overlapping dialogue and the sexism in particular annoy me.

My favorite span of the show is from about '74 to '78, maybe '79. The early episodes were trying too hard to be like the movie and the episodes in the last few seasons were just way too laden with puns and were over-written in general, imo.

Still, there are great episodes from every season throughout its run.

Regarding its anti-war message:

What a different world the '70s was. I was just thinking recently how the sitcoms of the mid-'70s reflected sensibilities we don't see much of anymore represented on mainstream television. All in the Family led the way from the early '70s, but after Watergate and the fall of Saigon, there was a real bite to shows like Good Times and even The Jeffersons, MASH, Maude, Barney Miller's dry but very sharp satire, offbeat shows like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Fernwood Tonight, even the first season or two of Welcome Back, Kotter, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

For a brief moment, it looked as if the revolution might just be televised after all. With few exceptions, though, by the late '70s that was all but gone. Good Times and The Jeffersons had become silly, MASH (in my opinion) was good but quickly losing steam, and everyone was watching CHiPs, BJ and the Bear, and god only knows what else.

I'm not a TV snob...I actually liked CHiPs at first (I was in middle school, after all), the breezy What's Happening was one of my favorites, etc. But I clearly remember a subversive edge to a lot of prime-time, network shows in the mid-'70s that remains pretty much a relic of that time now.

[RobinA]

35. Love M*A*S*H

Watched it when it was on, watched it in reruns, own it. I've probably seen every episode it least 20 times. Not sure I ever saw misogyny. Some of the best writing and social satire ever on TV. It was a different animal from the movie and is not fairly compared.

I can't imagine young people not getting it (she says hopefully). Stanley Kubrick made Paths of Glory in 1957 (the year before I was born) about WW1 (decades before I was born) and it's pretty clear it's an anti-war movie. War and the arguments against it never change.

[MicaelS]

41. Watched the show from beginning to end just as you did.

So that makes up in roughly the same age cohort. Frankly, I didn't like the Henry Blake / Trapper John era. I thought both Blake and Trapper John were weak characters. I really liked the show after Potter arrived. They could have taken the easy path and made him a Regular Army / Career officer type, but they didn't.

I always enjoyed the sexual tension between Hawkeye, and Margaret, and I'm glad when Hawkeye started calling her Margaret instead of Hot Lips.

But, the series ran on too long, they should have killed it a few years sooner.

I thought the original film was pretty good, too.

Always meant to pick up the original Trilogy of novels by "Richard Hooker" (the pen name for Dr. H. Richard Hornberger and writer W. C. Heinz, but never did.