M*A*S*H

It’s kind of weird because I watch a lot of depressing shit but I always found it too depressing to watch

I generally enjoy sitcoms from the 70s, but this is one I've never been able to stand. I think it's the mix of that laugh-track and Alan Alda.

As an end-of-the-boom Boomer, I never got the mass love for this show and found its endless run inexplicable.

OTOH, it's still better than the movie it was based on.

It was more of an older people sitcom.

R3 MASH is the only Robert Altman movie I've seen that I really didn't like.

Strange that Alan Alda was a HUGE TV star and is now almost completely forgotten. Ghastly, mannered actor in a sanctimonious show. Definitely of its era.

I liked the later seasons better than the earlier ones. By then it had gotten funnier and less preachy.

It went on too long. The early shows were nothing. Then it hit its stride and was wildly popular for a few seasons. Then it just sort of coasted for a few seasons before petering out. They kept it going too long, just to make more money. This is rhe typical story arc of most successful sitcoms.

Growing up, this was my Dad's favorite TV show and was always on in the house.

Maybe their creepy stage parents tried stunting their growth

M*A*S*H and Nashville are the only Robert Altman movies I did like.

Like All in the Family, I thought I might like it when I became older. Unfortunately, I've only been able to enjoy All in the Family. MASH never became that way for me.

As a kid, I hated it. As an adult I hate it. Sexist and depressing. The comedy of the show was a cross-dresser? Ptui.

The film is one of my all-time favorite movies, but I HATE, HATE, HATE the tv show version. HAAATTTTEEEE!

Though Wayne Rogers was hot as fuck.

The first couple of seasons were hysterical.

Once Henry Blake left it lost a lot of its charm.

It’s interesting because I was actually quite young when I started watching it. It came on after the late, local news.

R6, Alan Alda appears on “Ray Donovan” as an elderly psychiatrist. He’s pretty good.

That show used lots of old-time actors. Ann-Margret was my favorite.

I loathed it when I was a kid. Can't get me to watch it now. Most of the exteriors were shot at Malibu Creek State Park in Agoura Hills.

Alda was also terrific in A MARRIAGE STORY. He's re-emerged as a really talented character actor.

He and MASH were kind of unbearable at the time, but I don't hold that against him.

My family and I were huge fans at the time. Doesn't hold up well nowadays.

Good god collegeboy, the quarantine must have you bored if you're watching old episodes of MASH!

Love the early seasons with McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers. After that, not so much, but the early seasons are fun. Yes, Wayne Rogers was very hot.

As a kid, my dad would watch this in reruns, along with Bonanza.

Alan Alda never really went away. He was in Crimes and Misdemeanors and Manhattan Murder Mystery and that caper movie that Ben Stiller did with Eddie Murphy and a bunch of other things throughout the decades.

As a kid, I stopped being interested in the show when Frank Burns left. Whatever happened to that actor after he left MASH?

As a kid I hated Winchester but as an adult I appreciate the character and the performance.

The early Mike Farrell episodes when he showed skin made my ballsac tingle.

I found 70s Alan Alda highly fuckable.

R7 has it backwards. MASH was funny for the first few seasons, then Blake and Trapper left and the show became The Alan Alda Soapbox. Early seasons had lots of getting drunk and screwing around. Later seasons had soldiers realizing they were alcoholics ("and realizing is half of the problem" yes, they actually said that) and BJ weeping over home movies his beloved wife Peg sent him. Alan Alda was writing and directing episodes and demanded that his social conscience be aired. The show became unbearable.

Radar O'Reilly was surprisingly good in bed.

[quote] Love the early seasons with McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers. After that, not so much, but the early seasons are fun. Yes, Wayne Rogers was very hot.

Funny, I’m the complete opposite. Cannot stand the episodes before BJ and Winchester came along. Didn’t like Col. Blake at all, loved Col. Potter.

I hate this show. Alan Alda's phony laugh turns me off completely. I can't get beyond it.

I loathe this show, specifically the unbearable Alan Alda. My partner loves it though, and watches it whenever he catches it in reruns. He likes Harry Morgan's character. Side note- apparently Gary Burgdorf (Radar) was a complete asshole and everyone on set hated him.

MASH started airing a month before I was born, so I literally grew up watching it. I loved it as a kid, but now it grates.

Once I discovered the movie, I never really looked back. (And I'm with R11; it's the only Altman film I like.) Donald Sutherland's Hawkeye is sexy AF.

The finale was pretentious as all get out.

great show, sometimes way too earnest, especially toward the end, but overall, a really good show that people should have been proud to be part of.

I think that the first few years of the show was trying to be a copy of the film, without the satire or charm; two-dimensional characters everywhere. Once Henry and Frank left, the characters were allowed to develop ( especially Margaret) into more realistic people. However, toward the end of the run, the show became like Designing Women, replete with social messaging, and became more of a drama than comedy; it began to take itself too seriously. However, Col Potter and Winchester were infinitely better characters than Henry Blake and Frank Burns.

agree with r34. Frank could be funny, but he was of course a cardboard cutout. Not an actual person. I still think the show worked as a satire on war a lot of times, but yeah, definitely heavy handed about "HEY, GOOD GUY HERE, BAD GUY THERE!"

No snaps. HATED IT.

It was okay.

Gary Burgdorf (Radar) was the only actor to appear in both the film and the TV series. And he played the same role.

The character was nicknamed Radar not only for his ability to read lips at a distance, but also for his ability to foresee upcoming events.

It’s a good show overall but it’s depressing as hell.

My father watches it almost every day on MeTV. It's not anything I would watch. Although highly acclaimed, it's a dull sitcom.

Loved it as a kid in the 80s and watched every episode dozens of times. I watch occasionally now but where I live the episodes are heavily edited for content and time so many good jokes are cut out. I like the Winchester seasons better than the earlier seasons.

Winchester could be a dick, but he hated the officious military brass who interfered. The best shows were the ones in which everybody united to take down a superior who abused his rank.

Hey, "Gary Burgdorf" troll...his name is Gary BurgHOFF.

“Frank Burns is a lipless wonder!”

The most annoying theme song in existence.

It was so much better than the original Robert Altman film I couldn't believe it. Having said that, I can't imagine it being that interesting to a present day audience. It was made for an audience recovering from its ignominious defeat in the Vietnam war.

Frank Burns eats worms.

[quote] Side note- apparently Gary Burgdorf (Radar) was a complete asshole and everyone on set hated him.

I could see that. As r43 mentioned I’ve seen him on Match Game episodes and he was insufferable there. Couldn’t imagine having to work with him.

OP must be a frau. Only someone straight could ask such a question. MASH was like Friends: a desperately humourless show only enjoyed heterosexshuals. Actually, not enjoyed. Sat through.

I always associate this with my childhood as it always seemed to be on but I never watched it. In the late 80's I had a boyfriend who was obsessed with it and insisted on watching UHF channel reruns with me in the afternoons. In watching it then I actually found the most appealing thing about it was the fake-ness. The really obtrusive laugh track and thrown-together sets have a false 70's television aesthetic similar to Night Gallery or something of that ilk.

Much later in the early 10's I started thinking about it again and downloaded a bunch of season 2 (I think?) and started to really get into it, but I think the appeal only goes so far. I liked the idea of a wacky sitcom in such an extreme setting, not just within the character's lives but also in the larger political realm. It's a weird show!

And I agree with poster's above, not Altman's best film. Maybe just remarkable that a smash hit TV show was made based on it.

And I disagree I *love* the theme song! With that opening credit footage of helicopters and women running.

I also still can't get over Corporal Klinger was a popular character on this mainstream hit show.

R46, we surrendered in Vietnam. We weren't defeated. We just gave up because the American people lost the will to fight another democrat war.

Did somebody call me?

I always hated this show. Annoying and creepy theme song, terrible laugh track, and just plain boring.

I think the original set may have burned down in the latest wildfire.

I grew up outside of Toledo. This show was in syndication constantly. The Klinger cross dressing jokes were rampant. Funny that Toledo had a gay bookstore in the late sixties.

Larry Gelbart, who created the character of Klinger for the TV show (there was no such character in the book or the movie), also wrote the screenplay to Tootsie.

Of course, for Broadway Queens, Gelbart wrote " Forum" and " City of Angels." He also wrote for the Sid Caesar Show, in addition to many other projects.

The show went into a steep decline after Gary Burghoff left the show. The character of Radar really seemed to hold the show together. He was kind of a stabilizing influence; of all the characters on the show I thought he was the only one (well, he and poor doomed Henry Blake) who never acted like a complete asshole.

I thought the last three years were, by and large, dreadful; not funny, too serious, the plots and even dialogue recycled. And Loretta Swit, who was always promoted as a gorgeous babe on the show, looked like a man in drag, her face getting more and more mannish despite heavy makeup and wearing an array of godawful wigs.

[quote]As a kid, I stopped being interested in the show when Frank Burns left. Whatever happened to that actor after he left MASH?

That would be Larry Linville. After M*A*S*H he did guest spots on quite a few TV series, including, as one would expect, multiple episodes of "The Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote." He died of cancer in 2000 at age 60.

[quote] [R46], we surrendered in Vietnam. We weren't defeated. We just gave up because the American people lost the will to fight another democrat war.

If you fight a war for 20 years then pull out and cede territory to the enemy, you've been defeated.

I can't imagine MASH was popular with the gays back then. They were all watching Maude and Wonder Woman.

Hated Alan Alda mainly because of his voice. Hated this show as well,but of course wanted BJ to rub that hairy chest on my face. oddly enough I loved Gomer Pyle. Go figure.

Fell in love with Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould in the movie.

I enjoyed this version of the theme song.

"Fell in love with Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould in the movie."

Did you? I thought they were both physically repulsive and a pair of utter insufferable jerkwads. Although amused by "MASH" the movie when I was younger I now find it awful. The main characters are dirtbags and they stupid pranks are NOT funny. By the way, the "prank" they pull on poor Hot Lips Houlihan" would be considered a criminal offense these days.

[quote]And Loretta Swit, who was always promoted as a gorgeous babe on the show, looked like a man in drag, her face getting more and more mannish despite heavy makeup and wearing an array of godawful wigs.

I never understood the hype about her either.

It was a Dad show.

Larry Linville HATED Gary Burghoff and routinely told him off on set for being a diva.

R28- You are 100% correct. I find the earlier seasons before Potter and Winchester UNWATCHABLE. I couldn't stand the Frank Burns character.

the character of Radar was a stabilizing influence on the show. After the character left there was not one NICE character left on the show, and that includes Father Mulcahy, who became progressivly more and more annoying. Too bad Gary Burghoff was such a pill and decided to quit the show. I heard McLean Stevenson wasn't that easy to deal with, either. He left the show because he wanted to be a star, not part of an ensemble cast. They were both said to be difficult and that might be the reason the writers devised that unpleasant endings for their characters. Henry Blake is shockingly killed. And Radar goes home totally demoralized; his final days at the 4077 include coming back from a miserable R&R, meeting and falling in love with a girl and then losing her, being informed his Uncle Ed and died and not having a farewell party because of incoming casualties. He leaves the 4077 totally changed; sweet, gentle Radar is now bitter, sardonic, sarcastic, humorless. He's "grown up." He leaves alone, without a trace of happiness or anticipation on his face. In a way, his ending was ever sadder than Henry Blake's. Poor Radar; he didn't deserve to go out like that. But I guess the writers really hated Burghoff and wanted to stick it to him by making his character's life as fucked up as possible.