Some numbnut at my middle school back in 1983 decided to have our eighth grade basketball banquet the night of the final episode of M*A*S*H, two hours before it aired.

This was when a lot of people either didn't have VCRs or had forgotten to set them, so everyone was tense who wanted to get home to watch it, lest they miss the most watched event in TV history.

We went unbeaten that season, so our assistant coach gets up at the podium and starts on this excruciatingly long speech about the team, oblivious to what was about to happen. At first the audience was going along with it while checking their watches, but as he kept on people started yelling, "Hurry up!"

The head coach, sensing that the natives were restless, made a quick statement and dismissed the crowd. A near riot occurred with people trying to run of the school cafeteria and get to their cars to speed home.

/csb

hilendar: After the comments on here, I will HAVE TO buy the DVDs just to be rid of the laugh track. Side note: the cast fought for and won the right to have the laugh track to be excluded during OR scenes.

This is true. Despite the ever present jokes, it seemed in poor taste to have laughter in an operating room.

Of course, then the producers subverted this by having an episode take place entirely within the OR -- making it the only episode that was broadcast without a laugh track.

Mad Scientist: Which is everyone's favorite episode?

For me, Adam's Ribs.

/followed closely by The Rooster Crowed at Midnight

For me, it's "Crisis", where their supply lines are cut and everything has to be rationed. There are some great performances and one-liners. And I think the reason why I liked M*A*S*H so much was because I could identify with them trying their best to make the best of a terrible situation. And in this one, it's kind of taken to extremes. Plus they all get to be bunkies!

/"There you go! There's your Lounge-Lizard at War!"
//"THAT one I gotta write down!"

Maj. Gen. Bartford Hamilton Steele: Just tell us what happened at the chopper pad. But First a number.
Warrent Officer Martin 'Marty' Williams: Sir?
Maj. Gen. Bartford Hamilton Steele: A musical number. Why it's in your blood boy!
Maj. Gen. Bartford Hamilton Steele: When the sun goes down, and the darkies go to town, Hey hey what do you say.

Edward Winter as Halloran/Flagg/Goldberg/Queen Victoria/etc. was certainly the best of the recurring cast. One more reason to bemoan Mr. Winter's passing is that you just know that he would have been given a guest appearance on Chuck as Casey's insane mentor or father or something.

Not to be forgotten, though was that other fellow who made two appearances in the early years as an increadibly funny deadpan bureaucrat. The two appearances were as nominally different characters (one was a quartermaster officer, the other in the finance corps), but the characterisations were effectively identical. The quartermaster one was in the episode when Hawkeye and Trapper want an incubator to grow cultures on-site and thus speed diagnosis.

As for the best Christmas moment, I'd vote for the time Hawkeye dashes out to the front in a helicopter, without time to change out of his Santa suit. A soldier in a foxhole is trying to reassure his wounded buddy to hang on, he'll be fine, help is on the way, when he looks up and sees farking Santa Claus climbing down from a helicopter to them with an aid bag while the Chinese are shooting at him.

My favorite acting performance was guest star Edward Herrmann as Dr. Steven J. Newsome when he goes over the edge in Potters tent. I still get shivers when I see that performance. He blew everyone off the stage.

HopScotchNSoda: Not to be forgotten, though was that other fellow who made two appearances in the early years as an increadibly funny deadpan bureaucrat. The two appearances were as nominally different characters (one was a quartermaster officer, the other in the finance corps), but the characterisations were effectively identical. The quartermaster one was in the episode when Hawkeye and Trapper want an incubator to grow cultures on-site and thus speed diagnosis.

Eldon Quick.

buckeyebrain: HopScotchNSoda: Not to be forgotten, though was that other fellow who made two appearances in the early years as an increadibly funny deadpan bureaucrat. The two appearances were as nominally different characters (one was a quartermaster officer, the other in the finance corps), but the characterisations were effectively identical. The quartermaster one was in the episode when Hawkeye and Trapper want an incubator to grow cultures on-site and thus speed diagnosis.

Eldon Quick.

Thank you. Well, then, three cheers for Eldon Quick.

Dr. Rosenrosen: The_Original_Roxtar: I'm just pissed that the actor who played Captain Tuttle faded into obscurity after his appearance on the show.

/29
//huge M*A*S*H fan

Are you serious? I saw that actor on 30 Rock just last week!

He was in "Chuck Versus the First Fight" this year. (Volkov created a Tuttle).

Close2TheEdge: SilentStrider: FirstNationalBastard: However, he would have to make sure he didn't serve chicken.

don't think he'll want the liver or fish either.

Spam lamb?

You ordered all the way to Chicago for ribs and forgot the cole slaw?

Forgive us, we're draftees.

I'll share a bit of my weirdness as a kid.

1. The death of Henry Blake happened when I was five. I thought it was real, and it haunted me for years. The whole tragedy of the thing. I think I must've been exposed to MASH when it aired or something, because I can't think of a pre-MASH world.

2. I actually made my classmates in elementary school call me Hawkeye or Henry, and in 3rd grade I had a triangular desk sign saying "Lt. Col. Henry Blake" that I made out of folded paper that I kept at the front of my desk.

3. By the time the show was about to end, I owned the playset and all the action figures. I had also written a five act play (typed), which set the show in Vietnam, but was, for the most part, verbatim dialogue from my favorite episodes (and yes, I kept the original cast, not the replacements from the later seasons).

4. I wrote Alan Alda twice, begging for some word that Henry Blake survived before they put the show to bed. He sent me one postcard autographed by the case, and another of him as Hawkeye autographed with the word "PEACE!" on it's back.

5. I did research (pre-Internet) in around 1990, and ordered the Richard Hooker novel, which I now like better than the movie or series, as far as the character portraits go.

5. I met Loretta Swit when she was filming a commercial in Downtown LA in 1988 or so. She was still classy and gorgeous.

That is all.

Trapper John > BJ
Frank Burns > Winchester
Henry Blake > Potter
Radar > Klinger

Plus I'd rather have black comedy than preachy melodrama. The point of the Boys from Dover were that they were excellent surgeons who felt they should be allowed to let off steam however they wanted, considering they saved so many lives, and how a certain loud minority wanted to stick to the rules of decorum in a warzone.

I also wish they would've kept Duke in, and Painless, and even Spearchucker Jones.

I love this show so much... I would watch i very morning when I was like six and still watch it every morning... I've seen the movie, and almost every episode

/I'm sixteen
//I'm a chick

badgerb: Sally Kellerman or Loretta Swit in their prime?
My choice Kellerman. Met her on a beach early in the morning when she was filming a movie over the bluffs from my house. I was walking my dog and she is an animal lover. Yummy even at 6 in the morning without makeup as I recall now. Of course I was about 6 and did not appreciate it at the time.

Kellerman was hot. She even was looking pretty tasty in that Dangerfield movie Back to School.

Because of this show my friends and I have our on, non-legal tontine with a bottle of brandy.

Kermit the Frog = Hawkeye Pierce
Fozzie Bear = Trapper John McIntyre
Gonzo = Maxwell Klinger
Miss Piggy = Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan
Scooter = Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
Sam "Samuel" the Eagle = Charles Emerson Winchester III
Rizzo the Rat = Luther Rizzo?

Sigh. Here's my CSB:
I grew up visiting the MASH set - often. Couple of dozen times at least - I was, about 12? 13? It wasn't a closed set, and a semi-relation got me onto the Fox lot whenever I asked her to. Because I was young, and knew my way around a set, and didn't get myself into any trouble, the cast was really cool (with one exception ::coughAlanAldacough::). I played board games with the rest of the cast (Alda didn't socialize with any of them), watched them shoot scenes, steered clear of the Asst. Director (I still have an inherent fear of ADs), and just tried to learn how it all worked. I also got a bucket-load of scripts signed by them. Larry Gelbart handed me a stack one day. I even have an "Abyssinia Henry" script - without the 'reveal' at the end. Seriously, everyone in the cast was friendly, good natured, and didn't hang out in their trailers *except* for A.A., who may have said 3 words to me in a couple of years of visiting. At least he signed autographs though. (Always "Peace!")

/Best memories evar.
//Linville had the filthiest mouth I've ever heard on an adult.

I always remember hearing the theme song as a kid, coming from the living room after I had been put to bed. Too bad I can't watch on Hulu now that I live in Canada. Stupid Hulu.

TheOtherDub: Kermit the Frog = Hawkeye Pierce
Fozzie Bear = Trapper John McIntyre
Gonzo = Maxwell Klinger
Miss Piggy = Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan
Scooter = Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
Sam "Samuel" the Eagle = Charles Emerson Winchester III
Rizzo the Rat = Luther Rizzo?

I might make Hawkeye and Trapper the heckler guys. Kermit and Fozzie don't get sarcastic or contrary.

buckeyebrain: thefatbasturd: FeFiFoFark: I hated M.A.S.H.

Hey guys, what say we give him a high colonic and send him on a tem mile hike?

...with a full pack.

Forgot that part. Tip o' the hat...

FeFiFoFark: rubber biscuit: not trolling, only my opinion. don't like it? welcome to Fark!

bad gerb: lol! good one!

tricky chicken: sorry to spoil your MASH fan circle-jerk. If you look again the thread is about a replica of the set, not a "fan-thread". Butt-hurt - you has it!

ohmygodapenguinatemysammich: ferret-face is one of the main reasons why I hated that show, prolly still shouldn't have called you a DB. sorry.


/circle-jerk... continue!

It's your whole...you. You are a troll to come into a party and take a dump on the cake. We instead had to hear that you didn't like it. Thread ain't about you, right? We're just sharing MASH affection here.

But, you know, feel free to biatch. You're not going to hurt anything. Cry if you want.

HUGE MASH fan here. I learned the english language watching MASH and Bewitched (I was french canadian).

I'm really surprised no one mentionned Leslie Nielsen's special appearance. I always liked that episode.

The episode that hit me the most is the one where Hawkeye tries to go a whole week without booze.

The scene at the bar after he operated on a soldier with a grenade (or was he booby trapped?) and Potter gives him a drink and basically says "Have a drink son, anyone would understand".
Hawkeye puts the drink down and says "I'll be back for this when I want it, not when I need it."

I can honestly say that episode has likely saved me from becoming an alcoholic.

/I guess you could say all of us together made up Tuttle.

TheOtherDub: Kermit the Frog = Hawkeye Pierce
Fozzie Bear = Trapper John McIntyre
Gonzo = Maxwell Klinger
Miss Piggy = Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan
Scooter = Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
Sam "Samuel" the Eagle = Charles Emerson Winchester III
Rizzo the Rat = Luther Rizzo?

I dunno; Sam the Eagle has Winchester's pomposity, but Burns's jingoism and prudery. I'd call him an amalgam of both.

tcaptain: I'm really surprised no one mentionned Leslie Nielsen's special appearance. I always liked that episode.

The Ringbanger. He thinks Frank is hitting on him and it's just hilarious.

/I've been watching Scientific American Frontiers and Alda just adds the perfect bit to it.

testaclese: Sigh. Here's my CSB:
I grew up visiting the MASH set - often. Couple of dozen times at least - I was, about 12? 13? It wasn't a closed set, and a semi-relation got me onto the Fox lot whenever I asked her to. Because I was young, and knew my way around a set, and didn't get myself into any trouble, the cast was really cool (with one exception ::coughAlanAldacough::). I played board games with the rest of the cast (Alda didn't socialize with any of them), watched them shoot scenes, steered clear of the Asst. Director (I still have an inherent fear of ADs), and just tried to learn how it all worked. I also got a bucket-load of scripts signed by them. Larry Gelbart handed me a stack one day. I even have an "Abyssinia Henry" script - without the 'reveal' at the end. Seriously, everyone in the cast was friendly, good natured, and didn't hang out in their trailers *except* for A.A., who may have said 3 words to me in a couple of years of visiting. At least he signed autographs though. (Always "Peace!")

/Best memories evar.
//Linville had the filthiest mouth I've ever heard on an adult.

In a completely unrelated question, how does one become a professional vaudeville actor these days? What kind of show?

Dad was a Vietnam vet who still got "That Look" well into the 1980's. I actually think this show, somehow, helped him work through his issues. Used to watch it with him every night after the local news.

/Damn! Is there dust in here?
//Best! Series! Finale! EVAR!!
///Even with the many changes it can bring on, I've heard that suicide is, in fact, painless.

FirstNationalBastard: Norad: This guy needs to charge for themed parties.

However, he would have to make sure he didn't serve chicken.

Also no liver or fish.

"I've eaten a river of liver and an ocean of fish! I've eaten so much fish, I'm ready to grow gills! I've eaten so much liver, I can only make love if I'm smothered in bacon and onions"

TheOtherDub: Miss Piggy = Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan

Maybe a bit too obvious, given that Piggy's look was in fact based on Ms. Switt.

How about Janice as a more Kellerman-esque O'Houlihan*? Besides, she is the only 'human' Muppet with an admitted fondness for nudism.

As for Hawkeye, my vote is for Pepe the King Prawn. Alternatively, Pepe would be a good Flagg.

*She had the O' in the film.

My favorite episode has to be "April Fools" classic Hawkeye / BJ / Winchester / Margret battle when all of a sudden Potter comes over the top and shows them why he is the one in charge of their little kindergarten.

Also I love all the episodes when Margret starts to show she is equals with all the guys. I think it starts when she has a visit from an old friend that says she is like those old nurses that taught them in school.



I'm 25 and MASH obsessed! I kinda got a little to into the Hawkeye character in college. Got my face slapped a lot. I think he would have been proud. During high school (2000-2004) my brother my dad and I would eat our dinner and watch episodes on AMC. They would play 4 episodes starting at 4o'clock. Made for great family time, and something non-distracting during homework. I still put MASH on the tv when I am working from home.


/Bought the box set with radars clip board.
//Can't turn off laugh track.
///Get the more expensive and recent release.

I have a soft spot for the episodes where they did something to distract themselves, like the camp Olympics, or answering the letters from kids, or planning the party for their Stateside families.

I also liked that they had camaraderie between the draftees who didn't want to be there, and the regular Army types like Potter and Houlihan.

The best episodes were serious allegories to social issues of the 70's, heavy with dramatic acting- especially the ones Alda directed, those were the top!

/A*S*S

ttintagel: TheOtherDub: ...

I dunno; Sam the Eagle has Winchester's pomposity, but Burns's jingoism and prudery. I'd call him an amalgam of both.

Could be. O/T Bit like the characters in Top Cat (Boss Cat in the UK) wasn't an exact copy of The Phil Silvers show/Bilko

HopScotchNSoda: How about Janice as a more Kellerman-esque O'Houlihan*? Besides, she is the only 'human' Muppet with an admitted fondness for nudism.

Ah, now I thought that Janice = Janice Joplin (i.e. nothing to do with M*A*S*H)

{Oh and, thanks, I hadn't noticed the O' - change. }

i can relate to alot of the stories here--of watching the show with my Vietnam Vet father--watching it out of order-i can't remember a time NOT watching the show. (I'm 40 years old). it is such a major part of our life that our nearly 7 year old has "Hawkeye" as his middle name.

ttintagel: TheOtherDub: Kermit the Frog = Hawkeye Pierce
Fozzie Bear = Trapper John McIntyre
Gonzo = Maxwell Klinger
Miss Piggy = Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan
Scooter = Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
Sam "Samuel" the Eagle = Charles Emerson Winchester III
Rizzo the Rat = Luther Rizzo?

I dunno; Sam the Eagle has Winchester's pomposity, but Burns's jingoism and prudery. I'd call him an amalgam of both.

Don't forget Rowlf as father Mulcahy for the piano playing alone.

thefatbasturd: ttintagel: TheOtherDub: Kermit the Frog = Hawkeye Pierce
Fozzie Bear = Trapper John McIntyre
Gonzo = Maxwell Klinger
Miss Piggy = Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan
Scooter = Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
Sam "Samuel" the Eagle = Charles Emerson Winchester III
Rizzo the Rat = Luther Rizzo?

I dunno; Sam the Eagle has Winchester's pomposity, but Burns's jingoism and prudery. I'd call him an amalgam of both.

Don't forget Rowlf as father Mulcahy for the piano playing alone.

And I agree Sam seems more "Frank" than "Charles". Almost more "Flagg" than either, but I dunno who else would be Frank/Charles.

TheOtherDub: HopScotchNSoda: How about Janice as a more Kellerman-esque O'Houlihan*? Besides, she is the only 'human' Muppet with an admitted fondness for nudism.

Ah, now I thought that Janice = Janice Joplin (i.e. nothing to do with M*A*S*H)

{Oh and, thanks, I hadn't noticed the O' - change. }

Miss Piggy's look was based on Loretta Switt. Janice was named for Janice Joplin, but is otherwise not inspired by anyone in particular.

I also stand somewhat corrected. Hotlips didn't actually have the O' in the movie; Blake kept mistakenly calling her that. It started out as a screw up by actor Roger Bowen, but director Robert Altman kept it because it further emphasised what a scatterbrain Blake was.

thefatbasturd: And I agree Sam seems more "Frank" than "Charles". Almost more "Flagg" than either, but I dunno who else would be Frank/Charles.

Guy Smiley - or are we excluding the Sesame Street Muppets?

That overacting male pig from the "Pigs in Space" segments would also work. What was his name?

Pepe would be a better Flagg than Sam the Eagle; indeed, he'd be an excellent Flagg - but Pepe's suave ladies' man charms also make him a good Hawkeye.

Dude, just let it go already.