As I've noted in the previous installments (and it's also right there in the title of these posts), M*A*S*H is a TV show I just can't seem to stop watching. If a M*A*S*H episode is on, I will watch it.
There are other TV shows where I will watch them if they're on but I'm a bit more picky about indulging in whatever episode of Friends or Big Bang Theory might be on. When M*A*S*H is involved, I will watch it, even if the episode in question may not be one of my particular favorites.
I've broken down this review of M*A*S*H in sections. The first one was the first 3 seasons of the show with Wayne Rogers as Trapper John, McLean Stevenson as Lt. Col. Blake and Larry Gelbart as the head writer and showrunner.
The 2nd section took us through seasons 4 and 5 with Mike Farrell as B J Hunnicutt coming in to replace Trapper John and Harry Morgan joining the cast as Col. Potter, the new CO of the 4077th. Meanwhile Larry Gelbart transitioned out of his leadership role at the end of season 4.
Today's installment tracks seasons 6 and 7. Most people when discussing M*A*S*H tend to lump the season from 6 to the series' end together. I think the tonal shift from seasons 7 to 8 is significant enough to warrant a separate discussion of seasons 6 and 7.
There are a lot of strong stories in this pair of seasons and I attribute a lot of that to the work of Ken Levine and David Isaacs who assumed the role of script editors on the show.
Let us begin.
"Fade Out, Fade In" gives us a two parter that writes out Frank Burns and brings in his more formidable replacement, Charles Emerson Winchester III.
Larry Linville's decision to not re-up with M*A*S*H at the end of his 5 year contract was a wise one. When the show was more rooted in comedy with a farcical tone, Maj. Frank Burns had a place in the shenanigans of the 4077th. But as the show began embracing it's dramatic side more and more, Burns was frequently out of place. And the Flanderization of his character (years before the Simpsons would invent "Flanderization") didn't help. His descent into deeper levels of incompetency as both a doctor and as a military leader made Burns more and more of a cartoon as the cast around him became more nuanced.
David Ogden Stiers was able to bring an increased level of range and depth to Charles Emerson Winchester III as the writers and producers gave him a more complex character to work with. He was a better foil for Hawkeye and B.J. because he was as good a surgeon as they were or even better in some ways than they were.
The ending of part 2 of "Fade Out, Fade In" is a perfect encapsulation of this new dynamic. Earlier, we have learned that Hawkeye has put a snake in Charles' bed. In the final scene of the episode, Hawkeye and B.J. enter the swamp where we find Charles reclining in a chair, reading and listening to Mozart on his record player.
Hawkeye starts to climb into his bed but he starts screaming. The snake is in HIS bed.
Charles leans back a bit and says very calmly, "Please. Mozart." And continues his reading.
"Point of View" is nothing less than a groundbreaking episode; it is a classic and one of my all time faves. Written by Levine & Isaacs and directed by Charles Dubin, the entire episode is shot from the perspective of a wounded soldier. Our main cast, trained to not look at the camera, have to play to the camera as if addressing the soldier. Further complicating things is the soldier took shrapnel to the throat and can’t talk. Working within this structure, Ken& David still tell a story about our regular crew as they work out why Col. Potter is being so grumpy; our voiceless point of view soldier helps them figure it out. It’s a very clever episode and very well put together.
Written and directed by Alan Alda,"Dear Sis" is a really good spotlight episode for Father Mulcahy. Mulcahy is questioning his effectiveness in the unit, a level of self-doubt that isn’t helped when a belligerent patient can only be forced to calm down after a hard right hook from our friendly neighborhood priest. Quite frankly, that patient was being a total asshole and needed a good sock in the jaw. But Mulcahy thinks he should be better than that.
In "Inga", Hawkeye meets his match both as a doctor and as a human being. Hawkeye is happy to hear the 4077th is being visited by a woman who is blonde and Swedish. Inga is also a doctor with the medical knowhow and mettle to run rings around the assembled doctors of the 4077th. Which Hawkeye does not cope well with at all. By all accounts, Alan Alda’s an avowed feminist who had trouble with Hawkeye’s womanizing ways. This episode, written and directed by Alda, helps him put Hawkeye in his place.
It's one last hoo-rah for a character rooted in the more farcical times for M*A*S*H in "Rally Round the Flagg, Boys"
Col. Flagg with his penchant for paranoia is lurking about the 4077th. He wants to nail Hawkeye as a commie pinko fink and he wants Maj. Winchester to help him do it. Is it fair to call it a battle of wits when only 1 person in the battle actually has their wits about them? This is a very clever episode that underscores that Winchester is not above a little sneakiness for his own amusement.
I once heard a M*A*S*H star or producer once boast that over a 11 years, the show never repeated a plot. Well, yes they did and "Preventative Medicine” was it.
Back in the day, Hawkeye and Trapper crossed paths with a colonel who had a really high mortality rate for his various campaigns. Hawk & Trapper slipped him a mickey which caused the colonel to mimic the symptoms of appendicitis to keep him off the front line for at least a little while.
In this episode, Hawkeye and B.J. cross paths with a colonel who has a really high mortality rate for his various campaigns. Hawk slips him a mickey which causes the colonel to mimic the symptoms of appendicitis to keep him off the front line for at least a little while. Hawkeye is doing this without help from B.J. The script originally called for Hawk and Beej to team up on this but Mike Farrell resisted, saying he didn’t think B.J.’s medical ethics would let him do this. The writers heard him out, agreed and came up with a stronger story for it.
What the writers didn’t know was this story had already been done. After "Preventative Medicine” was shot and in the can, ready to go out over CBS’s airwaves, David Isaacs happened to catch a rerun of the earlier episode. Whoops! Ken Levine said they tried to be more careful after that.
B.J. as a prankster is at work in "The Winchester Tapes".
One of the subplots of this episode has B.J. convincing Winchester he is either losing or gaining weight by surreptitiously switching out his uniforms. This episode stands out for me for one simple line from B.J. as he explains what he has planned next for Charles: "Tomorrow, he gets taller."
I always enjoyed it when Alan Arbus paid a visit to the 4077th as psychiatrist Sidney Freedman. In "War of Nerves", it seems Sidney's feeling low because a soldier he once counseled has gotten injured on the front lines and he blames Freedman for it. The whole camp is rife with tension. Everyone finds release eventually by creating a bonfire.
"A Night at Rosie's" moves the action away from the 4077th and over to Rosie's bar. Everyone eventually wanders over from the camp for a respite at Rosie's. If my memory serves, the whole episode takes place at Rosie's with no scenes in the camp.
"Ain't Love Grand" has us spend some more time over at Rosie's where Charles falls for a Korean working girl named Sooni. It's Winchester's version of My Fair Lady as he seeks to redeem this young woman from her lowly state. But she has other plans. In the end, Charles laments, "It is better to have loved and lost than to never loved...oh hell, give me a drink."
And that's that for this installment of I Just Can’t Stop Watching M*A*S*H. Next week, things change behind the scenes and in front of the camera as M*A*S*H enters it's final evolution.
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