MASH

MASH's col. potter passed away. he was 96. this makes me sad.; rest peacefully, harry morgan.

also good in The Ox-Bow Incident

obituaries

gah, sorry. was looking for "R.I.P." threads.

Kindly old Harry Morgan...Just scrolled through his credits to figure out what I most associate him with, and I think it's actually a couple of Partridge Family episodes.

a lot of MASH actors disappeared almost entirely after they left the show. in fact, the only exception i can think of is hawkeye, who appeared in some unsuccessful things before finally finding a good role with the west wing.

tragedy + time

hawkeye had a fruitful relationship w/Woody Allen.

G.W. Bailey, oddly enough, probably had the most steady career post-MASH.

oh, the character actor! yeah, i guess.

what were hawkeye's post-MASH roles in woody allen films?

almost feel like turning this into a MASH-related thread, since it overlaps with the rolling R.I.P. thread titled "obituaries" (again, sorry about that).

Maybe we can change the title and make this a MASH thread. I'm always happy to talk about MASH.

i remember seeing frank burns in a small, humiliating role in some usa-up-all-night-style 80s teen movie

it was depressing

crazy, i only just checked morgans wiki last night to see if he was still alive, after something ken levine wrote on his blog about him.

Mike Farrell had a decent post-MASH career, I think?

He was on Providence in the late 90s/early 00s, but what else did he do?

collect royalties, I think

Since M*A*S*H, Farrell has guest starred in Murder, She Wrote; Justice League; Matlock; Mannix; Desperate Housewives; and many others. Farrell played Jonathan Kent in the Superman (1996) animated series, with wife Shelley Fabares playing Martha Kent. He also hosted several "National Geographic Presents" specials and starred in a number of TV movies, including Memorial Day (which he co-produced); Sex and the Single Parent; Prime Suspect; Choices of the Heart; Private Sessions; Vanishing Act; A Deadly Silence; The Price of the Bride; Incident at Dark River; The Whereabouts of Jenny; and Silent Motive. He has done two one-man shows: JFK, a One Man Show for PBS and, on stage, a national tour of David W. Rintels' play Clarence Darrow. In 1983 Farrell starred in the movie Memorial Day.

In 1985, Farrell partnered with film and television producer Marvin Minoff to create Farrell/Minoff Productions, a production company.[4] Together, Farrell and Minoff produced numerous television movies.[5] Farrell and Minoff also executive produced two feature films during their partnership,[5] Dominick and Eugene, a 1988 Orion Pictures film which earned actor Tom Hulce a Golden Globe nomination for best actor.[4] The pair also produced 1998's Patch Adams starring Robin Williams.[5] Farrell and Minoff's professional partnership lasted more than twenty-five years, until Minoff's death in November 2009.[4][5]

he was responsible for "Patch Adams" = I take it back

what were hawkeye's post-MASH roles in woody allen films?

Crimes and Misdemeanors
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Everyone Says I Love You

Plus an Oscar nom for The Aviator.

Alan Alda's actor-director career in films stayed afloat while MASH was on the air, not so much after (Sweet Liberty).

He was good as Jack's Dad in that episode of 30 Rock.

oh yeah, sweet liberty. my hazy impression is that, somewhere toward the middle or end of MASH's run, hawkeye -- and really, alan alda -- came to symbolize the weak, ineffectual, bleeding heart that the country turned against durng the 80s and that as a result, he had a really rough time in his post-MASH career (until he toughened up as someone or another on the west wing).

truthfully, if it remember right, the hawkeye of the novels was a reactionary conservative.

well, the guy who wrote the novel was I think

This show really got unbearable when ALL the characters (incl Hot Lips and ultimately DOS's Winchester) turned into Carter-era liberals)

but Alda did a decent Groucho-at-war act.

yeah. i far prefer the early, trapper-john era.

I did think Morgan was much funnier than McLean Stevenson.

(whose character death when he left the show was made a huge fuss of in '75)

I did think Morgan was much funnier than McLean Stevenson.

really? i liked them both, but was much fonder of stevenson's character.

Frank Burns > Charles Winchester
Col. Potter > Col. Blake

Klinger in dresses >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Klinger in fatigues

radar w/grape nehi* >>>>>>>>>>>>>> radar as old man in bp ads

(*thank u mash for teaching me this valuable crossword term)

I don't know how many of you know there was a flop spinoff called AfterMASH?

http://www.crazyabouttv.com/Images/aftermash.jpg

Frank Burns > Charles Winchester

totally.

I remember it existing, but don't remember a thing about it.

i saw it; terrible.

i had forgotten entirely about the chaplain!

how the hell can you forget Father Mulcahy

problem was that they took the most minor of characters and tried to make them the centerpiece. could have been okay if it focused on, say, hawkeye or bj or houlihan, but OTOH, i think people were burnt-out on the show by its finale.

Did MASH end with Mulcahey losing his hearing? Did they carry that over to AfterMASH?

father mulcahy!

xp: yes and yes, he was deaf in one ear

didn't hawkeye almost go crazy in the last episode because he urged a korean woman to silence her child when they were within earshot of the enemy, only to discover she smothered her child to death to protect the group?

Yeah, he'd repressed the memory, in his mind she broke a chicken's neck or something

His character on 30 Rock did a callback to that: "A guy crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was a comedy show."

lol I just looked it up, one of the first things AfterMASH did was give Mulcahy surgery to fix his hearing, thus saving him from alcoholism

what a cop out

part cop out, part excuse to pull him into the main cast

Don't forget
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Trapper_John_MD.jpg

Yeah, but that starred Adam from Bonanza and not Wayne Rogers.

oh my GOD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W*A*L*T*E*R

Did you see that Victoria Jackson was in it?! LOL

oh yeah, that trapper john so was an abomination.

AN ABOMINATION

created by Bill "Hulk" Bixby

xxxp

My mom liked it. The only thing I remember is that it made no sense that he was Trapper John played by someone else and that Gregory Harrion's character had the nickname Gonzo.

I think it was several years before I realized that the Trapper John of that show was the Trapper John on MASH, and several years beyond that before I realized it was two separate actors and not an accelerated passage of time/hard-living that made them look so different

no connection whatsoever to the MASH character, other than the name. should never have been associated with the MASH franchise.

(well not several years actually, but I couldn't get over the disconnect and how it broke the fictional universe; my mom finally got exasperated and said "you watch Doctor Who and you can't get over this????" one day and I had to admit she had a point)

(whose character death when he left the show was made a huge fuss of in '75)

i remember watching it as a kid when it was repeated on bbc in the 80s, and being really shocked and upset by it. i think its really well done, if you don't know its coming. i remember thinking radar's exit episode was really sweetly done, too, though i later discovered gary burghoff was apparently a bit of a dick.

Best TV prog ever made?

People who say The Simpsons, just don't recall MASH (or are too young).

I do recall the 'chicken' episode above. One massive example of how a 'comedy' can do this and still do 'funny' in the same show.

RIP Harry Morgan :( ... 96 nonetheless!

Best TV prog ever made?

sorry cheers was better Bar Wars V

Cheers was good, and more consistent probably.

but.

MASH really went badly off the boil. Morbz is right:

This show really got unbearable when ALL the characters (incl Hot Lips and ultimately DOS's Winchester) turned into Carter-era liberals)

tipped into preachiness. Compare to the Altman movie, where more than half the beloved TV characters are dicks.

Ah, it's always the way with Fillum

yeah, the series lost the balance between its characters in later years. but might it not be logical that, sans Frank and with the horrors of war building, Hot Lips might have realistically softened over the years?

The 3 years of the war, or the 11 years of the show?

The main thing with the film was that at that point you didn't know why they acted that way.

Also, they didn't know each other as well as they did later.

As Hotpips (oh, I'm keeping that mistype) said at one point: "It's not that they are bad people, it's just that they don't have a woman keeping them from misbehaving"

(or was that "Last of the Summer Wine"?)

xpost actually, it was a different war, wasn't it?

when MASH the series began, it was seen as an implicit critique of America in Vietnam, as the film was. By the time the show ended, Reaganism was well underway and Alda's increased role as frequent director (and occasional writer?) made it seem like a TV bulwark against the righty tide.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Best TV prog ever made?

early years, in context, maybe. mid to late era, no. tho, to be fair, i almost never watch network TV or cable anymore.

It was consistently good imo, but I'd never call it the best tv show ever. The scene with Mulcahy describing surgeons warming their hands over their patients was very powerful until the telegraphed end where he helpfully tells us how affecting that is. I recall a lot of the good stuff being teevee-ized that way.

What would the shortlist contenders for best TV prog ever made be? In the US I would guess:

MASH
Cheers
The Cosby Show
All in the Family
The Jeffersons
I Love Lucy
The Simpsons

some would probably argue for Seinfeld, too

There should be some dramas in contention but I can't think of any I would put on a "best EVER" list. Maaaaaybe "Little House on the Prairie", "The Waltons", "Perry Mason" and "Dragnet"? Maybe some of the cable dramas?

Never heard of The Jeffersons

mmmm, ballot poll -- or didn't we already do one for tv shows?

I waffled about including Good Times, too

Alan Alda's actor-director career in films stayed afloat while MASH was on the air, not so much after (Sweet Liberty).

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, December 7, 2011 4:11 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

haha Sweet Liberty is on TV right now and i'm watching it. not bad!

hill street blues.

Poll's been done. Decade by decade I think? Was it just stcoms?

actually maybe you should just list the successful Norman Lear shows and "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and call it a day, lol

Yeah, I did a big sitcom "tournament" style poll. Came down to Simpsons vs. Arrested Development.

I can't think of MASH without thinking of Hugh Steeply's father's MASH addiction in Infinite Jest.

Never thought that much of "Arrested Development".

Mary Tyler Moore Show didn't try so hard to win Peabody Awards.

oh shit, yeah that was also a fantastic show (and set in MN! squeee!)

Never thought that much of "Arrested Development".

Hear hear

(Where? Where?)

"Rhoda" anyone?

the canned laughtrack CBS imposed on MASH was kind of tragic

Thankfully the BBC spared us canned laughter on MASH and probably other American imports. Though there weren't actually all that many US sitcoms shown on British TV.

MASH is really the only one I can think of that was on, like, BBC2, Wed. night 9pm (or whatever) come what may and not shuffled across the schedules and shown out of sequence

The laughtrack was so bizarre and unnecessary, but at least they were able to keep it out of the operating room scenes.

We (in the UK) got one episode with a laugh track by accident. Huge number of complaints.

Questions raised in parliament, letters to the Times etc

What would the shortlist contenders for best TV prog ever made be?

no love for the vicar of dibly, i see.

LttT, I'm sure! (The Radio Times, anyway)

just kidding ffs.

terrible, terrible show.

you could have at least picked a terrible US show since my next sentence started with "In the US"

HOW DARE YOU EXCLUDE "MAX HEADROOM"

you could have at least picked a terrible US show since my next sentence started with "In the US"

okay okay. no love for the dukes of hazard, i see.

Was that a comedy? I was never sure.

That didn't have a laugh track.

it was a documentary

a documentary about some good-ol boys.

they never mean'ed no harm.

so... here's a 3-1/2 hour interview with Morgan.

http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/harry-morgan

What about "Frasier" btw? Not a big fan myself but it was voted best ever sitcom by 'sitcom insiders' in the UK.

blech.

Frasier is decent but I don't know that I'd rank it as "best ever"

Well yes, it's a bunch of actors and writers and what have you who voted for it after all

Actors LOL. What do they know!

like, I'd make a case for "Family Ties", "Alice", "One Day At A Time" and "Diff'rent Strokes" over "Frasier"

hell, I might argue "Night Court" over it

and "Three's Company"

Frasier won Emmys and was on for a billion years but it's generally rated much higher by Brits than Americans, i don't know anybody here who thinks it's on the level of Cheers or Seinfeld or whatever

best ever tv prog is probably the Sopranos imho, followed by the Twilight Zone and the first 8 seasons of the Simpsons

It's rated higher by Brits than most of those listed because they've actually seen it, lol

you can't cherrypick seasons, if a show has a fallow period that just pulls down its overall average (xpost)

like, I'd make a case for "Family Ties", "Alice", "One Day At A Time" and "Diff'rent Strokes" over "Frasier"

hell, I might argue "Night Court" over it

Night Court is by far the best of any of the comedies listed here!

Whoah, I had no idea I had such strong feelings about Night Court.

wait what? parks & rec, for instance, is way better than night court ever was.

RONG

SO RONG

Right, I've never seen "Night Court" but it seems to have something to do with "Barney Miller", so that's OK by me

I meant that Night Court was far better than Family Ties, "Alice, One Day At A Time, Diff'rent Strokes and Frasier (which Dan listed). I don't know how I'd rate it against all of the other comedies on this thread.

I'm glad Night Court came up because honestly this has been bugging me for weeks: is there actually such a thing as night court? Or was it part of the premise of Night Court that they were in some special, unusual scenario.

Cuz as far as I can tell, the courts are only open in SF between 9am-5pm. And most people I know that have gotten arrested at night, you spend the night in jail and are arraigned in the morning... otoh, bail bonds offices are always 24 hrs so there must be a reason for that, right?

Personally I fucking loved "Night Court" and might rank it in my top five sitcoms of all time but I'm not 100% if that was love due to the quality of the show or love due to right place, right time (ie, the reasons why I loved "Automan", "Manimal" and "Misfits of Science")

I suspect I wouldn't like Night Court now as much as I did when I was 13. Although, Laroquette's "Dan Fielding" is one of tv's all time best sleazy-with-a-heart characters.

(ie, the reasons why I loved "Automan", "Manimal" and "Misfits of Science")

oh man respeck knuckles on those, sometimes I feel like I am the only person who remembers Automan or Manimal (also "The Master" with Lee Van Cleef)

i'm pretty sure there's definitely courts with night shifts -- there'd almost have to be in some places, especially new york

thread devolution carries into the sandbox

It's really funny that Wayne Rogers and esp McLean Stevenson left MASH after 3 seasons for 'greener pastures.' (tho I think Rogers was just bored w/ the grind)

Frasier went farce and then went ham. Can't even touch Cheers.

^^ exactly what i was assuming was the consensus in the country where nothing is held in higher regard than Fawlty Towers

oh wait i thought you were saying Cheers couldn't touch it, nevermind

Cheers is head and shoulders better, Taxi is a fairer comparison to Cheers tbh

yeah Taxi is right in that sweet spot with a lot of those shows but for some reason it doesn't get placed in the pantheon as often

oh shit yeah, forgot about "Taxi"

I do love "MASH" to bits though, even after it went super-sitCommie

sometimes I feel like I am the only person who remembers Automan or Manimal

I remember those shows as well.