M*A*S*H Season 4
Watching M*A*S*H is always a bittersweet experience. With characters like Hawkeye, Radar, BJ Hunnicut, Klinger and Colonel Potter you can fool yourselves that all Americans are noble and selfless (with a great sense of humour to boot!), and would never torture the enemy soldiers in their charge.
Watching M*A*S*H is always a bittersweet experience. With characters like Hawkeye, Radar, BJ Hunnicut, Klinger and Colonel Potter you can fool yourselves that all Americans are noble and selfless (with a great sense of humour to boot!), and would never torture the enemy soldiers in their charge. While watching the Season 4 disks I veered between laughter and tears, often within the space of a few seconds. Television doesn’t get much better than this, and not even recent hits like Friends can ever come near M*A*S*H for the quality of acting, or writing.
Season Four starts a new chapter for M*A*S*H fans in more ways than one. Colonel Henry Blake had been killed off at the end of Season 3, and in the first episode of Season 4, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) returns from leave to find that his friend, Trapper John (Wayne Rogers), has gone Stateside, without even saying goodbye. I couldn’t help feeling that this was a kick in the teeth for the departing Rogers. Rumour has it that Rogers objected to Alan Alda stealing the show from under his feet so went off sulking. Enter in his place BJ Hunnicut (Mike Farrell) who very quickly fills the void left by Trapper - who I never really liked much anyway due to his serial infidelity. BJ soon shows that he shares Hawkeye’s sense of humour, but couples it with fidelity, common sense and sanity, adding a nice comparison that was missing in the combined outrageous characters of Trapper and Hawkeye.
That this is Alda’s show is without a doubt. One episode, simply called ‘Hawkeye’, borders on the self-indulgent but is nonetheless good for that. Hawkeye (Alda) is injured on his way back to the M*A*S*H unit, and takes refuge with a non-English speaking Korean family. He then proceeds to talk incessantly, revealing things about Hawkeye we never knew. Very thoughtfully the family have a raised platform in their room which acts as Alda’s stage and at times he looks as though he’s stepped into the Comedy Store. I remember loving this episode the first time I saw it, but on watching it yesterday I did get a sense of just how indulgent the producers were being to Alda. Alda just about gets away with it only because he is so talented (and gorgeous).
Other characters are also given their chance to shine at different times. Radar especially, in an episode where he watches a home movie of his mum (who looks suspiciously like him). This is the one that had me laughing one minute and crying the next. Gary Berghof is a talented actor who brings pathos to the brave little clerk. As Hawkeye says ‘he’s both the son and the pet I never had’.
There is the sense that some of the jokes are wearing a little thin, particularly the Burns/Hotlips romance, and the other characters reaction to it. Would Hotlips Houlihan really waste her time with such a little squirt? Loretta Swit is actually missing for a few of the episodes so maybe she felt that too. I also wondered if the episodes were shown in order of filming (rather than airing) as in one episode Hotlips appears to be moving away from Burns and taking sides with Hawkeye and BJ, then in the next she’s plotting with Burns again, and so on.
There are also some good cameos, including Blythe Danner (Gwyneth Paltrow’s mum) as an ex-lover of Hawkeye’s; Alan Fudge as a bomber who believes he’s Christ; Edward Winter as the hilarious CIA colonel, Flagg, and Alan Arbus as the excellent psychiatric doctor, Freedman.
Episodes I didn’t enjoy so much were the last two ‘Deluge’ and ‘The Interview’, which moved away from storylines, towards ‘issues’. The first, ‘Deluge’ combined news from home with the events at M*A*S*H, and the last was in black and white, consisting of an interview with all the staff at M*A*S*H. While they were both insightful into the effects of war, they seemed to belong to another television series, as there are few laughs to be had in either. The beauty of M*A*S*H is that it mixes laughter with tears, but these last two episodes didn’t balance as well.
However, you know you want to buy this, so you don’t need me to tell you. Okay, M*A*S*H is repeated all the time, but never in proper order (and apparently some were never shown on air), so this is your chance to see the episodes as they should be seen.
The disks are very low on extras, but there are subtitles and the choice of watching without the intrusive laughter track.
The 24 episodes, in order are:
[b]Welcome To Korea
Change Of Command
It Happened One Night
The Late Captain Pierce
Hey Doc
The Bus
Dear Mildred
The Kids
Quo Vadis Captain Chandler
Dear Peggy
Of Moose And Men
Soldier Of The Month
The Gun
Mail Call Again
The Price Of Tomato Juice
Dear Ma
Der Tag
Hawkeye
Some 38th Parallels
The Novocaine Mutiny
Smilin' Jack
The More I See You
Deluge
The Interview [/b]
Quick Question: Someone put me out of my misery. I was sure that when Wayne Rogers left MASH he made a spin off series called Trapper John, but I can't find mention of it anywhere. Have I imagined it?
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