Some of the later Mash episodes were kinda morbid and scary with their morbid medical talk. The early funny eps are better.

Originally posted by The Giant:

Some of the later Mash episodes were kinda morbid and scary with their morbid medical talk. The early funny eps are better.

I don't neccesarily (Sp?) agree with that. I first saw the later episodes, and they are what made me a fan. I think they show the writers' ability to mix an intelligent message in with the comedy. I think that's a very difficult thing to pull off, but the Mash writers did a great job of it!


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If by later episodes you mean ones featuring the character of Charles Winchester where was the humor part of your claim? Almost every episode in the last six seasons of Mash was rather to very serious with almost no humor to soft peddle the morbid and scary dialogue.

Hi all,
At a certain point, "M*A*S*H" matured and progressed beyond playing tricks on Frank Burns, cheating at poker, mocking authority figures, trying to get into some nurse's pants and the sight of Klinger in a dress. The makers of the show realized that war is not fun and games or merely a setting for light-hearted high jinx.

At that point, the show's ability to make people laugh and cry almost simultaneously became truly astounding. That's what life is -- both sweet *and* sour. There was humor in "M*A*S*H" -- albeit a slightly different brand -- right up until the end . . . in Hawkeye's amazingly clever one-liners, BJ's frequent corny, but brilliant, puns, Winchester's reactions to the unsophisticated slobs with whom he was forced to associate, and their reactions to him, etc.

That's not to mention the fact that there were probably more practical jokes played on each other by the characters during the Winchester years of the show than at at any other time in the series. When did Hawkeye fall on his face because the boot he was trying to put on had been nailed to the floor? When did a man-sized dummy fall on Margaret from her closet, as she lay in bed? When was innocent bystander Father Mulcahy greeted with a pie in the face upon entering the mess tent? When were Hawkeye's & BJ's bathrobes stolen while they were in the shower? When was half of BJ's mustache shaved off while he was sleeping? When was Hawkeye tricked into believing that someone had sabotaged Col. Potter's toothpaste tube with soap, had put a live snake in Winchester's bunk, had cut the bottom out of Margaret' bathrobe, had blown up Klinger's file cabinet? And, I don't know about any of you, but watching and hearing Margaret unknowingly broadcast to the entire camp the details of the rash on her butt always makes me laugh.

Later,
Art

[This message has been edited by Artfiore1 (edited 03-28-2001).]

Wasn't it about a WAR? They're generally pretty morbid, especially the longer they go on.

Mooshy,
Yes, it was about a WAR. but it was also a *sitcom.* And unfortunately, some fans of the more light-hearted early days kind of lost it later on when the message got more true to the reality.

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Later,
Art

MASH scenes in he OR during the Trapper era are always laugh-track free. MASH was never just all hijinks.And thre was way more humor in tha ctually meaningful Trapper than th more boring BJ one.

MASH scenes in he OR during the Trapper era are always laugh-track free. MASH was never just all hijinks.And thre was way more humor in tha ctually meaningful Trapper than th more boring BJ one.

True. The earlier seasons, 1-7, were the funniest.