M*A*S*H vs M*A*S*H vs M*A*S*H

[W.J. Griffin]

I know most of you on this board have seen the original "M*A*S*H" with Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould, but how many of you out there have read the novel that started it all?

M*A*S*H the novel was written in the late 1960s by a real-life Army surgeon, Dr. Richard Hornberger, under the psudonym of "Richard Hooker", and it presented a much earthier portrait of what it was like on the front lines of South Korea in the early 1950s.

Like the movie, Hawkeye's sidekick was Duke Forrest (played in the film by Tom Skerritt), a drawling good-ol' boy with very definite ideas about male-female relationships. And like the movie, he and Hawkeye actually go home at the end of the story (of course, Duke is nowhere to be seen in the tv version...as is Painless, Boone and Lt. Dish.)

And speaking of Boone...it seems his character traits were grafted onto Radar in the tv version (probably for expediency's sake...)

But the biggest change of course, is Maj. Frank Burns (Robert Duvall in the film, Larry Linville on tv)...in the original novel it was a different, God-fearing zealot major who gave Hawkeye and Duke grief...the Frank Burns in the novel was a CAPTAIN, who got decked by Trapper John (just like in the movie) and then dissappeared from the novel without being heard from again. (The movie originated the Frank/Hotlips affair)

The one character who remained somewhat consistant throuhout all three versions of M*A*S*H in Lt. Colonel Henry Blake...though Roger Bowen's version seemed a bit more at ease with the shenannigans at the 4077th than MacLean Stevenson's Blake.

But for those of you who have indulged in all three versions (four, if you count the Saturday Morning cartoon version "M*U*S*H", which was a segment of the Filmation series "Uncle Croc'c Block"), which one do you prefer?

[Heidi Dawn]

I have the movie on DVD with lots of extras, and the first two seasons of the series. While I do like the movie, I like the series better for two reasons: Alan Alda and Loretta Swit are in it, they're my favorites on the show!

I haven't been able to come across the novel, I've looked in my local libraries so I could just borrow it, but they do have it at the Canadian Amazon site at: www.amazon.ca

[Exxpo]

I think every "version" is good in its own right...my favorite of course is the TV Series, specifically Seasons 1-3...they just seemed to be so much more light-hearted and carefree...after that even though there were some good shows...I always felt as if I was being preached to...and I don't need television for that...LOL...

As for the books...I have read about 5 of them...I own about 10 or so...after the original they are all titled things like...MASH Goes To Maine, MASH Goes to San Francisco etc...they are all about the happenings of Hawkeye, Trapper etc...in their civilian lives...apparently they all moved close to each other...go figure...they are fun reading though...

A good place to look for them is "Ebay"...

And that's my two cent's...
Exxpo

[Tourmaline]

I read the novel and saw the film version several years ago, but I'm more familiar with the TV series. I tend to see them as separate works rather than compare them, but I guess the TV version is more accessible as it comes in 25-minute chunks. Although, the book is the most portable version - you can take books anywhere!

[Paddy]

in the original novel it was a different, God-fearing zealot major who gave Hawkeye and Duke grief...the Frank Burns in the novel was a CAPTAIN

Actually, in the book there is Major Hobson who is Duke and Hawkeye's overly religious tentmate when they first arrive at the 4077th. Captain Frank Burns comes later in the story, after Hawkeye and Duke tell Henry to get the "Sky-pilot" out of their tent. Captain Burns has the same surgical incompetency and contempt for Hawkeye made famous in the show. Throw in the good Captain's affair with Major Houlihan and POOF! Instant Major Frank Burns, a fine mix of Evangalist Major Hobson and bungeling Captain Burns.

[The Obsolete Man]

I completely understand why Hobson and Capt. Burns were combined for the movie.

It's much more humorous to have an overly religious fella having an extramarital affair.

[treky]

well, Ihave an old paperback copy of the book that I bought way back, about 1975, and I've read it about, I guess, 4 times, and I have a copy of the film on VHS that I bought about 88 or 89, and I've also seen that a few times, and of course I've seen the show. FX seems to be showing it almost ALL THE TIME during the day!! And of the three, I prefer the novel, then the movie, and seasons 1-3 of the show. But if I have to choose one, I'd say the novel, definetly.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by W.J. Griffin

I know most of you on this board have seen the original "M*A*S*H" with Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould, but how many of you out there have read the novel that started it all?

M*A*S*H the novel was written in the late 1960s by a real-life Army surgeon, Dr. Richard Hornberger, under the psudonym of "Richard Hooker", and it presented a much earthier portrait of what it was like on the front lines of South Korea in the early 1950s.

Like the movie, Hawkeye's sidekick was Duke Forrest (played in the film by Tom Skerritt), a drawling good-ol' boy with very definite ideas about male-female relationships. And like the movie, he and Hawkeye actually go home at the end of the story (of course, Duke is nowhere to be seen in the tv version...as is Painless, Boone and Lt. Dish.)

And speaking of Boone...it seems his character traits were grafted onto Radar in the tv version (probably for expediency's sake...)

But the biggest change of course, is Maj. Frank Burns (Robert Duvall in the film, Larry Linville on tv)...in the original novel it was a different, God-fearing zealot major who gave Hawkeye and Duke grief...the Frank Burns in the novel was a CAPTAIN, who got decked by Trapper John (just like in the movie) and then dissappeared from the novel without being heard from again. (The movie originated the Frank/Hotlips affair)

The one character who remained somewhat consistant throuhout all three versions of M*A*S*H in Lt. Colonel Henry Blake...though Roger Bowen's version seemed a bit more at ease with the shenannigans at the 4077th than MacLean Stevenson's Blake.

But for those of you who have indulged in all three versions (four, if you count the Saturday Morning cartoon version "M*U*S*H", which was a segment of the Filmation series "Uncle Croc'c Block"), which one do you prefer?

As I noted in an earlier post, I'm a big fan of the first two novels, and have the ten or so sequels but after M*A*S*H Goes To Maine the books just got too silly, just as the television series went the opposite way and got oo serious and politically correct.

The movie is a classic, with Robert Altman directing that's almost a given, and unlike the television and novel versions, didn't wear itself out with too many episodes.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Exxpo

I think every "version" is good in its own right...my favorite of course is the TV Series, specifically Seasons 1-3...they just seemed to be so much more light-hearted and carefree...after that even though there were some good shows...I always felt as if I was being preached to...and I don't need television for that...LOL...

As for the books...I have read about 5 of them...I own about 10 or so...after the original they are all titled things like...MASH Goes To Maine, MASH Goes to San Francisco etc...they are all about the happenings of Hawkeye, Trapper etc...in their civilian lives...apparently they all moved close to each other...go figure...they are fun reading though...

A good place to look for them is "Ebay"...

And that's my two cent's...
Exxpo

Most of the old paperbacks of the M*A*S*H novels series pop up in the various used book stores browse, from time-to-time, except for M*A*S*H Mania, the last of the books, seems pretty rare, as I never find a copy of it.

[treky]

about the first post in this thread: Boone WAS in the series; but just in one episode and one scene. It's the scene in the episode HENRY PLEASE COME HOME in the first season where Hawwkeye, Trapper, Ugly John, Radar and some others are in the mess tent deciding a way to get Col. Blake back and Frank out. Boone is one of the other ones in the group. And Lt. Dish is in the pilot and a couple early, first season episodes.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by treky

about the first post in this thread: Boone WAS in the series; but just in one episode and one scene. It's the scene in the episode HENRY PLEASE COME HOME in the first season where Hawwkeye, Trapper, Ugly John, Radar and some others are in the mess tent deciding a way to get Col. Blake back and Frank out. Boone is one of the other ones in the group. And Lt. Dish is in the pilot and a couple early, first season episodes.

I'm currently watching that very episode right now (considered to be the second of the series, although it didn't air until later) in my viewing of Season One, I'm watching each episode several times through, paying attention to various perspectives and catching detail. When I return later tonight I'll take close note of that scene, one I've already found to be a nice approximation of the Robert Altman style of the M*A*S*H film.

[treky]

Originally Posted by Will Dockery

As I noted in an earlier post, I'm a big fan of the first two novels, and have the ten or so sequels but after M*A*S*H Goes To Maine the books just got too silly, just as the television series went the opposite way and got oo serious and politically correct.

The movie is a classic, with Robert Altman directing that's almost a given, and unlike the television and novel versions, didn't wear itself out with too many episodes.

years ago, I read one of the later novels. It was called MASH GOES TO VIENNA and had nothing to do with the movie or the first novel whatsoever!!
Hawkeye and Trapper are only in one or two scenes about a quarter of the way in, but no one else is in it. Hawkeye mentions the scene in the movie where Hot Lips is in the shower and they pull the tent down, but that's it. Then they're not in it again until almost the very end.

[treky]

also no one's said: in the novel Major Margret Houlihan's last name was O'HOULIHAN

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by treky

years ago, I read one of the later novels. It was called MASH GOES TO VIENNA and had nothing to do with the movie or the first novel whatsoever!!
Hawkeye and Trapper are only in one or two scenes about a quarter of the way in, but no one else is in it. Hawkeye mentions the scene in the movie where Hot Lips is in the shower and they pull the tent down, but that's it. Then they're not in it again until almost the very end.

I haven't come across M*A*S*H Goes To Vienna yet but I have a few of them, from Florida to Paris and yes, they are goofy, and mostly bad. Oh yeah, the books get pretty sloppy after Butterworth assumes control, and Richard Hooker seems to just runner stamp his name on them.

Interesting the Hot Lips shower scene is mentioned in this book, since that was one of the additions Ring Lardner made in his screenplay for the movie, adapting the original novel. A shame the paperback novels didn't make better use of their position, and give us better novels. Also, I agree with the poster who wished there had been some novels based on the actual television series, which thes "Goes To..." books were in no way related to, heck in these books Henry Blake never even died!

"M*A*S*H Goes To San Fransisco" says that "despite irresponsible reports to
the contrary from people who would have known better had they been able to read words of more than one syllable, survived the Korean War and achieved high rank". He's now Major General Henry Blake, Medical Corps, U.S. Army, commanding general of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

I haunt used book store in several cities and every so often I come across another title in the M*A*S*H paperback series of the 1970s, those weird little novels based very loosely on the M*A*S*H cast, written by the creator Richard Hooker, or at least credited to him as a co-author with William Butterworth. Sort of covering the same idea as AfterM*A*S*H, these books started with the very good M*A*S*H Goes To Maine and soon took the characters all over the world to different cities, as in "M*A*S*H Goes To Miami", which has as it's main claim to fame the return of dentist Painless Pole, not seen since the movie.

Here's a list by M*A*S*H scholar Mikael Uhlin on what becomes of our favorite characters in these oddball novels:

Hawkeye is married to Mary and got three children: Billy, Stephen and Karen. He worked for a while in East Orange, New Jersey, but then returned to Maine, where he started to work at Spruce Harbor General Hospital. Together with his old friends from Korea, he also opened Finestkind Clinic and Fishmarket.

Trapper John was sent to Okinawa after the truce and then worked at Saint Lombard's in New York. Trapper finally joined the others in Spruce Harbor and soon fell in love with Hawkeye's secretary Lucinda and later married her.

Hot Lips: After retiring from the Army Margaret was briefly married to, and widowed by, Mr. Isadore Wachauf, Chairman of the Board of Wachauf Metal Recycling, International(formerly Izzy's Junkyard). Margaret then went to San Marcos in Brazil as a chief nurse of a mission hospital, the Green Inferno Christian Medical Missionary Hospital. She went to New Orleans in connection with mission business and met the Reverend Buck Wilson, founder of the God-Is-Love-In-All-Forms Christian Church Inc. After a whirlwind courtship Hot Lips married Reverend Wilson. He expired on the nuptial couch on their wedding day, apparently of a heart seizure brought on by overexertion. Margaret Houlihan Wachauf Wilson is now acting as Mother Emeritus of the God-Is-Love-In-All-Forms Christian Church Inc.

Frank Burns: Francis Burns, M.D., lives in Hillandale, Ohio, with his wife Louise and kids. He left the practice of pediatric medicine and founded the Burns Vasectomological Institute and also runs The Burns Loving Family and Zero Population Growth Clinic. He is social secretary (with ambition to become president) of the American Tonsil, Adenoid and Vas Deferens Society.
About his time in Korea, he calls himself "combat surgeon" and claims to
have been both chief surgeon of the 4077th MASH and personal medical adviser to General Douglas MacArthur. (M*A*S*H Goes To New Orleans)

Father "Dago Red" Mulcahy:His Eminence John Patrick Mulcahy has become titular Archbishop of
Swengchan (China). Due to a misunderstanding between his superiors and the Democratic People's Republic of China, he has not been able to actually preside over his archdiocese. In "M*A*S*H Goes To New Orleans" Hawkeye removed a tumor during an operation upon His Eminence

Radar O'Reilly is called J.Robespierre O'Reilly in the "M*A*S*H Goes To..."-novels and has started an international fast-food service operation (Mother O'Reilly's Irish Stew Parlors). In "M*A*S*H Goes To Las Vegas", Radar marries Kristina Korsky-Rimsakov, telephatic sister of opera singer Boris Korsky-Rimsakov, who appears in several of the novels. The knot is firmly tied by Archbishop Mulcahy.

Ho-Jon: The Korean houseboy they sent to Androscoggin College is now the Director of Admissions at Androscoggin. In the novel "M*A*S*H Mania" he helped Hawkeye's 37-year-old brother-in-law Claremont "Meanstreak" Morse to join the college, finally becoming the Chief of Neurological Surgery in Spruce Harbor.

Duke Forest and Spearchucker Jones: They left Georgia and Philadelphia respectivally to join Hawkeye and Trapper in Maine.

Painless Pole: Walter Kosciusko Waldowski, Doctor of Dental Surgery, is now "bald and fat" and lives in Hamtramck, Michigan. He's married to Wilma and got one daughter, Wanda. (M*A*S*H Goes To Miami)

Goofy as they are, I'm always pleased to find one of these, and are fairly good reads, more-or-less... and of course quite rare, having been out of print for several decades now, with very little chance of them being reprintsed, no doubt.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by treky

also no one's said: in the novel Major Margret Houlihan's last name was O'HOULIHAN

The change in Margaret's name came in the M*A*S*H movie, and the television version went back to "Houlihan" like in the novel:

http://mash.wikia.com/wiki/Major_Mar...ps%22_Houlihan

"Major Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan was a fictional character first created in the book M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker. Actress Sally Kellerman portrayed her in the Robert Altman film adaptation (where the character was renamed "O'Houlihan"; however, like many of the M*A*S*H* characters, Hot Lips is probably best known from the television series, where her part was played by actress Loretta Swit. [...]The character of 'Hotlips Houlihan' was inspired by real-life Korean War M*A*S*H head nurse 'Hotlips Hammerly,' also a very attractive blonde, of the same disposition, and also from El Paso, Texas..."