That last episode of M*A*S*H must have been a mutha

[expendable]

Saw Super Bowl 42 had the second-most viewers in history behind that 1983 MASH finale. I think I read more than 100 million people watched MASH, which was probably half the country's population back then. I've seen MASH on re-runs, but what was the deal with that last episode? It blows me away that 25 years later nothing has been watched more.

"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" was one of the great episodes of all time. It deserved that lofty rating.

When the series started, I loved watching it... by the time it ended, I had long grown tired of Alan Alda's insufferable preening morality play...

M*A*S*H was bigger than Alan Alda. Could it have gone on without him? Tough to tell ... it survived lots of other cast changes and kept chugging on.

no. MASH had become the Gospel According to Alan Alda... most plots revolved around him, the shtick tiresome...

Whatever.

He was great from the moment he walked on that set till the second he was looking at Beej's stones on the ground from the helicopter.

Quick triviajack; What did the stones say?

Farewell??

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Saw Super Bowl 42 had the second-most viewers in history behind that 1983 MASH finale. I think I read more than 100 million people watched MASH, which was probably half the country's population back then. I've seen MASH on re-runs, but what was the deal with that last episode? It blows me away that 25 years later nothing has been watched more.

"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" was one of the great episodes of all time. It deserved that lofty rating.

When the series started, I loved watching it... by the time it ended, I had long grown tired of Alan Alda's insufferable preening morality play...

M*A*S*H was bigger than Alan Alda. Could it have gone on without him? Tough to tell ... it survived lots of other cast changes and kept chugging on.

no. MASH had become the Gospel According to Alan Alda... most plots revolved around him, the shtick tiresome...

Whatever.

He was great from the moment he walked on that set till the second he was looking at Beej's stones on the ground from the helicopter.

Quick triviajack; What did the stones say?

Goodbye

 

[Chef]

Saw Super Bowl 42 had the second-most viewers in history behind that 1983 MASH finale. I think I read more than 100 million people watched MASH, which was probably half the country's population back then. I've seen MASH on re-runs, but what was the deal with that last episode? It blows me away that 25 years later nothing has been watched more.

"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" was one of the great episodes of all time. It deserved that lofty rating.

When the series started, I loved watching it... by the time it ended, I had long grown tired of Alan Alda's insufferable preening morality play...

M*A*S*H was bigger than Alan Alda. Could it have gone on without him? Tough to tell ... it survived lots of other cast changes and kept chugging on.

no. MASH had become the Gospel According to Alan Alda... most plots revolved around him, the shtick tiresome...

Whatever.

He was great from the moment he walked on that set till the second he was looking at Beej's stones on the ground from the helicopter.

Quick triviajack; What did the stones say?

Goodbye

ding ding

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It's misleading... Back when the MASH finale aired, most people only had a handful of channels they could watch and there was no internet...

It's still an incredible number, but if the MASH finale were to be on today, it would be lucky to get half the number they did 25 years ago...

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

The tombstone reads, "Died of BJ Hunnicut."
The least funny character in the history of television.
And the "finale" made "Steel Magnolias" look like South Park.
Hawkeye goes nuts, Mulcahy goes deaf, the awful Hunnicut goes home and COMES BACK?
Gawd, it was a nightmare.

 

[slappy4428]

The tombstone reads, "Died of BJ Hunnicut."
The least funny character and whiniest most insecure person in the history of television.
And the "finale" made "Steel Magnolias" look like South Park.
Hawkeye goes nuts, Mulcahy goes deaf, the awful Hunnicut goes home and COMES BACK?
Gawd, it was a nightmare.

Amen, bubba...

 

[Captain_Kirk]

it did go from a show that was comedy first and foremost to preachy message focused. But, I'll have to admit the room got a little dusty watching that final episode...

 

[Oggiedoggie]

Wow.

And all this time I thought it ended because Jamie Farr was too distracted by "The Gong Show."

 

[Huggy]

The last episode was awful, indeed the last few seasons were ****. They were clearly running out of story ideas and I recall one of the producers saying they took a trip to Korea to see if they could get any new ideas.

Having said that, I was always a big fan, particularly when CITY-TV would run their annual Colonel Flagg week, showing every episode the great man was in.

 

[EStreetJoe]

The tombstone reads, "Died of BJ Hunnicut."
The least funny character in the history of television.
And the "finale" made "Steel Magnolias" look like South Park.
Hawkeye goes nuts, Mulcahy goes deaf, the awful Hunnicut goes home and COMES BACK?
Gawd, it was a nightmare.

BJ was funnier than Charles Emmerson Winchester III
Hunnicut got rotated home and then called back to duty from the airfield in Korea where he was supposed to take his flight home.
In talking about the finale you forgot to mention Winchester's POW orchestra.

The finale was too serious, but you knew that Hawkeye had to crack at some point.

But some of the serious episodes during the last few years were solid episodes (point of view, the one with the clock in the corner of the screen, and a bunch of others).
BJ delivered a different style of humor than the Trapper John, but he was still funny.
Winchester on the other hand, wasn't as funny as Frank. His pompousness came off too serious vs. Frank's whiny insecurities.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Winchester existed primarily as a punching bag. It was with him that Hwk 'n Beej were at their most insufferable -- and hypocritical.
Show should have ended in 1976.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Nobody. I mean nobody was funnier than Maj. Frank Burns.
Col. Flagg was great as a guest, but the cast, Frank Burns was the Alpha and Omega.

The finale out and out sucked. A total sack of sympathetic **** written by the same person who envisioned an unlimited amount Valerie Bertinelli movies on Lifetime.

 

[Bob Cook]

I remember one cousin of mine who worked at a bicycle plant being pissed that they didn't get time off to watch the episode. It really was that big a deal.

As for awful spinoffs, AfterMASH was bad, but how about Radar O'Reilly as a cop in W*A*L*T*E*R?

http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/walter.php

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Nobody. I mean nobody was funnier than Maj. Frank Burns.
Col. Flagg was great as a guest, but the cast, Frank Burns was the Alpha and Omega.

The finale out and out sucked. A total sack of sympathetic **** written by the same person who envisioned an unlimited amount Valerie Bertinelli movies on Lifetime.

"You're dumb, Freedman. Very dumb. But you've met your match with me."

 

[Rough Mix]

Frank Burns eats worms.

 

[Huggy]

Nobody. I mean nobody was funnier than Maj. Frank Burns.
Col. Flagg was great as a guest, but the cast, Frank Burns was the Alpha and Omega.

The finale out and out sucked. A total sack of sympathetic **** written by the same person who envisioned an unlimited amount Valerie Bertinelli movies on Lifetime.

"You're dumb, Freedman. Very dumb. But you've met your match with me."

"Some day, every kid in America will wish he were me."

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Colonel Flagg: [after Frank Burns pats his shoulder] My father touched me that way once. To this day he still has to wear orthopedic shirts.

Frank Burns: Funny thing, war: never have so many suffered so much so so few could be so happy.
Margaret: We're lucky to be two of the few and not the many.
Frank Burns: I know, darling, and I love being both of us.

Colonel Flagg: This won't look good on your record.
Frank Burns: But colonel, it's just Reader's Digest.
Colonel Flagg: Not if you eliminate the third, fifth, and sixth letters, then it's Red's Digest, comrade.

 

[Huggy]

Flagg to BJ and Hawkeye: If it wasn't for war, you wouldn't know what peace is!

 

[BTExpress]

It's misleading... Back when the MASH finale aired, most people only had a handful of channels they could watch and there was no internet...

It wasn't a 500-channel universe. But it was more than a handful.

I had a good 40-50 channels on my cable in 1983. There was even an Intellivision channel (for playing the Mattel video games).

 

[slappy4428]

"My father touched me that way once. To this day he still has to wear orthopedic shirts. "