"G_____ Army, Jeep!"
Posted on 08/22/2025 2:18:02 PM PDT by gitmo
I just watched a rerun of the final M*A*S*H episode. I remember that the country stopped when this thing originally ran.
The final episode of MASH*, titled "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," aired on February 28, 1983 on CBS. It was a 2½-hour television event that marked the end of the series’ 11-season run and became the most-watched single episode of any television series in U.S. history, drawing over 106 million viewers.
“doesn’t hold a candle to Newhart’s ending!”
Amen, amen, amen.
Every time I’m reminded of it my heart is filled with joy!
That, and being the only one of my grandmother’s 8 grandchildren who watched the ending of “The Fugitive” with her (she loved that show to the MAX) are the two greatest TV experiences of my life!
My parents did. They did not allow us to watch it at all, ever. I had an cousin that died in the Korean conflict and both my parents were history buffs as well. They really despised that show.
Does it compare to the Magnum P.I. episode where Thomas is lost at sea, treading water and trying to stay alive while his friends desperately search for him by helicopter? That one got me..
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Interesting that you brought up Magnum PI, because the one that absolutely stunned me was the episode where Magnum shot the man who tortured him when he was a POW. The ended the show with him pointing his gun right at him, and they ended the show with a transition to black and a bang.
They set it up with a lot of flashbacks, but even though you could say they were preparing the audience for it, I really thought they were just making it a moral dilemma (crisis) for him, and that he wouldn’t do it.
Didn’t we? Speak for yourself.
I wasn’t.
It worse than Klinger. Klinger knew he was acting, to get a section 8 discharge.
Alda always projected a self-satisfied aren't I the cat's ass vibe about him.
Henry Blake’s death episode was worse/harder, arguably.
I am not sorry to say, I watched a few episodes. The show was boring and predictable.
My wife and I watched it while she was in labor with our son.
She was making it very difficult for me to concentrate on the show.
All went well with our son being born just before midnight.
I knew it was left-wing agitprop after the episode where Alda can’t even pick up a 1911 pistol without freaking out. The guy’s supposed to be an Army officer, for crying out loud.
Bill Hader has his number.
https://youtu.be/4iaHrXHPraI?si=JFuRHeBXZrF0Wfbj
As a Viet Nam veteran I have mixed feelings about the show. I agree it became the Alan Alda show. I refer to him as “Katherine Hepburn with PMS. I really got sad when Henry bought it. Klinger ? Ha !! The real men would have straightened his flowery ass out. If there were a way to remove Alda from the show it could be watchable.
My wife and I just started watching the MASH complete collection. We’re into the 2nd season. What we noticed is that Lt. Col. Henry Blake, Trapper John and Major Frank Burns all played around on their wives...and it was for laughs. As I recall, the replacements for Blake and Trapper John were devoted family men who loved their wives. That’s some improvement...
Yup....I didn’t realize that till long after the show ended. I remember the commonly occuring sniping at the armed forces.
I read the book the series was based on. The movie took an antiwar, antiArmy stance because of Vietnam, and the TV show went way out there on its naive view of the world. The show was completely oblivious to post WW2 land grabbing, and political atrocities by Communist countries like USSR, and Red China.
Now, I won’t watch reruns.
My wife and I just started watching the MASH complete collection. We’re into the 2nd season. What we noticed is that Lt. Col. Henry Blake, Trapper John and Major Frank Burns all played around on their wives.
The early seasons more closely paralleled the original movie. They even had “Spearchucker” in the early episodes.
Back then we ALL lived comfortably in The Matrix.
My dad served in the army during the Korean war. He hated MASH. Probably for the same reasons your dad didn’t like it.
I stopped watching when I found out that Alan Alda was a commie.
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