Critical Couch Potato reviews DVD release of "M*A*S*H

Fox has released the sixth season of M*A*S*H Tuesday, June 8. This release is great. It corresponds to the 1977-1978 television season. I highly recommend this release for your collection.

I can honestly say that I don’t believe I missed one episode of this show from its inception on through to when I went on second shift — about the eighth year of its eleven-year-run, and even then I watched it as often as I could.

This television production reminded me so much of my experiences in the southeast Asian theater — Vietnam instead of Korea — and the disregard or low regard of “dumb” orders and their givers — for example I was under the command of a Col. Hegarty, who reminded me a lot of Frank Burns. This colonel, after a heated firefight during Tet, wanted us to go out and police the area around the compound and pick up brass and other junk. (To put this in non-military lingo, he ordered us to pick up the shell casings from the rounds which the enemy fired at us during a lull in one of the fiercest attacks the U.S. had yet experienced, while the enemy was still around, so the area would be neat in case we had a surprise inspection.)

There’s so much in this series about the M*A*S*H unit that reminded me of my unit, and brought back the camaraderie that only combat engenders.

I have read that this series was produced as an anti-war show. If so, it escaped me. Yes, Alan Alda seemed to be anti-war, but he was over there, he was a participant. It’s different when the rock thrower is one of yours than someone — like Jane Fonda — who knew nothing of what combat was — of what it was like to listen to one of your close friends die.

This show took me back to the fun times I had amongst the many unpleasant times. It showed me the way we — my unit and I — helped to keep each other sane. I think, for me at least, this was the appeal of this show.

Remember, this show lasted almost four times as long as the actual war. Part of the reason, in addition the above, was the show introduced new characters with regularity, and Major Winchester (David Ogden Stiers) was like a shot in the arm for the show. It gave the inhabitants of the swamp a new foil upon which to sharpen their rapier-like wit.

As with any long running show, some of the shows this season began to preach and become self-important, but even with this flaw, the shows are well worth watching.

On the whole, this show deserves its place in the classics. It’s usually witty and the show wasn’t afraid of an occasional format experiment.

Occasionally, though, the show suffers by switching mid-sentence from zany to maudlin.

The bad episodes were rare enough that the show as a whole overcomes them, easily becoming one of the best shows of its time.

I am a fan of all eleven seasons of the show — a show which I believe was the classiest and most consistently high-quality of any television dramatic or comedy series. The show and its characters grew over time. Each season was impressive in its own right.

I’ve watched this series on reruns many times. One thing that surprised me was how much the shows were cut to fit into the present format — which has longer commercial breaks and consequently cuts out about an additional five minutes of each episode. In order to see the show the way it aired originally, you need to get this collector’s edition.

I grew to know and enjoy each of the show’s characters just like they were actual people with whom I was involved in my daily life.

It takes a special kind of show to do this, and this show was special to millions of people. It won numerous awards throughout its span and when the last episode aired, it had the largest audience ever for a single series episode.

M*A*S*H writers were very clever in the way so many different lifetstyles were integrated. Rich Winchester, down home Potter, family man Hunnicutt, and Pierce the roving drunken philosopher/doctor. American lifestyles. all in turmoil, yet all getting along.

Each character was unique and had something to contribute. When we lost Burns, a neurotic, vindictive, childish fool; we got Winchester, an arrogant blowhard, but one who could hold his own with Hawkeye. Burns was incompetent, while Winchester was an outstanding surgeon; just ask him. Characters were missed when they left; but, they were not replaced with exact duplicates.

In my opinion M*A*S*H will be around (in syndication) much longer and enjoyed much more than most of the shows that have been on series television since it left.

Cast: Alan Alda, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, Loretta Swit, David Ogden Stiers, Gary Burghoff, Jamie Farr and William Christopher.

M*A*S*H — Season Six
Rated (**** 1/2 out of *****)

Synopsis: (Courtesy 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) Korea, 1950. They were a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit stationed three miles from the front. Loosely based on real-life MASH unit 8055, life at the 4077 revolved around the day-to-day routines of Captain Hawkeye Pierce, Captain B.J. Hunnicutt, Colonel Sherman T. Potter, Major Margaret Houlihan, Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, Corporal “Radar” O’Riley, Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger and Father Mulcahy.

As the sixth season opens, Margaret’s marriage has finally driven Frank Burns over the edge. Unfortunately, his subsequent replacement, Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, soon drives B.J. and Hawkeye over the edge as well. From his fur-trimmed coat to his shiny French horn, he almost makes B.J. and Hawkeye wish Frank were still there. Almost.

But as Winchester slowly finds his place within the OR, things get back to normal — or normal as they ever get. Radar goes off in search of the perfect tattoo. Black marketeers steal all of the unit’s penicillin. Hawkeye and B.J. refuse to shower unless Charles stops blowing his horn. And Hawkeye and Margaret find comfort in each other’s arms ... if only for one night.

The sixth season episodes include: “Fade Out, Fade In” (the episode introducing David Ogden Stiers as Major Charles Emerson Winchester the 3rd), “Fallen Idol,” “Last Laugh,” “War of Nerves,” “The Winchester Tapes,” “The Light That Failed,” “In Love and War,” “Change Day,” “Images,” “The M*A*S*H Olympics,” “The Grim Reaper,” “Comrades in Arms (Part 1),” “Comrades in Arms (Part 2),” “The Merchant of Korea,” “The Smell of Music,” “Patent 4077,” “Tea and Empathy,” “Your Hit Parade,” “What’s Up, Doc?,” “Mail Call Three,” “Temporary Duty,” “Potter’s Retirement,” “Dr. Winchester and Mr. Hyde,” and “Major Topper”.

DVD extras

• 24 episodes on three discs

• Viewer can watch with or without the laugh track

• Full-screen format

• Number of discs: 3