It went downhill from there, especially after Trapper John left. Then it got really smarmy when Hawkeye and Hot Lips were on the same side. It was hilarious when Hot Lips and Burns were always getting punked. 😂
MASH went from being a comedy with a few serious moments, the contrast usually worked wonderfully, to a serious show with a few moments of bad humor and it worked horribly. I am honestly amazed this show lasted as long as it did.
@@lfdab34Well he wasn't the character Dr.Hornberger wrote in his book.Hawkeye was originally married with kids and Trapper was the bachelor, also,Alan Alda was clearly a Bronx Italian and not from Maine,whereas while Donald Sutherland was never the best with accents he looked and was more convincing as the Hawkeye from Maine that Dr.Hornberger wrote,although the character that Alan created was terrific and compelling.
You may have known this, but Winchester's British accent was faked. The actor who played Winchester was American. On a totally different note, the teenage daughter on The Wonder Years faked an American accent. She was British. (And her boyfriend was David Schwimmer who went on to co-star in Friends.)
@@JustForFun-mt9og On the topic of accents : I knew Hugh Laurie was British from reruns of Blackadder but his American accent seemed perfect to me. It was fun to listen to him give an interview and use his real voice complete with British accent.
I grew up watching the series and I actually liked the later seasons better than the early ones. Winchester, Colonel Potter and BJ were much funnier to me than Trapper and Frank Burns. War is hell, and I think that the later episodes portrayed that better.
Well Frank was funnier than Winchester but Winchester was more touching. Trapper and BJ were equally compelling,and so were Potter and Henry in different ways.
I quite agree. Prefered MASH when Colonel Potter showed up as it began to get much more medicial and scientific, more serious than it was when Blake was on the first seasons. It's like when Blake was on, it was never very serious, always fun and games, goofing off all the time, in a serious situation, serious circumstances in wartime during the Korean conflict at the time. Once Colonel Potter came on the scene, things changed for the better, I should say, as the series was much more interesting to watch and appreciate than what it was from the very begining.
@danbasta3677 Blake was not always goofing off. He was just not as competent a commanding officer as Potter. The tone was lighter in the early years,partly due to Henry's lovable bumbling and Frank's shrill buffoonery,but we could still see the horror of war. Hawkeye had a friend who died there.Trapper almost killed a North Korean patient who killed a patient of his.A chopper pilot flipped out,and Henry Blake was killed among other things. Trapper's leaving is what really through me though,because the book and the movie were about Hawkeye and Trapper.
I read Jackie Cooper's autobiography. I trust his judgement of Alan Alda. Alda saw himself as the lone star & wanted to control the whole vibe on the set. Alda's massive ego for all to see. After seeing the 1970 MASH movie, the TV show pales in comparison.
Absolutely. The movie was the bomb by comparison. The series was ruination. Alda did not have to do what he did. Alda was not magical or funny. I did not see many of the episodes, the ones I did see were gut-wrenching. Alda did not have the "it" factor. Cooper was spot on.
You must be mad the movie was rubbish compared to the series and Sutherland was never as good as Alan at the part of Hawkeye he made it his character ❤❤❤❤❤❤
Very familiar with this show. Watched every episodes as they came out when I was a kid. Now I have the whole series on DVD. It's still an awesome show.
my mum and dad loved MASH we watched as a family on the repeats on BBC2, i have fond memories. The series finale is the most-watched series finale and single episode of any television series in U.S. history, and for twenty-seven years was the most-watched single broadcast in television history. The Manic Street Preachers did a brilliant cover of the theme song.
and referring to building with legos ...also making a comparison to book reports? None of the MASH viewers are in high school and I am sure young people don't watch it now.
I’ve never understood why actors feel their personal politics and opinions “enhance” a story. The job is necessarily the faithful portrayal of a character. Great actors know this, and can make the character tell the story seamlessly. Alda was awful in this regard.
Love MASH, have all dvd of original movie, all 11 seasons, and finale. Klinger was a pisser but Frank Burns and Charles Winchester were brilliant as straight men. Interracial marriage, homosexuality in the military, MASH were pioneers.
My father wouldn't allow this show on his tv. I had to watch it on my little black and white tv. My father was wounded on Porkchop Hill and sent to a mash unit. He said there was nothing funny about a Mash unit. RIP Dad my hero...
I’ve never really liked Alda….especially as the show got past the first few seasons. He strikes me as the person who always thinks he’s the smartest and most talented in the room…..arrogant and privileged.
I hate Alda. My mother couldn’t stand him. My four brothers consider him trash, and our cleaning lady calls him the ‘weak link’ in the show. In fact, I don’t know one single person who likes him.
@@cadaverdog1424 Agreed. I wished they had killed Hawkeye off instead of Blake. After the fourth season. I think the show went down hill after that. The show should have not last eleven seasons. I didn't like Alan Alda either or his liberal politics.
11 seasons on top. Who does that? And who does that without a LOT of story and character development. Not surprising it lost a few viewers along the way. I never got lost. And each character was fun and interesting. Just my opinion
I like the advice he gave to Mary Anderson while filming his movie Lifeboat. Mary was sitting at the back of the boat and asked Hitch "‘Mr. Hitchcock, which is my best side, do you think?’ to which Hitchcock replied ‘Mary, you’re sitting on it’. .
No. I wasn't even alive for most of it's airing and still watch reruns of it today. No. Just no. Henry Blake was lost because the actor thought he could hit it big. He wasn't let go for Alan.
Farrell was okay. He was low key, not over the top like Rogers, Stevenson, and Linville. A straight man who was a practical Joker behind the scenes. Came up with the best gags ever played on Burns and Winchester.
And what about Harry Morgan as Col. Potter? Imagine a commanding officer on MASH who's actually in command. What a concept. And one with some common sense. Morgan could be funny, but he was more subtle, not over the top like his predecessor. Although Winchester was the funniest of the new characters hand down. David Ogden Stiers plays the Boston snob perfectly.
I think it’s funny. Most of the comment section never watched Mash during its initial run. It was a very popular show only ranking out of the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings in its first season when it ranked 11th. The final episode was an event much like Seinfeld. People organized parties around it many with appropriate costumes. It was, like the movie, an anti war response to Vietnam that most of the population viewed as a colossal mistake by the mid to late 70’s. This critique isn’t about Mash, however, it’s about Alan Alda, who, like his character, had strong political views that are the underlying reason for most of the negative comments here.
@@Chiller11 You sound like an insider. Who remembers their Nielsen rating? Also, you don’t KNOW that the comments come from people who didn’t watch the show. You’re just making crap up.
@marshabearnson8048 Glad to hear it. I'm just used to all those badly informed yet doggedly opinionated MAGAts. But if you're anti Trump, we're on the same side.
MASH the TV show sukk'd compared to the movie. it was funny with the original cast then after the best actors left, it'sukked worse and was unbearable when it became the "Alan Alda Compassion Show." Mike Ferrell was a total bomb too.
Say what you want about Alda, but his character "Hawkeye" was one of the most iconic in all of American TV history... the writing was nothing less than incredible. I have the same level of admiration for the unique character of Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory. Both well-written and well-delivered.
The writing? I would agree the first three seasons featured some wonderful writing. But not much after that. Because the more popular Alda became the more he dominated the show and the more he dominated the show it may as well have been called The Alan Alda Show.
11:39 in and no mention of the MASSIVE HIT the feature film had been. If not for that the first episode of MASH wouldn't have had near the viewership it had.
Actors are hired to act. Directors are hired to direct. Actors sometimes have exaggerated views of themselves and think they are expert in both departments. They usually aren't.
There’s something to be said about doing your job that you were hired to do and not exceeding your boundaries. Seems to be a concept that’s often lost on actors who I know at the beginning of their career getting a role there overjoyed and grateful and soon that switches to, wanting to run things and becoming disillusion and petulant seems to be all too common in the entertainment industry
I'm sorry, I'm Team Alan here. The best part about this show was their improvisations of their characters and how they (probably) veered off script and how deftly and smoothly they did it, each one in their own way. I could watch MASH over and over again and see a new show each time, with tiny differences in the performances from everyone.
Alda was a narcissistic person. The show was funny and serious, but Alda wanted to be top banana. As far as I was concerned he and Farrel ruined the show with their “political views”
My mother was a decorated WW2 surgical nurse in a combat hospital. She hated MASH. She always said that real combat surgeons and nurses don't have time to flirt or make jokes in the operating rooms. They are too focused on saving lives. BTW, the show is based on a book. In the book, there were no high-jinks in the operating room. All the jokes and flirting were done outside the operating room.
Once Colonel Potter arrived on the scene after Blake left, that's what happened. It was much more serious, much more medicial, much more scientific that what it was when Blake was on the begining of the series. This is why I much prefer MASH when Colonel Potter arrived as actor Henry Morgan potrayed his character superbly, number one, and number two, it got much more serious and the joking and messin around aspects of the show started happening outside the operating room scenes instead of it being in the operating room. By the way, in the movie The Ox Bow Incident, Henry Morgan was at first listed as his name, latter changed to Harry Morgan.
I would have liked to have seen what Jackie Cooper's version of MASH would have been without Alda's input. It might have been better. We'll never know. 🤷😕
What self-righteous about hating the war hating what it does to people hating how it causes one to make compromises that you’re ashamed of what self righteous about it causing young men to die too soon to lose their innocence. how was it self-righteous to touch on how hard it is to maintain a spousal relationship to be angry with the military structure I don’t understand peoples criticism of self-righteousness. Perhaps it would be better if you could elaborate on what you mean by that I’m not hating on you please don’t take it that way. I just need some clarification.
I actually liked Hawkeye's anti-war stance, sarcasm, and lack of respect for military "Intelligence". I didn't like how they made him politically correct in other ways, ie, not chasing women, not drinking as much. That changed the show away from the spirit of the original movie. And the original movie was a veiled comment on the Vietnam war.
Like many shows it evolved and matured. Some people make TV for money, some people make it for quality. MASH developed from entertainment to tool against war. It was realistic. When Hooker wrote the books he infused the books with the drama of war but the TV series started off as entertainment but Alda took it to beyond entertainment and that’s what has made it the greatest TV series of all time.
Gary Burghoff as Walter (Radar) O'Reilly was the only actor to be in both the successful Robert Altman MASH movie and the MASH tv series. In the movie, O'Reilly is the most competent and brilliant member of the MASH unit, anticipating when a helicopter with wounded arrives with his psychic sense (that's why he is called Radar O'Reilly!) and does all the work the commanding officer Lt Col. Blake should be doing. As Alda took over the series, O'Reilly gradually became an inept nerd lacking confidence. The 1st year of the MASH tv series with Trapper John was the best as it was the closest to the original movie but when Alan Alda dominated the show with his left wing liberal agenda, the show degraded and became less realistic: the themes of MASH then belonged to the 1970s, not the the 1950s when the Korean war actually happened.
@@tonyscott1658 , I've seen it several times. This one is from an interview on MeTV.. " Burghoff continued, "With Gelbart's help, I began to mold Radar into a more innocent, naïve character in contrast to the other characters, so that while the others might deplore the immorality and shame of war (from an intellectual and judgmental viewpoint), Radar could just react from a position of total innocence." Burghoff and Gelbart's changes not only became advantageous for the show but also gave the audience an opportunity to see themselves in Radar. Burghoff said that the changes, "made Radar super active, free and very interesting on a primary 'gut' level, which at times delivered the horror of war (as well as the dark humor we became known for) in an effective, universal way that anyone could understand."
What was the difference? I always hated his overdone moralism, but otherwise he was ok. I liked Margaret, Klinger, father Mulcahay, mjr. Winchester and col. Potter much more though.
The politically correct Alan, once he got more control, couldn't leave in the drinking and womanizing aspects of Hawkeye, which were part of what made him funny.
MASH stopped being the least bit funny when it became really preachy-it was always kind of preachy, but they really overdid it when McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers left.
Here is a little known fact. In Season 1: Henry Blake's wife's name was Mildred (later changed to Lorraine). Mildred was also Potter's wife's name. And a question regarding the teddy bear Burghoff used in the show. Was it the same teddy bear Jim Backus used on Gilligan's Island? (Since both shows were on CBS)
Alda is a good actor. I don’t know how much trouble he caused on Mash. Maybe a lot. I loved the movie but did not like the tv show. Fonda was a great actor. It has come out what a total AH Fonda was as a husband and father. He was not good at the two most important things in life. However, he could play kindhearted principled characters or horrible villains. In real life Fonda was neither principled nor kindhearted.
I don't like either of them, but I despise John Wayne. I'll never understand his appeal. He presented himself as an über patriot, but during World War II he did everything in his power to avoid military service. He claimed he was too old, but many other Hollywood stars as old or older than Wayne enlisted. Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, to name just two of many stars, served honorably while Wayne did all he could not to fight for his country. Even John Ford, who also served, never forgave him for it. Those military movies Wayne made make me sick.
On the TV show MASH, I think that Wayne Rogers was the coolest character and I was sad when he left the show. Hawkeye and BJ Honeycutt tossed out a lot of the fun and turned it into a soap opera. The first two or three seasons were the best:
There is something I always say about WWE Wrestling that can be applied here. I would always say, "WWE Wrestling may be fake, but the blood is real". Sure there may be some off camera drama behind the camera of M.A.S.H., but it was based off of actual soldiers who helped our nation. That would be why I still watch M.A.S.H.
Queue the right wing conspiracists theorists about so called political views. The series was always intended to be a commentary on the horror and loss of war. If you don’t agree that war is awful, you’ve chat not experienced those horrors. Alan Alda was brilliant in Mash along with the rest of the cast. Didn’t even know Jackie Cooper was involved so his influence was clearly negligible.
The comic books Radar always read were usually Marvel titles that hadn't been created yet until the early 1960s.Just try to find a copy of X-Men in 1951.
I watched a few early episodes and read the Mad magazine parody, thought the series was so-so. Only with McLean Stevenson's last year did it become a regular watch, and only after Harry Morgan and later David Ogden Stiers came in did it become appointment tv. However, that ended around season nine or ten when the stories became so preachy and predictable that it had become obvious to me that the creative well had run dry and the scripts were running on current political-inspired cliches. And that was when I didn't care much for Ronald Reagan.
I think Alan Alda should have been forced to obtain a preaching license. I worked as an usher in th 60's and saw MASH a hundred times or more. I read the book a dozen tines or more, The character Hawkey Pierce was a rebel with a heart not a preacherman both in the movie and in the book. As time went on Alda brought the show down. If I was the producer or director I would have had him take the plane instead of Henry Blake and suffer being shot down. Thank you for reading my rant.
Yes, it had roots in a book. But in reality it was based on an oscar winning film by director Robert Altman. It starred Eliot Gould and Donald Sutherland. Both were iconic charaters in the film. Pay homage to more than the book!
I loved the show for a while,but the more and more I watch the reruns,the more I disliked liked Alda,he became my least favorite actor in the show.The others were way better actors I thought.
never understood the ego of actors. they get paid to act like someone else not themselves.when they start putting their input in they are no longer actors.if your gong to direct go in to directing,if you act follow the directors.
This video would be so much more interesting had the editor paid attention to the audio so the video matches up with the dialogue. It talks about Jamie Farr, while showing only photos of Alan Alda. What the hell.
Alan Alda's attitude towards Jackie Cooper reminds me of how Brainy Smurf is to one of the other smurfs. Like Alda, Brainy is constantly trying to tell one of the other smurfs how to do things when it is pretty obvious that the other smurf is an expert at their job while Brainy isn't!
I’m NOT an Allen Alda fan. Irrespective of the role, he’s “in your face”. He a legend in his own mind… He could stand serious training in “group dynamics” and the power of team efforts!
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Best guest star = Edward Winter Col. Flagg.
Wholeheartedly agree.
Yea,HE was a Hoot!😅
I loved his character as a Secret Agent operative “ When I leave, I am the wind” Then, he breaks his leg jumping out a window or some silly exit.
Loved Flagg
If it wasn’t for War - you wouldn’t know what peace is ! Col Flagg
IMO, the REAL funny men in the first few seasons were McLean Stephenson and Wayne Rogers.
And Larry Linville.
@@trhansen3244 yeah linville was a les nessman / richard sanders level of talent
It went downhill from there, especially after Trapper John left. Then it got really smarmy when Hawkeye and Hot Lips were on the same side. It was hilarious when Hot Lips and Burns were always getting punked. 😂
The show suffered after they left the show. It got so preachy and self righteous.
@@JWade-bt1rd It became nothing more than Alda's personal politics. UGH.
Jackie Cooper was right, as Alda got more power, he destroyed the show with his preachy anvil on the head, episodes.
was this Jackie Cooper the child actor or a relative?
@@danielueblacker9118it was.
The show was worthless after Trapper John left.
@@danielueblacker9118 No, not the actor. A quick check on wikipedia all about Jackie Cooper the actor makes no mention at all of Mash
@@SandyCheeks63564You are incorrect. Do a little more research and you’ll find that it WAS the actor who directed 13 episodes in 1973-1974.
I worked on a talk show with Alan Alda when I was first starting. He was a talented, delightful person
I loved Mash until Henry and trapper left.. it seemed to become more serious
MASH went from being a comedy with a few serious moments, the contrast usually worked wonderfully, to a serious show with a few moments of bad humor and it worked horribly. I am honestly amazed this show lasted as long as it did.
Like all in the family show
I HATE THOSE FIRST THREEE SEASONS OF THE SHOW. THE LATER YEARS WERE FAR MUCH BETTER.
They got very preachy and boring near the end.
@@thecw301yes
Alan Alda was great as hawkeye infact everyone was so well cast , and harry Morgan was brilliant.
Alda didn't like someone,well there are a lot of people who don't like him either.
More people liked him than not.
@3rdmin1st3r I think that if alda was replaced, it could have been better.
@@lfdab34Well he wasn't the character Dr.Hornberger wrote in his book.Hawkeye was originally married with kids and Trapper was the bachelor, also,Alan Alda was clearly a Bronx Italian and not from Maine,whereas while Donald Sutherland was never the best with accents he looked and was more convincing as the Hawkeye from Maine that Dr.Hornberger wrote,although the character that Alan created was terrific and compelling.
@@lfdab34 The show would have been cancelled without Alda at any season
I didn't realize until today, that Jackie Cooper the director was THE Jackie Cooper, child actor. Always learning something.
Jackie Cooper was also Perry White in the 1978 Superman movie and its sequels.
@@dannygreen1964 that I did know. lol
Wallace Berry
no it wasn't the actor if you check wiki it says nothing about the actor directing mash
@@SandyCheeks63564 according to IMDB, which I trust over Wiki, he directed 13 episodes
Actually the funniest were wayne rogers , mclean Stevenson and larry linville, alan alda talked to much.
Larry Linville wasn't very funny..
The show lasted 11 YEARS! He has a TERRIFIC TALENT for timing ! SOME actors have a talent for attitude ( petty & envious ) . SAD .
Not envious just alan alda talked to much
@@klano8443
You mean he "talked too* much."
Fixed it for you.
......you're welcome
@@TheyCallMeMr.Fahrenheit you still understood me.
No mention of Winchester. Loved his character.
You may have known this, but Winchester's British accent was faked. The actor who played Winchester was American. On a totally different note, the teenage daughter on The Wonder Years faked an American accent. She was British. (And her boyfriend was David Schwimmer who went on to co-star in Friends.)
Winchester was a parody of William F. Buckley. Hah! Hah! Hah!
@JustForFun-mt9og Winchesters accent wasn't British. It was supposed to be an affluent New England accent.
@@JustForFun-mt9og On the topic of accents : I knew Hugh Laurie was British from reruns of Blackadder but his American accent seemed perfect to me. It was fun to listen to him give an interview and use his real voice complete with British accent.
He was great.
I grew up watching the series and I actually liked the later seasons better than the early ones. Winchester, Colonel Potter and BJ were much funnier to me than Trapper and Frank Burns. War is hell, and I think that the later episodes portrayed that better.
Well Frank was funnier than Winchester but Winchester was more touching. Trapper and BJ were equally compelling,and so were Potter and Henry in different ways.
I quite agree. Prefered MASH when Colonel Potter showed up as it began to get much more medicial and scientific, more serious than it was when Blake was on the first seasons. It's like when Blake was on, it was never very serious, always fun and games, goofing off all the time, in a serious situation, serious circumstances in wartime during the Korean conflict at the time. Once Colonel Potter came on the scene, things changed for the better, I should say, as the series was much more interesting to watch and appreciate than what it was from the very begining.
@danbasta3677 Blake was not always goofing off. He was just not as competent a commanding officer as Potter. The tone was lighter in the early years,partly due to Henry's lovable bumbling and Frank's shrill buffoonery,but we could still see the horror of war. Hawkeye had a friend who died there.Trapper almost killed a North Korean patient who killed a patient of his.A chopper pilot flipped out,and Henry Blake was killed among other things.
Trapper's leaving is what really through me though,because the book and the movie were about Hawkeye and Trapper.
I read Jackie Cooper's autobiography. I trust his judgement of Alan Alda. Alda saw himself as the lone star & wanted to control the whole vibe on the set. Alda's massive ego for all to see. After seeing the 1970 MASH movie, the TV show pales in comparison.
Absolutely, Altman, the director, while Gould, and Sutherland the main actors, defined the horror and humor of war. Something the TV show sanitized.
Absolutely. The movie was the bomb by comparison. The series was ruination. Alda did not have to do what he did. Alda was not magical or funny. I did not see many of the episodes, the ones I did see were gut-wrenching. Alda did not have the "it" factor.
Cooper was spot on.
The Army physician who wrote the book "MASH" hated Alda's portrayal of Hawkeye.
You must be mad the movie was rubbish compared to the series and Sutherland was never as good as Alan at the part of Hawkeye he made it his character ❤❤❤❤❤❤
@@tomaimsI like the movie, but I don't see how the TV show sanitized the horror of war. We saw more of it on the TV show than in the movie.
Hawkeye was my least favorite character on MASH. McLean Stevenson (Blake) was my favorite.
His Groucho schtick got old after a while.
I Liked the Teddy best!
hawkeye was always in smartass mode...pretty tiresome.
I thought my least favorite, Frank Burns, was everybody's least favorite. He was too cartoony to be believable.
Frank Burns was my favourite
I’ll believe Jackie Cooper over Alan Alda any day.
Me too! Jackie Cooper knew more because he had been in the business since he was a child!
I don't know what you're talking about... the entire show was awesome. It never "stopped being funny."
It turned from a comedy with drama to a drama with comedy after Wayne Rogers left.
But it was all good both ways.
No matter what personal issues arose behind the scenes, I still look back on the show itself as one of the BEST on tv in its era, if not ALL TIME.
Radar: Think how many lives we saved.
Hawkeye: Right, doctor.
That was the day I started hating the Hawkeye character.
I stopped watching it when it became the Alan Alda show.
I think around season 5 is when I jumped ship. The last funny person left. Larry Linville.
I heard that Larry Linville was a really nice and caring person. He wasn't anything at all like his character Frank Burns.
@melissacooper8724 a very decent man
IMO, Alda may have been a control freak but his changes made the show worth watching and he was gorgeous.
Don’t forget John Ritter was in mash .. thanks Alan and gang you made life very special . ❤
And Patrick Swayze
Very familiar with this show. Watched every episodes as they came out when I was a kid. Now I have the whole series on DVD. It's still an awesome show.
my mum and dad loved MASH we watched as a family on the repeats on BBC2, i have fond memories. The series finale is the most-watched series finale and single episode of any television series in U.S. history, and for twenty-seven years was the most-watched single broadcast in television history. The Manic Street Preachers did a brilliant cover of the theme song.
Jackie Cooper was always my favorite little rascal, he was sweet on miss Crabtree and I gotta say, I agreed with him on that one.
Ya wittle wascal ya!! 🤓
And don't call me sugar... um um Chief.
M.A.S.H. was amazing, brilliantly written and acted, an amazing rotating cast that kept it fresh
Just my opinion, but i hate computer voices that mispronounce names and simple words. Why can't humans narrate anymore????
You're not alone. I stopped the show to read the comments.
YES - I also stopped the show to read this.
and referring to building with legos ...also making a comparison to book reports? None of the MASH viewers are in high school and I am sure young people don't watch it now.
At least there was no "endearing legacy"!
Whoops. I wrote that too soon.
I loved Mash. I never missed a show. I called in late to work so that I wouldnt miss the end. I watch the reruns every day.
The show was on for 11 seasons, about six seasons too long.
dumbest thing ive ever heard. Series finally was the most watched in tv history.- season 11!
Almost 4 times longer than the actual Korean war.
8
@@azhardavits Finale…Genius
There are some amazing episodes in the last two series.
I’ve never understood why actors feel their personal politics and opinions “enhance” a story. The job is necessarily the faithful portrayal of a character. Great actors know this, and can make the character tell the story seamlessly. Alda was awful in this regard.
Self righteousness! Having an over-inflated ego and elitist mentality.
Love MASH, have all dvd of original movie, all 11 seasons, and finale. Klinger was a pisser but Frank Burns and Charles Winchester were brilliant as straight men. Interracial marriage, homosexuality in the military, MASH were pioneers.
M*A*S*H never lost its charm. It just got deeper and the comedy took a back seat to emotion and quality.
Agreed. Prefered the later years as opposed the the first years when Blake was around. Liked Colonel Potter much, much better.
My father wouldn't allow this show on his tv. I had to watch it on my little black and white tv. My father was wounded on Porkchop Hill and sent to a mash unit. He said there was nothing funny about a Mash unit. RIP Dad my hero...
I’ve never really liked Alda….especially as the show got past the first few seasons. He strikes me as the person who always thinks he’s the smartest and most talented in the room…..arrogant and privileged.
Preferred Mis McGillicuddy, Rosina Lawrence.
A bore predictable
Why all the hate? It's a great show.Alan Alda was one of my favorite actors.
I hate Alda. My mother couldn’t stand him. My four brothers consider him trash, and our cleaning lady calls him the ‘weak link’ in the show. In fact, I don’t know one single person who likes him.
@@cadaverdog1424 Agreed. I wished they had killed Hawkeye off instead of Blake. After the fourth season. I think the show went down hill after that. The show should have not last eleven seasons. I didn't like Alan Alda either or his liberal politics.
And gorgeous. I'll bet women in the 1970s loved him.
11 seasons on top. Who does that? And who does that without a LOT of story and character development. Not surprising it lost a few viewers along the way.
I never got lost. And each character was fun and interesting. Just my opinion
I liked the original Movie. I never cared much for the series.
Neither did Robert Altman.
And that's why you watch this video.
I really lost interest in MASH when Alda started writing. The show just got way too serious.
It had a message. You must have missed it
" he stifled the creativity of the actors ".?!?! Just read the lines and don't bump
into the furniture.!! ( Hitchcock's advice to actors ! )
I like the advice he gave to Mary Anderson while filming his movie Lifeboat. Mary was sitting at the back of the boat and asked Hitch "‘Mr. Hitchcock, which is my best side, do you think?’ to which Hitchcock replied ‘Mary, you’re sitting on it’. .
The Show went downhill when Col. Potter replaced Henry Blake and Allan Alda used it to promote his personal politics.
bullshit the show was popular because of Alda's liberal politics. Everybody knew That!!!
@@1thommyberlinFJB and every cretin that voted for him, be they living or dead.
Potter was a great actor, even better than Alda, however, he was better on Dragnet than on MASH....
@@1thommyberlin that is Hilarious!
No. I wasn't even alive for most of it's airing and still watch reruns of it today. No. Just no. Henry Blake was lost because the actor thought he could hit it big. He wasn't let go for Alan.
The longer M.A.S.H. ran the less I liked it. Alda's character became more and more sanctimonious. Uck! 👎
True alda never became a movie star unlike Steve McQueen James Garner Clint Eastwood who started their careers in television shows
Yep
Absolutely.
Alda and Farrel both became insufferable Soap Boxers..... ruined the show.
I could not stand Farrel as BJ. And he got even worse as the show went on. I did like Alda in the early seasons, though.
One should look up to their ALDA`S
They’re like that in real life, too.
Farrell was okay. He was low key, not over the top like Rogers, Stevenson, and Linville. A straight man who was a practical Joker behind the scenes. Came up with the best gags ever played on Burns and Winchester.
And what about Harry Morgan as Col. Potter? Imagine a commanding officer on MASH who's actually in command. What a concept. And one with some common sense. Morgan could be funny, but he was more subtle, not over the top like his predecessor. Although Winchester was the funniest of the new characters hand down. David Ogden Stiers plays the Boston snob perfectly.
I think it’s funny. Most of the comment section never watched Mash during its initial run. It was a very popular show only ranking out of the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings in its first season when it ranked 11th. The final episode was an event much like Seinfeld. People organized parties around it many with appropriate costumes. It was, like the movie, an anti war response to Vietnam that most of the population viewed as a colossal mistake by the mid to late 70’s. This critique isn’t about Mash, however, it’s about Alan Alda, who, like his character, had strong political views that are the underlying reason for most of the negative comments here.
I couldn't have said it better...Thank You!
Agreed. I suspect a lot of the "critics" here hated the show MASH and are ardent Trump supporters.
@@Chiller11 You sound like an insider. Who remembers their Nielsen rating? Also, you don’t KNOW that the comments come from people who didn’t watch the show. You’re just making crap up.
@@Tawroset Wrong!
@marshabearnson8048 Glad to hear it. I'm just used to all those badly informed yet doggedly opinionated MAGAts. But if you're anti Trump, we're on the same side.
LOL they should have just re-named the show the Alan Alda Show - I'm not fond of the direction the Hawkeye character traveled (ALAN = ME ME ME)
I've always found Alda, highly self-regarding and he absolutely never shut up!! A terrible bore.
Being hated by a pompous narcissist like Alda means you are doing something right. Alda killed the show.
MASH the TV show sukk'd compared to the movie. it was funny with the original cast then after the best actors left, it'sukked worse and was unbearable when it became the "Alan Alda Compassion Show." Mike Ferrell was a total bomb too.
That explains why it was the best show on tv at the time.
@@cacornhusker2940 And later season were sprinkled with first signs of woke agenda.
Say what you want about Alda, but his character "Hawkeye" was one of the most iconic in all of American TV history... the writing was nothing less than incredible. I have the same level of admiration for the unique character of Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory. Both well-written and well-delivered.
The writing? I would agree the first three seasons featured some wonderful writing. But not much after that. Because the more popular Alda became the more he dominated the show and the more he dominated the show it may as well have been called The Alan Alda Show.
Yea and freaks also
@@Martin-i4o8k Sheldon kicked Hawkeye’s ass.
11:39 in and no mention of the MASSIVE HIT the feature film had been. If not for that the first episode of MASH wouldn't have had near the viewership it had.
I think Alan Alda is highly over rated
🤔🥱 I bet many people say the same thing about you !..
He had his heyday and his heyday was in the transient 1970s but I doubt he has a durable legacy.
@@alancrisp1582 If him, then certainly you as well.
Not in his mind
Seemed like he thought well of himself.
Actors are hired to act. Directors are hired to direct. Actors sometimes have exaggerated views of themselves and think they are expert in both departments. They usually aren't.
There’s something to be said about doing your job that you were hired to do and not exceeding your boundaries. Seems to be a concept that’s often lost on actors who I know at the beginning of their career getting a role there overjoyed and grateful and soon that switches to, wanting to run things and becoming disillusion and petulant seems to be all too common in the entertainment industry
I'm sorry, I'm Team Alan here. The best part about this show was their improvisations of their characters and how they (probably) veered off script and how deftly and smoothly they did it, each one in their own way. I could watch MASH over and over again and see a new show each time, with tiny differences in the performances from everyone.
@@chrisgiles64 I want what you’re smokin!😂
Alan Alda, "It's all about me, me, me. Please look at me! I am so pretty! Love me! Want me!"
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I dont think he was all that pretty anyway. Stringy looking bloke with skinny white milk bottle legs.
You thought Alana Alda was pretty?
I loved the show so much 🎉❤
I discovered the show during Covid shutdown. I watch it every evening. Hawkeye is gorgeous.
Alda was a narcissistic person. The show was funny and serious, but Alda wanted to be top banana. As far as I was concerned he and Farrel ruined the show with their “political views”
I agree, 100 percent.
I think all the episodes are still quite watchable, but that certainly made it worse - I'll agree on that.
My mother was a decorated WW2 surgical nurse in a combat hospital. She hated MASH. She always said that real combat surgeons and nurses don't have time to flirt or make jokes in the operating rooms. They are too focused on saving lives. BTW, the show is based on a book. In the book, there were no high-jinks in the operating room. All the jokes and flirting were done outside the operating room.
Once Colonel Potter arrived on the scene after Blake left, that's what happened. It was much more serious, much more medicial, much more scientific that what it was when Blake was on the begining of the series. This is why I much prefer MASH when Colonel Potter arrived as actor Henry Morgan potrayed his character superbly, number one, and number two, it got much more serious and the joking and messin around aspects of the show started happening outside the operating room scenes instead of it being in the operating room. By the way, in the movie The Ox Bow Incident, Henry Morgan was at first listed as his name, latter changed to Harry Morgan.
I would have liked to have seen what Jackie Cooper's version of MASH would have been without Alda's input. It might have been better. We'll never know. 🤷😕
MASH didn’t age well on rewatching as an adult. It’s over the top self-righteous.
Alan alda is to thank for that. He is as bad as hanoi Jane Fonda!
What self-righteous about hating the war hating what it does to people hating how it causes one to make compromises that you’re ashamed of what self righteous about it causing young men to die too soon to lose their innocence. how was it self-righteous to touch on how hard it is to maintain a spousal relationship to be angry with the military structure I don’t understand peoples criticism of self-righteousness. Perhaps it would be better if you could elaborate on what you mean by that I’m not hating on you please don’t take it that way. I just need some clarification.
I actually liked Hawkeye's anti-war stance, sarcasm, and lack of respect for military "Intelligence". I didn't like how they made him politically correct in other ways, ie, not chasing women, not drinking as much. That changed the show away from the spirit of the original movie. And the original movie was a veiled comment on the Vietnam war.
@@TheSubwaysurfer It's not the message, but its blatant nature. It made the show boring.
The first 4 seasons were good
Like many shows it evolved and matured. Some people make TV for money, some people make it for quality. MASH developed from entertainment to tool against war. It was realistic. When Hooker wrote the books he infused the books with the drama of war but the TV series started off as entertainment but Alda took it to beyond entertainment and that’s what has made it the greatest TV series of all time.
I would suggest it went off rather than matured mate. Aldorama in extremis.
I never liked Alan alda much too full of himself.
Exactly.
Typical Liberal
He was a hell of a lot better than Bob Crane was on Hogan's...
@@marcstevens8576 yeah that show sucked
Alda is like any of us Latins-strong willed and extremely confident. What’s the big deal??
Gary Burghoff as Walter (Radar) O'Reilly was the only actor to be in both the successful Robert Altman MASH movie and the MASH tv series. In the movie, O'Reilly is the most competent and brilliant member of the MASH unit, anticipating when a helicopter with wounded arrives with his psychic sense (that's why he is called Radar O'Reilly!) and does all the work the commanding officer Lt Col. Blake should be doing. As Alda took over the series, O'Reilly gradually became an inept nerd lacking confidence. The 1st year of the MASH tv series with Trapper John was the best as it was the closest to the original movie but when Alan Alda dominated the show with his left wing liberal agenda, the show degraded and became less realistic: the themes of MASH then belonged to the 1970s, not the the 1950s when the Korean war actually happened.
Alda played up to the increasing lefty scene in Hollywood in the 1970 s 80 s
Absolutely the longer it went it mophed into Vietnam. Which because of the long show run it almost had too.
The change in Radar was actually Gary's idea, not Alan's.
@@feylis0731 Evidence?
@@tonyscott1658 , I've seen it several times. This one is from an interview on MeTV..
" Burghoff continued, "With Gelbart's help, I began to mold Radar into a more innocent, naïve character in contrast to the other characters, so that while the others might deplore the immorality and shame of war (from an intellectual and judgmental viewpoint), Radar could just react from a position of total innocence."
Burghoff and Gelbart's changes not only became advantageous for the show but also gave the audience an opportunity to see themselves in Radar. Burghoff said that the changes, "made Radar super active, free and very interesting on a primary 'gut' level, which at times delivered the horror of war (as well as the dark humor we became known for) in an effective, universal way that anyone could understand."
Stupid video. They talk about Jamie Farr's military service while showing shots of Alan Alda. Guess it really was The Alan Alda Show.
Reaad the book MASH and you will see that Alan Alda was no Hawkeye Pierce.
What was the difference? I always hated his overdone moralism, but otherwise he was ok. I liked Margaret, Klinger, father Mulcahay, mjr. Winchester and col. Potter much more though.
The politically correct Alan, once he got more control, couldn't leave in the drinking and womanizing aspects of Hawkeye, which were part of what made him funny.
Alda was prior Army and knew how life was; Alda was inclined to want more realism in the episodes. There's nothing wrong with that.
MASH stopped being the least bit funny when it became really preachy-it was always kind of preachy, but they really overdid it when McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers left.
Here is a little known fact. In Season 1: Henry Blake's wife's name was Mildred (later changed to Lorraine). Mildred was also Potter's wife's name. And a question regarding the teddy bear Burghoff used in the show. Was it the same teddy bear Jim Backus used on Gilligan's Island? (Since both shows were on CBS)
Something that always struck me was the length of the men's hair.
Old as I am, there have been two actors that made me sick to my stomach to either look at or to hear speak. Henry Fonda and Alan Alda.
Why, please?
Alda is a good actor. I don’t know how much trouble he caused on Mash. Maybe a lot. I loved the movie but did not like the tv show.
Fonda was a great actor. It has come out what a total AH Fonda was as a husband and father. He was not good at the two most important things in life. However, he could play kindhearted principled characters or horrible villains. In real life Fonda was neither principled nor kindhearted.
I don't like either of them, but I despise John Wayne. I'll never understand his appeal. He presented himself as an über patriot, but during World War II he did everything in his power to avoid military service. He claimed he was too old, but many other Hollywood stars as old or older than Wayne enlisted. Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, to name just two of many stars, served honorably while Wayne did all he could not to fight for his country. Even John Ford, who also served, never forgave him for it. Those military movies Wayne made make me sick.
On the TV show MASH, I think that Wayne Rogers was the coolest character and I was sad when he left the show.
Hawkeye and BJ Honeycutt tossed out a lot of the fun and turned it into a soap opera.
The first two or three seasons were the best:
There is something I always say about WWE Wrestling that can be applied here. I would always say, "WWE Wrestling may be fake, but the blood is real". Sure there may be some off camera drama behind the camera of M.A.S.H., but it was based off of actual soldiers who helped our nation. That would be why I still watch M.A.S.H.
Queue the right wing conspiracists theorists about so called political views. The series was always intended to be a commentary on the horror and loss of war. If you don’t agree that war is awful, you’ve chat not experienced those horrors.
Alan Alda was brilliant in Mash along with the rest of the cast. Didn’t even know Jackie Cooper was involved so his influence was clearly negligible.
The comic books Radar always read were usually Marvel titles that hadn't been created yet until the early 1960s.Just try to find a copy of X-Men in 1951.
Are you suggesting Radar was a time traveler?
@@trhansen3244 Maybe the writers were. LOL
I always thought Alda was a bit strange, and way before the show ended I had to stop watching. I do not like his movie roles. Just an unlikable aura.
Great show that got better with age.
really??
I watched a few early episodes and read the Mad magazine parody, thought the series was so-so. Only with McLean Stevenson's last year did it become a regular watch, and only after Harry Morgan and later David Ogden Stiers came in did it become appointment tv. However, that ended around season nine or ten when the stories became so preachy and predictable that it had become obvious to me that the creative well had run dry and the scripts were running on current political-inspired cliches. And that was when I didn't care much for Ronald Reagan.
Larry Linville was a tremendous heel. He and hot lips did a great job of aggravating everyone else. The first 3 seasons were gold.
I got a kick out of how many times the narrators of these videos mispronounce an actor or character's name like they've never seen the show 🤔🤬
best American series
In some shows you would think the Americans were the bad guys.
Not Americans, but our executive and legislative branches.
@@davidfarrington4308Our exec and legislative branches are the bad guys?
@@alexgramm5170They are the ones getting America involved in wars.
@@alexgramm5170 Are you arguing they're the good guys?
The narrator can't even pronounce his name correctly.
Probably a teleprompter. It happens alot more lately like names where a letter is silent the prompter will say it.
I think Alan Alda should have been forced to obtain a preaching license. I worked as an usher in th 60's and saw MASH a hundred times or more. I read the book a dozen tines or more, The character Hawkey Pierce was a rebel with a heart not a preacherman both in the movie and in the book. As time went on Alda brought the show down. If I was the producer or director I would have had him take the plane instead of Henry Blake and suffer being shot down. Thank you for reading my rant.
IMO After season 3 the show went downhill and I have no idea how it stayed so popular after that.
I agree
My husband liked the show. That’s all I care about. This is TMI.
I always found MASH to be depressing with humor from the borscht belt.
❤❤ Alan Alda ❤❤
A legend!
Yes, it had roots in a book. But in reality it was based on an oscar winning film by director Robert Altman. It starred Eliot Gould and Donald Sutherland. Both were iconic charaters in the film. Pay homage to more than the book!
I didn't realize Alan Alda was actually old enough to have an adult perspective on Korea of his own.
I loved the show for a while,but the more and more I watch the reruns,the more I disliked liked Alda,he became my least favorite actor in the show.The others were way better actors I thought.
never understood the ego of actors. they get paid to act like someone else not themselves.when they start putting their input in they are no longer actors.if your gong to direct go in to directing,if you act follow the directors.
This video would be so much more interesting had the editor paid attention to the audio so the video matches up with the dialogue. It talks about Jamie Farr, while showing only photos of Alan Alda. What the hell.
6 months of military service, give me a break, nothing more dangerous the a 2lt with a map and a compass
I still watch that show every night full episodes I love it❤❤
Me too!
Alan Alda's attitude towards Jackie Cooper reminds me of how Brainy Smurf is to one of the other smurfs. Like Alda, Brainy is constantly trying to tell one of the other smurfs how to do things when it is pretty obvious that the other smurf is an expert at their job while Brainy isn't!
I’m NOT an Allen Alda fan. Irrespective of the role, he’s “in your face”. He a legend in his own mind… He could stand serious training in “group dynamics” and the power of team efforts!
Absolutely the worst episode of M*A*S*H would have to be Hawkeye! All about himself!
Larry Linville (Frank Burns) was a fabulous actor. You loved to hate him!
I didn't watch MASH because Alan alda was the lead in the show
Donald Sutherland brought Hawkeye to life.
Although Alda's acting talents speak for themselves, his self-righteous "textbook liberal agenda" got TIRESOME.
Couldn’t stand the guy. He tried channeling Bugs Bunny too much.
Really odd that this whole video almost never shows pictures of the character/actor it currently discusses! Very peculiar.
Alda is one of my all-time favorites.
Terrible actor.
What did Alda do before Mash?
The Mephisto Waltz movie.