Category: Cinema 31
I know there are at least a few fans of this show on the zone, but I was unable to find a thread for it. So I made this one for fans and those interested to come together and talk about this long-running, 70's and early 80's show. What were your favorite episodes, moments and characters? Do you prefer the Henry and Frank, Potter and Frank, or Potter and Winchester era?
I haven't seen the show in a while, and now that we no longer have cable, it's unlikely that I'll see it again any time soon, but I used to watch it all the time on Ion, Hallmark and TV Land. I'd say I definitely prefer Charles. I've never seen any behind the scenes type of things, but it seems as if they started out just having him as another Frank, but then worked on highlighting the differences between them. Frank, even at his best was never likeable for me, though I know some people are fans, while Charles became moreso as time went on. I prefer Potter over Blake, mostly because I'm not very familiar with the latter. Plus, it was Harry Morgan RIP who drew me into the show. I was a big fan of Dragnet. One day I was flipping through the channels and I heard a familiar voice, and I started watching the show. Even though I didn't really follow it very well since A, it was in the middle of the episode and B, it was the first one I'd ever seen, I was intrigued. The rest, as they say, is history!
I've seen all the shows in sindication and have probably seen each episode about a dozen times. The Hallmark Channel used to show four episodes back to back each weekeday late afternoon, and I kept watching until I finally started getting tired of it.
I like the older episodes the best. While Frank was definitely not likable, I loved Henry and Hawkeye's best friend Trapper John. Charles was a real stick in the mud at first, but I did get to like him even though he and Hawkeye never got close the way Hawkeye and John did.
By the way, Harry Morgan recently died at the age of 96.
There are two excellent books written by Alan Alda and are both available on the BARD download site if you get books from NLS. The second one is narrated by Alan Alda himself. He does discuss the years he was on M*A*S*H, but he talks about a lot more than that.
I liked the theme music.