"What is your favourite season of M*A*S*H?" Topic

That's an easy one, maybe?

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11

Well?

That's an easy one, maybe?

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11

Well?

None

Season 1

All

Season 1 was definitely closer to the film – at least until about half way through when they dropped some "carry over" characters.

None. Season after season of relentless ill-informed propaganda. The war has no purpose. No refugees flee the Communists. Line officers are invariably incompetent butchers, and security officers incompetent paranoids. Seoul is for some reason a thriving city and not the historical burned-out wasteland. Truce talks are under way, but MacArthur is still in command. Did anyone connected with the show so much as read a short article on the Korean War?

1-4. I check the beginning of the show to see if Larry Linville is in it. Means it's still a comedy

Early seasons up until the show became Alan Alda's soapbox.

MASH was sort of okay for the first 4 seasons. That was back in the day when I actually watched sitcoms.
To me, it died then.
After that, it became Undead.
It was a program where everyone had to make sure that their character was a paragon.
Thus, we ended up with Saint Hawkeye and Blessed Margaret of Korea.

The show lasted a full decade longer than the actual Korean War.

Funny thing. Richard Hooker wrote the novel that both the movie and show were based on. He despised how both had taken what he wrote and jammed it into this liberal shoebox. He only received a few hundred dollars for the movie rights and hated Alan Alda's Hawkeye.
link

I've read the sequels he wrote to MASH, mainly out of curiosity. They weren't all that good.
But then, neither was the show. In my humble opinion.

Season 3 for me. Cast is all in a chemistry groove. Hawkeye & Trapper, Margaret & Frank, Radar & Henry.

Season 4 for 2nd place. I liked Potter, and he clicked well with BJ, but Radar lost his foil.

Seasons 8–11 aren't really Alda's fault, there was a complete change of writers — they were too preachy and could only hand out puns rather than setting up the comedic long shots.

If that's right about Hooker – that he sold the rights fora pittance then I humbly suggest his opinion might be a little coloured by his experience.

If he'd been getting a few hundred thousand per series the show would probably still be running…

Tolkien sold the rights for Lord of the Rings for a few thousand pounds. Big money, but the Estate lost control over it.
First the faithful Ralph Bakshi cartoons.

Later Saul Zaentz acquired the rights. Remember him? He screwed Credence Clearwater Revival, and then tried to sue John Fogerty for writing songs that sounded like John Fogerty. 🙄🤷

Later rights went to Harvey Weinstein. He wanted only one movie. He also wanted to kill off two hobbits.
Through legendary Hollywood chicanery and manipulation, Peter Jackson, zombie movie maker, acquired the rights.
But the Tolkien Estate got nothing.

I guess the estate got revenge by selling rights from appendices and "Notes from my Dad's desk" and we got the Rings of Power travesty.
Rumor has it because Amazon would have to pay a cancellation fee of ~£60 million pounds if they cancel now.

Hooker was also a rock ribbed conservative. The MASH movie and show were definitely not.
His sequel novels had colorful anti-liberal rants. 😄

Tolkien thought he'd been smart, because he wanted the money and he believed LOTR was unfilmable. It's a lesson to all later writers.

George RRRRRRRR Martin thought Game of Thrones was unfilmable too. DnD largely proved him right.

Couldn't stand MASH so no season was my favorite.

Thanks – we'll need to add that as an option:

"I don't like M*A*S*H so I have no season preference, they are all identically equal in being exactly the same amount of terrible"

35thOVI +1. It was a reasonable comedy, but an unwatchable social commentary.

ALL political satires are funny for a minute or two, but a full half hour show is a bit much. And that applies to both sides.
Ranting gets on one's nerves quite early. 🤷

Like a certain politician I can't stand. Sure, I like jokes that make fun of ******, but I'm not going to sit for a full show. I have Comanches and Grenz to paint! 🤔

I worked for the company who most recently acquired the Tolkien rights. The estate had to sign off on the films and did get money for it. Film rights required both the family and Middle Earth Enterprises (the company that Zantz created) to both agree. TV, however, was different (which is how the crappy Rings of Power happened).

Tolkien stupidly signed away the rights to publish The Hobbit and the LOTR core books, but not any derivative works. That is why the show (and most licensed products like table top and video games) has to stick to the appendices, The Hobbit and the Core books only.

I got to write fiction for a video game and was very careful to stick to the tone, lore and intent of Tolkien's writings. I hope I was successful in that. The fans seemed to like it.

Back to topic- Season 5 for me. New characters were interesting and settling in and it hadn't had time to go full preachy just yet.

Another topic- Frank Burns or Winchester? I vote Winchester as Burns was written so one dimensionally. Winchester actually evolved as a character. I feel bad for Larry Lineville, as he got badly typecast and by all accounts he was a real sweetheart of a human being in person.

Has to be Winchester – Burns rapidly became written as little more than a narcissistic moron.