TIL: MASH.

Previously-

-TIL: Bob Clark.

-TIL: Bruce Davison.

-TIL: John Ritter.

-TIL: Richard Matheson.

AKA: "...and I can take or leave it if I please".

TIL, Richard Hooker, author of "MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors" the basis of the movie and the show, is a Maine-uh.

Well, a transplant "from away" but still...

Which is why Hawkeye is a Mainer. He's based on Hooker.

That gives us three famous writer-guys! Stephen King, Kevin Eastman, and Richard Hooker.

I was too little to understand the show on its first run. Naturally.

As a teen, it didn't click for me.

Then, as a 20-somehting, I didn't know enough history, and wasn't literate enough to get all the jokes.

Its been about the last 10-15 years or so, I've absorbed enough stuff through osmosis, and getting burned by war propaganda, I totally get it now, and love it.

Sigh, my work life has been me as the lone Hawkeye vs armies of Franks and Hot Lips and no Trapper/BJ in sight.

Christ, at least there were three of the "Office Space" guys. 😓

Anyhoo!

I knew I had to do this post about it when it kept popping up in my thought process in "So, Transformers...".

Here's those bits...

MASH was on from before I was born to '83, just before Transformers dropped.

MASH was openly and un-abashedly anti-war. 

MASH had toys. MASH had toys...man, that's weird.

There had to be an adult collector's market for toys even back then.

Can you imagine the weird hippie that made their kid watch MASH?

And got them the toys?

Gee...in hindsight, I wish that had been my childhood.

Maybe they thought the very act of a child enjoying the toys confirmed their "war is inevitable" point of view. Maybe they thought the sales figures confirmed it.

But, again, Apes and MASH merch sold too.

The Transformers can broker a peace deal, and the damned thing can end.

Iron Giant can infect his pacifism into their upgrade stream.

A time-warped Hawkeye and BJ (from MASH) can broker the talks.

A time-warped Taylor (from Apes) can tell how the maniacs blew it all up.

We're the dreamers of the dream, we can do goddamned anything.

We don't have to tacitly accept this Cold-Warrior ugliness in our story-world.

We just don't.

Maybe you Millennials, Zennials, and Alphas can do a better job than the Boomers and us X-ers did.

Like, maybe don't necessarily censor Transformers from your kid's diet, but get "Iron Giant" in the mix, and then Trek, Apes, and MASH when they're old enough.

Alan Alda stuff I've covered here: "Canadian Bacon" "West Wing" and the audio drama of "World War Z". 

And as I said in Donahue memorial, I'm gonna be severely bummed when he goes.

Oh, and Mariette Hartley from Hulk and Star Trek guest starred once.

There, that's my pre-existing MASH material from the rest of the blog.

Now stuff I learned through watching the show multiple times, and reading up.

Larry Linville (Frank) and Jamie Farr (Klinger) were on Kolchak!!

John Ritter guest starred.

And later co-starred with Harry Morgan (Potter) in "Flight Of Dragons".

Ron Howard (Opie, Richie, future director of "Night Shift"!!) guest starred in an early episode.

Leslie Neilson, star of "Forbidden Planet", and future star of "Creepshow" pops up.

Oh, wild, MASH was still on when "Creepshow" came out!

David Ogden Stiers, who played Winchester, guest starred on ST:TNG.

René Auberjonois (Odo on ST:DS9) was Father Mulcahy in the MASH movie.

Lawrence Fishburne guest starred, and went on to be Perry White in "Man Of Steel" and "BvS", Goliath in "Ant-Man & The Wasp" and the voice of Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four 2.

Oh, and he was Cowboy Curtis on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse".

Patrick Swayze guest starred as a guy dying of leukemia.

Swayze really died of cancer.

That one's a bummer to watch now.

Radar is the only cast member to carry over from the movie.

You can get the movie and show to connect if you squint really hard, but like "Alice", they're really parallel universes.

Y'know, for my money, the Potter, BJ, Winchester years are better than the Frank, Trapper, Blake years.

There, I said it.

Fight me. 

I did miss Radar when he left though.

Which reminds me, he was supposed to get a spinoff called "Walter" but it was really dark and fucked up, and had him almost commit suicide in the fucking pilot.

WTF, MASH writers?

I almost get it. I can see them at the meeting table going "hey!! Let's say something about PTSD for the guys coming home!".

But Radar? No. Not Radar. 

Now, Radar could have a hometown buddy snap, and he talks him down.

That's something Radar would do.

Anyway! Glad that idea died. Yecchh.

Near as I can tell, Hawkeye and Hot Lips are the only ones to make it through the whole show.

Father Mulcahy is around, but not in every episode.

Klinger doesn't become a regular until about season 3 or so.

Hot Lips turns into a good guy once Frank leaves.

In the movie, and the early episodes of season 1, she's an outright villain, but they soften her up into a mild antagonist even before the full on face-turn after Frank goes.

Winchester kind of takes her place as a foil for Hawk and Beej, but even he softens up.

The character that vanished quickest was their black friend, Spearchucker Jones.

Boy, does that not hold up. 😮🤦‍♂️

He poofed away without any ceremony before season 1 was even halfway done.

Fred Williamson was Spearchucker in the movie.

In the book, Hawkeye has a wife and kids, and he, Trapper, Frank, and Blake are all cheating with the nurses.

In the show, for some reason, Trapper, Frank, and Blake are still cheaters, but Hawk is swinging single.

The movie leaves Hawk's marital status a mystery.

When MASH got over, they did the dogshit spinoff "After MASH" that only had Klinger, Hot Lips, Mulcahy, and Potter.

The sequel novel "MASH Goes To Maine" by Hooker was like "After MASH" but had everybody. 

It's Hawkeye who gets everyone back together in that one.

Hooker liked the movie, but not the show.

Thought it was too liberal.

*Raspberry noise* to you, Hooker. 🤪

There's a fan theory that TV Hawkeye was bi, and fucking everybody.

Hey, if LGBT fans wanna read him that way, go for it.

I'm sure Alan Alda doesn't even mind. He's pretty hip.

Bet Richard Hooker woulda pitched a fit.

Here's my fan theory.

I think Winchester is a parody of Hooker, and who he had become, and having TV Hawkeye bounce off him was like "good Hawkeye" vs "bad Hawkeye".

Like Superman vs Bizarro.

😏

I dunno if this story is true, cuz I've heard it third hand, but supposedly, Alan Alda met Donald Sutherland (who played movie Hawkeye), and told him "thank you for giving me a life!".

I hope that's true.

They made a limited edition MASH Beer in the 70's.

I've seen thrill-seeking knuckleheads on Youtube drink the stuff.

Turns out 50 year old beer is horrifying.

Whodathunk?

There was a MASH Atari 2600 game where you operate on guts.

They need to bring this back, but have it be Hawk and Beej putting mangled enemies from other games back together.

Make it a comment on the warlike nature of most other games. 

I think the old one tried to be that.

We need it back, like we need the show to rerun forever.

Aaand, that's all I can think of.

THE END!!