Customer Reviews

The Complete Book of M*A*S*H

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The good news is, that the photography and cast interviews in this book are fantastic. There are hundreds of color stills from the series, capturing the flavor of the show and some of it's most memorable moments. Plus, the background material and the the interviews have some real depth, going into detail about casting, how the actors developed their characters, praises and complaints, interesting retrospective thoughts, etc. That part is GREAT!

The bad news is, that the episode summaries leave much to be desired. As the author herself states, she was working primarily from scripts. That's a bad idea because, as every media buff knows, there are often last-minute changes and ad libs during filming that aren't in the scripts. Not to mention what happens during editing. The definitive version isn't what's written down on paper, it's what you finally see on the screen. The result is, that characters are misquoted in the book, and sometimes the "wrong" plotline is given preference. I realize it's a daunting task to watch 11 years of episodes over and over, but that's a must if you are going to write the "complete" book about a TV series. So, for making those plot summary mistakes, I'm docking the book one star.

Still, it is a very nice hardcover reference, and will certainly help you put your tape collection in order. (Although, now that the series is coming out on DVD, with all the episodes already in order on the discs, that won't be as much of a problem...) Even with it's deficiencies, it belongs in every MASH collection.

We all know that the principle characters were the heart of this show. But I never hear or read anything about the cast of supporters who have also contributed to this classic TV series. They have also been around a long time and probably have interesting stories of their own to tell. Those include:
Nurse Kelley
Grizzo
Igor
Col. Flagg (my favorite)
Dr. Sidney Freedman
There are a few more but you get the idea. They are absent here and don't deserve to be.

I vacillated between giving this book 3 or 4 stars. While in some respects it is almost a "four star", I settled on three due to nature of the episode synopses, as you will see from the following. I bought this book more than twelve years ago, and have referred to it numerous times, so it does have many redeeming features, but overall I would classify this as a relatively good, yet disappointing book. The moniker "'Complete' Book of M*A*S*H" is quite the misnomer. As Suzy Kalter notes in her introduction, she purposely excluded all the 2 or 3 subplots within each episode. This section could have been (and should have been) much more complete. By leaving this information out, it cheats the reader of some vital memories, tears, and laughter. Some of the funniest, saddest and most cleaver moments appeared in these "subplots". A lot a character development took place here as well. The finale was essentially five episodes in one, and yet the book left out a huge amount of the plot and lost a lot of the essence of this episode. The synopses section is by far the most deficient part of the book. For example, in the synopses of "Adam's Ribs", she notes that "Henry" was upset that Hawkeye had forgotten to order the cole slaw; as you know, Henry never said that. It was the Sgt. at Supply who expressed surprise that Hawkeye had sent all the way to Chicago and didn't order it! Honestly, the synopses read as though they were written by a person who either was: a) only a casual viewer of the series; b) only read early drafts of the scripts, or c) never really watched M * A * S * H at all, and garnered the information from friends who had only casually watched the series. In this respect, I found the book very disappointing. Similar books dealing with other shows were more complete, and did not leave out anything; all subplots, etc. were included, and yet this made the books neither confusing nor cumbersome, but rather enhanced their delightfulness. It's a pity the author did not see fit to do so with this book. If she had, this book would be a true gem, and quite possibly the best of the breed. Instead its just a run-of-the mill.

The introduction is Larry Gelbart having a "conversation " (or session?) with Dr. Sidney Freedman, followed by information on the shows creation, and progression from Theatrical Movie to TV series. Each season is introduced by either series creator/writers Larry Gelbart, Gene Reynolds, Executive Producer Burt Metcalfe, Executive Script Consultants David Isaacs and Ken Levine, Story Editor Dennis Koenig, Supervising Producer John Rappaport, or Producers/Writers Thad Mumford & Dan Wilcox, and closes with a commentary by one of the series stars: Season One by Wayne Rogers; Season Two by Alan Alda; Season Three by Jamie Farr; Season Four by Mike Farrell; Season Five by Larry Lineville; Season Six by William Christopher; Season Seven by Gary Burghoff; Season Eight by Harry Morgan; Season Nine by David Ogden Stiers; Season Ten by Loretta Swit; Season Eleven does not have one. (Interestingly, there is commentary by Mclean Stephenson.) These features, along with the great photographs, are among the best features of the book. You learn here, for example, why Gary Burghoff and Larry Linville left after Season Five and Seven, respectively, and a lot of insight from the actors into their characters development. The photographs are very nice touch. Some are behind the scenes shots, other are stills taken from an episode.

The book concludes with a Writer/Director listing, followed by a list of the awards the show one during its eleven year run, and finally a list of available M*A*S*H products, although I imagine that this section is quite outdated by now.

The casual M*A*S*H fan will likely be satisfied, but the M*A*S*H-aholic will be sorely disappointed - at least to some extent. Still this book is a must have, but only because it has no competition.

This is a fairly decent book on M*A*S*H, quite good actually, although far from what I would call "excellent". It provides the fan with a lot of information on the characters, the actors, producers, directors, etc. The episode synopses are interesting and useful to a M*AS*S*H-a-holic. The writer and director lists in the back were also interesting and a good source of information. The commentaries by those involved in the show is an excellent feature. There is one thing, however, that irritated me about this book. The moniker "'Complete' Book of M*A*S*H" is a misnomer. It, as is noted in the introduction, does not include any information concerning the 2 or 3 subplots within each episode. I also found the chapter discussing the final episode/movie a bit "lacking". This was essentially five episodes in one, and yet the book left out quite of bit of information, and lost a lot of the essence of this "episode". This section could have been much more complete. By leaving this information out, it "cheated" us of some vital memories, tears, and laughter. Some of the most funny, sad and cleaver moments appeared in these "subplots" A lot a character development took place in the subplots. In this respect, I found the book very disappointing. Similar books dealing with other shows were more complete, and did not leave out anything; all subplots, etc. were included, and yet this did not make the book confusing nor cumbersome, but rather enhanced the delightlfulness of the book. It's a pity the author did not see fit to do so with this book. If she had, this book would be a true gem, and quite possibly the best of the bread. Still, if you're a M*A*S*H fan, this book is a must have.

The pictures are great.

That is the end of the vitues of this book. First of all the content of the plots of the storylines are mostly wrong with record to detail. Secondly, the recounting of only one storyline for each plot is a mistake. She could have taken out many of her unnecessary lines that had nothing to do with the plot, and then devoted more space to the real interesting plot lines.

SHe routinly reduces great episodes to their meaningless plot lines. Take "A War for All Seasons", the great MASH episode spanning all of 1952. Not one mention of the passage of time, only a brief reference to a kidney machine.

Also, the quotes she uses are usually weak and do not show the best of the MASH writing, espically the hallowed later seasons.

THe cast biographies are scattered and curt.

If you like pictures and wish to catalogue your vast MASH video collection, like I do, then the book is adequete

Otherwise, the other MASH works are prefereble, if you have a desire for true knowledge of the making and maintaining of the show.

I got this book wa-a-ay back in 1989 when it first came out, and I guess it could be considered as the first book to cover all of the episodes . . . in a way. The writers have taken the main lead plot of each episode and boiled it down to a 1 or 2 paragraph text, making it a very entertaining rundown of each episode.

But it doesn't stop there, it also has the background to each season, why they made the changes they made for the season, has interviews with all of the major stars, and gives us a rundown of what episode won an emmy.

Even if you think you know everything there is to know about MASH, get this book, and you'll discover that there are things you don't know.

I have watched M*A*S*H for years and own the DVD collection. This book contains exerpts from every single episode. The only people I can see having an interest is a very, very big fan, such as myself. Unfortunately, the exerpts are only about 50% accurate at best. I think that either the author a) never watched the shows b) watched the beginning and the end only or c) possibly got the exerpts from reading the scripts that may have been changed when the episode was filmed. Whatever the case, the book is extremely disappointing. There are some biased letters from the cast and some really good pictures (some with the wrong episode/caption). I got this as a gift, thank goodness, because it is not worth much even to a big fan such as myself.

Kalter's "complete" book of MASH is, sadly, not complete: many of the episode synopses are unsatisfactory in that they are incomplete, focus on a minor rather than the major story line or simply oversimplify stories to such an extent that they come across completely wrong.

The good thing, on the other hand, is that the synopses suffice to remind you of some particular episode, that there are complete lists of writers and directory for each episode, interviews with the main actors (Rogers, Alda, Farr, Linville, Farrell, Burghoff, Christopher, Morgan, Stiers and Swit) as well as writers/producers Gelbart, Reynolds and Metcalfe, and many pictures from the series, most in black and white, but also many in colour.

I would have wished for more behind-the-scenes information and more accurate story synopses, but as it stands, this book is a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf that no MASH aficionado should be without.

This book is excellent!! A must have for any and all M*A*S*H fans!! It has tons of pictures, and lots of information. The only problems are 1) It could be a little more complete and 2) there are numerous errors. What I mean about errors are not gramitical, but in the show's plot. She does say that she got the information from the scripts, so there's bound to be some changes from the writing to the airing. But other then that, this book is great!

This book is a must have for true M*A*S*H fans. The pictures are great and the the interviews are interesting and informative. The episode summeries are very helpful when trying to match up episodes with their titles. Only thing lacking is that the subplots of the episodes are not talked about. Still a great buy though