Customer Reviews

M*A*S*H TV Season 1

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's a classic series with a long-lost, intelligent sense of humor not seen on TV these days. It was relevant then and still is now. It was a series with a social conscious. The DVD delivers quality better than I remember on the TV of old. Not much to say other than that. I'm still buying a season or so at a time until I collect them all.

I will say that Amazon's DVD packaging is horrible these days. When I first started buying the series over a year ago, it came in a box. Now it comes in a padded envelope! That's nuts! I have returned many, many DVDs lately because they come crushed, the inner plastic holders broken, and the DVDs scratched.

No matter what DVD you buy from them now, if it comes in an envelope - check it out immediately and return it if damaged. They pay the return postage and send you another one free of charge.

This is the season that started it all!!! This season includes the following episodes:
The Pilot
To Market, To Market
Requiem For A Lightweight
Chief Surgeon Who?
The Moose
Yankee Doodle Doctor
Bananas, Crackers and Nuts
Cowboy
Henry, Please Come Home
I Hate A Mystery
Germ Warfare
Dear Dad
Edwina
Love Story
Tuttle
The Ringbanger
Sometimes You Hear The Bullet
Dear Dad ... Again
The Longjohn Flap
The Army-Navy Game
Sticky Wicket
Major Fred C. Dobbs
Cease Fire
Showtime

The ratings weren't great for the first season of MASH and it came close to being canceled after just one season. However, the wife of a CBS executive forbade her husband to cancel this so it was renewed for a second season where it became established as a favorite and hit show for CBS.
The first season is fresh and funny, even though it's on 8 times a day in some regions. The advantage to having your own copies is being able to avoid commmercials. No extras here unfortunately, but the show itself still stands the test of time.

Favorite episodes are:

To Market, To Market - Hawkeye and Trapper trade Henry's antique desk for medicine without him knowing it.

Requiem For A Lightweight - When Hot Lips vows to transfer a new and attractive nurse, Henry agrees to cancel the transfer only if Trapper emerges victorious in a mismatched boxing match.

The Moose - The surgeons set out to convince a Korean girl that she is free and not required to be anyone's servant or "Moose".

Yankee Doodle Doctor - Pierce and McIntire remake a visiting film producer's film with their own Marx Brothers touches.

Bananas, Crackers and Nuts - Hawkeye pretends to be nuts after he is refused R&R.

Cowboy - A seriously fatigued chopper pilot begins making life uncomfortable for Henry after being denied leave.

Dear Dad - The first of many letters home episodes.

Edwina - Hawkeye is elected to romance a klutz of a nurse.

Love Story - Radar falls for a new nurse and is coached by Hawkeye and Trapper on how to win her affections. "Ahhh Bach"!

Tuttle - The staff at the 4077th are honored to have the patriotic and charitable Captain Tuttle in the midst. The trouble is that Tuttle doesn't exist except on paper. "You might say that together we all made up Tuttle."

The Longjohn Flap - During an especially cold period, a pair of longjohns is passed from one person to another at the 4077th

The Army Navy Game - The Army-Navy game on the radio is interupted by shelling but the main interuption is the unexploded bomb in the compoound.

Sticky Wicket - Hawkeye slugs Frank resulting in Hawkeye being confined to quarters.

Major Fred C. Dobbs - Frank requests a transfer to another unit. Hawkeye and Trapper fear that they might get stuck with someone even worse than so they decide to trick Frank into staying.

Ceasefire - Everyone except Trapper is convinced that the unconfirmed rumor of a ceasefire means the war will soon be over.

Showtime - A visiting USO troop in Korea addition to Henry's wife giving birth in Indiana are the highlights of the final episode. The final episode takes the time at the end to re-introduce us to the cast, so we don't forget until next year.

This has to be the best series on television for that decade, superb production, acting and writing, hilarity beyond expectation, all together exceptional. Even the serious episodes are marvelous, this should not be missed, since no other series has what this series had.

M*A*S*H the television show was loosely based on the book and movie and must have given the tv censors fits, especially back in 1972.

The show's creators knew that the zany comedy and elaborate set-ups and practical jokes had to be translated to the small screen. It would be several years before the cast had established themselves and worked together long enough to make those nuanced but meaningful journeys into our heart. It would also be a few years before the show developed into a platform for humanist ideals. M*A*S*H is loosely set at an Army field hospital during the Korean War, but the series makes not thinly veiled pokes at the Vietnam conflict, which was winding down as the show started.

Alan Alda will forever be beloved as the dedicated surgeon - but irreverent military man - Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce. Hawkeye is burned into our television consciousness as much as Ralph Cramden, Lucy or Jerry Seinfeld.

Hawkeye is joined by Wayne Rogers as best friend and roommate Trapper John McIntyre. They share a tent with right-wing nutcase and religious hypocrite Frank Burns, played by Larry Linville. Burns, a less competent surgeon than Hawkeye and Trapper, states that he is a happily married man, but the worst-kept secret in camp is Frank's affair with Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan, played by Loretta Swit.

The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is commanded by Henry Blake, played by McLean Stevenson as a doctor who seems a comic dimwit - it is difficult to see why Frank Burn's surgical skills are denigrated when Henry is as flighty as a canary most of the time.

The heart of the 4077th for his time on the show was Gary Burghoff as Corporal Walter "Radar" O'Reilly - called Radar due to his sixth sense about impending things like ambulances bringing wounded. But in this first season Radar is not the innocent grape Nehi-drinking teddy bear soldier of later seasons. At the beginning Radar drinks alcohol in the swamp and is a wily behind the scenes wheeler-dealer.

Klinger and Father Mulcahy were very much characters under development - in the first few episodes the beloved chaplain is played by George Morgan, who doesn't have time to make much of an impression, before being replaced by William Christopher, who fleshes out the Father we came to know and love.

Season One is important for historians and completionists, but it would not be difficult to argue that the show was far from "hitting its stride."

One of the best TV series ever made, I have seasons 1 & 2 , just bought seasons 3 & 4, Now for the bad, the brainless twits who made these disks, made them to play one episode at a time. you will spend almost as much time changing episodes, as you will watching them. A REAL STUPID MOVE, makes you wonder how many extra years of collage it took to get that smart. Really makes you want to watch these over and over , providing you have the time to change episodes. I love the series, just hate the morons that made the disk set up.

A great season to the start the beginning of a long but enjoyful show. MASH or known as the mobile army surgicial hospital is based in 1950 in korea. Filled with great characters including my favorite Dr. Benjamin Franklin Hawkeye pierce. Hawkeye played by the legendary tv actor Alan Alda is a gifted head suregeon and doctor and known as the best chest cutter in Korea. (in the book and movie MASH Trapper John was the best chest cutter and head surgeon. The show began in 1972 and had many other great characters such as Captain Doctor Trapper John Mcintrye who was Hawkeyes best friend and partner in crime during the shows practical jokes and hyjinks on other doctors mostly on Hot lips Hullihan Major Frank Burns. Show also features Lt. Colonel Blake and his right hand man Radar O`Reily. In season one also introduced to several characters who stay through the 11 seasons of mash including Father John Mulcany and Corp Max Klinger famous for his ways of getting a section 8. Season one is filled with laughs, drama, and shows the doctors caring for each other as well in a place that is hell. Like hawkeye said war is war and hell is hell.

I really like MASH. I remember when I first watched it with my dad back in the late eighties and hating it. Now I love it because the humor is something I can finally appreciate!

The series does start to stink as it ages, much like Frasier. There is something about the way the jokes are delivered by certain characters, which show that the creative team has changed a bit since the beginning.

However this first season will be thoroughly enjoyed by me.

Some of my favorite other shows: Frasier (first six seasons), I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Airwolf.

I love mash and this did not disappoint! I would recommend this to my friends. I plan to buy more

MASH series one is a great introduction into MASH. Colonel Blake is fantastic and what I like best about the opening series is that it really centres around Hawkeye. Simple plot-lines are the key in this opener, and Radar O'Reilly is the star of the show. This is one of the best series.