Customer Reviews

M*A*S*H TV Season 4

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
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.

Perhaps the largest transition of the many in the eleven year run of MASH comes in this season with the addition of Mike Farrell (as new surgeon BJ Hunnicut) and Harry Morgan (as veteran surgeon of three wars Commanding Officer Colonel Sherman Potter.)

Still present are Klinger, Radar, Frank, Margaret and the ever-present Hawkeye.

The tone of the show shifted significantly. Where Trapper and Henry Blake had been married men not above a little good-natured adultery, BJ and Colonel Potter are devoted husbands. Even Hawkeye begins to be rebuffed by nurses. The earlier seasons were decidedly sillier (a frequent sight was Henry Blake being nearly blown up in comic fashion). Harry Morgan brings both a no-nonsense military professionalism and a good-natured, common sense approach to military leadership.

The one hour opening episode shows Hawkeye returning from a 3 day debauchery to find Frank Burns in command and Trapper just left. He hikes a ride with Radar to the air base and finds he has barely missed Trapper as Radar picks up B.J. This wise episode gives the viewer an opportunity to miss Trapper as well prior to establishing, by the end of the episode, that BJ is just as capable of standing up to "Old Ferret Face". In the second episode Frank finds that his Command has lasted just one episode as he is being relieved by "Regular Army" (as opposed to the draftees called up into active reserve duty) Colonel Potter. At first Hawkeye is horrified to find a 30 year career Army officer in command, but by the time they share their first operating room and first trip to the Swamp's still Hawkeye and BJ find that their new CO is a kindred spirit and his experience is a bonus.

Another great season. The transistion from a series without Henry and Trapper to one with Col. Potter and B.J. went very well.

This is the Season were Cournal Sherman T. Potter take charge of the 4077 and we see some more changes with B.J. Hunnicutt repleacing Trapper John. It's still the MASH that you have grown to love but with the changes it takes a little bit for BJ and Hawkeye to get in there grove so the first bit does not feel right as the two are trying to find there grove. All and All still a great season like the rest!

SEASON INCLUDES:
Welcome to Korea, Part 1

Welcome to Korea, Part 2

It Happened One Night

Change of Command

The Late Captain Pierce

Dear Ma

The Price of Tomato Juice

Mail Call, Again

The Gun

Soldier of the Month

Of Moose and Men

Dear Peggy

Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler

The Kids

Dear Mildred

The Bus

Hey, Doc

Der Tag

Hawkeye

The Novocaine Mutiny

Deluge

The More I See You

Smilin' Jack

Some 38th Parallels

The Interview

Season 4 of MASH is great! Amazon is the 1st place that I go when I want something! You can have your fun things and be able to afford them!

I've always thought that television shows are like people. They are born, grow up, grow old, and die. In the fourth season of M*A*S*H, the show officially reached its maturity, transforming from a sophomoric, slapstick farce into a "dramedy" of increasing sensitivity and sophistication. Sure, the lowbrow jokes about latrines and the nurses' chest X-rays were still there, but more and more, M*A*S*H became increasingly determined to examine moral and ethical quandaries, the effects of bureaucratic stupidity on human life, and the manifold horrors of war.

The third season had ended with the departure of Maclean Stevenson's genial but weak-willed Lt. Col. Henry Blake, and in the hiatus between seasons, the nominal co-star of the show, Wayne Roger's gin-swilling, nurse-chasing Cpt. "Trapper" John McIntyre also elected to leave without filming a Goodbye episode. This put the writers and producers in rather a tricky position, as they had to replace two characters in short order without shell-shocking the fans. The skill with which this reshuffling was handled is a testament to producers Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds, who rarely saw a curveball they couldn't whack out of the park.

As S4 opens, the camp is therefore suffering under the iron-fisted but incompetent leadership of Maj. Frank Burns (Larry Linville) and his sidekick-cum-lover-cum-dominatrix, Maj. Margaret Houlihan (Loreta Swit) who have replaced the dead-and-departed Blake as camp commander. The camp's chief surgeon, subversive, and lothario, Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda), returns from a sake-soaked leave in Tokyo to discover to his horror that his roomate and best friend Trapper has been shipped home in his absence. In his place arrives clean-cut young doctor named B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell), who rapidly becomes Hawk's sidekick even as he struggles to acclimatize to conditions in Korea. No sooner has a new routine been established, however, than yet more waves are made by the arrival of a new C.O., Col. Sherman T. Potter (Harry Morgan), who is long on horse-sense but short on temper. In the mean time, Father Mulcahey (William Christopher) is still struggling to save souls (and feel needed), Corporal Klinger (Jamie Farr) is still trying to cross-dress his way to a Section Eight discharge, and gentle company clerk Walther "Radar" O'Reilly (Gary Burgdorff) is still quietly holding the camp together with one hand while he clutches his teddy bear with the other. All against the ususal backdrop of bombs, shells, gangrenous limbs, bloodthirsty officers, and Army bureacrats.

Season Four boasted an unusual number of outstanding episodes, starting with the first, a two-parter called "Welcome to Korea", which introduces B.J. in true M*A*S*H fashion. [In short order he participates in the theft of a general's jeep, gets shot at by a sniper, sees a Korean girl blown up by a mine, witnesses a platoon of American soldiers turned to hamburger by mortar fire, drinks himself senseless at Rosie's bar, and passes out in Margaret's arms.] Other notables include:

"Hawkeye" - An injured Hawk is stranded with a Korean family that speaks no English. This episode is essentially a one man show, and almost the entire story is shot in a series of long takes on a small indoor set. Outstanding writing and acting couple with a willingness to take heavy creative risks - this is the only episode in which no other cast members appear, even in cameos, and gives Alan Alda a chance to do some first-class stage acting.

"The Late Captain Pierce" - Hawkeye is mistakenly declared killed in action by the Army, a circumstance he finds amusing until he realizes his beloved father has been notified of his "death." This episode travels a brutal emotional arc as Hawkeye, unable to contact his dad, goes from said amusement to irritation, aggravation and eventually despair. A classic example of "dramedy" in action.

"Deluge" - The Chinese suddenly enter the Korean war against U.S., much to the chagrin of General MacArthur...and the gang at the 4077. As Allied forces fall back from the "Red hordes", an unceasing flow of wounded and dying men push the whole staff to - and past - their physical and emotional limits.

"The Interview" - M*A*S*H was often at its best when it "stepped out of its formula" completely. This episode is shot in a documentary format, showing the characters from the perspective of the reporter and his audience. There are some particularly outstanding performances here - Alan Alda's bleary-eyed emotional exhaustion; Larry Linville's chilling depiction of Frank's mind; Harry Morgan looking wonderfully uncomfortable and stiff.

There are a number of other first-rate episodes as well, including "Every Time I See You", "Smilin' Jack", and various storylines in which characters write home to their families, a device M*A*S*H somehoe manage to overuse without ever wearing out. There is also a very moving and well-acted story ("") featuring Sydney Freedman and Col. Flagg in which a bombardier with a head injury wakes up thinking he is Jesus Christ.
My only beef with this product is its low physical quality. For only [...], I wasn't expecting a lot of frills, but between the shoddy transfer, the lack of A N Y special features (even a pamphlet with an episode guide) and the nasty tendency of Disc 2 to glitch up, you'd be better off buying a used version of the Collector's Edition.

I love the Mash Videos and enjoy having them. Our Cable Channel used to carry them, but now not so much. The videos have scenes that don't play on the syndicated version, anyway.

MASH season 4 is a mixed bag...some good stories...and then some preachy ones. If you are a fan, you might want to
rent this before you buy. All the regulars are back...lots more on Klinger, Potter is ok, but he is no Blake!

WHAT RETARDED PERSON SET ALL OF THE MASH SETS, WITH NO "PLAY ALL SETTING",

MUST BE A PERSON WHO DOES NOT WATCH. OR WHERE DRUGS INVOLVED

I am a MASH fan fanatic, when it was on TV, and I was disabled, I would watch these shows at least 3 times a day, now Im buying them, only to find out some moooron did not set them up with "play all episodes" setting, what a goofball this person must be.

THIS IS THE ONLY THING WRONG WITH THESE DISKS

The 1st three seasons of MASH were fun. I watched,I laughed and after each episode, I felt really good.I suppose some of our more social elite individuals found the 1st three seasons to be sophomoric and a slapstick farce? Whatever!! So anyway starting with the 4th season I found that after each episode I felt more often depressed, than I did really good.But I guess that's the price we must pay, to be enlighted by the socialist elite, about moral and ethical quandaries,and lest we forget, the manifold horrors of war.Need I say it once more? WHATEVER!!