HARD disagree. Alan's work in the writer's room, in the director’s chair, constantly pushing for the best stories, his work in women's rights leading him to ask them to stop making rape jokes, to dig deeper, to make the stories and characters as real as possible? No. His impact is way beyond whatever you are assuming.
There is a reason the show came to focus on Hawkeye as the primary character everyone interacts with when originally it was not supposed to be. Alan Alda brought a humanity and humour to the character, and he changed Hawkeye completely from the beginning- more than anyone else. He simply had so much gravity it forced the show to orbit him like a giant sun with orbiting planets.
Hawkeye was a crucial part of the show, and he was absolutely the centre that kept things moving inside the show. But ALAN's work behind the camera for both writing and directing is irreplaceable, and although M*A*S*H would have been good without him, it wouldn't have been the lightening in the bottle powerhouse that it was. Certainly wouldn't be remembered as one of the best shows of all time without Alda.
I am blessed to have many MASHtuals who have survived the years since my latest rewatch and are now coming out of the woodwork to enjoy my MASH posting. Love you all.
i think a super underrated way of establishing character dynamics is how characters refer to each other. nicknames and titles can do a lot of heavy lifting to showcase how one character may feel about another. and one of the best showcases of this concept i've seen has been mash. by merit of the show being about military officers, it comes with an inherent power hierarchy, and so names and titles and the context in which they're used bring a lot of fun subtext into otherwise normal conversations.
hawkeye refuses to use military protocol and calls everyone by casual names or nicknames, only making an exception for colonel potter out of respect. potter, meanwhile, defaults to calling people by rank or surname, but swaps to a first-name basis when the situation calls for a more personal touch (notably, he never calls radar o'reilly, and only rarely calls him corporal). margaret and frank adhere to military protocol in public, but drop it when they think they're being discreet. charles starts out sticking to strictly rank/surname addresses for people out of personal professionalism, but after a few seasons, he loosens up enough to start using hawk, beej, and even max. major houlihan's name changes from hot lips to margaret as the show goes on and she shifts narrative roles from an antagonist to a friend. henry is rarely colonel blake, and colonel potter is rarely sherman. radar's letters from home are addressed to walter, and hawkeye's military correspondences are addressed to b.f. pierce. father mulcahy is only ever father mulcahy, and his first name is brought up so infrequently that the writers just straight-up forgot what it was a couple of times. potter's "padre." charles's "gentlemen." just take any conversation in the show and really pay attention to everyone's names. there's so much flavor injected into every sentence if you go looking for it.
Sometimes I think about how different B.J. and Hawkeye's lives were before they met and probably after they parted.
Hawkeye comes from this small town, his father is a poor country doctor who would take kittens for payment. He worked in tourist hotels and other jobs to afford school. When he lived in Boston not only was he enthusiastic about his residency, but he also worried about money and cited it as a reason why he didn't propose to Carlye.
(Hawkeye's background can be inconsistent at times. A practice gets mentioned once or twice, but the most consistent background seems to be worked in a hospital in a city before being drafted.)
Then you have BJ who came from three generations of doctors (and probably not small town doctors), went to Standford and came first in his class. Belonged to a country club, lived in the suburbs, bought beach front property. He even had a connection that offered to get him out of the draft, but he believed in the system and refused. He gets upset when Peg has to work at a cafe where their friends often go.
Rambles under the cut...
B.J. being such a nonconformist with his mustache, suspenders, pink shirt, and motorcycle makes me wonder if the seed of it was planted long before he got drafted, and how he'll settle back into this structured suburban upper/middle class life. I think he mentions planning to open his own practice early on, but considering all his research and creativity in the O.R. I wouldn't be surprised if he wants a fast paced hospital position, or to get a second certification.
B.J.: we could see each other at conferences.
And Hawkeye immediately shooting this down saying neither of them are the type to attend. B.J. agrees, but I think B.J. IS actually the type to attend. B.J. from the very beginning has been shown to be ambitious and competitive. He's the one always reading journals and bringing it into the O.R. Even in the middle of Korea he wants to stay at the top of his game. Hawkeye has blown off confences because he believes what is being taught will not be actively useful to the type of surgery he's doing in a MASH unit until he's proven wrong. He keeps up with his reading, but he isn't looking at these experimental techniques and seeing ways to apply them like B.J. is, or when he does it's because B.J. has spoken about the technique he read about and Hawkeye will have B.J. preform it as he has the most understanding of it.
I think for B.J. being a doctor was an expectation and a career goal. He wanted to be the best at it because there's legacy behind him and he's a naturally competitive person. The war put his life off it's trajectory, but it might have set him up for a more fulfilling career in the future where he'll be able to pursue what he's interested in rather than what's expected as the optimum career option, and with his drive and ambition he'll probably succeed. He'll always resent the war for what it took from him though.
Hawkeye has an ego about his own skills, but it comes from often being the smartest, quickest guy in the room. He's not ambitious and he's not as competitive about being a doctor as B.J. and Charles accuse him of being (both of whom are often putting themselves in competiton with with Hawkeye). He doesn't chase fame, but he resents those he views as less talented getting accolades (or in Charles case early on, caring more about ego/accolades than about patient care). Being a doctor is a vocation. He'd do it rich or poor. He hates being in the army doing surgery in such bad conditions, but he'll work with an injured finger, he'll force himself to go in a cave, he'll turn down a general offering him a position in Tokyo because he wants to be in the place he'll do the most good. Radar accuses him of being a hypocrite when he gets angry that Radar wants to stay thinking the 4077 can't survive without him. He says if their positions were reversed Hawkeye would stay too.
This isn't to say Hawkeye is particularly brave or noble (he has his moments as every character in the show does), he's simply unable to ignore the part of him that is a doctor. A part so intrinsic to him his girlfriend left him because she didn't want to be second to it.
In the end Hawkeye, who is the hot shot chest cutter at the beginning of the war will probably settle in his little hometown with no desire for a big career which he may have pictured when he first went to the city. He wants to know his patients and form bonds and connections with them because it's impossible for him to be impartial and removed after his experience and traumas as an army surgeon.
Is the only place they could have been together war torn Korea? It's not that I think they'd ever lose affection for each other, but if they did try to build lives together or closer to one another what would they each be willing to change or give up?
i love that margaret didn't get her "happy ending" with donald. yes, it was a classic rushed into war time marriage. but there are a lot of those on the show. but he was beneath her, and after the flush of new love she realized it and stood up for herself. for a woman to get divorced-at her own instigation-in 1952 and fight for her rights and then go on and reembrace her raw sexuality? to recommit herself to the army-her one true love-and become Major Maragret Houlihan, RN and not "hot lips" or "frank's girlfriend" or "mrs lieutenant colonel" is sure something to put on t.v. in the late 70s.
Klinger appreciation post: Klinger's pride in the way he dresses is what makes me so drawn to him, like Margret became a rounded character and so much more than just "hotlips" thanks to Loretta Swit and in much the same way Klinger became so much more than a cross dressing joke. He never even really feels like one because he's only ever defended in his clothing choice by the men this show wants us to look to- Hawkeye, Trapper, Beej, and Potter all defend and offer support to him many many times. The ones who chastise him are shut down immediately and seen scornfully such that it is always clear Klinger is not to be disrespected. Klinger never backs down, never flinches when he's put on the spot about it, he actually he eats it up. We grow in love with this character through the lens of the show by first becoming accustomed and then fond of Klinger's deemed 'charade' and find him endearing in all aspects. Stubborn and passionate, we see it in his love for his clothes, the speciality dresses, the designer shoes and all the magazines/ catalogues he reads and orders from, how particular he is with his accessories and how he knows either the history of the piece or where and when it was made and with what kind of fabric. It is consistent throughout the show, even with other main cast character changes, that he is to be embraced and defended and loved and that's why as a non binary trans man, that show has done more smoothing to my soul than most any other media.
so sorry (sorta) for all the mash posting but it is genuinely one of those shows that i think everyone should watch. especially with all the horrific shit going on in the world today. one of the shows of all time.
Losing my fucking mind: was walking through Boston Commons. Saw a guy with a MASH hat sitting in the grass with his bike so I said “hey I like your hat!” and I show him my BJ and Hawkeye stickers and my “let’s vaccinate Radar” tattoo.
Dude hits me with “oh yea my grandpa wrote the show” BROTHER WHAT!!!!! I literally say “You’re fucking kidding me LARRY GELBART?? WAS YOUR GRANDPA???” he’s like “yea this hat is from him! I’m a Gelbart!” Absolutely floored. Stunned.
I've been on & off watching MASH because a friend really likes it.
My favorite shot in the entire show looks like this:
After a long long merciless day of surgeries, one doctor, Hawkeye, says this: "I hate sunrise, and those damn birds will start singing in a minute. Who are they to remind us of happiness?"
And then a friend of his, Radar, responds with: "You go back on again in an hour."
And the shot just stays like that. It feels so hopeless and I'm glad they chose this shot for this specific piece of dialogue.
