Episode Spotlight: M*A*S*H, Season 1, Episode 17: Sometimes You Hear the Bullet

Frank Burns throws his back out and applies for a Purple Heart.  Meanwhile, Hawkeye Pierce meets, and later operates on, an old friend and struggles with the decision of whether or not to send an underaged soldier home. More than halfway through season 1, M*A*S*H wasn’t exactly killing in the ratings.  The show wasn’t quite

Episode Spotlight: The Return of Preston Giles (Murder She Wrote)

Out on parole, Jessica Fletcher’s first publisher, Preston Giles, tries to woo her back into the fold.  After another murder is committed, Giles ends up needing Jessica’s help when he becomes the prime suspect. By season seven of Murder, She Wrote, the show was already far and away one of the best loved and watched

M*A*S*H: Final Thoughts

I first saw M*A*S*H as a relatively young kid at my grandmother’s house.  It was a rerun on television, on one of those channels that only runs classic television.  I remembered very little about it, I honestly don’t think I was paying attention.  Either way, I certainly didn’t ‘get it’. As I got older, I

M*A*S*H: Facets of Filmmaking

When it comes to adapting a film, already adapted from a book, into a television series, it seemed like series creator Larry Gelbart had quite the work cut out for him. Especially considering the difference that lay in the mediums at the time. Despite the tonal differences that obviously exist between MASH the film and

M*A*S*H: Facets of Film

Naturally, there’s a pretty big difference between a movie’s production, and a television show’s production, and frankly, most of that has to do with money, and scope. When you make a movie, you get sets, costumes, props, special effects, and, perhaps most importantly, more time and money to do it all with.  As a result,

M*A*S*H: A Product of the Times

At first, it doesn’t really seem all that obvious like M*A*S*H was a show of the 1970s. Being set in the 1950s in a military hospital gave some leeway when it came to hairstyles and clothing (Mostly military uniforms).  Even the discussion of the news and pop culture (although occasionally inaccurate for individual years) that

M*A*S*H: The Characters Part 4: B.J. Hunnicutt, Sherman Potter, Charles Emmerson Winchester III and Conclusion

Of all of the cast shake-ups throughout M*A*S*H’s run, none were more impactful on Hawkeye Pierce than the departure of Trapper McIntyre. The original ‘sidekick’ and best friend archetype, Trapper’s absence at the 4077th immediately took its toll on Hawkeye, who came back from R&R to find that his best friend had left without a

M*A*S*H: The Characters, Part 3: Frank Burns, Radar O’Reilly, Maxwell Klinger, and Father Francis Mulcahy

While characters like Hawkeye and Margaret grew and changed, and other characters, like Trapper and Henry, moved on (in one way or another), some characters found themselves doing neither: rather, stagnating, before in a way, moving backwards. Such is the unlucky fate of Major Frank (Ferret Face) Burns (Larry Linville). Frank was everything unlikeable about

M*A*S*H: The Characters, Part 2: Trapper McIntyre, Henry Blake, and Margaret Houlihan

Trapper (Wayne Rogers) was a similar type of character to Hawkeye: a trickster Deadpan Snarker who had had his fill of the war by the time the show started.  Originally beginning the show as Hawkeye’s equal, he unfortunately fell to the position of ‘sidekick’ more often than not, a natural side-effect of Alan Alda’s magnetic

M*A*S*H: The Characters, Part 1: Introduction, and Hawkeye

Whether it’s a book, a film, or a television show, the characters of each individual medium are an essential part of storytelling.  Particularly where it concerns television.    When writing television, as we’ve discussed in the ‘story’ article, the setup for a TV show is everything, and the characters are part of that setup, the