M*A*S*H (1972)
Season One Collector’s Edition DVD(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) In the pantheon of sitcom immortals, Henry Blake’s bust is chiseled out of creamy pink marble. With his salute speared to his fishing hat, and his small-town life back in Bloomington, Ill., Lt.-Col. Henry Blake ran the M*A*S*H 4077 like the Titanic. “Imagine,” Hawkeye wrote his dad once, “running to the bridge only to find Daffy Duck in charge.” Endearing incompetence. And for three seasons only. After that, the late, great McLean Stevenson left because of a contract dispute, and in the commotion, Wayne Rogers (Trapper John) escaped as well. Replaced by Harry Morgan as Col. Potter and a hopelessly DOA Mike Farrell as B.J. Hunnicut, the show eventually became a television landmark that half-tracked it 11 long-in-the-tooth seasons after it began in 1972 — two years after the still-great Robert Altman got ahold of Richard Hooker’s bestseller. (Altman’s film, too, has just been released on DVD.) When the coffin finally closed on M*A*S*H the series in ’83, it had been lacquered over with so many layers of dull-witted sentimentality that only dedicated syndication junkies recalled the mortar-fire laughs from the initial episodes. Three DVDs bivouac the 24 installments from Season One (’72-’73), including the pilot, the ensemble’s chemistry flawless by the second show, “To Market, To Market” (aka “Henry’s Desk”). It’s all here, series developer Larry Gelbart’s genius (“Chief Surgeon Who?,” “Tuttle,” and “The Longjohn Flap”). Henry’s football anecdote in “The Army Navy Game” is Blakean charm at its finest. Dozens of scenes shaved off for commercial time over the decades are an added bonus. Best of all, inside there’s a postcard announcing Season Two “available May 2002.” Just get up to Season Three, people, then get started on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Rockford Files, and Season Three of The Sopranos.
This article appears in February 15 • 2002.
