LAST EDITED ON 03-16-05 AT 10:09 PM (EST)

I always thought that MASH should be thought of as two different shows.

The first seasons (with Wayne Rogers and McLain Stevenson) were intended to be sophomorish, farcical and snarky, like the movie. I didn't care for them.

The later seasons (with Mike Farrell and Harry Morgan) were much, much better, because the humor wasn't so forced. Instead, the show became more like the MTM sitcoms: people behaved in ways consistent with their characters, and the humor came out of everyday events, not contrived situations.

I could never believe that Hawkeye and Trapper John would listen to someone as ineffectual as Henry was in the show -- or that Henry would be able to protect them from the consequences of their actions. But Col. Potter was a different matter. The character oozed authority, and he would've appealed to all of the doctors on the show, from an anarchist like Hawkeye to a prig (but great surgeon) like Winchester.

But the finale was a disaster. Apparently Alda had wanted to write a breakdown for Hawkeye into the regualr episodes, but the network and the producers objected. So he stuck it in the finale, where it seemed totally artificial.

Yet it's hard to pick a favorite episode, because the episodes did kinda blend together. I remember Klinger ordering hot dog casings from Tony Pacho's ... Hawkeye and Hot Lips stranded when their Jeep was shelled ... and a lot of others ... but not just one or two that stood out, as with (say) The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

M*A*S*H was always one of my favorite shows, and with it being in syndication forever, and the fact you could find it on one cable station or another almost any time of day, I can recognize the story line of any episode in the first 3 minutes. (I can name that episode is 3 lines...2 lines...ok, name that episode.)

Favorites? There are so many. The one they did in real time where the soldier's artery was severed and they had 21 minutes to repair before paralysis set in. Hawkeye in his tuxedo and Groucho Marx glasses. Margaret and Frank. Radar and his animals.

Great series, great characters. The characters were nuanced, not caricatures. It is amazing that it lasted on the air 11 years, weathering many cast and character changes. Losing Henry Blake and Trapper John, gaining Col. Potter, then losing Frank and replacing him with Charles Winchester. They pretty much managed to do so seamlessly.

At first, I couldn't see why McLean Stevenson didn't last more than three seasons. Having watched these DVDs with Ladycub (surprise, surprise), I see clearly why he couldn't have been there that long. Concur with AK that they couldn't have gone 11 years with Henry Blake at the helm. He was too much of a boob, in some ways more so than Frank Burns. And as we know, the role was Stevenson's career killer.

Sure, the show was built around Hawkeye, as it should have been, but Potter (as AK points out) gave it a dose of realism. And replacing Burns with Winchester was a great move; he was a more complex character than the often one-dimensional Burns, who wasn't long for the series once Hot Lips wanted to get married.

The series also might have been too good to Gary Burghoff, who played Radar too well. Can we say typecasting? I'm also surprised in retrospect he lasted as long as he did.

What I don't like about the later years of M*A*S*H is that the actors all sounded like they were reading their lines off cue cards (especially Morgan, Jamie Farr, and William Christopher). I blame that on the influence of producer Burt Metcalfe, and I also think the show went too serious when everyone became buddy-buddy. Without conflict, there's no comedy (unless you want Ozzie and Harriet). Also, they had less to work with once Hawkeye wasn't as much of a womanizer and had shtupped Margaret, Frank was out of the picture, Radar went home, and Klinger had given up on the Section 8 bid. They felt they had to Get Serious.

Still, M*A*S*H was ahead of its time in many ways, and I can forgive the blatant antiwar screeds (many Korean War vets HATE the show). Favorite episodes include "Yankee Doodle Doctor", "I Hate A Mystery", "Tuttle", and "Dear Sigmund".

Which reminds me of an important lesson that sitcoms that came after M*A*S*H seem to forget:

Don't. Overuse. Guest. Characters.

If the show came out today, you'd see Sidney Freedman (the shrink) and Colonel Flagg (the CIA guy) every week. M*A*S*H wisely saved them until appropriate and didn't wear out their welcome (Larry, Darryl and Darryl from Newhart come to mind). Also, when watching the early episodes, you can see that the producers so wanted a general (Clayton or Mitchell) to be a regular cast member from offstage. I'm glad they ultimately decided against it. Klinger and Mulcahy were added to the regular cast when they had logically begun to fit in, and they weren't offstagers anyway.

"Oh, Frank...you're so above average."