Last month, visitors to MASH4077TV.com voted “Dreams” their least favorite episode from Season 8. The episode earned 43 votes, or 24% of the total vote. “War Co-Respondent” came in second with 18 votes or 10% of the vote. Then came “Guerrilla My Dreams” and “Good-Bye Radar (Part II)” with 17 votes each or 9% of the vote.
A total of 179 votes were cast, a tiny increase from the 176 votes for August’s Least Favorite Episode From Season 7 poll. Two episodes, “Private Finance” and “Stars and Stripes,” failed to receive a single vote.
Here are the full results:
Great 2017 M*A*S*H Episode Poll: Pick Your Least Favorite Episode from Season 8
Dreams (24%, 43 Votes)
War Co-Respondent (10%, 18 Votes)
Guerrilla My Dreams (9%, 17 Votes)
Good-Bye Radar (Part II) (9%, 17 Votes)
Lend a Hand (5%, 9 Votes)
Back Pay (5%, 9 Votes)
Yessir, That’s Our Baby (4%, 8 Votes)
Dear Uncle Abdul (4%, 7 Votes)
April Fools (4%, 7 Votes)
Nurse Doctor (3%, 6 Votes)
Too Many Cooks (3%, 5 Votes)
Good-Bye Radar (Part I) (3%, 5 Votes)
The Yalu Brick Road (3%, 5 Votes)
Are You Now, Margaret? (2%, 4 Votes)
Period of Adjustment (2%, 4 Votes)
Bottle Fatigue (2%, 3 Votes)
Heal Thyself (2%, 3 Votes)
Old Soldiers (2%, 3 Votes)
Mr. and Mrs. Who? (1%, 2 Votes)
Life Time (1%, 1 Votes)
Captains Outrageous (1%, 1 Votes)
Morale Victory (1%, 1 Votes)
Goodbye, Cruel World (1%, 1 Votes)
Private Finance (0%, 0 Votes)
Stars and Stripes (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Votes: 179
For the record, back in August 2015, “Good-Bye Radar (Part 2)” was voted the favorite episode from Season 8.
I voted for “Co-Respondent” but could just as easily have cast my vote for “Dreams” or “Guerrilla My Dreams.”
In my opinion, all three episodes are mediocre. “Dreams” has a bad reputation among M*A*S*H fans, so I’m not surprised fans voted it their least favorite episode from Season 8. I’m not sure why “Good-Bye Radar (Part II)” ranked so high. Is it because fans hate to see Radar go or because they don’t like the way he left the series? Or is this another example of visitors not realizing they’re voting for their least favorite episode?
Which episode did you vote for and why? Hit the comments with your reactions to the poll results.
Be sure to vote in this month’s poll. Pick your least favorite episode from Season 9.
No surprise here. Most everyone I know who watches/watched MASH knows of this episode and dislikes it. Alan Alda at his preachiest.
War Correspondent was a close 2nd, but since BJ is actually able to resist this time (unlike Hanky Panky) I give the episode a pass.
Guerrilla My Dreams always seems to be pretty low rated as well, but I always liked the episode. What is it that people dislike so much about that one? Is it Hawkeye defending the guerrilla who pretty clearly just wants them all dead or is it her being taken away at the end anyways to be killed that everyone dislikes?
I voted for this one & hate it for Hawkeye’s defense of her. I don’t care that she was taken away, and maybe she wasn’t killed after all that. I also hate his SOB epithet being spoken on network prime time.
The thing about Season 8 is that it only has one good episode, and that’s “Too Many Cooks.” When you see what the rest of the season is like, it doesn’t even feel like a Season 8 episode, it feels like it was held over from Season 7.
So, with that being said, every other episode in this season was bad. I voted for “Guerilla My Dreams” and “War Co-Respondant.” “Guerilla My Dreams” was poorly written and poorly executed, and the characters were just so totally oblivious to the guerilla’s actual intentions because they’re convinced she’s delirious with fear. “War Co-Respondant” is just painful to watch. Mike Farrell tries way too hard with this one, it’s trite, forced, and contrived.
I voted for Lend a Hand. I feel a bit bad for doing so as I know it was special for Alan to work with his dad and half-brother but I don’t like the way that Borelli changed from being a charismatic but flawed character (kind of like Hawkeye himself) in The Consultant to a fusspot and a bore in Lend a Hand. There was nothing of the original character there and it was a waste of good actor.
A while back, I tried voting for the episode “Private Finances,” but apparently I had already voted for an episode, and I can’t really remember which one I picked. If I had to guess, it might be “Lend a Hand,” because while I did used to like it when I was younger, my opinion of it has really gone downhill after repeated viewings (especially this last time).
Anyway, after recently rewatching the series, I’ve come to view season 8 as the weakest of the series. That’s not to say I don’t like it. On the contrary, I think there are some really strong episodes here, which could easily put the best seasons of a lot of other shows to shame. However, there are a greater number of weak-to-average episodes compared to the rest of the seasons IMO. Besides “Private Finances” and “Lend a Hand,” a few other episodes I could have considered voting for are “War Co-Respondent,” “Back Pay,” and “Nurse Doctor.”
On the other hand, I actually loved the episode “Dreams,” though I can understand why it may not have been everyone’s favorite.
I voted for ‘Guerilla My Dreams.’ Of all the episodes where Hawkeye tried to butt into Korean politics, this one irritated me the most. Whether he was right to do so or not is not relevant, but him thinking he can is what is annoying about him in this episode.
The little side bits with Scully and Margaret were annoying too.
Bad episode all round.
Maybe no one hated “Stars & Stripes” the most because it was Scully’s last appearance on the show.
I know it’s just a show, but no episode of M*A*S*H angers me more than “Guerilla My Dreams”. I always felt that M*A*S*H went out of its way to humanize the enemy and make the South Korean military the heavy. In some instances, yes, there were occasional nice Chinese and North Korean characters portrayed. But, the woman in this episode is just deplorable. She does not care about the value of anyone’s life, and she essentially spits at the few Americans that feel sorry for her. I believe in showing compassion to those in need, even when someone is not on my side. But, as soon as this woman tried to kill one of the injured American G.I.’s in the very hospital where an American doctor saved her life, I could care less what happened to her.
They definitely bend over backwards to aid a woman who wants to kill them to escape.
It would’ve made a stronger episode if it took sides with Mako’s character as opposed to the 4077th.
‘Dreams’ has a poor reputation amongst the fans???
I guess I’m in the minority of fans who loves it. It’s always been a favorite because it’s one of the many episodes in the back-half of the run that analyzed the characters and the effect the war had on them, a lot of them unfortunately focused on Hawkeye but still.
There’s so many indelible surrealistic imagery from this episode: Charles tap-dancing in a tux with sparklers in the OR, Margaret in a wedding gown with blood on it, Hawkeye removing his limbs in the Mess tent because he didn’t have the right answer…
I went with S8’s finale April Fools, for the same reason a lot of people went with ‘Guerilla My Dreams,’ namely everyone’s slightly out of character in this one. It’s never sat with me well on various rewatches how everyone, even Margaret and Charles, torments the visiting general. In the end, even though it’s a con, everyone goes the farthest extremes with their pranks, which results in the general getting a heart attack(!)
MASH, unfortunately, leaned on this instinct a lot in the last couple of seasons, where the writers made things acrimonious, whether with themselves or others, to create conflict. There’s an episode in S10 called ‘Picture This,’ which I dislike for the same reason.
I voted for Too Many Cooks because this is where Klinger began to morph from his hilarious Section-8 discharge shenanigans to an over-the-top unrealistic wheeler/dealer (I think the worst case of this character flaw was in Depressing News when he was sucking up to the Stars-And-Stripes reporter.) A serious downturn for such a rich and hilarious character and he never quite recovered. Although Jamie Farr’s performance never failed, it was the writing that he was given that destroyed one of my favorite characters.
I disagree somewhat: while I agree that the end to the Section 8 capers was essentially the death of Klinger as we knew him, I don’t think making him a wheeler/dealer was really against his character at all. He was a street kid who came from a rough city like Toledo, not to mention he had a very colorful family life – I could see that as helping him develop skills over the years that would shape him into a wheeler and dealer and a schemer and dreamer. Not to mention, we know Radar was a whiz and wheeling and dealing to get supplies or anything for the 4077th, surely that rubbed off on Klinger as well during times when he’s had to fill in for him as Company Clerk.
To clarify, I am not opposed to the wheeler/dealer aspect of Klinger, but the sappy, over-the-top, ingratiatingly irritating writing that poor Jamie Farr was saddled with. I mention Depressing News because it seemed that every 2 minutes Klinger was giving one of his ridiculous ideas to the reporter with the comment “Eh! Eh!”(forgive my spelling) The tough kid from the streets part of his character was just fine, I just wish that the writers hadn’t tweaked his personality so much. His cynical attitude (from the first 5 seasons especially) was just comic genius!
Totally. Alan Alda and Burt Metcalfe overhauling the writing staff for the last four seasons was a poor decision.
I voted for “Lend a Hand” because of Borelli’s overactive bossiness. The scenes at the aid station between Borelli and Hawkeye annoyed me because they’re both type A people. Also, Charles’s harping on Klinger’s spelling was ludicrous. Feel free to disagree with me at any time.
I’m in total agreement.