“I saw a few episodes when I was about age 11. But back then, I watched it with Hungarian audio. But of course, it can’t even be compared to the original english audio. No wonder no one has ever tried writing hungarian subtitles for this . Anyway, I was 3rd year student at the university when I downloaded (yes I’m guilty ) the first season. And after that, in a short month, I watched all of it (it took that long only because back then I had a lousy 1 Mb bandwith for downloading). The only dissapointment I had was when Lt. Col. Henry Blake got killed (Abyssnia, Henry). I was literally angry with the writers. How could they do that? Fortunately, later on I’ve read on IMDB that the staff decided that if one of the cast members wants out, they will never give the character a tragic end. (However, in one episode, a nurse named Miller (I think) dies because she steps on a landmine, and Hawkeye does the eulogy for her as he discoveres that she loved him). I was very sad when I first watched the last episode, I just couldn’t believe that the show was over. Alda played the crazy Hawkeye splendidly. The second and last thing I didn’t like about the show was the fairly big amount of discontinuity. You can read all about it on wikipedia, I just give one example of it. In one of the three episodes named dear dad when hawkeye writes a letter home, he writes “kiss mom and sis for me”. Later, when Radar gets a letter in which her mother informs him that she has a “boyfriend” Hawkeye states that his father is a widower. Ok, that’s it for me, but all in all, the best damn show ever!!!”

As always, I am continually amazed at the number of young people who have found M*A*S*H and enjoy it. Five of these ten stories are from people born in 1990 or after.

“Yankee Doodle Doctor”, from the sixth week in 1972 was the first M*A*S*H episode I ever saw. I was in college, but worked nights. On a rare night off I turned on the TV to M*A*S*H, because my friends had told me about the show. In school I hung out with a group of Marx Brothers fanatics (they were undergoing a revival/re-discovery at that time). When I saw Alan (Hawkeye) playing “Groucho”, I was immediately hooked. And have been ever since. I never again missed an episode all the way to “Goodbye. Farewell. And Amen.”

Be sure to contribute your own first experience with M*A*S*H.