Yahoo! News has a feature called Who Knew? in which a short video is presented and then a brief quiz offered. Today’s entry is titled Series Finales: “House” And “Desperate Housewives” Ending This Month, Can They Compare To Classic Finales?. The video mentions the series finale of M*A*S*H (“Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen,” originally broadcast February 28th, 1983) about eight seconds in. Here’s the video followed by a partial transcript:

The gold standard for series finales is still the final episode of M*A*S*H in 1983. 106 million viewers watched the poignant goodbye to Hawkeye, a record that still stands. The final episode of The Fugitive in 1967 owns the record for the largest share of the audience, though. 72% of American households tuned in to see if Doctor Richard Kimble caught the one-armed man.

Notice anything wrong with that statement? Perhaps not. I doubt most M*A*S*H fans know without looking it up but “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” averaged a 77% Nielsen share, giving it the record for the largest share of the audience for a series finale, not The Fugitive as the video asserts. It was correctly identified as drawing the most viewers, however. Fun fact: that 77% share was not a record back in 1983. Read more at my Goodbye, Farewell and Amen Ratings Analysis.

The Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays, with images posted randomly between 12PM and 6PM Eastern. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.

And the Winner Is: chuckles, who correctly identified “Depressing News.”

Name That Episode

I am a week late posting this, so this month’s poll will have to run a bit shorter than usual. Last month, I asked visitors to answer the following question: “Have you seen any episodes of Trapper John, M.D.?” Out of the 178 responses, 63% said Yes and 37% said No. That’s very close to the response for March’s poll the same question about AfterMASH (the percentages were 60% Yes and 40% No). I was surprised that so many people had seen AfterMASH but I am not at all surprised to see so many people watched Trapper John, M.D.. For starters, it was on the air for much longer than AfterMASH (from 1979-1986). And Trapper John, M.D. was syndicated in the States, unlike AfterMASH. FX actually aired the series for a while in the late 1990s, airing two hour-long episodes back-to-back early on Sunday mornings. And AmericanLife TV (now known as Youtoo TV — seriously) aired the series at one point.

Are there any rabid fans of Trapper John, M.D. out there waiting and hoping for the series to make it to DVD?

The Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays, with images posted randomly between 12PM and 6PM Eastern. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.

And the Winner Is: Pinkpagoda, who correctly identified “Guerilla My Dreams.”

Name That Episode

The Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays, with images posted randomly between 12PM and 6PM Eastern. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.

And the Winner Is: TWoods, who correctly identified “Snappier Judgement.”

Name That Episode