Discuss January/February’s Poll

9 Comments

Although I don’t remember planning it this way, January/February’s poll tied nicely into the 30th anniversary of the end of M*A*S*H, asking “Should M*A*S*H have continued for a 12th season?” More than 400 votes were cast. Here are the results:

Yes, it was still going strong. (49%, 211 Votes)
No, it was time to call it a day. (46%, 199 Votes)
I don’t know. (5%, 18 Votes)

I know I often say I’m surprised by the results of the polls I run here but this time I am really and truly shocked. There has always seemed to be something of a consensus among M*A*S*H fans that the series had grown tired by the time its 11th season rolled around. The ratings were certainly strong enough to keep the show on the air another year. But were there more stories to tell? Obviously, a lot of people think there were. Far more than I would have thought. That being said, the results are very close to a tie, suggesting perhaps that while the vocal fans are the ones who complain about the quality of the series in its latter years, even casual fans realized wrapping things up after 11 years was probably a good idea.

Personally, while I feel the 11th and final season probably could have lasted for a full season rather than a shortened one with just 16 episodes, there wasn’t enough left in the tank for a 12th season. Hit the comments with your thoughts.

9 Replies to “Discuss January/February’s Poll”

  1. In some cases, for convenience, some sources like to tag spinoffs with the rest of the series as far as episode guides go, so some things considered, the two seasons of AfterMASH could be considered Seasons Twelve and Thirteen of M*A*S*H.

    But I mean, if you ask me, M*A*S*H should have ended after Season Seven. It was all downhill from there.

  2. I agree with Big Daddy O’Reilly. Season Eight wasn’t good. After watching it, I didn’t see any later episodes and started to watch the first seasons again. Maybe someday I’ll watch the last ones, but now I’m not going to do that.

  3. Well, there were episodes that I didn’t care for (there weren’t many), but I don’t think for me personally there were specific seasons that I didn’t like. No matter what season we pull off the shelf to watch, we enjoy what we see. I was one of them that voted for a 12th season, but that’s maybe (and probably) because I would’ve loved to have seen more of our favorite cast…

      1. In all honesty, I really don’t believe that even if Radar had stayed that it would have helped matters very much… in fact, with the direction the character went, he would have seemed out of place… but that’s another discussion for the next poll.

  4. I didn’t participate in the poll, because honestly, I’m torn.

    On one hand, I don’t think there was a truly bad or overall weak season of the show. I do think seasons 2 or 3 through 6 were the golden years, but if they had gone for a 12th, I think they could pulled it off.

    But on the other hand, while I don’t see any season as bad, personally there did seem to me to be more weak episodes per season starting with the 7th. Maybe it was better they went out on top when they did. Although a full 11th season would have been fine with me.

    I don’t know. As it stands, there are a ton of episodes from every year that I love, which isn’t something I can say about most shows. M*A*S*H set such a high standard, and even the worst episodes are really only bad relative to the rest of the series (frankly, I’d take a “bad” M*A*S*H over pretty much any other show).

    As for Radar, I love the character, but I agree with Big Daddy O’Reilly. Given the direction the series took, the character would have been somewhat out of place. I just can’t imagine him in season 10 or 11. Maybe if Gary Burghoff had stayed on, the writing would have reflected that, but since Radar was seen so little by the end of his run on the show, well, I’m not sure.

  5. In my opinion, they chose well in ending the series. Sometimes in life you have to know when to stop and not stretch things too far when clearly they cannot take it anymore. I think they juiced pretty much all it could be possible out of the characters and the story.

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