I’m not usually surprised by the results of one of my polls, but the results of last month’s poll are a little shocking. A clear majority of those voting like to watch M*A*S*H on TV (MeTV, TV Land, etc.) rather than on DVD or on Hulu. I was certain most fans would say they like to watch the show on DVD. Here are the full results:
How do you like to watch M*A*S*H?
On TV (MeTV, TV Land, etc.) (54%, 67 Votes)
On DVD (24%, 30 Votes)
On Hulu (21%, 26 Votes)
Total Votes: 123
Believe it or not, I remembered to vote last month. I only watch M*A*S*H on DVD. I can’t remember the last time I watched an episode on TV, either on cable or an over-the-air network like MeTV. Probably back when cable channel Hallmark Channel was airing the show. I watched it all the time on cable channel FX but once the DVDs started coming out, I quickly switched to watching uncut and commercial free.
Be sure to vote in this month’s poll, which asks how many episodes of M*A*S*H you watched in 2018. I’ll probably leave it up for two months, unless I come up with a really good idea for a poll over the next 30 days.
I’m surprised by the results too, I honestly can’t comprehend why a majority of fans would rather watch the show on TV – where it’s all butchered up for extra commercials, the picture’s fuzzier, and colors are more muted, among other things.
If anything, a lot of M*A*S*Hers seem to have a bit of a phobia for the DVDs, for some reason . . . I guess because we’re living in a streaming age now, people are afraid of the “work” that goes into watching DVDs.
I don’t have a phobia for watching on DVD. I just don’t have any MASH DVDs. And I’d only want the first three seasons, maybe up to season 5. I haven’t been able to find the discs easily available, and because it is so common on TV, I don’t feel a need to order them. I do own Babylon 5 and most of Stargate SG-1 on disc, because they aren’t shown on TV at all. And I don’t want to pay for more streaming services–I have only seen the one episode of Star Trek Discovery that was shown on CBS because I don’t want to pay for CBS All Access for one show.
As far as how the show (or any older show) is chopped up on TV, yes, I find it highly annoying. MeTV cut a critical punchline from an episode of WKRP In Cincinnati (where Arthur Carlson thinks cocaine is foot powder), and I was very unhappy!
Your mileage may vary, of course.
If I’m not doing one of my “series binges” where I go through the whole series in a couple months, I will typically only watch it on Me TV. During the binge I have the entire series burnt onto a flash drive that plugs right into my TV, so it’s all just there. For just a random episode here and there though, I prefer Me TV.
For me, I’ve seen the series so many times, that when I just want to watch a random episode, I find it difficult to pick my own episode because I know them all so well and like so many. With Me TV, I don’t have to worry about that choice. I get whatever Me TV is playing at the time.
We also don’t have cable, just a digital antenna for TV, but because of how far away we are from the broadcasts, we literally only get Fox5, Me TV, and H&I, so I feel like I’m getting some use out of the antenna by watching M*A*S*H on Me TV or Star Trek on H&I
I too voted for DVD. But, of course, if I come across it on TV, I’ll leave it there until another (non-MASH) show comes on. Then I’ll switch it to something else usually. And I, like 007, also have the entire series on a jump drive – I ripped all of my DVDs to video files. But, it’s attached to my Raspberry Pi (nerd here), so I can stream it to any device on my home network. Hope the HD version is released on Bluray – I’d like to see the difference….
I occasionally watch on tv, but it’s more convenient for me to watch on dvd. I have the entire series on dvd, and I have specific episodes I watch at certain times of the year (Christmas Thanksgiving and New Year related episodes, the Greek Easter episodic, the April Fools episode, the Kentucky Derby episode. Otherwise, my habit is about once a month I relax on a Friday evening with a martini or two and “binge” watch 4 or 5 episodes. Sometimes I stick to old favorites and bounce around between seasons when I do this, other times I just watch all episodes on one disk. But dvd’s give me lots of felexibility, so I prefer them.
I watch the show on DVD. That way, I can watch every scene of the show, without it being cut up to make room for ads (with the exception of “Our Finest Hour”), and more importantly, I’m able to watch it without the laugh track.