Music on M*A*S*H - Does it Work or Not?

Talk about all things M*A*S*H -- the novel, the film, the television series, even the play. Not to mention the spin-offs, merchandise, cast, crew and anything else you can think of to talk about.
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Big Daddy O'Reilly
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Music on M*A*S*H - Does it Work or Not?

Post by Big Daddy O'Reilly »

M*A*S*H started out pretty much like any other sitcom, with quirky background music playing throughout the episode, especially Season One (biggest example "To Market, To Market" (1x02); after a few years, the score kept decreasing with mostly music coming in from or going to a commercial break, and maybe an entire little piece for a mostly silent comedy sequence (like Klinger hang gliding, or Flagg tearing up the V.I.P. tent); afterwards, they only useds music in and out of commercial breaks; then finally by Season Seven or Eight, the show had no background music whatsoever, save for maybe Radio Tokyo.

Do you think the show works better with music or without music? Personally, even though I love music as muchas the next fellah, I don't think the show benefitted from music early on, but at the same time, no music whatsoever really was a bit of a handicap... I think perhaps music on the show worked best when they used it mainly in and out of commercials, but would score a light-hearted comedic moment.
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Jeeter
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Re: Music on M*A*S*H - Does it Work or Not?

Post by Jeeter »

Sentimental Journey should have been put on repeat and played throughout the series. :P

But seriously, I really like the music in The Pilot because it has the Korean feel to it. Other than that, I was fine with just the music being played before commercial breaks. I don't know how much it would have benefited from having more music mostly because I can't imagine what it would be like.

Oh, and I really like those bits of music that are played when something funny or sly is happening. For example, when they are about to give Frank the sedative in Chief Surgeon Who?.
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