Season 6 General Discussion

Talk about individual episodes here. Every episode has its own discussion thread and there are also threads for each season.
Post Reply
User avatar
Big Daddy O'Reilly
Colonel
Posts: 543
Joined: Mon May 23, 2011 10:57 am
Location: The Swamp
Contact:

Season 6 General Discussion

Post by Big Daddy O'Reilly »

Season Six is, without a doubt, my personal favorite season of the show.

We may have lost Frank Burns (and a much more jovial-sounding laugh track), and Gene Reynolds may had bowwed out from the show, but M*A*S*H didn't miss a beat with the addition of Charles, who proved to be a worthy advasary to Hawkeye and B.J., with his pompous and snobby attitude, and his competence as a surgeon, even though he had to adjust to meatball surgery.

Not only that, but there were a lot of great stories that season, particularly the last several episodes I find to be among my personal favorites, because these episodes marked some interesting moments of the series: "Big Daddy O'Reilly" aside, we saw Klinger end up getting divorced after Laverne cheated on him, we saw what the 4077th is like without Hawkeye around, and we saw how fond the camp really is of Potter when he planned to retire because of the bad reports that were being filed on him.

Other memorable moments from the season include Radar "growing up" after his hero worship of Hawkeye is dashed against the rocks, we see what happens when a therapy patient of Sidney's turns sour on him, we even see what it's like to have the Olypmics (or something close to the Olympics) in Uijongbu with crutch races and nurse carrying.

Klinger's Section 8 schemes also continue to up the ante like from the previous season; this year, we see him faking a series of fainting spells, caring for an invisible camel, acting like a little girl, among other things.

I agree, while "In Love and War" (6x08) isn't a favorite of mine either, I know it was important to Alan as a writer, as he had written based on what he had heard really happened to a once-well-off Korean lady without even meeting her, then when he finally did, he was relieved to see she was exactly like the woman he had written about. Personally, in addition to that, I think really the only other "bad" episodes from that season were "The Light that Failed' (6x07), "Comrades in Arms, Parts 1 and 2" (6x13/14) (yeah, sorry, I don't like those), and "Patent 4077" (6x17).

As for writing Charles, I will say that I'm glad that they quickly steered away from making him Margaret's new love interest, that REALLY rubbed me the wrong way, I think at first they felt they needed to try to recapture the spirit of the old Margaret/Frank fling. I don't think Gene Reynolds cared for that direction either, so it's really a good thing that they dropped that aspect.

I agree about "The Grim Reaper", but I don't know, I think "Major Topper" is mildly enjoyable... I like how Potter came up with the idea of giving everyone in Post-Op placebos for their pain, and as it turns out, they all worked.

Actually, now that I think of it, I'm surprised that I got used to Charles as quickly as I did: I remember when B.J. and Potter arrived, it took me quite a number of episodes to get used to B.J., and it took me almost the entire season, maybe even into Season Five to get used to Potter, but Charles I got used to instantly. I think maybe because the transition between him and Frank was much more smooth than the previous transitions: Henry was suddenly killed off, then Potter arrives was a shock, then for Trapper to just suddenly be gone and B.J. come in was a blindside, but within the same story, Frank was still there, if only in spirit so-to-speak, while Charles was there filling in only to end up staying permanently, so yeah.

I think another reason Season Six stands out for me so much is before I even actually sat down and started watching the show, there was a brief period where I had to do a lot of channel surfing at night, and so I would be catching a lot of little bits throughout this season in the process, such as: Margaret and Charles eating the canned pheasant; B.J. waking Radar in the middle of the night to make a phone call to Peg; Margaret coming down on Lorraine in O.R. while Dupree loves a woman with spunk; so needless to say, when I started watching the show actually, and I saw these scenes, I was like, "Hey, I remember seeing this that night..."

There's a couple of moments like this from Season Seven too.
UglyJohn
Private
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:15 pm

Re: Season 6 General Discussion

Post by UglyJohn »

There is a wonderful post out just today by none other than MASH writer Ken Levine about the season six episode, The Merchant of Korea which followed the heavily melodramatic two parter, Comrades in Arms.

The episode itself is very contrived with the premise that somehow Charles takes advantage of Hawkeye and BJ because of favors/money owed back to him. But of course he gets his comeuppance at the poker game, a MASH staple. Levine's description of writing that episode is very insightful. Never knew about all the technical details that a poker game scene needs to get right.

You have to make it look real and you have to include the audience in the game's action. Won't spoil it so read on...

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/
User avatar
J Fred Muggs
Private
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:04 pm
Location: Uijeongbu

Re: Season 6 General Discussion

Post by J Fred Muggs »

Thanks UglyJohn. I really enjoyed the Ken Levine post! :P
kkt
Sergeant
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:01 pm

Re: Season 6 General Discussion

Post by kkt »

UglyJohn wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 8:50 pm There is a wonderful post out just today by none other than MASH writer Ken Levine about the season six episode, The Merchant of Korea which followed the heavily melodramatic two parter, Comrades in Arms.

The episode itself is very contrived with the premise that somehow Charles takes advantage of Hawkeye and BJ because of favors/money owed back to him. But of course he gets his comeuppance at the poker game, a MASH staple. Levine's description of writing that episode is very insightful. Never knew about all the technical details that a poker game scene needs to get right.

You have to make it look real and you have to include the audience in the game's action. Won't spoil it so read on...

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/
I enjoyed Ken Levine's post! Thanks for the link.
Post Reply