Season 8 General Discussion
Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:25 pm
Terrible season. Just terrible.
I mean... where do I begin? I mean, Season Eight DID seem like it was off to a pretty good start: "Too Many Cooks" (8x01) was an amusing episode, it seemed like almost any other episode from the previous season, with a good mix of comedy (the situation with Private Paul Conway) and angst (Potter and Mildred's marriage being threatened)... but all that changes by episode TWO. Suddenly, everything changed... nothing was funny... nothing made you laugh (even the laugh track was more and more noticably absent)... everything seemed so heavy... what happened? Mostly, this is due to the fact that Alan Alda and Burt Metcalfe completely overhauling the writing staff; we lost the likes of Ken Levine, David Isaacs, Everrett Greenbaum, Jim Fritzell, Ronny Graham, among others; Alan got more involved with the production, and it's clear his writing style became more political.
Speaking of the writing staff, it was interesting that they brought on Elias Davis & David Pollack, considering they failed at adapting National Lampoon's Animal House into a weekly sitcom, that's probably one of the reasons why the ensuing seasons of M*A*S*H were so terrible.
And of course, let us not forget the changes in the characters: we lost Radar, which resulted in Klinger becoming a regular guy (and also because apparently his kid was being bullied because his/her dad was a "transvestite"), B.J. became more and more bitter and angry, Margaret completely changed her appearance like twice a season... and what exactly did happen to Zale?
In short... Season Eight essentially marked the end of M*A*S*H... it and the following seasons was us witnessing it's slow, painful, and insufferable death.
Don't get me wrong, I like Charles too, he had more depth as a character than Frank did; his first two seasons were great, he really proved himself to be a worthy advesary to Hawkeye and B.J.
Another thing that gets me too about Season Eight (and the following seasons) is there's absolutely no music score whatsoever. Between the gradual removal of the laugh track, and not hearing any music score, made the show rather spooky.
The first two seasons had music throughout the episodes, the following seasons usually would have little music cues and buttons coming in and out of commercial breaks (rare occasions where there would be a score for a full scene, like Flagg tearing apart the tent in "White Gold" (3x23), or Charles realizing he just had the wool pulled over his eyes in "An Eye for a Tooth" (7x14), but the rest of the series had no music whatosever. And you know what the ironic thing is? You know Larry Gelbart made that sarcastic remark that he didn't want a laugh track, "Just like the real Korean War"? Apparently, that was Burt Metcalfe's sentiments exactly as to why Seasons Eight through Eleven have no background music - "Just like the real Korean War".
Another ironic thing about Season Eight, and the following seasons, that among those added to the production staff were writers/producers Thad Mumford & Dan Wilcox... in addition to working on M*A*S*H, they were also writers on, of all shows, Sesame Street. Any of you remember that song "10 Commandments of Health"? That's one of the Sesame Songs that Thad Mumford wrote, and even performed the vocals for.
I mean... where do I begin? I mean, Season Eight DID seem like it was off to a pretty good start: "Too Many Cooks" (8x01) was an amusing episode, it seemed like almost any other episode from the previous season, with a good mix of comedy (the situation with Private Paul Conway) and angst (Potter and Mildred's marriage being threatened)... but all that changes by episode TWO. Suddenly, everything changed... nothing was funny... nothing made you laugh (even the laugh track was more and more noticably absent)... everything seemed so heavy... what happened? Mostly, this is due to the fact that Alan Alda and Burt Metcalfe completely overhauling the writing staff; we lost the likes of Ken Levine, David Isaacs, Everrett Greenbaum, Jim Fritzell, Ronny Graham, among others; Alan got more involved with the production, and it's clear his writing style became more political.
Speaking of the writing staff, it was interesting that they brought on Elias Davis & David Pollack, considering they failed at adapting National Lampoon's Animal House into a weekly sitcom, that's probably one of the reasons why the ensuing seasons of M*A*S*H were so terrible.
And of course, let us not forget the changes in the characters: we lost Radar, which resulted in Klinger becoming a regular guy (and also because apparently his kid was being bullied because his/her dad was a "transvestite"), B.J. became more and more bitter and angry, Margaret completely changed her appearance like twice a season... and what exactly did happen to Zale?
In short... Season Eight essentially marked the end of M*A*S*H... it and the following seasons was us witnessing it's slow, painful, and insufferable death.
Don't get me wrong, I like Charles too, he had more depth as a character than Frank did; his first two seasons were great, he really proved himself to be a worthy advesary to Hawkeye and B.J.
Another thing that gets me too about Season Eight (and the following seasons) is there's absolutely no music score whatsoever. Between the gradual removal of the laugh track, and not hearing any music score, made the show rather spooky.
The first two seasons had music throughout the episodes, the following seasons usually would have little music cues and buttons coming in and out of commercial breaks (rare occasions where there would be a score for a full scene, like Flagg tearing apart the tent in "White Gold" (3x23), or Charles realizing he just had the wool pulled over his eyes in "An Eye for a Tooth" (7x14), but the rest of the series had no music whatosever. And you know what the ironic thing is? You know Larry Gelbart made that sarcastic remark that he didn't want a laugh track, "Just like the real Korean War"? Apparently, that was Burt Metcalfe's sentiments exactly as to why Seasons Eight through Eleven have no background music - "Just like the real Korean War".
Another ironic thing about Season Eight, and the following seasons, that among those added to the production staff were writers/producers Thad Mumford & Dan Wilcox... in addition to working on M*A*S*H, they were also writers on, of all shows, Sesame Street. Any of you remember that song "10 Commandments of Health"? That's one of the Sesame Songs that Thad Mumford wrote, and even performed the vocals for.