When did M*A*S*H "Jump the Shark"

[LynneSin]

Poll question: When did M*A*S*H "Jump the Shark"

As you might know, "Jump the Shark" refers to an episode of Happy Days where Fonzie jumped a shark tank with his motorcycle. TV affectionados claim it was at that point that "Happy Days" started to take a turn for the worse with the shows that they produced.

I love M*A*S*H but by the end of the 11th season I could barely tolerate it because it was too preachy and not enough fun. Since it seems we have a bunch of M*A*S*H fans let's take a poll about when M*A*S*H "Jumped the Shark"

[bif]

1. Never jumped the Shark

In my opinion.

[ET Awful]

3. I agree . . . .

MASH never jumped. It had some bad episodes occasionally, but it never really jumped.

[OhioStateProgressive]

4. agreed...and it only ran 11 seasons:)

I do like the Trapper John episodes more than the BJ Hunnicut episodes


but Mike Farrell went on to become an activist, and Wayne Rogers went on to become an investment banker to the stars...so i guess that evens it out

[glitch]

11. Agreed

Every character replacement they made was an even exchange.
All wonderful actors and writing.

[lazarus]

2. either

when Henry left the show, or when they started filming completely on a sound stage. It stopped being silly, and started being preachy.

[GOPisEvil]

5. When Alan Alda started directing.

Great actor, good liberal, but his episodes tended to be overly preachy.

[Richardo]

12. I'm hip, brother-man...

If a real doctor took every case with that level of earnest sincerity and seriousness he'd be in a rubber room in six months.

[elcondor]

21. Well, if I recall . . .

He WAS put away for awhile in the last episode. ;-) IMHO, it never jumped.

[GOPisEvil]

22. Right-o!

He was sent to the Tokyo Giggling Academy for a while. :D

[SoCalProgressive]

24. He did go crazy,

Hawkeye did. In the last few shows (or the long finale TV movie, however you look at it) Dr. Pierce was sent to the olive drab rubber room and was kept there by Dr. Sydney Freeman.

And if you squeeze all 11 seasons of the show into the Korean War timeline, the show covered about 1.5 years at most. MASH didn't cover the entire war, or so I assume. The front remained relatively static during the run of the show which happened in real life during the last half of the war.

My utterly trivial point is that the good doctor did go nutty after 6 to 18 months.

[supernova]

6. Didn't jump the shark

IMO. The writing and inventiveness were always top notch. They went out on top. :thumbsup:

[MaineDem]

7. What? M*A*S*H was on tv???

Just kidding. I loved the movie...loved the tv show. Didn't care for the finale though.

[johnnie]

8. The ones...

...that Alan Alda wrote and directed. He tried to make it too much like "art" and it kind of took the laughter out of it for me. But, I know some people like that sort of stuff in "sitcoms"...I didn't.

[Faygo Kid]

9. Better at the end than the beginning

BJ better than Trapper; Charles (much, very much) better than Frank Burns; Potter better; Margaret Houlihan a much improved character; Klinger, too. Only Hawkeye, who was preachy and snide, deteriorated, but it didn't matter - the ensemble cast carried it into TVLand heaven. Hard to believe it's been off the air for over 20 years, except in blessed reruns.

[Kolesar]

14. Henry Morgan/Colonel Potter was excellent, much better than Col Blake

I just could not relate to that wet-rag of a unit commander Henry Blake with his golf clubs and his hat full of fishing lures.

[mark0rama]

27. Like you, I liked the later years' *characters* better...

...but I thought the earlier years were better comedically - raucous, fast and loose.

[Skittles]

10. when Margaret started sporting a 70's hairdo

YES INDEED

[ajacobson]

20. I agree!

[KensPen]

13. When Trapper left....

actually there were a few first season characters they got rid of,
spear chucker,
and hop sing (?) the hose boy...
and a few others in the poker crowd.

[LynneSin]

17. Why they got rid of SpearChucker:

FROM IMDB Triva Database:

The character of Spearchucker disappeared after the first five episodes when the writers found out that there weren't any African American surgeons serving at MASHes in the Korean War.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/trivia

[SoCalProgressive]

25. They sent the hose boy to school in the states

in the first episode. However, the dentist disappeared, as well as the Australian anesthetician (sp?). I always wondered where he went, I guess there weren't any Australian anestheticians in the war, either...

[BOSSHOG]

15. By the end of the ELEVENTH Season?

How many TV shows do we watch for 11 seasons to detect a dislike for it? MASH had an incredible run of writing and acting and pathos and logos and ethos and consistency amongst a sea of change. MASH never jumped the Shark, just broke my heart when it ended production.

for you LYNNESIN: GO EAGLES. I've been a fan since Jorgenson was tossing the pigskin

[ibegurpard]

16. I have no idea

But thank you very much for letting me know where "jumped the shark" comes from. That has always puzzled me.

[Terwilliger]

18. I think the last two seasons were simply more reflective...

less interested iun screwball comedy, but I still liked 'em all and the final movie was fantastic

If you want a point in the series where it seemed to lose its comedic edge, I'd say just after Radar left.

[underpants]

19. Too preachy for my tastes those last few years.

Hard to say but probably when Trapper left definitely when Winchester showed up and it was pretty much over when Radar left.

[Terwilliger]

26. some of the funniest moments in the series were with Winchester

like the time he got everybody back for their practical jokes on him and then they turned around and got him back...great stuff!

[NashVegas]

30. Aye, That Was Fun

I was tossed between two choices: Margaret gets married and Margaret/Hawkeye slept together.

[JackSwift]

23. It never permanently jumped the shark

But there were cycles of badness


Radar's character became very infantilized as time drew on. I didn't like it.

Hawkeye's preacher moments (almost all of them?) are very tiresome.

[moof]

28. the last show jumped it

there were bad shows over the years but that last show where Hawkeye has gone off the deep end was too much too far & too alan alda.
moof likes Alda a lot but the whole idea of tieing up the show with a ending that has it seem like the war was over goes against the reality that the show was so loyal to over the years. While moof does not know the exact number there have been american soldiers killed in Korea ever since the cease fire. It would have been much better to have had hawkeye leave with all the chaos still going on like they did with Radar & Blake.

[DerekG]

29. It makes sense that these characters evolved...

If you were in a war for several years, would you stay the same?

It's entirely plausible that Hawkeye WOULD lose his edge and retreat into madness.

Wouldn't his practical jokes run out at some time?

Would Hot Lips really stay with the boorish Burns for all that time?

Yeah, I loved Henry Blake, and I loved the comedy of the first 5 years of the show, but like ALL IN THE FAMILY, there is something wonderful about the fact that these characters were not fixed.