The Good Old 1-2

Many a cop has said that Barney Miller is the most realist cop show of all time.  Not Hill Street Blues.  Not Naked City.  Not Delvecchio.  Not Dragnet.  Not NYPD Blue.  Not even any of the shows in the Law & Order family. On an episode of Jon Favreau’s...

I’d Like to Buy Don Draper a Coke

With a final scene that rivals Bob Newhart waking up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette in Newhart, Hawkeye leaving the 4077th by helicopter and seeing that B.J. used rocks to spell out the word “Goodbye” in M*A*S*H, and the deaths of the major characters...

When Colonel Potter Was a General

M*A*S*H had a terrific roster of guest stars during its run from 1972 to 1983 on CBS.  Ron Howard.  Laurence Fishbone.  Andrew Duggan.  Rosalind Chao.  Dennis Dugan.  Blythe Danner.  James Cromwell.  Leslie Nielsen.  Gwen Verdon.  George Wendt.  Mary Wickes.  Susan...

A Soldier’s Story

M*A*S*H had several memorable characters.  Klinger dressed like a woman to get a discharge from the Army based on a Section 8.  Hawkeye used humor, usually bathed in sarcasm, as an emotional defense mechanism to protect his psyche from getting fully pummeled by the...

Battle Scars of the Mind

On M*A*S*H, surgeons at Mobile Army Surgical Hospital 4077th bandaged limbs, tended to wounds, and operated on soldiers torn apart by grenades, bullets, and shrapnel during the Korean War.  Beyond the physical wounds, though, were mental injuries.  To treat them, the...