Product Description

Explores the day-to-day lives of the people who live and work at the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) stationed three miles from the front during the Korean War.
Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 8-JAN-2002
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4629 in DVD
• Brand: MASH
• Released on: 2002-01-08
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 624 minutes

Amazon.com
Like the TV incarnation of The Odd Couple, the M*A*S*H series has supplanted the original film in the public's consciousness. Legendary comedy writer Larry Gelbart (Your Show of Shows) deserves a medal for developing Robert Altman's bloody, funny 1970 classic for television with much of its anti-establishment spirit intact. These 24 first-season episodes--bracingly less politically correct than the shows in the final seasons--chart the program's sometimes bumpy evolution as it tried to remain true to the film's anarchic spirit while finding its own voice. The most memorable episodes include "The Pilot," which establishes the characters in broad strokes; "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet," in which a friend of Hawkeye's (Alan Alda) dies on the operating table (look for "Ronny" Howard as an underage soldier); "Cowboy," in which someone is trying to kill clueless commander Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson); and the pivotal "Dear Dad," the first of what would be a series of multistory episodes in which Hawkeye writes to his father about life at the 4077th. It is interesting to note film characters who made early exits from the series, including Timothy Brown's Spearchucker and Karen Philipp's Lt. Dish (George Morgan, who plays Father Mulcahy in the pilot, we hardly knew ye). Klinger (Jamie Farr), bucking for his Section 8 discharge, doesn't appear until the fifth episode, "Chief Surgeon Who?" And Gary Burghoff's Radar is a much more wily and savvy partner in crime to "Yankee Doodle Doctors" Hawkeye and Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) than in later seasons. In its 11-year run, M*A*S*H earned 14 Emmy Awards, and it remains one of TV's most beloved series. Though it is a staple of syndication, the episodes are presented here uncut, probably for the first time since their original broadcast. For M*A*S*H devotees, this three-disc set is just what the doctor ordered. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Just what I wanted!
I got this as a gift for my father for fathers' day, he loved it! He has always been a huge fan of the show and loved that he could now watch the episodes whenever he wants! I'll definately be getting him the rest of the seasons for future gifts.

The Greatest TV Show EVER!
Every once in a great while someone comes along with a great idea for a TV show. They tell just the right person and they just happen to come together and are the best possible writers for this kind of show. They just happen to find some broadcasting company crazy enough to trot out a pilot.

Then by chance they assemble actors that are so good at playing their roles that they become synonomous with them.

You add in some of the greatest TV directors of all time and you have M*A*S*H.

Season 1 starts out with a bang with some of the more memorable episodes like, the desk and yankee doodle doctor.

I love this show, and would reccomend it to everyone.

War is Hell but MASH is Comedy Heaven
'MASH' is one of the finest American TV series ever to come out of the old network system. As practically everyone who searches Amazon for information on this great show will have undoubtably already read the excellent highlighted reviews, I'd like to add my case for starting your 'MASH' collection with this particular DVD set.

First, as this was the first season, the show has yet to fully evolve into what we all remember it as from syndication. There's an endless parade of cute young nurses, and multiple characters from the film appear here and nowhere else in the series. Much of the comedy leans toward what other military-based sitcoms had already done. Thus, certain things happen in this DVD set that we don't usually associate with MASH.

Second, continuing with the shock of surprise comes the revelation that the producers seldom insisted on period accuracy. The aforementioned nurses, for example, wear 'mod' hairstyles and Radar O'Reilly reads comic books that weren't published until the 1960s long after the Korean War was over. Back in the early 1970s, this might have been seen as a flaw. Today, it helps to remove the 'period piece' stigma that so many other early 1970s sitcoms suffer from. Coupled with the use of film stock rather that videotape and this is certainly one of the freshest-looking TV comedies over 30 years old.

Third, there's the opportunity to appreciate actors portray characters who either were not there for the full run of the series or who evolved into something very different. Mclean Stevenson's Colonel Blake may never win awards as a model of military efficiency, but I sure would love to have someone that easygoing as my boss! Wayne Rogers' approach to Trapper John make him seem like Dean Martin to Alan Alda's Jerry Lewis-like Hawkeye Pierce. Gary Burghoff's early version of Radar O'Reilly is a very sly, shifty, deceptively dimwitted corporal who is far removed from the lovable innocent we all remember. And was there ever an actor better capable of playing a pompous twit than Larry Linville as Frank Burns? Linville also shows incredible ability as a straight man to both Rogers' and Alda's antics; the same jokes would likely fall flat without a steady straight man as a target.

On the downside there are no extras. We do get the chance to turn off the laughtrack, which makes the TV show seem even more cinematic than before. But there are no cast interviews (not even contemporary talk show interviews), no still galleries, no commentary tracks. We do get a mostly noninformative booklet with some tiny photos and a track listing, along with original airdates. I didn't feel cheated by this, as the price of the set makes it very affordable, but I do think it's a missed opportunity.

In sum, I was very impressed with how fresh 'MASH' is, and how nearly impossible it is to 'date' the series. The first season may not be as 'good' as the later ones, but to me the differences are so slight that this DVD set easily deserves 5 stars. I strongly suggest you start with this set and then work your way through the others in sequence.