Trapper from MASH dies.

[Brian37]

Instrumental on TV so as to not offend the public with controversial lyrics.

Yea, so you know the name of the song. Ok, what was it?

[Crossless2.0]

Instrumental on TV so as to not offend the public with controversial lyrics.

Yea, so you know the name of the song. Ok, what was it?

"Suicide is Painless"

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Factlet: The lyrics to the song were written by the director's 14 year old son, since Altman wanted the lyrics to be 'as stupid as possible'.

Boru

[account_inactive]

That was an awesome show. Sad to hear.

[Rev. Rye]

Well, I am a fan of M*A*S*H, and even rewatched the entire series on Netflix. Honestly, of all the regular characters of the show, Trapper John was easily the least interesting. He's the only one who can't pass the Plinkett Test. Maybe it's because the writers couldn't be bothered to develop him like they did everyone else, but when I got to season 4 and found him gone, I found myself thinking that at least they had the sense to take the weakest link.

Still, it's sad to hear that he died.

[KevinM1]

I never read the book or watched the movie, so the TV series is all I know.

Radar changed pretty severely in the first few seasons. There's an episode where Hot Lips is fed up with everything and wants a transfer, so she storms over to Colonel Blake's office. Radar is at his normal post in with all the radio equipment smoking a cigar and drinking whisky, and is outright disrespectful to/dismissive of Hot Lips until she completely flips her shit. That Radar is a completely different creature than the one that mentions his family farm in Iowa every episode later in the show's run.

M*A*S*H really feels like two separate shows to me. The Blake/Trapper/Burns era was a lot more biting in terms of its criticism of military bureaucracy and the attitudes that lead to war. Frank Burns' morally bankrupt and Dunning-Kruger incompetent chickenhawk persona is especially relevant today (see: GOP). That said, the characters were largely one dimensional.

The Potter/BJ/Winchester era had better, more nuanced characters, but the show lacked a clear antagonistic view point to satirize. Winchester was an upper crust snob, but he hated being in Korea just as much as everyone else. The show became more about the relationships between the characters with a more homogeneous "war sucks" message.