lucky bastard!

Super lucky! He doesn't sign autographs much anymore.

No indeed, you won't have to. Just like maybe for once, people get the reference of my screenname. Alan Alda is a fine man, too. And although some MASH episodes or some of the tropes they use haven't aged as well, it's general spirit remains relevant to this day. I go back to it and watch the entire show every couple of years.

I envy you... and not in a good way!

Matt saying "you might know Alan Alda from 30 Rock" when I only knew him from MASH...

This is a super sweet story, but my brain skipped “laughing” and I was incredibly impressed with his abilities for a second there.

God bless you for sharing this story; whether or not I feel homosexuality is right, I feel a person's sexual orientation has absolutely NO bearing on their character and personality.

@@trenae77 It should have no bearing on anything, from the way they are treated by others to their rights. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with these people being people, and as such they should be treated like any other person.

Oh my god that’s such a sweet story. What a wonderful friend and comrade you had

Things are very different now. Ironically even after DADT was repealed homophobia is super prevalent in the ranks now. Especially since trump accelerated open bigotry in society. If you're openly gay, you're allowed to serve but the men especially will ostracise you and be passive aggressive in their harassment and wanting you to feel unwelcome. That's how deeply ingrained this right wing rebellion against progress is. Sharing close quarters no longer helps to see the humanity in someone different than you. This country is so divided that even in the military different groups hate each other with a seething passion now and it's only a matter of time before major fractures happen in the armed forces. A gay friend of mine enlisted right after DADT was repealed in 2011 and all the other men in the Army were nice and friendly toward him despite him being openly gay. When trump was elected suddenly he started seeing homophobia like he'd never seen in or out of the military and he retired as soon as he could because he suddenly felt unsafe among his fellow soldiers.

The original movie was seen as lefty/hippy, but it would so NOT be considered so today. It was pretty damn bad. Not unfunny, but funny to people whose sense of humor is "ha, you're fat and ugly and probably gay!" Everyone was drunk and stoned and behaving the right ass. The television show was miles better, even if some at the time didn't think so. The funny thing is, my very conservative military dad hated the movie, but loved the television show.

@Green Mamba Games I do not think it was inaccurate for the times it portrayed though. Rampant sexism was still the norm and cultural stereotypes ran free.

Well, if anything I had no idea this timeless and incredible series was based on a book. As it is, there isn't going to be another M*A*S*H* anytime soon. That's kind of sad really.

@@Olimar92Well, there aren't any more M*A*S*H units in the US military anymore since, I think 2005/6 (not quite sure), when the last one was deactivated, so any re-makes or reboots would have to be set before that point in time...The novel is worth a read anyway, it's " M*A*S*H - a novel about army doctors" by Richard Hooker (yes, pretty sure that's a pen name, lol).

@@gozerthegozarian9500 Being a show about an Army Hospital wasn't what I meant. I meant a show with such incredible writing, so much so that it could be serious and comedic and it all fit without seeming out of place.

Yup, me too.

Much too long of a story, but a short version was, I grew up looking up to the character Hawkeye, and Alan Alda in general. When I finally came to the personal realization that I was queer, of the many things running through my mind was that a man, who didn't even know I existed would have been disgusted with me (A general rule I have is not to look into the person views or opinions of actors from older media I like to avoid being disgusted) But I was actually surprised when I learned that Alda is a pretty good guy. To this day, MASH is one of my favorite shows in the world.

Same. I’ve always been struck by how Richard Ely looks directly at the camera before saying “one homosexual”

@@j_fitz6913 I got to meet him on the MASH set in 1980 - very cool friendly guy.

Sod tolerance, I'm demanding acceptance

Well... mostly. Theres a couple early season 1 episodes that are kinda sketch

@@fangsabre ok. like a case of wine that had couple less than airtight bottles...

Yeah, those early seasons are rough sledding. But it mostly holds up remarkably well. It's stunning what they managed to pull off, and remain so popular, too.

Yes,loved M*A*S*H and it does hold up pretty well, however the sexual harrassment isn't ageing well.

Grew up watching it with my parents in the 90s and yeah it's eternally relevant for the most part

You sound so GAY.

Brian, it was lovely reading your comment! I am a 24 year old bi girl and I love how you have to come to understand that your ignorance/actions were a by-product of your environment - I wish everyone possed such an amazing trait like yours where they acknowledge their biases and prejudice then the world would become a little less cruel & isolating...if only everyone had the amount of empathy you carry with you! I am sure Gerry appreciated your support even if it was delayed. And I am sorry for your loss...if there is another life beyond this, Gerry would be there waiting for you

Beautiful my good sir just beautiful

Jesus Christ I got really choked up reading that. That was beautiful, sad and sweet.

Comments like this are a fantastic reminder that a lot of homophobia comes from unchallenged beliefs growing up and that people can change said beliefs for the better. (I mean, it's also worth noting that A LOT of it is based in what people were taught growing up. Even though people should be responsible for what they believe in, I understand that challenging beliefs that you were taught to believe growing up is not an easy task. Anyway, those two sentences are about a whole other rant, so I'm going to stop that rant there before it begins.) Thank you for choosing friendship. As someone who has been in his shoes, I've found that friendships with straight male friends have always meant the most to me. I can't even pin down why those mean the most to me, but they just do. So, if he was anything like me, I'm sure your friendship meant more to him than you might have even realized.

well if they know your down, its all good so long as its consensual.

Can anyone else see Hawkweye beaming and lying back over a desk giving the bedroom eyes? "Ready whenever you are, Sir~"

‘Finally, our tax dollars put to good use’

Made me giggle....

Not as bad as the WWII headline. US Army push bottles up Germans. Some punctuation needed.

Meanwhile in Canada, they spent millions trying to develop an actual gaydar

And that's why the term "military intelligence" is an oxymoron. 😂😅

That is hilarious.

Perhaps they should have tried skywriting, "Surrender Dorothy." in the skies above Chicago.

I think there's an episode where that last part is nearly explicitly stated: when Potter takes over and forces him back into uniform, Klinger starts breaking out in hives, and then Hawkeye diagnoses the rash as psychosomatic and prescribes dresses... or something like that?

The only episode I remember when Klinger doesn't wear a dress (for a large part of the episode) is when he wants to re-up because of something relating to his wife, by the end he regrets doing so and returns to wearing dresses to get out of the military

@@andrewmalinowski6673 I'm fairly sure that he wears the standard uniform in much of the latter seasons. Especially the final season.

@@Rime_in_Retrograde Yeah, he stopped along the way somewhere. There's a SCREAM of a line at some point when Klinger is wearing the standard uniform and Radar looks at him and says, "Don't I know your sister?"

@@andrewmalinowski6673 I don't think Klinger was married and after Radar leaves he spent most of the rest of the series in regular uniform. I clearly remember that in the final season he falls for a Korean woman and in the final episode he gives her a wedding dress he made and has to explain why he had it. One of the ironies of the final episode is that Klinger, who had spent the vast majority of the series trying to get out of the army and back to the U.S, decides to stay in Korea to help find his new fiancée's parents.

@juan abee man you seem like you have a sad life

@juan abee Go be angry with the rest of your tribe on Facebook. Nobody here wants you.

@juan abee - You are so wrong to present your sadly misinformed personal opinions as scientific facts. Especially with surrogacy as an option, gay people can procreate with their own DNA if they choose to do so, just like heterosexuals. Do you similarly condemn a heterosexual person who is childless (by choice or by medical reasons) as a "creature that exists for no reason, just consumes limited resources, and pollutes as a dead ends in DNA," or do you hypocritically refrain from using such demeaning characterizations only in this particular case? Even without children, brilliant and creative gay people throughout history like Alan Turing (the cryptanalyst who deciphered the secret codes used by Nazi Germany under Hitler during WWII) and Michaelangelo Buonarroti (the Renaissance artist) have made significant contributions and lasting legacies to humankind that you apparently take for granted - accomplishments that are very likely to have much greater impact than what you can manage to do in your own lifetime, even if you choose to breed. Having offspring does not automatically make a heterosexual person a good parent or human being, shown by the fact there are already far too many "unwanted" kids who are abandoned, abused and/or neglected by their irresponsible biological parents. Your insinuations with gay people and abortion clinics are illogical and ridiculous, because gay people have to make deliberate and conscious choices to have children via adoption and/or surrogacy, as opposed to the typically unplanned births that many heterosexuals end up putting up for adoption, aborting or raising grudgingly. Your disparagement of Islam can just as well apply to numerous spiritual leaders who mentally, physically and sexually abuse their own followers involved in Catholicism, other religions and cults for years under their veneers of false respectability and sanctimony. Way back in 1973 (almost half a century ago!), the American Psychiatric Association no longer considered homosexuality to be a mental illness. Your arguments are self-contradictory, unjustifiable and fallacious. Obviously you have not evolved with the times, and still have much to learn in order to join the rest of humanity to live in the real world in the 21st Century.

@juan abee LOL, how is evolution relevant to the question of equal rights? Like even slightly? "Childless people don't contribute to evolution of the species" -- okay, and? Who cares?

just so you know, straight guys who are completely comfortable with their sexuality have no problem with gays. My best friend from college was gay and I wouldn't hesitate to "flirt" with him. Was liberating for me, because the conservative trashbin I came from always tried to brand me as gay because I could relate to anyone.

That's just horrible. Having to hide part of your identity - and whom you love, or just have a crush on - for nearly all your life? That's just cruel. And of course: with every gay soldier carefully keeping a lid on it, the army gets to keep its "no gays here!" image, and every single one of them is alone with his fears.

How sad that, in 2021, some folks (even well-meaning, "pro-gay" people like yourself) still think in terms of someone having to "admit" or "confess" to being gay, as if they should feel guilt about their sexual orientation.

@@Julia-lk8jn - Not quite what you might think… it was a very different time. He married and had kids. His “best friend” whom he met in the army, did the same. They lived near each other, their families knew each other, they vacationed together and shared a bed together occasionally. Their “special friendship” was a secret their entire lives, and they absolutely did not consider themselves gay even though they were.

@@winsboy - I think you’re projecting, I said no such thing. I met them in the 80’s, they lived apart in the same condominium complex, keeping separate residences after one’s divorce, and the other was widowed, for “appearances.” They would occasionally stay over at the others house, but only if they thought no one was looking. It took years for them to admit to anyone, even me, even each other, that they had anything other than a lifelong friendship. I remember asking them as one was caring for the other on his deathbed dying from cancer, and both denied it. It was an entirely different time, they did what they felt they had to, and lived the best way they thought they could. It was both odd, touching, and a little hard to grasp… but they had been in love since their 20’s, lived a life as together as they could both accept. To attempt to apply modern relationship or gay relationship norms, is to not understand what it must have been like to be gay back then.

@Julia -- I've often blasted Bill Clinton's agreeing to "Don't Ask, Don't tell" for his blindness to how that hurt service men and women. Imagine being in your barracks and not being to hang your partner's photo in your locker like everyone else ...because that would be "telling."

Matt has a video about that episode.

...Hasn't the Navy historically been one of the gayest branches of the military?

@@wordforger Haha as much as it can be measured, though to be fair Al was a pilot and as we all know from the documentary Top Gun, Navy pilots are never gay.

Loved that series....every episode was gold

"Running for Honor," a very well done episode. Al changing his mind at the end was a major growing moment for the character.

Thank you -- for your service and for your strength.

Correct me if I'm recalling it wrong... The specific written question was, "Are you a homosexual?" Yes - No. Going back to that time in my mind I thought, but, if you had slept with the opposite sex at some point in your life then you must be "bisexual" and you could honestly answer the question with a "no." I'm expressing this in the terms of how I personally justified this to myself at the time I was checking the "no" box on the paperwork. Also, the whole being naked thing with all of the other recruits did seem a bit strange to me at the time. 35+ years later I called my old straight Army buddy to see how he was doing after all these years. From Basic Training, AIT and to our duty stations we were always assigned together. To my surprise he asked me why I never realized that he had always been in love with me and why I never tried to sleep with him?

@@DavidODuvall What an experience! Nothing similar in my case except a sergeant invited four of us trainees to dinner one time, I think during AIT. I felt uncomfortable because I thought I knew what was going on. After I got out, I asked one of the other [straight] guys years later about that night and he had not realized it was an "interview" to see which one or ones of us would want to sleep with the sergeant. I did not take him up on his implied offer - just too scared. I truly don't remember the wording at the examination station - just the intent. My MOS - in case you were wondering - was 91A but I worked as a 71A. I was not as good as Radar but, then again, I served all my time at Fort Sam, not in Vietnam.

@@Zeyev - during my tour of duty I had a lot of opportunities to sleep with other soldiers but, was always too afraid and politely ran away. I was a 34Y (computer tech) assigned to Airborne Ranger Rapid Deployment Support (who had no computers until several years later). I can tell you there were a lot of gay and bi Rangers in the service in the early 1980s - but only after they'd had a beer or 2 and there wasn't anyone else nearby. In the early 1980s they were still searching out the "gays" and "lesbians" in order to get rid of them so I was a bit paranoid. Years later (1992) I married a Navy Vet and we used to have fun at the VA Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. We had T-Shirts that said, "My Husband is a U.S. Navy Vet" and "My Husband is a U.S. Army Vet" and we often wore them to the VA Hospital for our appointments. It was comic gold! Over the years, all but 1 VA doctor was very supportive! When Steve (my husband) was dying of cancer (2008) they let me stay with him in the ICU and treated me like any other spouse. I'm sorry that I'm rambling..... Take care of yourself and thank you for making me smile.

@@DavidODuvall I'm very sorry to hear of your husband's passing. May good memories continue to provide comfort. I'm happy though that the VA treated you like the normal people you are. One other matter that you may or may not feel. Those of us who were in during Vietnam were rarely thanked or even acknowledged when we got out of the service. It has been jarring over the past few years to hear people, well-meaning people, thank me for my service. I wanted it then; it feels too late now. Perhaps that's just me. We're both rambling. We gay vets are probably more common than we know but it's always a pleasure to meet another one. Good BS is hard to find.

I get that same sense as well, even though I have been alive throughout the changing times. It's almost like if the civil rights act had been signed only 4 decades after slavery ended. On the other hand, I fear that it might be a high-water mark for the LGBTQ+ movement. If you asked people in the late 90's, I think most of them would have said the abortion issue was settled... but now, those rights are hanging on by a thread.

@@bubbafug00gle51 Abortion was never settled in the 1990's. If you thought that, you weren't paying attention. The anti-choice movement has just gotten sneakier, and less interested in trying to actually persuade people.

@@Magnulus76 This is why I used the term "most people." It clearly wasn't settled, as the ground keeps shifting. This is exactly my point. There was a SCOTUS ruling so the legality was set as "precedent". This gave the rights a sense of permanence. Similarly the LGBTQ+ community has won a SCOTUS decision and other smaller legal victories. This should create precedent. It does not. These rights will continue to suffer a death from a thousand cuts if people aren't vigilant. The pro-choice movement never waned. The individuals who weren't actively part of the movement - but supported the choice - stopped paying attention though. I fear the same thing can happen again with LGBTQ+ rights.

I'm always shocked at how recent the beginning of anti-gay sentiment is. What happened just before WWI that got everyone in such a twist? And why was it so hard for people to look back and realize that they weren't bothered before because there was nothing to be bothered about, and there still isn't?

@@adde9506 "Recent". there's nothing recent about anti-gay sentiment in western culture.

Is it any wonder we lost in Afghanastan? somebody should tell them they should focus on the enemy, f*ck these guys

As a gay Arabian. Im sorry for what happened to you but at least you're respected now and got your basic human rights. I wish I was you. Because I will never get mine here.

@@VampireNewl Afghanistan is not an Arab country and no one there speaks Arabic. It's not even in the middle east. You don't even know about the country you invaded for 20 years no wonder your country lost.

@@naifalbaihed1230 Yeah but we didn't pull out of an Arabian country the month before writing the comment. I think you're missing some of the contex

How much I respect the Army, I suspect you Job would have been wicketly One-sided. I know im cynical, but from what our Boys said, your boys chefs there not interested in what Natives said.

This is hilarious! Also, I love that most people here have fond memories of this show from their childhood

I mean, you weren't *really* wrong

Cause suacide is painless, it comes in many phases da da Dee Dee do da de de dah dah

That makes sense because it was known for having two seemingly unrelated storylines within an episode. Usually one funny and one serious to balance the show and achieve what they wanted.

Odd that Frank was the absolutely perfect ideal Republican of today, LOL!

That does sound like something Hawkeye would respond to Frank with honestly.

To me MASH was never the same after Frank left the show. Hawkeye lost his rival, Margaret didnt have a lot to do, Charles was a weak replacement.

@@michaeladkins6 I prefer Hawkeye and Margaret’s friendship growth after Frank left. And at that point, he’d become such a caricature that there wasn’t much left they could do with him. Though I know the cast greatly missed Larry Linville after he left. He was by all accounts a lovely man, and the very opposite of the character he played.

@@michaeladkins6 also, I liked Charles. I think the Mozart POW scene made his entire character worth it. And I’m glad they didn’t just go with a Frank 2.0 character. Much like when Trapper left and was replaced with Hunnicutt- they weren’t the same character, and that was important.

My father was U.S Army for 21 years (Corps of Engineers). As part of the recently integrated service in the 1950s, Dad and his troops had chits to use at restaurants. Dad's troops were racially diverse for the time, but restaurants in some areas still wouldn't allow then inside to eat. Dad said "my troops can't eat, I won't eat," and they took their business elsewhere. Dad was in Korea during the war; M*A*S*H was his favorite show and remains one of mine. Definitely takes #1 in best series of all time.

I agree about the use of terms; retro-actively inserting "afro-american" would have just felt too weird. I wince everytime I hear the n-word used in a movie, but having movies / shows to depict some cleaned up history where well, right, slavery wasn't a exactly a nice thing, but hey, economic necessity and good people on both sides and all ? That would be worse.

Well negro wasn’t racist back then tho. It was just the proper term. Negro became racist cause it sounded too similar to the N word. Also old racist people would say things like “I don’t like that a negro family moved in down the street” and we all know they chose negro to subtly use the N word. But it wasn’t a racism in the 1950s like it is today. Today if someone said negro they are 98% likely to be racist, back then they were all racist as well but it wasn’t a racist word

@@LucasFernandez-fk8se They would say "Nigra".

Colored and Negro were contemporary for the 70s as well. Even colored is a common term and has made a resurgence nowadays.

Yes, I didn't even know that military members discharged because of homosexuality lost all of their rights until a few years ago. If I remember right, there are still people who have been on hold as the Government red tape slowly proceeds to upgrade their discharge status to honorable.

That was the whole thing about Frank, a hypocritical piece of trash.

Hypocrisy is the universal language.

@@pvanukoff Exactly. That and the general Red Scare paranoia he represented were the primary uses of the character. For the people watching the show in the 70's, he represented the worst qualities of their parents' generation, who would have been Frank's age during the time period the show takes place.

It was true to life. The ones who scream the most about how other people behave, and who try to make people behave in a certain way are typically the ones with no actual moral code. And wouldn't you know that just to the right of where I am typing this, there is a picture of Jimmy Swaggart with tears rolling down his face and a rictus of overblown, kabuki theatrical sorrow claiming how he "sinned before God." Just too perfect how things line up sometimes.

That last part with Hawkeye actually gets addressed and Hawkeye quits it, fortunately. He feels very horrible once he realizes how shitty he’s being, and his flirty following that is usually him tossing jokes and making light as he does when he puts up that character mask he’s made for himself in the camp, or genuinely offering interest but being willing to back off.

yeah totally! the way other characters mostly compliment klinger and dont talk down to him is very refreshing, and as a nonbinary person, i see myself in the way klinger and even sometimes hawkeye presents themselves

I remember a scene where Father Mulcahy encourages someone to say something nice about Klinger's new white gloves and it's extremely sweet.

I think part of the reason modern audiences often have a mixed relationship with Klinger is that the joke isn't the dresses, and isn't that Klinger is possibly trans, even though it looks that way to our cynical first glances. The joke (brought in at the suggestion of Jamie Farr himself, during filming of his first episode) is that he's straight. As in a VERY hetero-normative wannabe tough guy from a kinda rough neighborhood. It's in the way you look at it, I suppose, but the joke wasn't "ha ha, dude in a dress!" but instead, "ha ha person in the dress is a total Dude." This perspective was reinforced by the numerous "reveal shots" of someone approaching him or trying to get his attention from behind or in low visibility, only to be shocked to discover the dress is on a guy who needs a shave and is holding a cigar between his teeth. The funny reveal is the dude, not the clothes. The clothes are the lie. Klinger was also a commentary on letting go of gender norms being possible for ANYONE who is open to it. Max took up sewing and studying fashion magazines, because he found something he enjoyed doing while he was trying for that much-wanted Section 8, even though being fashion forward had no impact on the results he was purportedly aiming for. And he's a commentary on conscription, the practice of putting guns in the hands of people who are horrified at the idea of killing others, just because they are fit and male. Let's be honest, if Klinger had landed in a combat unit, there wouldn't have been any time for the dresses. He would have just offed himself after the first time he was forced to take a life. Also, if Klinger's family had been well-off, his odds of having a gun forced into his hands to begin with would have been lower. Him being a rough, working class fellow was important for more than the contrast with the dainty frocks. It was also social commentary.

Barney miller was a good show around the same time as MASH that tackled relevant issues of the time. In one episode Harris who is one of the regular characters and a black plain cloths police officer Gets shot at by 2 white cops because they assumed he was the criminal they were looking for. The Criminal was a white guy and got away.

@@LucyLynette Obviously, doctors were subject to the draft in the early 50s Korean War, not just the underclass, as Hawkeye and Winchester often complained. It was the nurses, the women, who were all-volunteer.

He was great in The West Wing.

When I first saw this as a kid in thr 70's, Hawkeye's empathy gave me sign of relief. This was a milestone moment for TV and the culture.

the crazy part is that it was still happening to some degree in the 90s.

There's a book of fairy tales, called, The Bible!

@ Aaron White I served in the military from 1970 to 1991, there were still many people who thought having WOMEN in the ranks was wrong. The last base that I served at, one of my co-workers went a bit ...overboard, whenever he noticed a " new " young woman walking through the building where we worked (BTW, our small unit had no female members, though we had a few women as support staff, but they didn't count as they we older, married, and had children). He was like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. I have to admit that I myself was nearly slapped with a sexual harassment charge, tho it stemmed from a personality conflict I had with a woman who's " know it all attitude " I didn't appreciate. She was the only woman in uniform who ever " rubbed me the wrong way " and had she been a man I still would have despised her attitude. Before working at that unit I worked under a female officer. A few people in my building asked how I could take orders from a woman. I never cared if you were a man or woman. I cared about a person's attitude and/or what kind of decisionmaker they were. I was in the Navy, but heard that the Marine Corps had many service members who were LESS than tolerant of women in their ranks than any other service as the 20th century came to a close. I think it's dumb to persecute or prosecute anyone for what they do in private.

@@howardkerr8174 Oh fuck me!

@@oliviawolcott8351 And still in 2021, carefully hidden.

Lawrence Linville really was excellent in the role; totally loathsome.

My only problem with MASH was that Frank had nothing not one redeeming feature, he was only ever the butt of jokes a sad 2D man who was just shadow of a man, like a fart in the room you know he was there but were happy only when you didn't have to deal. Would of been so bad to of give him one good trait. Charles was a huge ass but an skilled surgeon, greedy but not blindly cruel, he saw himself as better than everyone else not by skin color or anything he just was . Poor Frank would it of been so hard to give him something. Kind to dogs, feeds cats, great with kids

@@colinmaclaughlanweir9670 I've always wondered why they didn't give Frank's character a growth arc. Perhaps there were creative differences with Larry Linville. I remember hearing writers for Friends saying they couldn't let their characters grow too much, or they'd lose the successful dynamic they had built. Maybe the writers couldn't see Frank and Margaret as three-dimensional people, and wouldn't give them material they could work with. Linville left the show after two years, and perhaps the writers realized they didn't need a built-in villain.

Hawkeye and trapper needed someone to foil them. Well try to. That is where the comedy comes from.

@@colinmaclaughlanweir9670 Frank had a few moments. * One time there was a Korean boy trapped in a minefield and he was just as concerned as everyone else, if not more so. Perhaps because he was a father. * He was struck as much as anyone else by the death of Henry. * He joined all the other male major characters [no pun intended] drawing straws to see who would go on a date with a clumsy nurse, since all the women in camp had decided that none of them would go out with anyone unless someone went out with her. (Lysistrata Gambit) * One time after he and Margret broke up, he got a good zinger on her and shared a laugh over it with Hawk & BJ.

My mother served in the Army in the mid 1960s. Unfortunately she got pregnant and back then, that meant an automatic discharge, albeit honorable. I know that she hated being forced to choose between being a mother and serving her country.

Honestly, misogyny and homophobia ... to me, it feels awfully like the only way of bonding some man have is to make ugly remarks about women, brag about their sexual escapades or possible compare their ####s, so anybody not male & heterosexual presents a social problem because suddenly they realize that's 90% of their themes. Don't get me wrong, I know that's not all men, or even most. But I think they turn up in the classical 'real manly men' jobs.

I can't say anything about gay men, but men act entirely different when women are around. This means that they might act differentially in the women's favor rather than the objective.

This isn’t to be mean but didn’t the army have to substantially lower the standards to let women in? Like the physical standards ? I thought I remembered they recently made a much easier entry test to be unisex and the girls still failed most of the time ? Again it’s been months if not a year since I’ve heard that story so maybe it’s untrue ? Or the women you served with were just more capable than most female recruits today?

@@whenthedustfallsaway That's the fault of misogynistic men, not of women.

I’ve never heard of him either, but I’m not an American, but still, I’ve heard of Harvey Milk....

for real. he basically started pride.

The two things I was super interested in high school was astronomy and activism. I can't believe I'd never heard of him until this point!

I agree!

That was the single most watched episode of any show in TV history. IIRC, something like 83 million people watched it. Still one of the best finales ever.

Damn! A real life Klinger!

Thanks for sharing your family's story. It's important, because the lives of lesbians, especially closeted ones, all too often disappear from history. Your mother was a heroic survivor, in & out of the military is sounds like!

More like a “3ish” on the scale.

@@eduardoramirezjr4403 Absolutely! At least 5 times a Season of MASH I have a genuine spit-take moment of "The network let him say that? In the SEVENTIES?!" This show was a minor miracle.

I've always seen Hawkeye as somewhere around heteroflexible or bisexual

@@Blue-no9hf Anyway imaginable. He would be fun in the sack, or on the cot.

definitely! i sometimes think im projecting my queerness onto him but he is incredibly queer coded. i think there was an episode in season 4/5 about romantic relationships with a scene between a straight couple that drew a parallel to a scene between hawkeye and bj

Truth! They can dish it out but they sure will pass unconstitutional legislation rather than take it!

Im pretty sure its becuase of homophobie

Would you mind sharing which elements aged poorly?

@@sparksfly6149 the most notable aspect I’ve heard criticised is Hawkeye’s incessant flirting verging on harassment- see his interactions with Margaret- but this was addressed by the show itself and he got a development arc where he realised he was often going overboard. Otherwise I think it’s just the usuals of the era, some language, how certain minorities were treated, the interactions with/ portrayals of the Korean soldiers, etc. I haven’t watched in ages so I’m probably forgetting some, but yeah, it’s astoundingly progressive still!

@@sparksfly6149 A lot of the flirty or sexual relationships, especially in the early seasons, would be considered straight up harassment now. Some of the language is pretty dated though to be fair, since it takes place during the Korean War that is how these people would have talked

I wasn't a Fan of Winchester rejecting a France Doctor for beeing in a Relationship and living together unmarried.

@@Sunaki1000 I always felt like that episode though was heartbreaking in that it said more about how Winchester’s painfully backward views got in the way of his own happiness. I see that episode as still being a pretty good one - you just end up feeling so bad for him because he’s being so old fashioned so he ends up hurting himself and the show actually celebrates the more modern woman that he’s trying to date.

+

And the US got him because Prussia didn't want him, and Europe in general didn't want him. I wonder what homophobes might think if they knew the US (in part) owed its existence to a gay man.

Is he know to be gay? I've always heard that it is suspected, highly likely (in no small part to things mentioned here), but in no way even close to a certainty. This very much could be the standard homophobic bias in culture at play and watering down what they could, so I'm curious if it is more definitive.

@@scaper8 Probably a good topic for a video on this channel

@@scaper8 if I recall correctly he was chased out of just about every country he went to in Europe because of 'sexual indecency' and he never married, choosing instead to live in a shared home with one of his officers and an aide-de-camp, to whom he left his house after he died.

I graduated from Von Steuben high school in Chicago in 1972. No surprise that this info never came up when learning about our namesake. I doubt that it has changed, but it sure would be nice if it has.

As an Australian, I generally enjoy British comedy and British shows better (and Australian ones, of course!). But, having said that, M*A*S*H* was sooooo far ahead of it's time. M*A*S*H* was the only America show I really liked (I find a lot of American humour a little childish, and the punchlines too obvious to be funny - sorry!), but M*A*S*H* was very different - the humour was more British like, more making fun of oneself, as is essential in British humour. It was pretty much universally loved in Australia - I know of no-one who didn't watch it. It was definitely by far my favourite television show of all time. I loved both the comedy and the serious side - actually I loved the mix. I grew up with it as a child of the 70s. There's no other show like it. It really informed my young mind, and thus much of my personal ethics today. I grew up never understanding how people could possibly seriously think and judge like the 'Franks' of this world. M*A*S*H* first and foremost taught the values of humanity.

What year did that happen?

@@alexac3098 1988 or 89

I don't know of course, but 'Trapper' refers to him trapping a woman in a train car, so maybe it's being avoided for that reason.

that's because this interviewer always seems to over accentuate elements of an episode that a more astute fan wouldn't do.

Thing is though that there's more than one "John" in _M*A*S*H._ Beisdes Trapper John there's Ho-Jon, John Patrick Francis Mulcahy, and Ugly John, all of whom could also be called "Hawkeye's friend Jo[h]n."

@@jb888888888 Only one of them on the screen at the time his name was said though. And the only one of those characters who's more than a bit part is Mulcahy, who gets called John by one person in the show, ever. So I think it's unambiguous in context.:)

@@TheHopperUK agreed that it's unambiguous in context, but I also agree with the first poster...its still jarring and like he hadn't really watched the show.

Until fairly recently, there would have been almost no one who could teach it.

@@jwb52z9: and even then CONservatives with throw a hissyfit over the truth being taught. Just look at how they are whinging over CRT.

I’ve not yet come across someone saying “this should be taught in our schools” and it wasn’t mentioned in at least one lesson while I was at school. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” was taught in my Texas classroom. Edit: accidentally replied before finishing oops

@@troyjardine5850 Personally I have a lot of issues with CRT and think there should be voices out there that are critical of it. Obviously the mainstream conservatives aren’t going to be nuanced in their arguments but they aren’t wrong for disagreeing with the perspective.

Hello Demi fiend profile pic

No joke! AND, women in the military are still getting sexually harassed. I don't know if we will ever find out what really happened in Fort Hood, Texas.

Ok I’m only going by memory here so I could be way off base, but the nurses were generally tough cookies who could hold their own against Hawkeye’s innuendos and actions and he certainly knew how to take no for an answer. There was respect between (most of) the doctors and nurses as they were all just trying to get through the chaos and come out of it still sane. And it wasn’t like they were unwilling participants - the show generally acknowledged them as people with the same “urges” as the men and there was no shame attached. It really was a very progressive show. Of course, it was reflective of the fact that the times they were a-changin’.

When your life is on the line day in and day out, sex is one thing foremost in your mind. The affirmation of life must balance the sword of Damocles.

@@elvisneedsboats3714 Hawkeye gave respect to the nurses for their surgical skills ONLY IF THEY REMEMBERED THEIR PLACE... to serve the doctors' needs & wants. He even objectified the female surgeon, Inga.

​@@thecocktailian2091 What exactly was the purpose of this comment? Because it really just sounds like a pretentious way of saying that sexual harassment is reasonable and understandable as long as your life is in danger.

Ahh, but that's a comment on hotlips' commoditizing of men to stepping-stones... She wasn't w frank for the lulz!

That heartbreaking line seems to have been used to highlight how even the best people were trained to think of non-straight people as monsters. We see that this thought is incorrect and that he is an honest and nice guy, thematically showing that persecuting homosexuals is wrong and justified with falsehoods.

Oof

Yes, but in early episodes such as this one, Margaret was almost as villainous as Frank. In later years, her character evolved significantly. She would not have been nearly as homophobic by the end of the series.

To be fair- Frank did not specify that the soldier was gay, he said that he was a “pervert” to which Margaret responds “That nice boy?” It still wouldn’t surprise me if early season Margaret was homophobic. She was very close minded at the beginning of the show.

I'm sure it would have been medically accurate for the early 50s, which is when it was set. They did have an MD as an advisor.

As someone who grew up with MASH, that makes me glad for you, too.

I'm trans, and I remember the transphobia from my friends and and family and church. this was in the 2000's and 2010's. it was the main reason I didn't come out until 2019.

@Green Mamba Games boot camp church didn't have ladies... I literally did not see a female except one for 3 months. (Church in bootcamp was everyone goes in formation, sits next to each other, listen to a guy talk for two hours and return to the squadron... there was nothing to it... I went a few times because it was expected, but eventually I couldn't take it. The sheer idiocy of believing in a god has seemed stupid to me when I was 11, it was definitely moronic when I was 18. And to see adults believing this crap was just too painful to watch) The point is that you are punished for not conforming to norms, even in a society that is designed to protect independence.

@@cardsfanboy Interestingly, MASH covered the subject of individuality & Frank said, "individuality is fine as long as we are all doing the same thing". Bottom line- people are terrified of what they don't know or understand. They will immediately label it as 'evil' or 'wrong'. When their arguments don't hold up, they are even more terrified because they have no excuses for their own failures. It's the them vs. us argument.

Psychologically, I can explain this. No one *consciously believes that* electing a candidate (especially ones that take corporate $) = having a say on issues. But everyone consciously states that this does indeed happen, that if you don't vote, you don't have a say. The conflict is happening in a deeper, more primitive part of our minds, the semi- or subconscious (SC). That isn\t where our logic lives. It's where our primitive fight or flight instincts live. You can't do math while escaping a house on fire. You can't compose music while running from a bear. & you can't think logically when your f or f instincts are triggered. What about the gay issue triggers one's f or f instincts? The same thing that makes people state the irrational *_"ONLY_* voting gives you a say in how you're governed." We have deep-rooted SC ideals about 'Government' & how we view it, including our relationship to it. As we're seeing in the comments everywhere, we're not worried about anyone being gay (except maybe our own children) but everyone is _hella_ worried about pissing off authority figures. The SC can't work out this conflict. It isn't *designed* to. You don't run away from bears except on Tuesdays. You don't escape a house on fire only on Fridays. You react to Symbolic Representations the way you react to Real Things All The Time. & unless you learn to recognize when you yourselves are doing it, _you'll_ 1) never figure your way out of much of anything, & 2) we'll continue to be run by corporate agendas interfering with our human rights because you can't break free from imagining 'Government' to be immune from being swayed by $.

It is weird how the lyrics, which were intended to be the most stupid song ever*, have proven so resonant with people over the decades. *This was the requirement of Robert Altman, who tried to write the lyrics himself, but, in the end, handed the job off to 14-year-old son, Michael. 😍

In the movie, the song is sung to a soldier who fears he might be gay and wants to kill himself. His friends throw a goodbye party for him that ends with a mock suicide. They actually drug him to sleep and he wakes up in bed with a beautiful female nurse. Cured! It's disturbing on many levels.

@@kevinbailey8827 Yeah, the film is very... problematic.

I remember reading an article in the early 90s that said the military could only work if the homoeroticism was sublimated. If the sexual tension got fulfilled, that would ruin everything….somehow

I think that if they'd set it in Vietnam, it would never have made it to the screen; so claiming it was about Korea was a useful smokescreen, and one that they didn't put a lot of effort in to maintaining. As a kid, I assumed it was about Vietnam; and then learned about Korea because of the show. 👍

I don't think they ever intended to make it feel like the 50s. They did just enough to get it past censors and politicians. The show was really about Vietnam, just with a thin veneer of Korea to avoid cancellation.

With it set in Korea a comparatively stone aged country by comparison you would not get that fifties feel anyway. And I disagree about it being about Vietnam. They made some references to it obviously. But it was actually about all War. As the producers have said.

@@kevin_1230 I do agree its not set in a major city, but the makeup, hairstyles, men and women and style in general...even when out of uniform is all wrong. I've seen many wartime movies and shows which always tried to convey the proper time period.

Also I think back then and until we all got “prestige” television (The sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Sex and the City, etc) television didn’t get nearly the respect - or the budget - that film got, so MASH did the best it could with the money it had

how did you watch m*a*s*h and want to go to the army 😭 the whole show spits on the institution