Please enjoy this EXTREMELY Hawkeye-esque interview answer from Alan. Source: the AARP magazine I found today in the bathroom of my catsitting job. (Warning, it is dark.)

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And some choice pictures… the cover was water damaged as it had been stored near the shower, but rest assured that Alan was AARP cover boy.

BeforeMASH: Young hothead Wayne Rogers fucks around and finds out in the noir thriller Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). Starring Robert Ryan, Harry Belafonte, and Ed Begley senior.

Fun fact: I had NO IDEA Wayne was going to be in this movie going in, so you can imagine how I lost my mind at the top of this scene! I’d know that voice anywhere!

Ok, so today I passed this wonderful Army-Navy store named M*A*S*H Army & Navy!!!

Complete with bootlegged MASH logo… you love to see it. Best part about this is: considering cashing in on the MASH craze went out in 1982, this shop must be quite old.

I didn’t go inside, but just from the street I can see they’re selling merchandise to BJ…

Trapper…

Klinger (albeit for a VERY casual occasion)…

Hawkeye…

…and even Smilin’ Jack Mitchell the chopper pilot?

New headcanon: BJ Hunnicutt designed my bathing suit

New York Times Sunday crossword, 6/13/2021!

What are some MASH episodes that you think are underrated?

What are some that you find overrated? (Not necessarily dislike, but you don’t get the love either.)

Hi and thank you so much for the ask! One of my BIG underrated ones is “Hanky Panky.” It’s one of the episodes that made me sit up and take notice of the show years ago. It felt like a brave choice to show marital infidelity in a good, lovable character.

Other underrated episodes: “Kim,” “Aid Station,” “Henry Please Come Home,” “O.R.,” and many other early-seasons gems. I have a huge soft spot for the early seasons.

As for overrated shows...! I dunno, this feels like a loaded topic. People have their favorites which I don’t want to dump on... and the canon operates so well as a whole with a mix of light and heavy, comic and tragic. BUT with that said lol... I am less fond of “A War For All Seasons” than many fans seem to be. The cuteness of it is charming but does feel a bit self indulgent. It also drives me nuts that “The Interview part II” repeats some interviews from the first one!

Thinking about the genius of this scene in “Stars and Stripes” when BJ and Charles are screaming at each other. You can see Mike Farrell, especially, hovering just below the point of breaking character and dying laughing. And look at the eyebrow movement on Winchester!

Loretta, Farm Sanctuary supporter :,)

BeforeMASH: cute promo pic for WUSA (1970), starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Perkins, and others—including Wayne Rogers who sported a mustache for this role.

Just a toothy man in a sweatshirt and ugly hat... no more, no less...

After MASH: TIL that John Schuck, the Painless Pole, starred as Herman Munster in the 80s sitcom reboot “The Munsters Today.”

Really quite noteworthy info for any fan of MASH or of the great Fred Gwynne, who originated the role.

Here are some more, mildly horrifying photos!

I have a new phone with a little home screen that reminds me of certain photos taken in the past. Welcome back to August 1, 2018 (when I evidently took this picture in the Swamp)!

Earlier today it also showed me this one, which is from the forgotten Wayne Rogers vehicle ONCE IN PARIS... (1978). [sic] [the ellipsis]

Oliver Harmon Jones, etc.

Hi, MASHies <3

It sucks that, for a long time now, I’ve seemed to post here only when I have news of someone from MASH dying. I would like to change that, because I still love MASH so much and think of it often. The urgency of having to commemorate these deaths should not preclude happier, gentler, more leisurely fan talk.

But, ugh of course, people have indeed died and it would be mean not to mention it. GREAT people—including Brian Dennehy, one of our treasured character actors, who breezed in for a brief appearance in season 5. He’s one of those people who worked so much during that era, it seemed there was hardly anything he wasn’t in. I absolutely love actors like that.

Gene Reynolds, too, one of the very architects of the show who poured his life into it, passed earlier this year before all the pandemic crap went down. I wrote in more detail about Gene here…

Especially, though, I want to give a sendoff to Timothy Brown, season 1’s Spearchucker Jones and one of a very few actors to appear in both the TV series and the movie (though in different roles). He died last month at age 82, reportedly due to complications from dementia.

As I’ve said before, there’s an unfortunate stain on this character—his racist nickname caused him to be quietly cut loose after five episodes. Though I don’t fault MASH for this decision, I’ve always thought it a shame for this to happen to Brown, a charismatic, handsome actor who could have done much for the series. As a former football player and a singer, he was unusually versatile. A comedy like MASH might have benefited from his talents, especially as it got heavier later on; the absence of Black main characters throughout most of the series also fails to reflect the actual diversity of most Army corps. One thing the frequently-maligned early seasons did better than the later ones was to include this young doctor, along with Odessa Cleveland’s excellent Nurse Ginger.

What we do get of Doctor Jones, we relish: team spirit, surgical competence (he was the only brain surgeon!), and drowsy smiles. May he rest in peace.

Hi everyone. Please stay safe! I’ve been optimistic that you MASH fans are being smart about practicing good hygiene and social distancing to lessen the damage of this virus. After all, these guys above would not have it any other way. 
HOWEVER, I also realize that you might be getting bad information or be influenced by overconfident, non-medical types around you. BE SAFE. Stay a few feet away from people, avoid crowds, and wash your hands A LOT. I’m in the U.S. and this warning is just not being heeded by a lot of us. If you’re in Europe or Asia you already know how serious it is.

This one hurts. Farewell Kellye Nakahara, age 72. MASH the TV series was at its best when it told the stories of women; Kellye was the quintessential MASH woman, full of grace, strength, and joy. And the real Kellye was her inspiration.

Very sad to report that Rene Auberjonois has passed away of lung cancer at age 79. RIP to the original Father Mulcahy, who brought such a necessary sweetness to M*A*S*H the film.