>>>>>>Actually the earlier shows of M*A*S*H, pre-Honeycutt episodes, were very good... IMO.
>>>>>>Hawk-Eye, "Trapper John" McIntire, Frank Burns and Henry Blake characters made that show so good in it's early days.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Then it started to go down hill when "Trapper" left the show.....
>>>>>
>>>>>I think that's when Alan Alda took over. Once all the morality lessons started seeping in, that's when I lost interest.
>>>>
>>>>Alen Alda "Hawkeye Pierce" was on the show from the beginning.
>>>
>>>Yeah, but was he directing and producing from the beginning?
>>>
>>>I think he started to take more control towards the end of the series.
>>>
>>>I'm not saying that he's a bad director, or whatever. I think he's a fine actor. Hawkeye was a better character when "Trapper" was around and Margaret had more personality with Frank Burns and unmarried.
>>
>>I agree, When it was Hawkeye and Trapper, the show was a lot more funny. later, after the Censors got their claws into it. They started having to appeal to the moral (family) aspects.
>
>I don't think censors had anything to do with it. Alda pushed the show in an anti-war direction (not the original book wasn't anti-war, of course). Among his changes were that there had to be at least one OR scene in every episode to remind people that there was a war going on and people were getting hurt.
>
>I think it's interesting that you see a male-female thing here. My husband won't watch the earlier episodes any more, but really likes the later ones.
>
>Tamar

I see you got more from behind the scenes then I.