Friday, January 8, 2010

M*A*S*H 30th Anniversary Reunion - 2002

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Ah, now this is more like it!

Eleven years after the first reunion show, and nineteen years after it went off the air, there was the M*A*S*H 30th Anniversary Reunion, featuring Alan Alda, Mike Farrell, Wayne Rogers, Harry Morgan, Loretta Swit, David Ogden Stiers, Gary Burghoff, Jamie Farr, William Christopher, Allan Arbus, plus Larry Gelbart, Gene Reynolds, and Burt Metcalfe.

The entire group sat around a facsimile of the old set, and talked about the show:
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Interspersed with old clips plus appearances by some of the other writers, this was to me a far more fitting tribute to show. Seeing everyone (well, almost everyone) together again is enormous fun, and extra rotation points to whomever's idea it was include Allan Arbus. Growing up, I always thought of him an unofficial cast member, and this reunion special confirms that.

There's a part of me that's always been fascinated with the idea of an actual reunion show, featuring the characters later in life after the war--seeing what became of Hawkeye, B.J., etc.

Obviously, that will never happen--Alda and some of the others said as soon as the show ended they didn't want their characters to be seen past M*A*S*H's final show, and I'm sure if they had wanted to do a show like that in the intervening three decades, they would have.

So this special will probably have to do--which is fine, since its such a nice, warm, funny look back at the show.


9 comments:

Radar Hat said...

Rob, do you know if either of these reunion shows are available on DVD?

Thanks,
Phil

rob! said...

Phil-

They are both on the "Martinis and Medicine" boxed set!

Anonymous said...

The only thing wrong with this reunion is that it didn't take place a few years earlier, so that McLean and Larry could have been part of it.

I always liked Jamie's anecdote about getting stuck in one of Klinger's dresses following a shoot.

Unknown said...

I have to admit, I watched Trapper John MD for a season hoping for references to MASH. I always wanted to know what happened to the former 4077ers after the war also. Too bad no one in the old crew ever wrote a book. (Or given how some of those continuations go, maybe it's too good they did)

Radar Hat said...

Thanks Rob. All my DVDs are the individual seasons, back when they were the bigger single boxes for each season.

Time to start checking Ebay for broken sets of the M&M box. ;-)

Thanks, man.

What the Parrot Saw said...

This reunion was wonderful, and I watch it every now and then. I agree that including Arbus was a class move. Honestly, my only small gripe is that it isn't longer!

Unknown said...

To Radar Hat - This reunion is available on some torrent sites. Can't remember exactly where I got it, I've had it for about 6 months now.

Rob As Well said...

Hehe, I have all the seasons as they were sold as individuals... but they became all scratched form over watching and now I have the martini's and medicine collection. I might have to watch this reunion tonight! Thanks for the reminder!

Brian Sangster said...

One thing about this special:
They show a clip from what I believe is from a season 5 episode (Can't recall which off of the top of my head)that has Hawkeye's classic "War is war, and hell is hell" rant and they mistakenly label that certain episode as "The General Flipped At Dawn"!

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