M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen

M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen
CBS
February 28, 1983
Dramedy
DVD
A-

About the "too many writers" rule?  I guess there are exceptions.  I don't know who was responsible for which strand, but together Alda, Davis, Hall, Metcalfe, Mumford, Pollock, Rappaport, and Wilcox managed a two-hour episode (2 1/2 hours with commercials) that somehow holds together and moved me at least as much as it did over a third of a century ago.  Alda also directed, and he has the heaviest subplot, but he lets the others shine, from his six main co-stars to some of the familiar faces listed here at the bottom.

I don't think it's simply nostalgia that makes me give one of my rare A-s.  This is a series that I once loved yet have been reliving through more cynical eyes.  But the finale really did move me.  Yes, I like that there are references to past characters and episodes (especially during one of Charles and Margaret's arguments), but on its own terms, this is amazing.  It's definitely on the "drama" side of dramedy, but there are also moments of joy and silliness.  And, really, all I remembered was something about Hawkeye and a "chicken," something about Charles and Korean musicians, and the goodbye message in rocks.

My favorite parts were when people stand up and say what they're doing after the war, and the goodbyes.  I like that each two-person relationship is unique, and the goodbyes match them.  But I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the Hawkeye/Margaret kiss.  While Hawkeye finds it easy to say the words to tell BJ how much his best friend means to him, it's not so easy with the longer-lasting and arguably more complex relationship with the former Hot Lips.  And, yes, Henry Blake gave her a big kiss goodbye, but it wasn't like this.  It's not even simply a matter of romance.  It's that these characters know they would never work as a couple, and yet they do in a sense love each other.  Also, as Hawkeye pointed out on the previous episode, they've been there as long as each other (the only ones from the first episode still here in the last).  Believe me, this packs more of a wallop in middle age, having had some "opposites attract" relationships, than it did when I was a starry-eyed 15-year-old who'd never been kissed.

It was also the part that made me laugh the most out loud.  And that is because Farrell, Morgan, and Stiers have to stand around awkwardly, adding little touches like Charles skimming through the book he's returning to Margaret.  And you know that BJ knows about the one-night stand, and the other two have probably guessed by now.  So there's resonance, and I can only wonder what the 121.6 million people watching the last six minutes thought.

GW Bailey (Rizzo), Natasha Bauman (Nurse), Brigitte Chandler (Nurse), Jennifer Davis (Nurse), Gwen Farrell (Nurse Gwen), Judy Farrell (Able), Dennis Flood (this time as a Corpsman), Roy Goldman (as Roy Goldman), Jan Jorden (Baker), Enid Kent (Bigelow), June Kim (this time the Woman with Shawl), Jeff Maxwell (Straminsky), Kellye Nakahara (Yamato), David Orr (this time a Soldier), John Otrin (Ambulance Driver), Frank Pettinger (Corpsman), Shari Saba (Nurse Shari), Frank Slaten (Corpsman Frank), Bill Snider (Corpsman), Arthur Song (Korean Man), Jo Ann Thompson (Nurse Jo Ann), and Dennis Troy (Corpsman) all return, one last time.

So how do I average this episode in?  Does it count five times?  After all, I never counted the one-hour episodes twice.  But let's count this as two episodes.  With the rest of the season averaging C to B, this comes out to a B-.  I still believe M*A*S*H didn't need to run this long without Radar and, yes, I know about and in fact watched some of After MASH.  But this is as good a place as any, and better than most, to end it.

M*A*S*H: As Time Goes By

M*A*S*H: As Time Goes By
CBS
February 21, 1983
Dramedy
DVD
B-

Wilcox & Mumford wrote this penultimate episode for the series (apparently filmed after the big finale though).  Margaret, with the unwanted help of Hawkeye, looks for items for a time capsule, but he's the one who has offerings left behind by Radar and Blake.  (Burns is mentioned but Trapper is not.)  And Soon-Lee (Rosalind Chao) is introduced and would go on to After MASH.

GW Bailey (Rizzo), Brigitte Chandler (a nameless Nurse), Chao-Li Chi (this time as a Korean Husband), Oksun Kim (this time a Korean Wife, about a decade after her previous appearance), Jeff Maxwell (Straminsky), Kellye Nakahara (Yamato, although again called Lt. Nakahara), and Jo Ann Thompson (Nurse Jo Ann) return.

The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island

"Court jesters" is funnier than any joke in the actual program.

The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island
NBC
May 15, 1981
TV-Movie
VHS
C

Yes, I'm giving this the same grade as I gave the first reunion.  (As I said, I'm missing the middle movie, but briefly, they all get rescued for good and then the Howells open a resort with guests like Tom Bosley and Marcia Wallace.)  Let me just list the people involved before I try to unpack this:

• The entire original cast, except of course Tina Louise, and with Backus's role reduced due to illness;
• Yet another Ginger, 30-year-old Constance Forslund (note, since the Professor claims they've been on the island 18 years, this would make her 12 at the time of shipwreck, or really well preserved here)
• 32-year-old David Ruprecht as the previously very much never mentioned (in fact his existence contradicted by an episode or two) Thurston Howell IV, and it's one of the better performances;
• Yes, the Harlem Globetrotters, whose plane goes down, but they wash up ashore on the island, and I guess they're playing themselves, like they did in their cartoon and other places;
• Scatman Crothers as their coach and pilot, and accompanist (it is cool to hear him do "Sweet Georgia Brown")
• Since this isn't enough plot, we get villains played by then husband-and-wife Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, as respectively a wealthy man intent on cornering the market on a mysterious ingredient called Supremium, and a blonde live-action version of Natasha Fatale;
• Not technically people, but their comic relief sidekick robot George, and a team of basketball-playing robots
• Bob Denver's wife Dreama as the Southern belle receptionist for the Howells (actually given more to do than Wells);
• 23-year-old Rosalind Chao, around the time she started teaching Arnold Jackson but before she married Klinger, as the Hotel Clerk;
• Sportscasters Stu Nahan and Chick Hearn (the latter played Announcers on Gilligan's Island) as, well, sportscasters;
• Not only the Schwartz Bunch (Sherwood and his brothers Al and Elroy) but Brady and Gilligan writer David P. Harmon, and Schwartzian newbie Gordon Mitchell (who did however write for a lot of other sitcoms, including Mork & Mindy; 
• and Peter Baldwin, who directed The Brady Girls Get Married and some episodes of Bunch, but not any previous rendition of GI.

Now, I noted with BGGM that it was playing to the fans, so the cheesiness and all could be forgiven.  But this doesn't really have any of the feel of the original show.  Yes, it's slapsticky but GI was never just about slapstick.  Rescue allowed for some sentimental moments, but here hardly any of the original cast interact with each other, beyond the Skipper and Gilligan.  And when they do, it's not terribly interesting.  It's in fact Space 1999's Landau and Bain who have chemistry and cheese.  This reunion does have more fanservice than previously, in the sense that Wells and Forslund do an aerobics routine and there are scantily clad guests that the Skipper flirts with, although they're about one-third his age.  I would say as I did of Rescue that this is only for completists, and it is after all the last time that the three oldest cast members would act together.  This is by no means the end of Gilligan's Island though, thanks to, for instance, ALF.

Whitney Rydbeck, who does the voice of George the Robot, was a Page on The Brady Bunch and Sgt. Hondo McKee on M*A*S*H.  Wendy Hoffman, who was Sheri, on Mork & Mindy, plays Jackie, one of the bikini-wearing guests.  This program finally allows Dawn Wells to reach her 100th TV show in my collection, the rest of the castaways (except Tina Louise) already having passed this milestone.