Suicide is painless, it brings on many changes

[darkroxas45]

I ordered mom a special present for a belated Christmas Present. A complete series of M*A*S*H - Martinis and Medicine Complete Collection. It has all 11 seasons and even the movie that started it all. twas chilling to hear that iconic song again.

[lordlundar]

Yeah I got that for my dad years ago. Funny enough I get more use out of it than he does and the show ended it's first run when I was 1.

[WishfulSpirit]

Dang it now I'm humming the themesong.

[Kittish]

We need to get the rest of the set. Think we've got like the first seven seasons and the movie. We bring it out and have a marathon a couple of times a year. I'm always amazed at what they got away with on the show, given the mores at the time it was made.

[ReverendBSB]

Funny aside. Robert Altmans son wrote the song for the movie. Thanks to the show he made almost three times what his dad did for directing the movie.

[darkroxas45]

Dang it now I'm humming the themesong.

Muwahahahaha

[Seshat]

.... and I can take or leave it as I please.

(Note: accidentals not listed, and use your ear to determine lengths of notes. I played this soooo many times.) (Notes in brackets are ornamental) (This is from memory and played on my tin whistle)
(Verse)
B C B C B C B A, B A B A B A G, B A G A G A G F, A G F G F G A B (C D).
(Chorus (suicide is painless lines))
D E D E D E D, D E D E D E D, D C D E F G F E D E, D C D E F G F E D E (D E D E).

(and you can do the same thing if you please.)

[Racket_Man]

I remember back in the early 1980's when M*A*S*H came to the end with the 2 hour series ender.

queue background/flashback squiggle
On the night of that broadcast I was doing a theater production (I believe a stage adaptation of Member of the Wedding) as the sound effects person. The director had A LOT of sound effects for the show including a 2 minute complicated scene where the main character tries to commit suicide in a tree. during that one scene alone I ran 3 reel-to-reel tape decks (no digital stuff back then). One deck was a portion of a skit of an old radio program with Bing Crosby and Judy Garland where Judy accidently shoots Bing's hair off, the 2d deck was several snippets of background music and the 3d deck was several gun shots. ALL of these (per the Director) had to be perfectly timed together with LITTLE margin for error (again per the Director). This is near the end of the show and IS crucial for the characters development/transformation

queue flash forward squiggle


The reason I mention the above is that I brought a old small B&W TV up to the sound booth so I could watch the M*A*S*H finale DURING the theater run and HOPED BEYOND HOPE the show would either end or be in commercial break during the above crucial scene so I could actually pay attention to one OR the other and NOT both so I could savor each.

[drunkenwildmage]

With one of the main actors, and their character being from my city, the last episode of M*A*S*H was a really big deal around here. I was in, 2nd or 3rd grade at the time, and I remember the local restaurant that that character mentioned from time to time having a big farewell bash. They still have some of the props from the TV show on display. The local CBS channel did an 30 minute local special on it, plus it was top story in the local news for a couple nights. i watched the last episode when it was aired, but didn't realize the significance of it until years later down the the road when I grew older.

[Seshat]

Holy <city>, Batman. I think I know which character, which city, and which restaurant!


... says the person with the full set of DVDs.


Hint: One of the few characters who stuck with the full 11 seasons, and wasn't either Major Hoolihan or a doctor.

[drunkenwildmage]

Yep, that would be him. The one with a dress collection at the start of the series.