M*A*S*HCast #96 – The Interview

M*A*S*HCast –  Season 4, Episode 24: The Interview

Special Guest Star: Scott X

Air Date: February 24, 1976

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14 responses to “M*A*S*HCast #96 – The Interview

  1. Since the cast was given the questions and asked to come up with their own answers, would they have received payment as writers as well as actors for this episode?

  2. my dad always said most people he knew did’nt have color tv till the 72 olimpics. Not sure if he had stats to back that up but we ALWAYS had color.
    on another note WOW frank is a bad dude.

    1. I can’t put a date on our first color TV. We went back and forth through the ’70s. When our TV would break, Dad would take it to the repair shop, where the guy would either fix it after a few days (an eternity!), or declare it a loss and offer to buy it for parts, and Dad could buy one of the other trade-in sets that he had got into working condition. I do remember after one transition finding the walls of Barney Miller’s precinct were more distracting in color while they had just been background for the faces in B&W.

      (How often did this happen in my childhood? Would it have to be several times a year? I could ask a similar question about our secondhand cars.)

  3. A tough episode to review since there really wasn’t a plot, but an enjoyable podcast nonetheless.

    Mulcahy’s line about steam coming out of the patients was fantastic. I also loved Klinger’s comment about it being a “police action”, saying it sounded like they were over there arresting people.

    I get a chuckle from Frank talking about how important marriage is.

    I get she had a play, but I really wish they could have worked Margaret in. They could have hung up a white sheet in a room in a NY hotel to look like post op. They dropped the ball on this.

    Is Rob’s MASH blog still on line? Would love to read it if possible.

    Another great season in the books. Looking forward to the S4 mailbag episode and your rankings.

  4. I find it funny that you hear the characters swearing like sailors in this episode, when you never hear them talk like that in regular episodes. I understand the real world reason behind this, but it still makes me feel like they are acting out of character when they do swear. Perhaps, I should imagine them swearing when I watch all of the other episodes.

    Thanks for another great episode and season of MASHCast.

    1. I think they had them swear just for the humor of hearing them bleeped.

      The first time I heard “son of a bitch” on TV was out of the mouth of Hawkeye Pierce.

  5. Thank you for another great episode! The Interview is such a wonderful episode.
    As a Margaret-fan, I am sad that she isn’t in it. Is there somewhere I can read the bit that was written for Margaret? Is it in a book, or available online somewhere?
    Thank you for a great podcast, I very much look forward to season 5, I love season 5! 🙂

  6. So a very evocative episode, and Iron Guts and Scott did a great job, of course. I will only mention two things. First, Radar is right. Looking the kids in the face makes it all very real. The second one is on the cursing. Years ago, my daughters were remarking on how I never use coarse language. I was flattered by their high opinion of me, but I had to confess: Sometimes, I had to curse in Afghanistan. Some days, it was the only way to get U.S. Army Soldiers to know I was serious. One of my daughters found it amusing that I gave myself a waiver based on geography.

  7. Great job Scott. Very interesting observations. The question is, is any of MASH’s contemporaries at the time doing such ground breaking stylistic changes that MASH displayed during this season?. Egbert Deluge, Hawkeye, this episode? Two good points raised in this podcast. Harry Morgan’s acting chops were second to none. The way his voice waivers sends a lump in my throat everytime. His performance was the stand out I this episode. Also that the episode is so good, one doesn’t notice that Loretta Swit is not involved. Much like the Alcoholics Unanimous episode that is just so great you don’t really notice Henry is not in the episode. What a great show and you guys did it justice with your review

    1. All in the Family was pushing the limits topically, and I guess Saturday Night Live was doing some experimentation, but at least to my knowledge you’re right, Tim. No one played with the format, style, and tone to the degree that MASH did.

  8. You had a brief discussion about how a “real” news feature like this would be viewed by audiences of that time and this time. It’s my understanding that the radio and TV networks back then pretty much let the news divisions run themselves. Personalities like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite took their positions and integrity seriously. Today, any news that doesn’t reflect the opinions of the networks’ owners and overseers does not air. I would be curious to see this episode re-edited so that the characters words reflect something different than what they meant. Could one make precise cuts in the video to make Frank look serious? Or Hawkeye look hawkish? Or just foolish? I bet it could be done.

  9. It is apparently received wisdom that while MASH was set in Korea, it was actually talking about the war in Vietnam. Roughly twenty years ago when I told a co-worker, who was a partially reformed 60’s hippie, that I liked MASH, he immediately said, “You know it was really about Vietnam ….” Then in the last two podcasts the same idea was referenced as a clearly established fact.

    I find this interesting since I just started listening to Alan Alda’s “Clear+Vivid” podcast. In episode 12 of the first season, he has the actors from the “main cast” of MASH on. Roughly 24 minutes in, they all agree that they never for a moment thought MASH was talking about Vietnam. In fact, they seem somewhat befuddled that anyone could believe there was a connection between the show and Vietnam. Gary Burghoff said to general agreement that he never thought the show was anti-war, but rather “pro humanity.”

    I don’t think they are worried about network or studio sensors pulling the show now, so I am interested in what people think of the connection between MASH and the war in Vietnam, if there was any.

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