It was after season 3 that it became Alan Alda's baby as Larry Gelbart (sp?) left. As one person observed towards the end, Alda no longer wanted an Emmy, he wanted a Nobel Peace Prize.Mimi wrote: ↑11 May 2023, 3:48pmBoy, MASH really fell off a cliff in season 5. Frank is a buffoon. I can see why Larry Linville wanted to leave. The first three seasons are the best, but I think I've had enough. Once Trapper and Henry left, the tone shifted so drastically. Like everyone else did, I'll blame Alan Alda.
That said, about five years ago or so, I watched the run on one of the channels airing episodes each day. I actually came to appreciate the "unfunny" years more. Yes, it could be (well, usually was) heavy-handed, but I appreciated the sincerity of its humanist vision, and I really like the episodes where Winchester understood compassion and vulnerability and need. Part of it was David Ogden Stiers pulled it off so well, conveying both aristocratic boob and the more fragile person beneath. There's one that I especially liked, where Winchester barely survives being killed by a sniper and becomes obsessed with his mortality, driving to the front to work on soldiers and begging one who was dying to explain what he was feeling. There's a desperation there to understand what life is about by understanding death. I think if you pretend the first three hilarious seasons don't exist, the virtues of the unfunny years are better detected.
edit: The episode I mention can be streamed here.