Cast your vote here! What moments in M*A*S*H stand out in your memory? What do you think are the saddest moments, the happiest, the silliest, the finest? What do you think are the best (or the worst) moments for each character?

Father Mulcahy had a number of fine moments, but I think the best was in the episode "Blood Brothers" where he delivered an ad-libbed, hasty, incredible sermon in front of the Cardinal. Other good ones are his performing an emergency tracheostomy, serving as a living counterweight on a chopper, facing down Pvt. Gillis with a gun, running a marathon for the orphans....

One of the worst effects ever in this series was when Klinger used the handglider to escape. I realize it was the early 70's but still, it was bad.

One of the worst effects ever in this series was when Klinger used the handglider to escape. I realize it was the early 70's but still, it was bad.

Might as well bring it up here, but laugh tracks have always annoyed me. Sure this show was funny, but bring in a real audience and let them know that a lot of other people think it's funny. It's worse when cartoons have it, like Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, or Rocky and Bullwinkle.

I hate the laugh track too, but I still prefer it to a live audience. A laugh track is easier to tune out, and the actors don't have to delay their lines because the audience is drowning them out. Either way, I don't need to be told when something is funny. It was one of the hallmarks of M*A*S*H that the producers fought so hard to eliminate and cut down on the use of canned laughter.

An episode that struck a chord with me was the one where Klinger & Margaret are going somewhere in a jeep and it breaks down. While they're waiting for help Margaret has a nice little speech about the less than wonderful life of a military brat. I'm a military brat myself and it all rang very true. Especially the part about always moving away from your friends.

One fabulous MASH moment has to be Margaret's speech to Hawkeye in Inga--especially the part about the replacing his lips with liver.
Joks aside, one of the most sentimental moments was when everybody was telling folks how much they meant to each other in GFA. I think that illustrates how much they meant to each other.

The moment from the final episode where Hawkeye reveals that the mother in the bus with him killed her own baby, and not a chicken as he had previously told Sidney. I don't think I've seen "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" since it first aired when I was about fifteen. But I've never been able to forget that scene. I think one of the reasons I've avoided seeing the final episode since then is because that part is so hard to take.

Just think how much greater M*A*S*H would have been without the laugh track. It was unfortunately a staple of situation-comedies.

That is, by the way, a far more effective reason for having Hawkeye crack up than because some other kids pushed him into a water hole when he was little.

Well, as Sidney pointed out, it's the little battles that sometimes do the most damage. I thought that episode with Hawkeye sneezing and itching was very well done. His emoting was excellent. That sequence where Sidney flat out asked him how he fell in--Hawkeye said, "I stood up...." Then he froze, and you could just see the memory clicking into place. And moments later, it hurts to watch as he throws his head back and keens with anguish, and you can hear that little seven year old cry out, "Why did he DO that?"

I also love the scene at the end, where Sidney rakes in the pot and says, "You should never fall for that old fake sneezing!"

I love the General-singing sequence right at the end of 'The General Flipped at Dawn'. Up until then everyone's been assuming a GENERAL must of course know what he's doing, and then all of a sudden the man bursts into a chorus of 'Mississippi Mud'. Great stuff.
Also the subplot that had Trapper and Margaret trapped in a storeroom ('The Sniper'?). I always thought those two had great chemistry together. It's one of few quiet, human bits in the goofy early seasons.

There was a moment in, I believe, the pilot, where Hawkeye determines that Radar is sending a Jeep home, piece by piece.

Todd, I find that scene you described VERY hard to take, too. If that ep is on (my wife loves the show, as I do) I leave the room during that part.

"Life Time"

Radar's Henry Blake's plane going down in the Sea of Japan, there were no survivors. First time a main character had been killed off.

Charles in GFA after the Chinese musicians are killed. One of his top 3 scenes in the series.

Frank's "Goodbye, Margaret." In Margaret's Marriage. I actually felt sorry for him. At that moment his face says it all, "I just lost the only woman I ever really loved."

I love the part in "The Bus" when Frank and Radar are trying looking for the way back to the camp. That's the worst team you can come up with. They both end up running back to the bus.

I always enjoyed the touching moment in the episode "Letters" when Charles responds to a young girls'letter in which she also included a leaf because it is autumn in Maine & she wanted to share its beauty.There was also a moving moment in one of their Christmas episodes when Klinger brings a tray of food to Charles in the swamp & Charles thanks Max.