MovieChat Forums > After MASH (1983) Discussion > Better this left-wing show got short lif...

Better this left-wing show got short life

posted 13 years ago by belanger75
15 replies | jump to latest

I actually liked much about this show (especially Mr. D'Angelo and even more so Miss Cox) but not its politics! It was continuing Mash's tradition of putting down most of the US Government (except for the medical sector)!I feel the US government did right in halting the deadly Communist contagion in Korea from '50-53 so no matter how much I enjoyed the show otherwise its mostly nasty, wrongheaded politics ultimately wrecked it!
PS Still kinda sorry more dedicated Mash fans don't at all recall D'Angelo and Cox! Nothing came of their many eps!

[–] marktayloruk 12 years ago

Hope it turns up on TV again sometime.Would like to see it.Agree re Korea-I'd have let MacArthur drop the Bomb.

[–] belanger75 12 years ago

An overly left-wing book (Magic and Mayhem) shows surprisingly enough that Syngman Rhee was a FAR more gentle a ruler than the commie head of North Korea (the lousy AND tremendously murderous Kim II Sung). Mash put down Rhee so unfairly and the show was hardly ever having a bad word about Kim II.

[–] ivitt 10 years ago

Communism is banned in North Korea.

Syngman Rhee slaughtered millions as well.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 9 years ago

D'Angelo and Cox sound like Henry Blake and Hot Lips respectively.

Yes, the short-sighted producers didn't realize that by the '80s, audiences were tired of talking about the war and politics and thinking about government. The '80s saw the birth of new family sitcoms, action and fantasy shows. After MASH simply didn't fit. Perhaps if they broke away from their usual political schtick and, you know, stopped trying to copy its predecessor in every way possible, it could've worked. Focus more on Potter and Klinger as family men. That way, I think it would've stood a better chance.

[–] belanger75 9 years ago

The show had to be a little about the Korean War (it was called AfterMash) and when it was about the Korean conflict they could have mentioned Kim II Sung and his very brutal mass-murder and the fact that he started the whole Korean War. There was plenty of talk about past wars the US took part (against super baddies like Sung) throughout the entire 1980's.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 9 years ago

They could have, but they wanted to keep making some kind of statement about bureaucracies and corruption here in America,

[–] belanger75 9 years ago

I said it before and I will say it again: Since Sung indeed started this whole bloody war he should indeed get credit for doing so!

[–] belanger75 8 years ago

Sung -- was so very bad.
To wax poetic:
Tis true he very bad! Tis true tis pity! And tis pity tis true!

[–] belanger75 8 years ago

The most important thing about After Mash was the lack of any mention of North Korea's total guilt in starting the Korean War.

There were other talks on these boards about how great it would have been,say, if Nurse Kelley had been seen on AM. Really the actress playing her did not have that much talent and Chao as Soon Li was a way better actual female carryover from Mash as she was both better looking and a better actress.

Look, they were showing the Mash actors on AM just as they had been in the last days of original series and (except for Chao who only was there in the last days) that was a total mistake. The early Radar was far more nifty than the later more square Radar (but the latter was the one who made it briefly to AM). They soon repented and began letting Klinger do his old dress sketch.

But remember the most important thing about AM is what is written in the first two lines of this posting. This show was not, say, Facts of life or Mr. Belvidere. The actors were actually second in importance to plot and script content.

[–] HelloMyNameIsMrBurns 9 years ago

Sounds right wing. They're always the ones bashing the government.

[–] Blueghost 8 years ago

by belanger75 » Sat Mar 12 2011 10:12:39
IMDb member since November 2010
Post Edited: Sat Mar 12 2011 10:17:41
I actually liked much about this show (especially Mr. D'Angelo and even more so Miss Cox) but not its politics! It was continuing Mash's tradition of putting down most of the US Government (except for the medical sector)!I feel the US government did right in halting the deadly Communist contagion in Korea from '50-53 so no matter how much I enjoyed the show otherwise its mostly nasty, wrongheaded politics ultimately wrecked it!
PS Still kinda sorry more dedicated Mash fans don't at all recall D'Angelo and Cox! Nothing came of their many eps!

It's one of the many foibles of elitist Hollywood to preach peace at the cost of all else. In my review of this series I noted that even in MASH Dr. Honeycutt and his fellow doctors refused to shoot the enemy more than once in this series, and continued to comment on how stupid the war, and all war, was and is.

Fortunately real military doctors know that they will serve as infantry if needed, save for any conscientious objector. And, like you, it's my deep personal and public belief that Truman meeting the Soviet backed Korean threat with the US military was the right thing to do. I'm just sorry we couldn't eliminate the Soviet backed regime altogether.

Peace at any cost is no peace at all. It is enslavement. It is despotism. But Hollywood continues to preach "liberal values", much of which are taken from immigrants who grew up in agrarian villages where communal living was an aspect of their society.

But there's a real vapid and otherwise brain-dead "ivory tower" element in Hollywood who continue to preach communal values in the face of a very advanced industrial and capitalistic society.

Such preaching only helps fester a lot of negativity towards the once all powerful Hollywood juggernaut. Thank goodness it is crumbling before our eyes, and will hopefully be forever made an example of just how stupid and elitist that society was.

[–] belanger75 8 years ago

Excellent points Blueghost.

[–] Blueghost 8 years ago

Thanks, much appreciated.

[–] belanger75 8 years ago

Since Alan Alda was about 100% unconnected to this show I presume that the no-Kim II Sung-mass-murderer-mention on AM was on the part of Larry Gelbart and, come to think of it, Gelbart was behind the original Mash's first four seasons. This shows that Mr. Alda only gets 1000% blame for the post-Gelbart Mash eps having no Sung mention. Amazing how many bad hippie-type minds came together to make the original Mash.

[–] belanger75 8 years ago

See my postings on Yeltsin admitting communist guilt in starting the Korean War.