Cheap M*A*S*H Seasons 1-4 (Collector's Editions) (DVD) (Alan Alda) Price

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Customer Reviews of M*A*S*H Seasons 1-4 (Collector's Editions)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
All 4 of these season series are great! Looking at this package though should be asked the question "Why does it exsist?"
Convienience?: Most of the people I know of that were devoted MASH fans (exclude some of movie fans that hated the TV series) already have these 4 plus the 5th one now.
More Bonus Features?: There are none. These are exactly the same as the individually packaged series. (Maybe Fox is waiting for the entire cast to die off before we get this feature - then it will be too late. So far, Stevenson & Linville are gone. I'm not sure about anyone else. Some bloopers reels would be nice too. You can't tell me that after 11 years, they never made mistakes in that time.) Why is Fox holding back?
Better Sound?: Nope. It's still 2 speaker mono.
Audio Commentaries?: None (dream on). Like I said, these discs are identical.
Price?: Less than a 10 spot. If you go to the right stores (or to Amazon.com for that matter), you can get all 4 of these for around the same price.

Availability?: All 5 episodes can be purchased separately.
Christmas?: BINGO. WE HAVE A WINNER. Fox is obviously attempting to cash in on their old stock of DVD's of this series.
Final Analysis?: If you love the first 4 seasons, and have not purchased any of them yet, this is the way to get all 4 quickly. Otherwise, continue to purchase each season separately. To be fair with Fox, the plus side of all these sets (and the new one) is that you can see the show WITHOUT the laugh track (the artificial laughing gets on ones nerves after a while), and has a great facts leaflet that comes in each season (and they also let you know when the next season will be out).

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One of the best shows television has ever produced
So far I have seen these 5 seasons many times over. The laughter keeps on coming.

My all time favorite show and looking forward for season 6. The play all feature on the later season dvd made a good addition to our lazy lives. Knowing it was recorded in the 70's, its picture quality on DVD is great.

The characters made a change in season 4 with the introduction of B.J and Sherman Potter. They fit right in after a couple of episodes.

As others have noted, the casing could have been better. The nice cover pictures and the additional booklet with episode guides also with a card in each episode noting of when another season will release makes up for the flimsy cover. In my opinion the amount is well worth the content and some more.

They should make this a set of 1-5 seasons. This set doesn't have anything special, its rather the same single releases for a savings of getting them all at once. I hope they bring back some extras (bloopers etc.) on upcoming releases.

A great buy for all the MASH fans and the rest who just like a good chuckle.

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M*A*S*H*'s Origin...It Was A Situation Comedy!
The very early episodes of M*A*S*H* are interesting because the show started out as a situation comedy (which eventually turned into a dramedy series). The characters of Hawkeye Pierce(Alan Alda) and Trapper John(Wayne Rogers)were clownish and the early storylines were more of an "Animal House" mentality. The most interesting aspect is the early incarnation of the character "Radar O'Reilly" (Gary Burghoff) who is basically the same as everyone else (as he is played in the film version- - Burghoff was in the film version also). Radar actually drinks and is behind some of juvenile pranks early-on. As M*A*S*H* found its voice and matured into a part-time drama series, Radar metamorphosed into a naive, innocent, grape Nee-Hi drinking, Iowa farm boy...totally different from his origin. This was necessary to keep the character going because other minor one-note characters simply disappear as the show progessed (i.e. Spearchucker and Ugly John). Probably for the purposes of a half-hour sit-com there was too many people sharing "The Swamp" living quarters. However, the characters of Klinger (Jamie Farr) and Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) were expanded. This reviewer thinks the early episodes are the best ones because the show is what it is intended to be; and that it is a comedy series. Many situation comedies these days will get an EMMY for a particular episode for "comedy" when the story is of a dramatic type plot. People lose site that it is a situation comedy. People can thank the later incarnation M*A*S*H* for that one. However, the show is great in both its incarnations from situation comedy to dramedy. The dramedy episodes is what most people will remember the show by and it is what put the show on the map. However, the early episodes are by far some of the funniest in terms of straight comedy.