M*A*S*H: The Complete Series + Movie

This is a wonderful series, and even though it is a comedy, much of it is true.This is a drama comedy, a dramedy. The characters we see may not have actually served in Korea, but in many cases, the characters are amalgamations of people who were actually over there. We could probably call this historical fiction. The best of historical fiction has a lot of truth in it.I don't need to say much, because the people who are going to buy the complete series have already seen many of the episodes already. They, like I, know they love the series, and know they want all of the episodes in one place so that they, like I, can enjoy them at our leisure. They, like I, don't mind the artistic license. They, like I, know that there were probably some MASH units where the corpsmen had stills hidden nearby, and where they tried to get out of camp to enjoy local bars that did spring up near these portable camps, proved by one guy, temporarily in charge, that set out to prove it by moving the entire camp just for the heck of it.If you haven't seen any MASH episodes yet, and if you're not sure if you'd like to own all eleven seasons, then try to catch a few episodes on rerun channels, or borrow a season from your local public library if they have one or more. Watch a few episodes, and I'm sure you'll be left wanting more.I highly recommend this entire series, and the movie, to you, whether you love drama, comedy, or both.Do note, M*A*S*H is more serious than Hogan's Heroes. Don't judge one by the other. Hogan's Heroes was 98% fiction, though some prisoners did escape, there was not a camp full of prisoners whose duty it was to do everything like they did. My dad, who served stateside during WW2, used to say, "The Germans were not that stupid," but he let us watch it anyway.But much of what you see in M*A*S*H actually did happen. There is fiction, but I'd imagine even that fiction was based in part on truth. There were practical jokers over there. There might not have been a corporal that dressed up like women around camp, but I'm sure there were men over there that wanted to, and might have worn that type of undergarment, while serving our country.I highly recommend this series for its comedy value, and for it's look at history, albeit in a semi-fictional setting. The Four-Oh-Double-Natural, the 4077, is a place I look forward to revisiting as I watch all of these seasons over again, when I'll be able to remember watching them with my parents before Dad's death, and with Mom, afterward.

I have owned this set for eleven years (since 2013) and it us still a pleasure to watch. Most significantly, the laugh track can be turned off! Prior to this I hand made VHS recordings on BETA and again on VHS tape, pausing the recording to omit advertisements. Those first boxes of BETA blank tapes cost $180 plus tax for a carton of twelve. You can own this set on DVD for 2/3 the cost of blank tape in 1980.I stopped at this product page to look for Blu-ray versions, but none found so this is as good as it gets. The color looks a little dull to me but my laser TV is old and I am color blind. Certainly much better than any VHS tape I have. Still much to enjoy.The package consists of eleven seasonal DVD sets of three DVDs each and the original feature Film. No slip case included. The DVDs are dual layer and have (up to?) 5.1 Dolby Surround that also plays as /Dolby Pro Logic Stereo. Standard DVD cases are provided in 2013. 256 episodes total plus the film. The set uses 7" of shelf space. The studio copywrite release date is 2008. There are no liner notes.I also have a couple of the original DVD season sets from a copywrite release date of 2001which also have three DVDs each. These sets contain pamphlet type booklets of notes and chapter stop titles. They are an enormous 1 1/16" thick each.There are some newer collections in all-in-one cases, some with cardboard sleeves, some with stacked discs in a plastic box, some with fancy cloth covered boxes, some a lot less money, some a lot more money. From everything I've read, the DVDs have the same video quality the original discs have dating back more than twenty years give or take. No word on any Blu-ray versions in the works.

1st of all I ordered this the evening of 7/22/13 and it was on my doorstep 7/23/13 before 6pm!!! THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER!!!This is one of the greatest TV shows of all time IMHO. All the actors did their job just about as good as possible. And the writing was even better than that. The directing was superb and so was the cinematography. The show was realtively realistic in showing what the Drs and RNs went through - losing lives - saving lives - 14 - 16 or more hour days under intense pressure. Being a pharmacist myself I understand a bit of the spot they were in. I'm NOT trying to say I understand completely as even through I have been involved in life or death situtations it certainly wasn't like what they experienced.Those of you who have watched any of these will have their favorite characters - be it Hawkeye, BJ, Radar, Klinger, Col Potter, etc. This show was filled with memorable characters which allowed it to share the 'wealth' and keeps the show interesting. To me this is a key feature of this show - no one actor had to carry the entire load in each show. This kept the show fresh even if a character would die (as for Lt Col Blake) or just leave as Radar did.I don't believe I've ever seen a MASH that wasn't at the very least very, very good. You can't say that about very many shows - that they were at least extremely good. And even thro they were made 30 years ago or so about a war that was more than 50 years ago almost of the stories as still pertinent to today problems.But yet - they still managed to have fun - mostly to keep from cracking under all the pressure.I would rate this show a near perfect scores of 9.75 to 10.0 out of 10HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR NEARLY EVERYONE!