It has been said that M*A*S*H is being played on a television station somewhere in the world every second of every day. It is the most popular show in television history and almost without question the greatest and most important TV series ever made. However, the same can not be said for it’s successor. Well, I’ve been protesting that fact for over a decade now. After M*A*S*H is a very good, dare I say excellent series. It was nominated for Emmys and the first season finished number ten in the ratings. When you hear people talk about this show you’d think it was a total failure. Keep in mind that these people haven’t seen the series since the early 80s so they are simply combining their extremely vague recollection of the series combined with reviews from idiots like TV Guide who called After M*A*S*H one of the worst TV shows of all-time. Well, thanks to VHS bootlegs I’ve watched the entire series 3 times in the last few years so I’m here to tell you the truth about After M*A*S*H. The pilot episode may be one of the best episodes of the series. The pilot along with many season 1 episodes are on par quality wise with episodes of M*A*S*H. We see Potter, Klinger and Mulcahy come together at a veterans hospital in Missouri. Now this may be a far cry from what the fans would have liked to see (Hawkeye, BJ and Hot Lips is probably what most were hoping for), but these three are huge talents and although we were no longer at the 4077, we still got to see the trials and tribulations of some fine actors. Sure we get to see their home lives, but most of the action takes place at the VA hospital. After coming home from Korea the three main players soon learn that bureaucratic nonsense makes it just as hard to care for our soldiers in Missouri as it was in Korea. This is where the fun comes in though because Potter, Klinger and the padre have to scheme ways to do their jobs properly and the help the people who protected our country. The older vets also help to provide plenty of laughs. In fact I consider this show funnier than the final season of M*A*S*H which had to take on a more serious tone as they knew they were going to call it a day. I can not recommend the first season of this show highly enough to fans of the original series or the movie or simply to fans of comedic dramas. This is grade A stuff!
Then came season 2. From the moment I saw the new intro I knew something was up. Suddenly we had a serious show with hints of comedy instead of a comedy with hints of drama. Outside of the main three guys from M*A*S*H we saw drastic changes in the cast. They replaced three secondary players including Potter’s wife for some reason. Also the series seems to shift gears to put 90% of the focus onto Klinger. Jamie Farr is great, but as long as you have Harry Morgan and William Christopher in your cast you might as well use them. Even an appearance from Colonel Flagg can’t save this season which I’d call mediocre at best. Perhaps this is where some of the low opinions of the show come from since these episodes would have been the last ones seen by viewers of the short lived series. I do believe though that the series would have easily coasted through a few more seasons had CBS in their infinite wisdom not moved After M*A*S*H to go up against the A-Team which absolutely slaughtered this dramedy in the ratings.
Overall, despite the inferiority of the second season, I’d recommend you to seek out the entire series. If more people became fans of the show perhaps we could get it released on DVD instead of having to rely on the poor, low grade VHS rips that can occasionally be found on the web. In this day and age with books, music and movies on demand I don’t understand why all shows from our past can’t be offered on DVD, Blu-Ray or digital downloads. Many TV shows and movies are referred to as “cult” because of their obscurity, but why not at least offer these forgotten classics to the consumer so our television past doesn’t disappear from our collective memories? I mean After M*A*S*H may not be equivalent to what a 12th season of M*A*S*H could have been, but it is nonetheless a short lived extension of America’s favorite series and deserves another look…
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