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Unlike the good doctors of the 4077 (otherwise known as "this hellhole" and "sewer"), M*A*S*H shows little signs of fatigue in its eighth season. Familiar characters reveal new sides of themselves and the series itself performs some radical surgery on sitcom convention. The most pivotal personnel change is the departure of Gary Burghoff, the only ensemble member to have appeared in the original film, as Radar. His splendid two-part send-off sets the stage for one of the season's best episodes, the Emmy-nominated "Period of Adjustment," in which Klinger (Jamie Farr) must begin to make the role of company clerk his own, and family man B.J. Honeycutt (Mike Farrell) is devastated when a letter from home relates how his baby daughter called a visiting Radar "Daddy." Pompous Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers) gets his "Of course I care" episode when he tends to a classical pianist who has lost the use of his hands in "Morale Victory." Harry Morgan, as Colonel Henry Potter, was honored with an Emmy, most likely for the emotional episode "Old Soldiers," in which he receives word that the last of his World War I band of brothers has passed on. Loretta Switt was also saluted by the Academy for her work this season. Among her best episodes is "Are You Now, Margaret?" in which she is accused of being a communist sympathizer. Two episodes truly distinguish themselves: "Life Time," which unfolds in real time as the doctors race against the clock to perform an emergency procedure that requires a graft from a dying soldier; and "Dreams," writer-director Alan Alda's Emmy-nominated, love-it-or-hate it episode that visits the nightmares of the sleep-deprived doctors. M*A*S*H continues to walk the scalpel's edge between hilarious comedy ("Too Many Cooks," "April Fools") and powerful drama ("Heal Thyself, in which a visiting doctor suddenly suffers a break down, and "Guerilla My Dreams," which climaxes with a tense standoff between the doctors, who have saved the life of a wounded female korean guerilla, and the North Korean officer hellbent on executing her. As with past M*A*S*H sets, viewers have the preferred option of viewing the episodes without the intrusive laugh track. But we're putting whoever's in command on report for yet again not managing to stitch together any kind of cast commentary, interviews, or archival goodies. --Donald Liebenson
| ACTORS: | Alan Alda |
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 1979 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Fox Home Entertainme |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Color, Closed-captioned |
| TYPE: | Television |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 3 |
| UPC: | 024543173472 |
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M*A*S*H - Season Eight (Collector's Edition) reviews by customers
 This show was always good!!!
For all you so called MASH fans that thought the show started slipping around this time, obviously you didn't get the show. The show was always character driven thus it became more of a drama. If the show continued to be slapstick like in the first two seasons it would have become a cliche. So the characters became more real ; they even made Winchester more likeable. The creators of this show only quit after they couldn't find anything fresh unlike most other shows that rehashed their plots. So for this and all past and future MASH dvd releases, they all get five stars.
 Garry Burghoff's disappearance matters little
By season 8 of MASH we viewers were accustomed to seeing less and less of Radar O'Reilly. He was in fewer and fewer eps before Burghoff outright quit anyway. Can't recall seeing him with Major Winchester (not too much). His final exit in a two part ep where he has a different voice and is really grouchy is well done enough but no match for the scenes of the dimunitive but surprisingly nifty and wolfish guy in season one. MASH definitely got worse over time.
No show should be on this long
I mean it. Even the Simpsons. Most series run their course after 4 or 5 seasons and Mash was no different. Not saying there cannot be enjoyable episodes because there are, but we become hangers on for the sake of memories sake and for love of the characters, not for love of the creativity. I'll admit it, I'm a fan of the Trapper era but it doesn't change the facts.
I thank God, Starsky and Hutch, Star Trek (original), and so many other shows I follow went out when they still made a statement... and not the same statements over and over. The problem with a show of this format is they are a prisoner of their surroundings where as a show like Columbo can go on forever, it's really just simple geography.
And do they really need to call these the "Collectors" Editions? How about "The Only" Editions (as far as DVD is concerned)? Plus, the term "Collector" implies more than ugly MONO sound and NO EXTRAS. I may buy this someday, maybe when they re-re-release it in 5.1 DD.
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