A few years ago, Demtel or a similar telemarketing company did a limited release of M*A*S*H* on VHS tape. If memory serves they did the usual release of the first tape for the low, low price of $9.95 and then charged $19.95 for subsequent volumes. With four episodes per tape this would bring the total cost of owning the complete series of 251 episodes to about $1250.
Thank God for DVD. The current run of M*A*S*H* seasons including Season Four as we have here are selling for closer to $30 per season, taking the total cost to own the whole series run of 11 seasons to about $330. If this trend continues when blu-ray or similar technology is commercially available you will be able to score the entire series for under $30, I love technology!
Anyway, that’s enough rambling from a rampant collector.
In a nutshell, Season Four is significant mainly for the radical cast changes that took place in the main characters. The old commanding officer Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) who was discharged and tragically killed at the end of Season Three has been replaced by Col. Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan) and a new sidekick for Hawkeye in BJ Hunnicutt to replace Trapper John.
In the continuing release of M*A*S*H* seasons on DVD we are given the full 24 episodes on 3 discs from the fourth year of the hugely popular sit com.
For a series that was first broadcast in the early 70’s, this season is approaching it’s 30th anniversary, the vision in M*A*S*H* has survived reasonable well. Obviously filmed before television shows deserved any sort of widescreen treatment all episodes are presenting in 4:3 full frame format. The picture is as good as can be expected for a television source of this age, while grain is ever present and obvious it isn’t too distracting. Colour levels can appear washed out and drab, but the majority of the content is army greens and dirt anyway so it’s good enough.
The menu system is simple but effective, each episode has a different static menu page with a screenshot from the episode.
Originally filmed in mono sound nothing much has changed in this department. We get a Dolby Digital mono soundtrack but in a mostly dialog driven show it is good to see that the dialog is clear and sharp. There is also a French version of the soundtrack in which no attempt has been made whatsoever to match the original voices of the actors, I pity the poor French M*A*S*H* fans in Region 4.
As with previous seasons M*A*S*H* on DVD, there are no extras at all in this season which is a bit dispointing. Surely there is a vault of extra stuff out there they could squeeze onto these discs?
As a special bonus there is an additional audio track on each episode which allows you to listen to the show without the canned laughter track. There is no menu option to use this feature so use the audio button on your remote to rid yourself of the prompt to laugh.
Hardcore fans of M*A*S*H* will be sad that their $1300 collection of VHS tapes is slowly becoming doorstops but that’s life really. While the quality of the audio and video on this DVD set probably isn’t a large step up from the VHS version for pure convenience, longevity and cost the DVD sets makes good sense.
