re: Was MASH the original DEI show??

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Spearchucker was in the book too.

Bridget McCarthy figured more prominently in the book

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I read the novel about 20 yrs ago. I don't recall her at all

This site says she is in both the movie and tv pilot

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Augustus Bedford Forrest

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Burt Reynolds was offered the role of Duke but turned it down.

Some MASH notes:

Just like w/The Godfather, if you're interested in the adaptation(s), you should read the novel. It has a curious emphasis on religion (at one point Trapper John poses on a cross and photos of this are sold to Koreans as religious relics). Bowel resections -- a then new surgical technique? -- are a recurring theme.

One thing that fascinated me was how Hawkeye, once he learns he is going home, constantly rebuffs people's suggestions to get together later after the war, saying he needs to get settled etc etc etc... The implication is he doesn't really want to see any of these people again. Is it really that way for returning combat vets?

You have to do some research to really see it, but MASH is one of the most heavily re-edited films ever. The original script by Ring Lardner was fairly straightforward. However Altman went in and eventually cut it apart, completely rearranging the chronology. I've read that if you pay close enough attention you can see or hear characters in scenes before they've been introduced.

The most obvious example of this recutting is Duke's fantasy of meeting his family at the Atlanta airport after learning he's going home. This originally was not a fantasy at all, but a "real" scene set after he and Hawkeye return to the States. Altman threw out the entire homecoming section of the film, aside from these insert "fantasy" shots.

FWIW Hawkeye also had a homecoming scene in the original script: He sees his wife (yes he's married in the novel) waiting for him inside the airport, then the screen dissolves just before they meet and the film ends. I don't know if this scene was shot -- but if Duke's homecoming was, I presume Hawkeye's was too.

Lardner, incidentally, was furious when he saw Altman's final cut and disowned the film. He changed his mind a bit when he won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

White American and White Cuban is a culture clash but not mixed race.

Two characters on MASH were supposedly from Louisiana. Can anyone name them?

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Two characters on MASH were supposedly from Louisiana. Can anyone name them?

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Rizzo was one. He who played the military gold brick / meat sack to perfection!

Movie is better.

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White American and White Cuban is a culture clash but not mixed race.

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I Love Lucy is widely considered to be the first interracial marriage ever depicted in a television show.

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Not by people that know that speaking Spanish isn’t a race.

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It is what it is, I didn't make it up.

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Rizzo

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the actor GW Bailey went to HS in Port Arthur w/Janis Joplin and Jimmy Johnson (he was friends w/Janis)

I know. It is fascinating how speaking Spanish has become a race. It wasn't considered an interracial marriage when it aired, but public and official perspectives in the US have blurred ethnicity and race to where it's now thought of as an interracial marriage.

And this is unique to the US. Nowhere else in the world are ethnic Hispanics but that are racially white considered effectively "non-white". We are very weird when it comes to race.

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It wasn't considered an interracial marriage when it aired

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that depends on how literally you define the word "racial"

It was definitely considered a "mixed" marriage by CBS, at least before it aired. Every exec from Bill Paley on down adamantly opposed the casting of Arnaz, believing the marriage would not be accepted by the mass audience. CBS only gave in when Lucy played hardball (get it?) and insisted she wouldn't do the show w/o her husband.

Ironically enough, in 1962 when Ball returned to TV as a widow on The Lucy Show, CBS was again worried, fearing the audience would not accept her w/o Arnaz.