melancholyI first started watching M*A*S*H when it was aired in England in the mid 70s ... then it was running late on a Saturday evening, and even thopugh only a young teen, I was always baby-sitting at my neighbours house - so it was something to watch just before they got home!
I was soon addicted - and when it moved to mid-week I got the whole family watching it (well pre-videos and with 1 TV I had to!). When I was at college I had to miss some of the episodes as we had lectures till 9pm one evening a week - and friends learnt to cope with my moans. So, when the final episode came I couldn't wait - I bought a video so I could record it ... and then the date came as to a day I had arranged a post-college Christmas dinner. Later that day I had a phone call form a friend to say all the plans had been changed - just so I could see my episode - I did!
And even now it still affects me! I wept buckets.
It really rang a lot of bells ... about a group of people thrown together to fight a war - when peace came they are happy but sad. They have to say Goodbye to frineds, and know that they may never meet again. I had just gone through this at college - it really hit home.
The episode centres on Hawkeye (my icon today) and how he didn't want to face that. Strong emothions are hard to cope with - he, like us, didn't want to face facts.
This YouTube is a general set of clips, but containing the signature tune.
This is a set of clips from that final episode - "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen"
M*A*S*H Wikipedia
M*A*S*H Web Site