A DAY IN THE LIFE: M*A*S*H WAS MORE THAN SILLY SITCOM

Did you hear? Maclean Stevenson died last week. Stevenson is best-known (possibly ONLY known) for his portrayal on the long-running hit television show, "M*A*S*H."

Stevenson played Lt. Col. Henry Blake, the lovable, if inept, commanding officer. (For you trivial trivia buffs, after leaving M*A*S*H, he also starred in "The Maclean Stevenson Show" and "Hello, Larry.")

In 10 years I probably won't remember exactly where I was when I heard that Maclean Stevenson died the way the generation before mine remembers their exact whereabouts and what they were doing on Nov. 22, 1963, but I'll always remember Col. Blake.

People might scoff at the comparison of Kennedy and Stevenson. Kennedy was one of the most popular presidents of all time, his tenure in office often compared to Camelot due to the Kennedy legacy of being American "royalty."

Stevenson, they say, was just an actor.

But he was a good actor, if not great. He was believable in the role of a decent man who had responsibility thrust in his face. It seemed to be a job he didn't want -- he never seemed to like it much. But he did his best.

The first time I mourned Col. Blake I was sitting in front of my television set. My sadness at learning Col. Blake was going home turned to something worse after Radar shakily came into the OR to tell Hawkeye and the rest that Col. Blake's helicopter had been shot down over the Sea of Japan.

There were no survivors.

The second time I mourned him was last week. I was driving to Kansas City to see my girlfriend with the radio blasting. Then the news came on and I sort of tuned out. The headlines these days tends to be on the presidential primaries, and this doesn't really interest me.

Then at the end the DJ announced Stevenson's death with "Suicide is Painless," M*A*S*H's theme, playing in the background.

It may not have been as noteworthy as Kennedy's death, but I really liked M*A*S*H and I really liked Col. Blake. I remember sitting down every Monday night, even as a child, to watch the antics of Hawkeye, Trapper, B.J., Hotlips, Frank Burns, Charles Winchester III, Radar, cross-dressing Klinger, Col. Potter, and Col. Blake, who was only with the show four of its 11 seasons.

I liked them all and the show, for me, was magic; from the episode in which an entire year takes place to the one where Radar is accidentally (thanks to Hawkeye and Trapper sending false promotion orders to I-corps) promoted from corporal to lieutenant.

The show was brilliant in many ways. For example, what kind of show was it? Was it a comedy? Was it a drama? Both answers are correct. M*A*S*H was perfect at blending many elements into the formula.

That's life.

In our own lives, things aren't always funny, there are good times, yes (but that's another show entirely), but life isn't always like that. These people were human and they seemed real. We got to know EVERYTHING about them.

For example, Hawkeye had a father in Crabapple Cove who he wrote to about every third episode. BJ had a wife, Peg, and two children, one was named Aaron, the same as Mike Farrell's (who played BJ) real-life daughter. Radar had a mother who looked eerily like him (Gary Burghoff played the mother). Klinger was from Toledo. Col. Potter was from our own home state in Hannibal.

And the characters grew on the show. Margaret "Hotlips" Houlahan went from Maj. Burns' ratfinking little honey to a mature likable character. Klinger went from a cross-dressing Section 8 seeker to a pretty good soldier who finally just figured he had a job to do.

Even Hawkeye grew up a little bit.

And there were sad times on the show, too, real tear jerkers. Remember when Hawkeye's best friend, Trapper, was given orders to go home? Hawkeye was at the front doctoring and when he got back Trapper was gone.

He never even got to say goodbye.

Then Col. Blake went. Before Blake got into the helicopter that would never make it home, Radar saluted him, with tears in his eyes.

Then Radar went home. Frank Burns was the next to go. Like real life, there were no certainties. You could never call that show predictable.

Many might say that I took something that was just a television show a bit too seriously.

I don't think so.

First of all, it was more to me than a television show. They were more than characters and it was more than pretend. I felt I really grow to know and like some of these characters.

They were my friends.

~Scott Moyers is the editor of the Jackson USA Signal.