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Complete Book of Mash

Complete Book of Mash

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $13.59
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interviews and plot "reprises" of the celebrated TV series
Review: "The Complete Book of M*A*S*H" includes "reprises" of all 251 episodes, with each season sandwiches by interviews with one of the cast members (e.g., Alan Alda, Harry Morgan) and then a writer/director (e.g., Larry Gelbert, Gene Reynolds), and hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs. A complete list of the Writers and Directors, along with all of the show's Awards and Nominations are provided in the back. The episodes are a bit more than mere descriptions, including choice quotes and getting into what characters are thinking. There are a few mistooks in these "Battle Notes," and better summaries can be found in other volumes, but the best part of this book is the interviews, especailly from those actors who left "M*A*S*H" early (Wayne Rogers and Larry Linville). Certainly the photographs are handsomely presented. This book is a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf of any M*A*S*H aficionado.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: As Hawkeye would say.......
Review: "We want something else!!!We want something else!!!'

The pictures are great. But.....

It saddens me to see someone want to make money off of an American institution like M*A*S*H, and not have any clue as to what she is talking about. ...
The episode guide is awful, just plain awful.

Entire storylines omitted, some storylines changed around, some storylines that never happened. What bothers me most is that in the beginning of the book, the author says there may be a few mistakes, and makes a flippant "take two asprin" comment. Well, in my opinion, if you are going to write a "Complete" book about something, there shouldn't be this many mistakes. ... The 2 stars are for the pictures

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interviews and plot "reprises" of the celebrated TV series
Review: "The Complete Book of M*A*S*H" includes "reprises" of all 251 episodes, with each season sandwiches by interviews with one of the cast members (e.g., Alan Alda, Harry Morgan) and then a writer/director (e.g., Larry Gelbert, Gene Reynolds), and hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs. A complete list of the Writers and Directors, along with all of the show's Awards and Nominations are provided in the back. The episodes are a bit more than mere descriptions, including choice quotes and getting into what characters are thinking. There are a few mistooks in these "Battle Notes," and better summaries can be found in other volumes, but the best part of this book is the interviews, especailly from those actors who left "M*A*S*H" early (Wayne Rogers and Larry Linville). Certainly the photographs are handsomely presented. This book is a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf of any M*A*S*H aficionado.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: good but not great
Review: As some have already said this is a great "companion" to the episodes of MASH. However she doesn't give the full plot of the episodes and there is no interview from Mclean Stevenson which is even sadder now that he has passed away. This is a great guide to finding out the titles and lots but not all of the information about all 251 episodes, including goodbye fareweel and amen. There are lots of great photos from the shows as well which are very nice. This book isn't perfect but it's pretty close so iif you love the show and want to be able to have cast interviews and lots of info about the show then check this book out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Exquisit Pictures, disappointing synopses
Review: First of all, I want to say that this is a must-read for any true MASH fan.

There are plenty of pictures, summing the series very nicely. The pictures are the turning point of the book. The synopses, although sometimes incomplete, provide sufficient information on the series.But then again, we have to sympathize with the author because it is not easy at all to find information on a show dead for 5 years(at the time). There are also plenty of interviews with every single main character on the show without exceptions.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It was great!
Review: I enjoyed this book, with its insightful interviews with the cast and producers. The pictures (some candid and some still)were plentiful and vividly colored.The plot summaries were very helpful, even though they did not summarize the subplots. All in all, I found it a wonderful guide to the shows. Judy:-) P.S. Please note that my e-mail address is not working at the time being.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: That big green MASH book
Review: I got this book wa-a-ay back in 1989 when it first came out, and I guess it could be considered as the first book to cover all of the episodes . . . in a way. The writers have taken the main lead plot of each episode and boiled it down to a 1 or 2 paragraph text, making it a very entertaining rundown of each episode.

But it doesn't stop there, it also has the background to each season, why they made the changes they made for the season, has interviews with all of the major stars, and gives us a rundown of what episode won an emmy.

Even if you think you know everything there is to know about MASH, get this book, and you'll discover that there are things you don't know.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: sMASHing!
Review: I have rediscovered MASH through reruns on our local cable station. What a cast of brilliant actors! I wanted to own something to refer to periodically, dealing with the epsiodes and cast members. The book is just brilliant. Wonderful, never before seen photos. The text is short, concise and to the point. It records the series from begining to end in wonderful detail. I highly recommend this book to any MASH fan.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: sMASHing!
Review: I loved this book! I wasn't even born when the show ended, yet it still is one of my favs. My biggest complaint about the book: The lack of space devoted to McClean Stevenson.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Good but Disappointing Book of M*A*S*H
Review: I vacillated between giving this book 3 or 4 stars. While in some respects it is almost a "four star", I settled on three due to nature of the episode synopses, as you will see from the following. I bought this book more than twelve years ago, and have referred to it numerous times, so it does have many redeeming features, but overall I would classify this as a relatively good, yet disappointing book. The moniker "'Complete' Book of M*A*S*H" is quite the misnomer. As Suzy Kalter notes in her introduction, she purposely excluded all the 2 or 3 subplots within each episode. This section could have been (and should have been) much more complete. By leaving this information out, it cheats the reader of some vital memories, tears, and laughter. Some of the funniest, saddest and most cleaver moments appeared in these "subplots". A lot a character development took place here as well. The finale was essentially five episodes in one, and yet the book left out a huge amount of the plot and lost a lot of the essence of this episode. The synopses section is by far the most deficient part of the book. For example, in the synopses of "Adam's Ribs", she notes that "Henry" was upset that Hawkeye had forgotten to order the cole slaw; as you know, Henry never said that. It was the Sgt. at Supply who expressed surprise that Hawkeye had sent all the way to Chicago and didn't order it! Honestly, the synopses read as though they were written by a person who either was: a) only a casual viewer of the series; b) only read early drafts of the scripts, or c) never really watched M * A * S * H at all, and garnered the information from friends who had only casually watched the series. In this respect, I found the book very disappointing. Similar books dealing with other shows were more complete, and did not leave out anything; all subplots, etc. were included, and yet this made the books neither confusing nor cumbersome, but rather enhanced their delightfulness. It's a pity the author did not see fit to do so with this book. If she had, this book would be a true gem, and quite possibly the best of the breed. Instead its just a run-of-the mill.

The introduction is Larry Gelbart having a "conversation " (or session?) with Dr. Sidney Freedman, followed by information on the shows creation, and progression from Theatrical Movie to TV series. Each season is introduced by either series creator/writers Larry Gelbart, Gene Reynolds, Executive Producer Burt Metcalfe, Executive Script Consultants David Isaacs and Ken Levine, Story Editor Dennis Koenig, Supervising Producer John Rappaport, or Producers/Writers Thad Mumford & Dan Wilcox, and closes with a commentary by one of the series stars: Season One by Wayne Rogers; Season Two by Alan Alda; Season Three by Jamie Farr; Season Four by Mike Farrell; Season Five by Larry Lineville; Season Six by William Christopher; Season Seven by Gary Burghoff; Season Eight by Harry Morgan; Season Nine by David Ogden Stiers; Season Ten by Loretta Swit; Season Eleven does not have one. (Interestingly, there is commentary by Mclean Stephenson.) These features, along with the great photographs, are among the best features of the book. You learn here, for example, why Gary Burghoff and Larry Linville left after Season Five and Seven, respectively, and a lot of insight from the actors into their characters development. The photographs are very nice touch. Some are behind the scenes shots, other are stills taken from an episode.

The book concludes with a Writer/Director listing, followed by a list of the awards the show one during its eleven year run, and finally a list of available M*A*S*H products, although I imagine that this section is quite outdated by now.

The casual M*A*S*H fan will likely be satisfied, but the M*A*S*H-aholic will be sorely disappointed - at least to some extent. Still this book is a must have, but only because it has no competition.


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