I saw this special on MASH and have a question. In its two hour runtime they dedicated time to every major character and had later footage of Linville, Christopher, and Stephenson, who have all been dead for a while, but they gave scant air time to Stiers/Winchester. Burns/Linville got 2x the air time even though he was only on for 1/3 the run. And the footage of Stiers out of character was shot during the series run, not afterward (boy was it strange hearing him speak in his normal voice),

I read somewhere that he was not happy with his time and felt he got stuck with the character, even though his Wikipedia page shows a very long career of post-MASH work. So was he left bitter by the experience? Because the tiny amount of time given to so major a character seems almost like a giant FU on the producers' part.

He might have declined to participate in the project or was unavailable during its production and they didn't have enough previously existing footage of him that was interesting enough to include.

It's not uncommon for a character or actor to get short-shrifted on documentaries like that. Sometimes the actor declines to participate, they don't have enough usable pre-existing material, its a bias of the producer, or for legal reasons.

True, but it’s pretty much the same show with a different name so yes technically it wasn’t during AitF. 👍

”Regarding Blake's death, I thought it was perfect the way they did it. Like Meathead, it also gets me every time.”
I feel like this is where my confusion stemmed.

Regarding Stiers I think he was definitely typecast especially since he used a “voice” on Mash and no one expected to hear his normal on other projects.
It was a little startling.

Maybe like many people, the people who made the 90 minute special, think the early years are superior to the later years, and so put there focus on where their interest was.

Plus they were not going to get any new interview footage of most of the people, and maybe Stiers never did much interviewing about MASH after it was over for them to use.

I know I was a little shocked when I heard him speak in "Better Off Dead".
I think that's a credit to him as an actor that it's alarming to hear him talk without an accent because it sounded real and natural.

Yep. Agree 100%

I like how he says Tahk-ee-oh

I really just about forgot how good he was on MaSH

Ah yes, the twelve joyous Christmases they celebrated together during a three-year war.

I remember being stoked when Stiers was announced for a guest appearance on Frasier. My two favorite blowhard doctors on one show. And he was totally different from Winchester.

And this was David;s finest MASH moment IMO.

Pretty sure she died at home, not in the bar.

And fucking Meathead, leaving Gloria and Joey, asshole.

Maybe Gloria went frigid and stopped giving it up?

Maybe Mike got sick of her going on and on about starving kids.

Anyway…I’m finishing up this special and I have well’d up a few times.
If yiu watch this special and still don’t know why this show was so great then there’s nothing to tell you.

40 years ago, this week:

^ Goodness, Jamie Farr turns 90 this year.

It's hard to imagine AfterMASH being successful with the 3 leads they chose to carry the show.
When it aired, I watched out of curiosity and nostalgia - even though MASH ended only like 7 months earlier. But I lost interest after a few episodes as it was boring and the 3 leads weren't interesting enough to carry the show themselves.

Only 5 main actors left from the show - Farr (89), Alda (87 with Parkinsons), Swit (86), Farrell (84) and Burghoff (80)
It's very possible within the next 5-10 years this show will have no one left - like MTM was closed out after Betty White died last year.

Alan Alda has Parkinson's? I did not know that.

Yeah, I was a Winchester fan and have been a Stiers fan because of it. RIP. One of my fave Non-MASH roles I enjoyed him in was the small town Mayor in "Doc Hollywood". Another role where he put on a different voice which in this case was a bit Southern.

He was also in that Star Trek The Next Generation episode "Half a Life" where he played a romantic interest of Lwaxana Troi whose planet mandated people commit ritual suicide when turn 65.

Deeply disturbing episode, and the first Lwaxana Troi episode that was dark and serious instead of funny.

(I remember watching it and thinking "Shit, that's Winchester!")

Doc Hollywood was a really good movie. Kinda forgotten, now. If you've never seen it, seek it out.

If you watch newer stuff like Ray Donovan or Marriage Story it's hart to miss, but his performances are still great.

I haven't seen it in years, but I remember liking it a lot, great cast too. And yeah, you rarely even hear about the film these days.

Doc Hollywood is great. It’s also got a couple early acting roles from Bridget Fonda and Woody Harrelson.