Harry Morgan Dies at 96
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December 7th, 2011 at 7:11:48 PM
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Veteran character acter Harry Morgan passed
away today. He was famous for playing Col
Potter on MASH. He started in the movies 70
years ago, everybody here grew up watching
Harry Morgan. I liked him in films like The
Shootist, and Flim Flam Man. He played an iracible
small town sheriff in both, and there was nobody
better. He made whatever he was in better, he
was the American everyman.
away today. He was famous for playing Col
Potter on MASH. He started in the movies 70
years ago, everybody here grew up watching
Harry Morgan. I liked him in films like The
Shootist, and Flim Flam Man. He played an iracible
small town sheriff in both, and there was nobody
better. He made whatever he was in better, he
was the American everyman.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
December 7th, 2011 at 10:33:59 PM
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RIP..
December 8th, 2011 at 6:53:56 AM
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As a loyal M*A*S*H fan, thanks for the good times Harry. When I was in high school it was the intellectual thing to do to complain about Harry Morgan/Col. Potter, saying that Colonel Blake was much better. I was always the lone person to defend Morgan, not saying he was better, but that if Colonel Potter came first, they would be complaining that he was better.
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow." -- Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NIV)
December 8th, 2011 at 7:16:14 AM
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I've been catching MASH up here on the History Channel twice a day now. They're as good as when the show originally aired, and Harry Morgan as the straight man put a lot of balance into the series. MASH became a different show when Trapper and Colonel Blake left -- less COM, more SIT.
Harry Morgan and BJ Honeycutt came on at the beginning of Season 4 which is when I started watching again. I'm watching late Season 5 now, just before Burns goes berserk after Houlihan gets married (beginning of Season 6).
The man had a very long and storied career... a lifetime actor.
Harry Morgan and BJ Honeycutt came on at the beginning of Season 4 which is when I started watching again. I'm watching late Season 5 now, just before Burns goes berserk after Houlihan gets married (beginning of Season 6).
The man had a very long and storied career... a lifetime actor.
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You want the truth! You can't handle the truth!
December 8th, 2011 at 7:33:41 AM
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Quote: WizardI was always the lone person to defend Morgan, not saying he was better, but that if Colonel Potter came first, they would be complaining that he was better.
Very likely so.
BTW, Harry morgan had a guest appearance on MASH before he joined the cast. I can't cite season and episode, but he played a loony, hard-ass senior officer visiting the hospital for some reason. At the end he looses it and does a musical number.
This happens more than people notice. Jerry Orbach did a guest spot as a defense attorney in Law & Order some time before he was hired to play Det. Briscoe. The guy who played Frasier's father in "Frasier," I forget his name, did a guest spot in "Cheers" as a jingle composer.
Donald Trump is a fucking criminal
December 8th, 2011 at 7:47:52 AM
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Quote: NareedThe guy who played Frasier's father in "Frasier," I forget his name, did a guest spot in "Cheers" as a jingle composer.
John Mahoney
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes - Henry David Thoreau. Like Dealers' uniforms - Dan.
December 8th, 2011 at 8:35:49 AM
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This is getting off topic, but here is a young George Clooney on The Facts of Life (one of my guilty pleasures).
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow." -- Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NIV)
December 8th, 2011 at 8:50:42 AM
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deleted
DUHHIIIIIIIII HEARD THAT!
December 8th, 2011 at 10:18:43 PM
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Quote: Wizardcomplain about Harry Morgan/Col. Potter, saying that Colonel Blake was much better. I was always the lone person to defend Morgan,
But Blake was so lame. He was always bending the rules,
letting Hawkeye get away with murder. He was a putz.
Potter was old time military, nothing ever got by him. The
Potter character saved the series. He gave legititmacy to
the rest of the goofballs, he was the series anchor.
I too am always amazed when I see reruns, that I'm watching
something made 35 and 40 years ago. Its not only the
writing, its the thought and planning that went into making
the set as true to what a MASH unit really looked like in
1951. They say in the reunion shows that the real MASH
doctors who were in Korea all said it was very realistic to
what they remembered.
Harry Morgan played his part in the show as a strong leader,
an understanding friend, and a father figure. Who can't relate
to somebody like that..
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
December 8th, 2011 at 11:05:19 PM
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I agree, Col. Potter was the corner stone of the show. I always find the Blake episodes "odd" as there's a guest playing the Colonel, not the real thing. But I think prefer the final line up in general, each of the characters had more depth. Winchester was a pompous ass, but he had a good streak, Honicutt liked to cut loose, but had much more a family value morality to him, and Potter would only take the BS from the rest when it actually meant things would happen for the best in the end.
"Then you can admire the real gambler, who has neither eaten, slept, thought nor lived, he has so smarted under the scourge of his martingale, so suffered on the rack of his desire for a coup at trente-et-quarante" - Honore de Balzac, 1829
December 9th, 2011 at 12:06:25 PM
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Quote: thecesspitI always find the Blake episodes "odd" as there's a guest playing the Colonel, not the real thing.
The Blake character was more of a reflection of the Col
in the movie version. He was kind of silly, only thought
of himself, and was a nurse chaser. Potter was wrote in
as the real thing, veteran of two wars, a no nonsense
officer, the opposite of Blake. The Radar character was
kinda weird to me, they had a 40 year old actor at the end,
playing a 19 year old coporal. In the first couple of seasons,
Radar drank and smoked cigars and played poker. Then
he changed and had a Teddy bear and never drank. And
no army unit would allow a soldier to walk around in
womens dresses like Clinger did, that was just plain dumb.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
December 9th, 2011 at 12:55:32 PM
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There can be little debate the show changed both characters and its character around the change from Trapper and Col. Blake to Honeycut and Col. Potter. I agree with Bob that at first the show tried carry on the comedy of the movie. However, I guess the jokes ran thin, and it evolved into something more serious and realistic.
Personally, I'm not going to say one way was better than the other. I see merit both ways. Furthermore, I think a good show does change as it goes.
On another topic, on about half the episodes featured a lot of drinking. Was there ever an episode where injured had to treated and the doctors were simply too drunk to operate properly? In real life I could see lives lost due to inebriated surgeons. Was this ever addressed on the show?
Personally, I'm not going to say one way was better than the other. I see merit both ways. Furthermore, I think a good show does change as it goes.
On another topic, on about half the episodes featured a lot of drinking. Was there ever an episode where injured had to treated and the doctors were simply too drunk to operate properly? In real life I could see lives lost due to inebriated surgeons. Was this ever addressed on the show?
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow." -- Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NIV)
December 9th, 2011 at 1:20:59 PM
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Quote: WizardOn another topic, on about half the episodes featured a lot of drinking. Was there ever an episode where injured had to treated and the doctors were simply too drunk to operate properly? In real life I could see lives lost due to inebriated surgeons. Was this ever addressed on the show?
I don't think it was. They always managed to drink when
there were no choppers coming in. Drinking was a lot more
accepted in the 50's 60's and 70's than it is now. You would
never see a show these days that glorified it the way MASH
did, or a movie like 'Arthur' did. I remember DUI's were kind
of a joke in the 70's, nothing like they are now. It started getting
serious is the 80's.
I remember a scene in North by Northwest where Cary Grant
gets a DUI. His mother comes to get him and he's complaining
and she says 'Just pay the 2 dollar fine so we can leave." Two
dollars, for a DUI. That was in 1959.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
December 9th, 2011 at 1:23:27 PM
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Quote: WizardOn another topic, on about half the episodes featured a lot of drinking. Was there ever an episode where injured had to treated and the doctors were simply too drunk to operate properly? In real life I could see lives lost due to inebriated surgeons. Was this ever addressed on the show?
I don't think so.
In a Futurama ep there's a brief satire of Hawkeye Pierce. He's played by a robot surgeon who has a Martini glass rather than a hand on his right arm. He also had a switch marked "FUNNY/MAUDLIN" which he keeps flicking.
Donald Trump is a fucking criminal
December 9th, 2011 at 3:13:15 PM
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Quote: NareedHe also had a switch marked "FUNNY/MAUDLIN" which he keeps flicking.
Hawkeye was my least favorite character. I got real
tired of the lightening fast Groucho Marx one liners
that came one after another. Everything was a
double entendre with him, it was boring. It was funny
when Groucho did it, not so much on a TV series that
was on for 11 years. The last 2 years when Alan Alda
took over most of the writing and producing were
horrible. Hardcore fans split the show into two categories:
The funny years and the Alan Alda years.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
December 9th, 2011 at 3:56:10 PM
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I'm too young to have seen Groucho Marx, so the vamping of Marx is funny to me. I've seen some Groucho since then, and he was better at it, but some of the Marx brother's films are horrendously edited (but bloody funny as well... I've creased up laughing with the physical stuff Harpo did). Still, I like Hawkeye. But I find double entendre and outraged anger funny....
"Then you can admire the real gambler, who has neither eaten, slept, thought nor lived, he has so smarted under the scourge of his martingale, so suffered on the rack of his desire for a coup at trente-et-quarante" - Honore de Balzac, 1829
December 9th, 2011 at 7:33:47 PM
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Quote: EvenBobYou would never see a show these days that glorified it the way MASH did, or a movie like 'Arthur' did. I remember DUI's were kind of a joke in the 70's, nothing like they are now. It started getting serious is the 80's.
But even those shows changed. Initially in 1972 they all had drinking binges, and Frank Burns, the only character who didn't drink was a "ferret face".
But by 1977 in the episode "Fallen Idol" Hawkeye, operates on Radar and follows the operating session with an all-night drinking binge, He shows up to surgery the next day hung over and having to step away. Radar is shocked that Hawkeye, who he idolized, could have such a failing.
Arthur (1981) had him as a happy drunk. But by Arthur II (1988) he is going to rehab and the movie wasn't very funny.
Candy Lightner founded MADD after her 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunken hit-and-run driver on May 3, 1980. The group became famous, especially after a TV movie in 1983; but Candy left the organization in 1985 when it became anti-alcohol. She felt that it diluted her core message about drinking and driving.
December 9th, 2011 at 8:14:34 PM
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Quote: pacomartinArthur (1981) had him as a happy drunk. But by Arthur II (1988) he is going to rehab and the movie wasn't very funny.
They wanted to make the sequel with Arthur the
happy drunk, but the sentiments about drinking
had changed so radically by the late 80's they
knew they'd never get away with it. Organizations
like MADD changed the landscape of the whole
country as far as drinking goes. In the 90's we
had people like radio shrink Dr Laura telling us
if you had a beer every night when you got home
from work, you were an alcoholic. If you had 3
beers every Sunday watching football, ditto. I don't
think there's a single episode of MASH where they
weren't drinking, the still was almost a character
in the series. And how many dozens of times did
Potter break out a bottle in his office and pass around
the glasses.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
December 9th, 2011 at 9:40:14 PM
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Yes and no. There were at least two episodes where A doctor was too drunk to work. I don't recall any where all the doctors were too drunk.Quote: WizardOn another topic, on about half the episodes featured a lot of drinking. Was there ever an episode where injured had to treated and the doctors were simply too drunk to operate properly? In real life I could see lives lost due to inebriated surgeons. Was this ever addressed on the show?
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I loved how the show grew as the cast changed.
MASH was in a unique position because it was understood and accepted that the characters wanted to go home. Any other Sit Com had the characters become a family that could not be broken.
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Although at the time I hated that they killed Blake, but the reality is, that was the totally correct thing to do. It was a very powerful reminder that in a war, not everyone goes home.
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December 9th, 2011 at 9:55:42 PM
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Quote: DJTeddyBearAlthough at the time I hated that they killed Blake, but the reality is, that was the totally correct thing to do. .
According to a reunion ep, it almost didn't happen. Somebody
suggeted it at the last minute and it hit them how perfect it
was. McLean Stevenson, according to Loretta Swit, left the
number 1 show on TV because he wasn't number 1 on it.
Gary Burghoff left for pretty much the same reason. H-Wood
egos are astounding.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
December 10th, 2011 at 1:02:41 AM
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Quote: EvenBobThe Blake character was more of a reflection of the Col
in the movie version. He was kind of silly, only thought
of himself, and was a nurse chaser. Potter was wrote in
as the real thing, veteran of two wars, a no nonsense
officer, the opposite of Blake.
I thought of Blake as a reflection of a character stuck in a position (like the Army so often actually does) because they fill holes by rank whether the person really fits well with it or not.
And Potter was definitely, the serious career guy.
Actually, the Burns character was much like Blake too in a different way. He made rank, and he was going use all the perks of his position even if he was dangerous - because he was probably incompetent, it often seemed.
There's no secret. Just know what you're talking about before you open your mouth.
December 10th, 2011 at 6:19:41 AM
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Quote: EvenBobGary Burghoff left for pretty much the same reason. H-Wood
egos are astounding.
I always heard Burgoff left because the show was placing too many personal demands on him an he needed or wanted to spend more time with his family or something. The last season and a half or so his charachter was toned-down at his own request. He was in fewer episodes and often "on leave" for mixing up carbon-paper with TP in the latrine. He is the only charachter to leave mid-season IIRC.
Klinger, arguably the most dynamic charachter over the run, was supposed to be a one-shot deal. He worked well enough they used him again and built the charachter up more and more. He got smarter and smarter over the years, though when you look at all he went thru it must have been a wild time in the 37 months the war lasted plus a year after. In that time he:
Started wearing dresses to avoid military service
Got married by proxy
Got divorced by proxy
Applied for admission to Wedst Point
Was nearly convicted for larcenry
Obtained a very large negative personnel file
Promoted to Seargent despite all of this
Met and married a Korean woman
Took a local discharge so she could find her home
Returned to Toledo and got arrested
Moved to Missouri and took a government job even with this further record
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others
December 10th, 2011 at 6:31:28 AM
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Quote: WizardAs a loyal M*A*S*H fan, thanks for the good times Harry. When I was in high school it was the intellectual thing to do to complain about Harry Morgan/Col. Potter, saying that Colonel Blake was much better. I was always the lone person to defend Morgan, not saying he was better, but that if Colonel Potter came first, they would be complaining that he was better.
I liked Blake better for the most part, but Potter was at least as good in the respect he knew how to handle people who were screwing off and when to cut the right slack. Among my favorites was when a General said the potholes were terrible then Klinger shows up in a dress. General asks who it was and Potter says, "Oh, that is the guy who fills in the potholes."
The Potter charcachter was "over" wih viewers as a commander on day one, Blake never was. (Check wikapedia "pro wrestling terms" for "over" in this context.)
But after Burns left, at the least after Winchester's first season, the show is better left forgotten. Alda got more and more creative control and it went from a funny black comedy to a preachy dramatic comedy. War is bad, we get it. We don't tune in at 9:00/8:00 Centrtal-Mountain every week to hear that preached. We tuned in to be amused.
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others
December 10th, 2011 at 7:15:28 AM
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M*A*S*H gets worse over time. I've been watching every episode now since Potter took over and have noted the deteriorating story lines. But the fact that I'm watching it means that the show is compelling enough to be good enough. The series ran its course. You can't expect a sitcom to last more than a few years without it getting old. The fact that MASH went on for 11 years and stayed top 15 in the ratings at Season 2 is a testament to its popularity (and time slot), despite the "bad" writing.
I'm waiting for Disney to relaunch the old Muppet shows. I'm also waiting for the DVDs of WKRP to come out with their original music.
I'm waiting for Disney to relaunch the old Muppet shows. I'm also waiting for the DVDs of WKRP to come out with their original music.
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You want the truth! You can't handle the truth!
December 10th, 2011 at 11:45:39 AM
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Quote: AZDuffmanKlinger, arguably the most dynamic charachter over the run, was supposed to be a one-shot deal.
The actors who played Klinger and the priest were the
oldest in the cast, besides Potter. Klinger was 49 when
the show went off, and the padre was 51. Klinger looked
even older, his character was getting ridiculous. I liked
him better when he wore the dresses. When he took
over Radar's job, he was just obnoxious. Potter was in
his mid 60's when Klinger was in his late 40's, and Potter
called him 'son' all the time, like he was 27 or something.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
