And the Kids Show of the week is...

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Boatswain’s Mate Richard Dennis (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on August 5, 1864 on board the USS Brooklyn. His citation reads:

On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Dennis displayed outstanding skill and courage in operating the torpedo catcher and in assisting in working the bow chasers throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

Sergeant John Denny (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on September 18, 1879 at Las Animas Canyon, North Mexico. His citation reads:

Removed a wounded comrade, under a heavy fire, to a place of safety.

Chief Boatswain’s Mate William Densmore (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on August 5, 1864 on board the USS Richmond. His citation reads:

As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Densmore fought his gun with skill and courage throughout a furious 2-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.


Today is the big day! We’re going to Pedal 4 Pattisons! This is the fundraiser The Wife signed us up for that I’ve been talking about on here. There’s still time to donate to this great cause. Don’t wait… donate now. If you’re not sure if you’ve already given… give again. Click on the link at the side of this page or just click here to donate on my page or here to donate to The Wife’s page. Don’t forget to pray I don’t pass out and/or die during this thing on Saturday. For all of you who donated, THANK YOU!!!!


The I’m just sayin… Kid Show of the Week

(As always, thanks to Wikipedia for the info…)

M*A*S*H: M*A*S*H is a TV series developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film MASH (which was itself based on the 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker). The series is a medical drama/black comedy that was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS. It follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. M*A*S*H's title sequence featured an instrumental version of the song "Suicide Is Painless", which also appears in the original film.

The series premiered in the US on September 17, 1972, and ended February 28, 1983, with the finale becoming the most watched television episode in U.S. television history at the time, with a record breaking 125 million viewers, according to the New York Times. The show is still broadcast in syndication on various television stations. The series, which covered a three-year military conflict, spanned 251 episodes and lasted eleven seasons.

Many of the stories in the early seasons are based on real-life tales told by real MASH surgeons who were interviewed by the production team. Like the movie, the series was as much an allegory about the Vietnam War (still in progress when the show began) as it was about the Korean War. The "4077th MASH" was just one of several surgical units in Korea. As the show developed, the writing took on more of a moralistic tone. Richard Hooker, who wrote the book on which the television and film versions were based, noted that Hawkeye's character was far more liberal in the show than on the page (in one of the MASH books, Hawkeye makes reference to "kicking the bejesus out of lefties just to stay in shape"). While the show is traditionally viewed as a comedy, there were many episodes of a more serious tone. Airing on network primetime while the Vietnam War was still ongoing, the show was forced to walk the fine line of commenting on that war while at the same time not seeming to protest it. For this reason, the show's discourse, under the cover of comedy, often questioned, mocked and grappled with America's role in the Cold War. Episodes were both plot and character driven, with several episodes being narrated by one of the show's characters as the contents of a letter home. The show's tone could move from silly to sobering from one episode to the next, with dramatic tension often occurring between the civilian draftees of 4077th—Hawkeye, Trapper John, B.J. Hunnicutt, for example—who are forced to leave their homes to tend to the wounded and dying of the war, and the "regular Army" characters, like Margaret Houlihan and Colonel Potter, who tend to represent ideas of patriotism and duty. Other characters like Col. Blake, Maj. Winchester, and Corp. Klinger, help demonstrate various American civilian attitudes towards army life, while guest characters such as Eldon Quick, Herb Voland, Mary Wickes, and Tim O'Connor also help further the show's discussion of America's place as Cold War war-maker and peace-maker.

M*A*S*H maintained a relatively constant ensemble cast, with four characters—Hawkeye, Father Mulcahy, Margaret Houlihan, and Maxwell Q. Klinger—on the show for all eleven seasons. Several other main characters left or joined the show midway through its run.
The following are a list of main characters from the show:
Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce (Seasons 1–11) Alan Alda Captain Chief Surgeon

Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Seasons 1–11) Loretta Swit Major Head Nurse, Temporary Executive Officer

Maxwell Q. Klinger (Seasons 1–11) Jamie Farr Corporal, later Sergeant Corpsman, later Company Clerk

John Patrick Francis Mulcahy (Seasons 1–11) George Morgan (Pilot Episode), replaced by William Christopher First Lieutenant, later Captain Chaplain

John Francis Xavier "Trapper" McIntyre (Seasons 1–3) Wayne Rogers Captain Surgeon

Henry Braymore Blake (Seasons 1–3) McLean Stevenson Lieutenant Colonel Commanding Officer,
Surgeon

Franklin Marion "Frank" Burns (Seasons 1–5) Larry Linville Major, later Lieutenant Colonel (off-screen) Surgeon, Executive Officer Temporary Commanding Officer (following the discharge of Henry Blake)

Walter Eugene "Radar" O’Reilly (Seasons 1–8) Gary Burghoff Corporal (one episode as Second Lieutenant) Company Clerk, Bugler

B. J. Hunnicutt (replaced Trapper; Seasons 4–11) Mike Farrell Captain Surgeon

Sherman Tecumseh Potter (replaced Henry Blake; Seasons 4–11) Harry Morgan Colonel Commanding Officer (after Lt. Col. Blake),Surgeon

Charles Emerson Winchester III (replaced Frank Burns; Seasons 6–11) David Ogden Stiers Major Surgeon, Executive Officer (after Major Burns)

While most of the characters from the movie carried over to the series, only four actors appeared in both: Gary Burghoff (Radar O'Reilly) and G. Wood (General Hammond) reprised their movie roles in the series, though Wood appeared in only three episodes. Timothy Brown (credited as "Tim Brown") played "Cpl. Judson" in the movie and "Spearchucker Jones" in the series. Corey Fischer played Capt. Bandini in the film and was the guitar-playing dentist "Cardozo" in the episode "Five O'Clock Charlie". Two of the cast members, Jamie Farr (Klinger) and Alan Alda (Hawkeye Pierce), served in the U.S. Army in Korea in the 1950s after the Korean War. The dog tags Farr wears on the show are his actual dog tags. Farr served as part of a USO tour with Red Skelton. Furthermore, Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicut) served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a younger man. Gary Burghoff's left hand is slightly deformed, with three smaller than normal fingers and slight syndactyly between the fourth and fifth digits, and he took great pains to hide or de-emphasize it during filming. He did this by always holding something (like a clipboard) or keeping that hand in his pocket. Burghoff later commented that his (Radar's) deformity would have made it impossible for him to be involved in active service. The deformity can be clearly seen at the very beginning of the pilot episode, when he is holding the football just before announcing the arrival of choppers. It is also visible at the end of "The Most Unforgettable Characters" (Season 5, Episode 14) when he is trying to lift weights. Some guest stars include Sorrell Booke (who also played Boss Hogg in the Dukes of Hazzard television series), Ron Howard, Leslie Nielsen, Patrick Swayze, John Ritter, Laurence Fishburne, Pat Morita, Shelley Long and George Wendt.

Three MASH 4077 staff members suffered fatalities on the show: Lieutenant Colonel Blake, when his plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan; an ambulance driver, O'Donnell, in a traffic accident; and a nurse, Millie Carpenter, by a land mine. Though actually an imaginary person made up by Hawkeye Pierce to provide money for Sister Teresa's orphanage, "Capt. Tuttle" was killed when he jumped from a helicopter without a parachute. Hawkeye provided him with a very ironic eulogy.
Among those wounded were Hawkeye Pierce ("Hawkeye"; "Out of Sight, Out of Mind"; "Comrades in Arms [Part I]"; "Good-Bye, Radar [Part I]"; and "Lend a Hand"), Radar O'Reilly ("Fallen Idol"), B.J. Hunnicutt ("The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan" and "Operation Friendship"), Max Klinger ("It Happened One Night"; "Baby, It's Cold Outside"; and "Operation Friendship"), Father Mulcahy ("Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" and "Bombed"), and Sherman Potter ("Dear Ma"). Henry Blake was injured four times: once by a disgruntled chopper pilot ("Cowboy"); once by friendly fire ("The Army-Navy Game"); and in season 3, episode 15 ("Bombed"), Henry is injured when the latrine he is in is blown up. (The gag of Blake's being caught in a exploding latrine is also in the episode "Cowboy".) Henry is also injured when the latrine catches fire. Frank Burns is twice awarded Purple Hearts for spurious injuries: throwing his back out after he gave Margaret a dip and could not move - which was later covered for with a story that he slipped on the way to the showers ("Sometimes You Hear the Bullet", 1.17), and getting an egg-shell fragment in the eye ("The Kids", 4.8). Burns' Purple Heart medals were then given to more deserving people: a GI who was admitted with appendicitis, and a Korean newborn infant who was hit by a bullet in utero.
"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" was the final episode of M*A*S*H. Special television sets were placed in PX parking lots, auditoriums, and dayrooms of the US Army in Korea so that military personnel could watch that episode; this in spite of 14 hours' time zone difference with the east coast of the US. The episode aired on February 28, 1983, and was 2½ hours long. The episode got a Nielsen rating of 60.2 and 77 share according to a New York Times article from 1983, the final episode of M*A*S*H had an astonishing 125 million viewers

When the M*A*S*H finale aired in 1983, there were 83.3 million television homes, compared to almost 115 million in February 2010.

Below are some of the awards the show won…
M*A*S*H won a total of 14 Emmy Awards during its eleven-year run:
• 1974 — Outstanding Comedy Series – M*A*S*H; Larry Gelbart, Gene Reynolds (Producers)
• 1974 — Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Alan Alda
• 1974 — Best Directing in Comedy – Jackie Cooper
• 1974 — Actor of the Year, Series – Alan Alda
• 1975 — Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series – Gene Reynolds
• 1976 — Outstanding Film Editing for Entertainment Programming – Fred W. Berger and Stanford Tischler
• 1976 — Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series – Gene Reynolds
• 1977 — Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series – Alan Alda
• 1977 — Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Gary Burghoff
• 1979 — Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series – Alan Alda
• 1980 — Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series – Loretta Swit
• 1980 — Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series – Harry Morgan
• 1982 — Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Alan Alda
• 1982 — Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series – Loretta Swit
•
The show was also honored with a Peabody Award in 1975 "for the depth of its humor and the manner in which comedy is used to lift the spirit and, as well, to offer a profound statement on the nature of war." M*A*S*H was cited as "an example of television of high purpose that reveals in universal terms a time and place with such affecting clarity."