She brought a very different dynamic to Cheers, one that turned out to be at least as successful. it was similar to when McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers were replaced on M*A*S*H by Harry Morgan and Mike Farrell. Apparently it was cancer that was only recently discovered. RIP.
Gotta disagree on MASH there. All the funny got washed out of the series when those two left. AA taking over primary writing duty didn’t help either.
Kirstie Alley was an amazing talent. She was also Sam's boss and that was a very gender-bending role for the late 80's. RIP.
The series M*A*S*H was anti-war at the height of the anti-war movement in the US. After Rogers and Stevenson left it was just a liberal mashup with the anti-war elements standing out. The book was not specifically anti-war although it was hard to read it and not think that the author had a low opinion of the carnage on the modern battlefield after WWII. Maybe anti-DoD or business as usual is more accurate. I remember Hooker spouting off along about 1977 about how his book had been remade into a liberal vehicle for ideas not in it. I recommend people actually read M*A*S*H and M*A*S*H Goes to Maine. Two very entertaining books that give a much better idea of what the original idea was. Hopefully they're still in print.
Who wrote the book? I’ve seen the original movie and didn’t think it held up to the TV show but that had a lot to do with the fact that I’d been watching the TV show for 15 years.
Richard Hooker. I think. Memory is not what it used to be. Yep. The book was basically about doctors recently out of medical school drafted into the army to help fight the Korean "war" and how they didn't fit into the DoD as it was structured at the time.
Agree to disagree. I always skip the reruns from the first three seasons, as I find them stupid and boring. The show lasted two or three years longer than it should have, but for me the best years by far were seasons 4 through 8 or so, not so coincidentally the time span where they made Margaret a far more interesting and complex character (who knew Loretta Swit could act that well?).
B.J. was morally superior preachy ("Peg & the girls") and Sherman T. Potter was Bill Friday, LAPD....hardly Henry Blake. Yup, it went from Korea to 'Nam. Note some of the episodes they didn't even bother with the 70's haircuts Hawkeye et al were sporting by then.
