Television has brought us many great debates and I'm not talking about the ones on C-SPAN. I am talking about private citizens gathered together to discuss important issues like:
Who was the better Darren on "Bewitched"? Dick York or Dick Sargent?
Who would you rather be with on "Gilligan's Island"? Ginger (Tina Louise) or Mary Ann (Dawn Wells)?
Who was the better Enterprise Captain? James T. Kirk (William Shatner on "Star Trek") or Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart on "Star Trek: The Next Generation").
These are the issues that men have dedicated countless hours (and beers) debating, and many times these debates ended in an impasse or last call. With many of these debates, I stand firm on my position, Dick York, Mary Ann and Capt. Kirk. Some of my positions are based solely on my opinion (Dick York and Capt. Kirk), while others (Mary Ann) are based on facts that I can present: Ginger represents the girls you have fun with, while Mary Ann represents the girls you marry. Inevitably I come up with a firm point of view except on one topic.
Who was the better commanding officer of the 4077 "M*A*S*H"? Lt. Col. Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) or Col. Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan)?
At this point I get a bad case of writers block. I don't have a simple answer to the question. I get up from my desk and pace. I then go to the kitchen and do the dishes. Then I make coffee for the tomorrow morning. Then I take out the garbage. My wife likes it when I have writer’s block because it is the only time she can get me to do any household chores. And I have just spent a whole paragraph avoiding the question.
So why can I not give a simple answer to the question? Now I keep hearing William Shatner saying, "It's just a TV show!" Let me break it down.
There is one school of thought that says that M*A*S*H* "Jumped The Shark" when Col. Blake died. That the show shifted from it's original premise set by the movie with Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould that shows Army doctors who need to go crazy in order to keep from going insane. This same school of thought feels that after Henry Blake died the show was no longer as funny as it was before and became more self-righteous and preachy. Some of these people may have been turned off by what they felt was Alan Alda's liberal agenda.
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