TV's M*A*S*H: The Ultimate Guide Book Paperback – November 5, 2009

"TV's M*A*S*H: The Ultimate Guide Book", is essential reading for anyone who claims to be a true M*A*S*H fan. Buy the book and place it in the cabinet next to your M*A*S*H DVD's/videos.The book covers every episode individually with a synopsis, commentaries, author's notes and information on what to look for, and things you may have missed. Just when you thought you knew everything about this great series, along comes this book. I always considered myself an expert who could have a good showing at a M*A*S*H trivia game, but after reading this book, I felt like I knew nothing.I particularly like the new interviews with one or two shot actors on M*A*S*H. Remember Harvey J Goldenberg? He was the dentist in season 1. Melinda Mullins, Stuart Margolin, Enid Kent all contribute too, as does the great Richard Lee Sung who's responsible for some of the funniest moments of the show. His interview is very revealing. Jeff Maxwell tells many amusing anecdotes including how he came to be known as "Igor".The writers also contribute much to the book, as well as the actors. And Larry Gelbart wrote some new M*A*S*H dialogue exclusively for the book!Anyway, Ed Solomonson and Mark O'Neill have done a superb job here. I could picture them sitting two feet from the TV, with a notepad and a pencil smaller than Radar's, going through each episode frame by frame. Countless hours I'd imagine. It was worth it. The result is amazing.Well done guys.Brad

When I saw a profile of one of the writers of this book (Mark O'Neill) on December 26th, 2009 (Saturday) I checked the book out online at Amazon.com. I liked what I saw, on December 28th, 2009 I ordered it from Amazon.com and received it about one week later on Jan. 3rd or 4th. I am impressed with the book still to this day. I finally met Mark at Eli's Pizza last Saturday, I told him how much I like this book, I remembered him from his photo in the back pages of the book. It took me almost 2 and 1/2 years to finally meet him and tell him thank you. I think this is the best book out there. Anyone else like MASH? This is the book to get and read, it has all the facts you will ever need to know, as far as I can see it is the most accuarate. Though others, I am sure will be as well, this is one AWESOME book!!!!Thank you again Mark and Ed, this book is FABULOUS, PHENOMENAL!!!Also, so is the TV series (currently on DVD, I bought it) of which I am a true lifelong fan (I was 3 and 1/2 when the show debuted). Thank you Mark and Ed, hope you don't mind, I plugged the TV series on DVD as well?

It didn’t answer one question I have.. why did the blue nightie top keep changing tents and seasons too??!! Who’s is it?? And was it a fun prop type joke??

I have been a fan of this amazing show for more than 17 years, consider Larry Gelbart as my muse and am quite adept at reeling off facts and trivia about the show. This book, therefore, was a must-have in my collection.The details in this book are nothing short of astounding. Only a true fan of the show will realize the immense effort put into producing this book. The questions posed to Mr. Gelbart (RIP) are thought-provoking, the interviews with the cast members and writers are fun and the insights provided by the guest stars about the show offer a glimpse into the daily workings of the show on set.Larry Gelbart's presence in contributing to this book is tangible. He wrote the foreward, gave phone interviews to the authors, spoke about the making of the show and best of all, wrote the 'missing' interviews for Trapper, Henry and Col. Flagg.I had the pleasure of communicating with one of the authors, Mark O'Neill, and asked him tons of questions about the show which he very graciously answered each and every time.The book is a labor of love and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone who wants to know more about what M*A*S*H was all about and why exactly it has withstood the test of time. The show had a lot of heart and this book is just a small glimpse into why it is still so beloved....written for the fans by 2 of its biggest fans.Thanks Ed, Mark and Larry.

weighing in here, because of bad reviews. Some of the 411 on the 4077 covered in the book can easily be found online and some of the obscure MASH details can't, so the book a good reference grab. The book could have used more photos and more behind-the-scenes details for another 20 bucks, but I'm happy with it.

This book could have been so much better. Lots and lots of information - about things unrelated to the show or the episodes. Way too much backstory regarding origins of phrases or almost complete biographies of minor characters. Episode synopses were most often left halfway, with a complete storyline or episode closure missing. Vital information to a scene or storyline was often left out, leaving an area of confusion as to why the scene was mentioned at all. There were often guest stars' past and present works mentioned, and other times not mentioned at all. No consistency there. They seemed intent on hammering home the view out of the CO's window changing, or the position of the scrub sinks, or the color robes being worn by different characters. This got pretty old after a short time. Lots of homework done with this extensive book, but more of it should have been focused on the show itself, and not background saturation. Some of this information would be better suited to a sports almanac.

Great book,great movie and the best tv series of all time.

Reading the book was pure joy and being able to see how well the story of MASH was threaded through out the whole television show it was genius sometimes politically incorrect, but lots of fun. Working in a high stress field you needed to improvise, and improvise they did! Great book.

THE RESEARCH IN THIS WORK IS AMAZING. IT WAS TOO MUCH DETAIL AND NOT ENOUGH EPISODE BY EPISODE PEOPLE RELATED DATA WHICH IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR.

Ultimate is an understatement !. This mighty tome is going to take some reading but, from what i have read so far, it is going to be well worth it !. Just one tiny critisism, i would have liked more photos, but still 5 stars

Love it.

Fascinating insights into behind the scenes for each episode.

While there a lot of useful info here (probably too much, such as listing all the chapter titles for each DVD) this must rank as the worst formatted ebook I've ever bought.It looks like someone ran a PDF of the print version through an ebook converter and just left it as it was. Major problems include:No electronic TOC, something of a handicap when dealing with a TV series that ran for 11 years.Running headers from the print version appearing in the middle of the text.Random line breaks.Many missing spaces, usually at the end of a sentenceThe info before each episode must originally have been laid out using tabs or tables. Neither survives into an ebook so all the text is laid out somewhat chaotically.A random line, repeated twice, often breaks up a paragraph of text.For some reason, many interviews at the front are repeated at the back.Overall, I'd recommend this book to the dedicated M*A*S*H fan, but maybe they should buy the print version.