MASH without canned laughter

O, dear reader, I knowest you probably don't give a flying fuck about whether or not watching a few episodes of the first season of MASH minus the laugh track was a revelation or not. I will tell you that initially it threw me off. I have watched so much of the show in my day that i was expecting the fake giggles and guffaws. They didn't come. I shook off the initial shock and sat back and enjoyed the show. Without the laugh track a few of the gags actually come off a little flat. I don't know if that is from seeing them before or because they just aren't that great. I think it was a little of both. The show didn't really hit its stride until the second season.

I have also been used to seeing MASH in syndication and the video was never that great. They must have gone back to the original prints. I have never seen old MASH episodes look this good. It really is a revelation. I haven't seen a change in video like this since the Sci Fi network showed the new remastered original Star Treks. The only drawback is with the better video the sets of each show appear even less realistic than before. It's harder to suspend belief when you can see that those red rocks are really styrofoam.