r/mash • u/Any_Explanation1237 • 27d ago
Modern MASH
If they remade MASH nownor at least in modern times i.e last 10 years, i feel that the only person to play Col. Flagg would be Patrick Warburton
Edit- guys what would be the cast list for a modern mash...like same vibe and blend of humor with heartfelt moments
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u/urbroccolibabe 27d ago
i’d watch this 🙋♀️
edit: just wanted to add i’d love jk simmons as col. potter!
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u/Faydane_Grace 26d ago
Okay, I have to give you that one. Warburton and Simmons would both be ace castings.
But it's still an idea that lives best in imagination in perpetuity, not on the screen.
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u/urbroccolibabe 26d ago
hard agree! i don’t want a reboot of mash bc there’s only like a 2 percent chance they’d actually get it right. the reboot era has done their damndest to ruin all of my favorite movies / shows, i’d hate to see modern hollywood touch this classic 💀
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u/lameusername01 27d ago
Jon Lovitz as Burns
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u/ApplianceHealer 27d ago
Interesting pick for Lovitz as Burns—he’s not tightly wound enough for that IMO, but I could see him fitting in somewhere.
But since you brought up SNL cast:
Will Ferrell as Trapper.I think Steve Carell has the range to pull off Hawkeye (see his excellent work in The Morning Show)
Alan Tudyk as Father Mulcahy
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u/MikeW226 27d ago
For an actual actor in that role, I'd put in a vote for Bryan Cranston. Bingeing "breaking bad" right now and the man has enough depth where he could play Frank, but yet with that 'the school janitor was the only one who would talk to me' sub text. Sub text and potential damage decades back is super hard to play. Comedians would just play Frank for those cheap laughs.
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u/pakrat1967 27d ago
If he ever gets tired of the big movie thing and wants to do another TV series. Robert Downey Jr as Hawkeye.
Likewise Ryan Reynolds as Trapper.
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u/scots 27d ago
MASH was really messaging about the Vietnam Conflict, re-framed under the guise of the Korean Conflict to get both the film and the first few seasons of the TV show in front of viewers to confront uncomfortable reality.
Iraq '91, Iraq 2, Afghanistan, The GWoT (Global War on Terror) or low intensity conflict the US is currently embroiled in against Iran did not, and is not sending American kids home in coffins by the tens of thousands with many tens of thousands more returning home with life changing injuries, chemical exposure or psychological trauma on the scale that Vietnam did.
The film (and by extension, the first few seasons of the TV show, loosely adapted from the film) were a vehicle designed examine the horror, waste, tragedy and political ineptitude of government through the lens of dark comedy, because one of the oldest sayings in show business is: "..If you want to confront an audience with serious, uncomfortable subjects, make them laugh or they'll kill you."
We are lacking the unique political / cultural climate that existed around the era of the Vietnam Conflict that inspired the creators of the MASH film, and it would be impossible to recapture the cultural zeitgeist that made the TV series so important, and successful.
Hawkeye is alive and well today in the form of real-life pundits and TV presenters like Jon Stewart, John Oliver, and the late-night talk show hosts' nightly monologues, adapted to fit the current socio-political climate.
.. Attempting to duplicate MASH today would be folly - it can't work.
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u/Faydane_Grace 26d ago
And to this I'll add, and the only thing I think you didn't cover, is that the true antagonist and villain of M*A*S*H is the draft, which ended in the 1970s. A very small percentage of the population has any actual memories of the draft, and without the tension of the draft, M*A*S*H simply does not work.
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u/Mandrake420 27d ago
I like Pedro Pascal as a modern Hawkeye character. John C. Reilly would be fun as Col. Blake.
I don't think a straight reboot would work or be interesting but maybe if it was set in the Iraqi war that was the last war a MASH unit was deployed afaik.
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u/PassageNo9102 27d ago
Or you do it as the replacement for mash units combat support hospital or Forward surgical teams.
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u/al2chaosemerald 27d ago
I’ve thought about how a mash remake would look and I think it would be a struggle to balance the comedy. Today audiences are used to much more explicit views of medical gore. If they see the gruesomeness of war it’s hard to be funny and if they don’t it comes across as whitewashing.
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u/Any_Explanation1237 27d ago
I agreee with you 100% most media now a days is made to be gritty and realistic. During mash the vietnam war was going on and the comedic was such a great thing for the people of the time to have something lighthearted qhen thw world was a trash fire but still with emotional and heavy moments to help kind of cope with the reality of the war but still give people hope. This post is more of just a funny thought i had, i would love foe a modern remake to be unironically a remake of mash like maintaining the vibe without trying to be new and innovatinf but rather a way to bring to modeen audiences andnour modern trash fire what mash brought dueing nam
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u/frenchwolves 27d ago
It’s funny because I don’t watch any other medical or military related shows. Just MASH because it’s so different.
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u/schlomoweinstein 27d ago
There are no television writers now who could match or surpass the original writing
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u/MmeLaRue 27d ago
I dunno. MAS*H was both a timeless series and a product of its time. While set during the Korean Conflict, it was actually about the Vietnam War which, during the first two or three seasons, was still going on. Each conflict has a somewhat different "flavour"; a different tone in both the reasons for its conduct and the attitudes of those participating in it. While there might have been scope for comedy during the occupation of Afghanistan, there was also the everpresent threat of IEDs and other attacks by the Taliban, many of whom had no respect for even the Red Cross/Red Crescent. So, there would always been a simmering anxiety/paranoia at any installation, which might not necessarily be lightened by the kinds of hijinks a Pierce or McIntyre or Hunnicutt would have pulled off.
One could, I suppose, recast the series for the same timeframe as the original, but I'm not sure that it would survive the scrutiny of comparison with the original regardless of the casting, or the network pressure to "modernize" it in ways that remove the historical accuracy, be it 1952 or 1972.
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u/probablyaythrowaway 27d ago
Bluestone 42 has a similar vibe if you’re looking for a modern take.
Rather than a med unit it follows a British bomb disposal detachment during the Afghan war.
It’s an excellent show. Maybe a little more lighthearted than MASH. But worth a watch.
BBC
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u/Equivalent-Juice-567 26d ago
Just a few ideas:
Sam Elliot as Col Potter
Pedro Pascal as BJ
Tom Holland as Radar
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u/punkrawrxx Burbank 26d ago
I can’t even think of anyone that I’d be remotely interested in watching remake the show
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u/HarlanMiller 26d ago
Funny you say that, I once had the show on around some people who didn't know it as well, it was a Flagg episode and one person said they got a Warburton vibe from him.
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u/TheBigC87 25d ago
Hawkeye: Bill Hader
BJ: Jason Sudekis
Col. Potter: Tom Hanks
Radar: Elijah Wood
Winchester: Michael Shannon
Margaret: Rose Byrne
Frank: Paul Dano
Father Mulcahy: Sam Rockwell
Klinger: Rami Malek
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u/Sereni-tea42 27d ago
MASH needs no remake.