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Post by Jerseygirl on Sept 1, 2006 7:47:36 GMT
I watched the final episode the other day. It was the first time I've viewed it since the original airing - over 20 years! For the longest time, I remembered GFA as being a great episode. I think at the time I just got caught up in the hype of it being the "last episode". However, after viewing it again, my opinion has changed...
I think the writers did Charles a great disservice. Why did they have to make him out to be so snobby and cold, like he was when he arrived? Don't they remember how he had changed?
After viewing episodes like "The Life You Save", "Sons and Bowlers", "No Laughing Matter" & "Say No More", I find it hard to believe that Charles wouldn't show a little more emotion in departing his friends and colleagues.
The scenes where he says goodbye to Hawkeye & BJ are so un-Charles like. I also though his "buddy" relationship with Klinger would have warranted a bigger (and better) goodbye scene. I stopped counting how many people he told "If you're ever in Boston, don't drop in"....
On the positive side....
I think the scenes with Charles and the musicians were superb. When he realizes they are all gone, and he smashes his record....Emmy material in my book.
I think the scene where he runs through the tent in the air raid was funny as heck. But I don't see him telling Klinger and Potter to get out of his way.
I may be out of line with this post. It's just I feel like I was remembering a totally different ending for the past quarter-century!
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Post by Jenna on Sept 1, 2006 10:30:11 GMT
Now you mention it the Charles they portrayed in this episode was, at times, like the early Charles.
I thought his final scene with the Korean musicians was brilliantly acted and every time I hear the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings I think of that moment.
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Post by Kay4077 on Sept 2, 2006 12:07:40 GMT
Hmm, some interesting points there, JG, that I'd not really noticed till you pointed them out. I don't think Charles is quite as badly written here as he was in the awful Season 11 eps "UN the Night and the Music' and 'Strange Bedfellow' (in both of which he reverted to Season 6-type Charles), but I see that the writers of both those shows were also on the list of GFA writers. The first time I saw GFA (only about 3 or 4 years ago), I too was disappointed that Charles' friendship with Klinger wasn't better acknowledged - why didn't Klinger ask him to be his Best Man? Mostly though I was just grateful that he got on screen occasionally - it must take about 20 minutes of Hawkeye/Alda stuff before we even see that Charles is actually still in the camp! As for that scene where his musicians are killed - gets me every time, it is superbly played (and kudos to Kellye Nakahara too for her part in that scene). I really must go and rewatch the whole thing again though (well - maybe I'll fast forward Hawkeye), now you've given me something new to think about.  |
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Post by Kirsten on Sept 2, 2006 14:16:36 GMT
I watch a little bit of GFA last week i taped it on FX four years ago i can't wait for it to be on season 11 |
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Post by ILoveCharles on Sept 9, 2006 19:31:18 GMT
I have it taped also.....and I also feel like forwarding through Hawkeye.
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Post by Jenna on Sept 9, 2006 19:57:49 GMT
I have it taped also.....and I also feel like forwarding through Hawkeye. I always do but I've worn the tape out by doing that. I've always found Hawkeye's scenes in this episode to be particularly boring. |
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Post by Kay4077 on Sept 24, 2006 19:14:28 GMT
Just watched GFA again (fast-forwarding Hawkeye whenever poss) - my summer season job finished today, so i was in exactly the right mood for both Charles, and a bit of a blub. Two things I noticed that I'd not spotted before - first, when the tank rolls in to the compound, Margaret clutched Charles' arm and holds on to it; and second - i just thought this was amusing - after Charles has done that run through the tent in the air raid, and taken his place behind the sandbags, he gives Klinger a smack! |
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Post by Jenna on Sept 25, 2006 8:04:48 GMT
I'd noticed them in the past but never paid them that much attention.
Now you've brought them to my attention again I'm thinking about them more and whether there was any meaning in them.
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Post by Jerseygirl on Sept 25, 2006 12:03:51 GMT
What I don't get is...Since his first day, Charles has always complained about being passed over for "Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital".
Now, in the final episode it's Boston Mercy Hospital.
So which one really is the "Finest Hospital in New England"?
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Post by Kay4077 on Sept 25, 2006 13:30:43 GMT
What I don't get is...Since his first day, Charles has always complained about being passed over for "Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital". Now, in the final episode it's Boston Mercy Hospital. So which one really is the "Finest Hospital in New England"? Did he ever say that Mass. Gen was "the finest...", I don't remember. Or maybe he was so annoyed with them for turning him down that he swtiched allegiance to a different hospital , and of course that one would HAVE to be better if he was going to work there! |
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Post by marianne on Jun 21, 2007 22:07:58 GMT
I was looking at Loretta Swit's needlepooint book and she said the last scene between her character and Charles was very touching. She said David was a really private man and rarely gave his phone number out. In the scene where Charles gave Margaret the book and then took it back and wrote in it before handing it back to her. She said everyone thought he just wrote his name but in reality Lorretta Swit said David wrote his private phone number for her to call him. She said that not only has she called him since then but also has been to his house. That is so nice of DOS to do that.
LS had made him a green needlework pillow during MASH and he told her years later that he still uses it. That is is a little worn but he still loves it. I think the design was a music theme.
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Post by Jenna on Jun 22, 2007 21:08:42 GMT
The goodbye between Charles and Margaret was probably the most genuine looking one in the show and it's really touching to hear the truth behind it.
The HM shippers think that Hawkeye and Margaret were meant to be together because of that kiss but it was Charles that she was looking at as she left the camp.
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Post by marianne on Jun 25, 2007 17:43:49 GMT
Hawkeye has done that type of kiss to Margaret on other episodes. But you are right when she was being driven away the look she gave Charles.
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