Before they were famous...

I like M*A*S*H. I think it comes from my parents watching it after I would go to bed--the allure of something "grown-up" was pretty strong. Later, when I was in college, my dad got the first few seasons on DVD, and so I was able to start from the beginning. I remember when Colonel Blake's plane goes down at the end of season 3--I was completely shocked and honestly, a little depressed. My dad said that when the episode originally aired, the ending had leaked out, and everyone already knew about it, but that my viewing of it probably captured the intended emotional impact more effectively.

Anyways, I've been watching reruns on TVLand, and tonight I saw the episode "The Tooth Shall Set You Free" from season 10. As I was watching, one of the wounded soldiers looked familiar. I realized it was Lawrence Fishburn, aka Morpheus from The Matrix!

And that got me thinking about other now-famous actors and actresses that I've seen on M*A*S*H. I'm sure that lots of the guest stars were famous when they starred on the show, but the ones that interest me are the ones that I can recognize :) Here are some of my favorites:

• Ron Howard, famous for Happy Days and any number of movies he's directed, starred as kid who enlisted underage in the season 1 episode "Sometimes you hear the bullet"
• Patrick Swayze, star of Ghost and Dirty Dancing, starred in the season 9 episode "Blood Brothers"
• Leslie Nielsen, whom I know from the Naked Gun movies, starred as an overzealous officer in the season 1 episode "The Ringbanger"
• Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks' wife, starred as a nurse in the season 9 episode "Blood and Guts"
• Shelley Long, who played Diane Chambers on Cheers, starred as a nurse in the season 8 episode "Bottle Fatigue"
• Pat Morita, who was Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid movies, starred as Captain Sam Park in two season 2 episodes
• Gail Edwards, who played Danny Tanner's love interest Vicky, starred as a USO girl who falls for Hawkeye in the season 10 double episode "That's Show Biz"

And finally, my favorite guest star and all-time favorite M*A*S*H episode:

• Blythe Danner, who stars as the one nurse Hawkeye has never gotten over--Carlye Breslin. This episode--"The More I See You"--is from season 4, and always make me sad that Hawkeye values his work so much that he's not able to let go and be in love. Danner is a fabulous actress, and is quite convincing as the perfect match for Hawkeye, if he could only let someone else into his life.