There was certainly more comedy in the early MASH series. I really liked McLean Stevenson, Wayne Rogers, and Larry Linville. Sorry to see them go.
I could not bear Mike Farrell. MASH always had its anti-war agenda-—perhaps because were fighting Communists in that war. And I have never liked Alan Alda in ANYTHING.
Alda = a talented but asinine puke. He was so good in those early seasons, Adam’s Ribs, and the one where he made all these deals to get a new pair of boots, etc. Classic stuff. I was a first-termer in the USAF and we all would congregate on Monday nights in the TV room to watch the show. It was so good then at satirizing the minutia of military life.