@Benton12 said:

( Kim ll Sung was a brutal North Korean leader/ mass-murderer. And he started the entire Korean War! He was never mentioned one single time on Mash!)

He left right at the end of season 4. The jokes would have still been more brilliantly subtle as they had been in seasons 1 to 4. Example: In a season 5 ep Potter asked where Burns got a whistle. BJ answers something like "Same place he got his medical diploma. Box of Cracker Jacks". Not a totally bad joke but obvious. If Gelbart had written the joke it would have went much like this.

Potter: "Where in the world did he get that blasted whistle?".

BJ: "Same place as his medical degree".

Potter :(Exasperated) "Where!?!"

BJ:Whistling or singing as he walks away:"Take me out to the ballgame Take me out to the crowd . . Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjack....." Potter looks kinda defeated.

How much greater subtlety the show would have had had Gelbart just stayed on. It would have stayed a comedy too as they found humor too hard to continue to write minus LG and they switched to much more duller drama.

Not disagreeing with your POV. Just pointing out that any extra in-show dialogue "burns up” extra air time. Meaning…less time for the “Bean Counters” to sell to commercial sponsors. Meaning…less pocket for TPTB.

Also…

Not for nothing it’s called a “Punch Line” and not a “Punch Paragraph”.

Formerly, by far most felt Mash was worse in its later seasons. Jumptheshark.com showed this. Find this at internetarchive.

Also, they once ended a joke in a third season ep with three of them singing a song ( in the 'General flipped at Dawn'). It would have took seconds like 35 of them to sing 'Take me out to the ballgame' to get to the word "Crackerjack". There would have been time. I do not understand why you think there would have been not enough time.

Furthermore, jokes in earlier seasons were smarter and more subtle. And a punchline like the one BJ was scripted to give in season 5 was neither of those "s" words. Just horribly obvious and cheap. Unworthy was that of Mash. Totally!

PS If you insist on being a really difficult time stickler 1000 percent simple solution. Shorten it to just "Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjack". Subtle and clever and shorter. Better than the cheap joke they came up with. But my suggestion was fine originally too due to the season 3 example.

@Benton12 said:

Formerly, by far most felt Mash was worse in its later seasons. Jumptheshark.com showed this. Find this at internetarchive.

Also, they once ended a joke in a third season ep with three of them singing a song ( in the 'General flipped at Dawn). It would have took seconds like 35 of them to sing 'Take me out to the ballgame' to get to the word "Crackerjack". There would have been time. I do not understand why you think there would have been not enough time.

Furthermore, jokes in earlier seasons were smarter and more subtle. And a punchline like the one BJ was scripted to give in season 5 was neither of those "s" words. Just horribly obvious and cheap. Unworthy was that of Mash. Totally!

PS If you insist on being a really difficult time stickler 1000 percent simple solution. Shorten it to just "Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjack". Subtle and clever and shorter. Better than the cheap joke they came up with. But my suggestion was fine originally too due to the season 3 example.

My comment wasn't about there not being enough time. The time was there. It was about how I think they would have chosen to use that time.

That is, given a choice between adding to the joke, or adding to their coffers…I think it would be coffers--hands down.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: Made me so looked up the ad rates. (I’m not crediting anyone here because these figures are out-there-all-over.)

"A company only had to pay "$30,000 to run a 30-second commercial when MASH got started in 1972. For the series finale, a 30-second spot cost $450,000."

I will add this. Sometimes the show was just too flat as well in season 5 ( it would get way flatter in the following 6 years). When Burns accidently shot a chest the bullet ricocheted off the chest and hit BJ. Potter was scripted to say something like to Burns "So naturally you shot Capt. Hunnicut". Instead that line could have been "So you naturally you fired a round or two into Capt. Hunnicut". Much slicker dialogue that would have been . ( Potter's response had also sort of been a joke!)