very logical- to conclude that the controversial ( but not really debatable M*A*S*H timeline ) transpires with Henry Blake and Trapper John serving from July of 1950, to August of 1951, and BJ and Potter serving out the difference, from August of 1951, through to the war's conclusion, in July of 1953! Thirteen months for Henry and Trapper, and twenty-three months for BJ and Potter! Nice and neat! There were at least two episodes which explained why Hawkeye and BJ were not being rotated out- Reason One- the Army is suffering from a dearth of qualified surgeons to go to Korea, so the Army keeps "upping" the rotation points required for discharge in order to keep it's medical units adequately staffed until the end of the war, and Reason Two- as explained to Hawkeye by no less than the notorious Colonel Flagg himself ( my boy!! ) in Season Eight's "Rally 'Round the Flagg, Boys", Hawkeye can't get discharged because his rebellious, anti-Army antics keep pissing off the WRONG PEOPLE up at I-Corps! ( most notably General Crandall Clayton, I would imagine- see Season Two's hilarious "Cease-Fire" ) Margaret, Mulcahy, and Potter are all career officers, which is why THEY weren't going anywhere!! So, there you have it, fellow M*A*S*H-philes- the most comprehensive- and logically accurate-explanation of the 'M*A*S*H' timeline that you are ever going to find, IF I do say so, myself! As a great man once used to like to say, EXCELSIOR!!!!!

I have quite a bit to say on this matter, but for the sake of brevity, I am going to condense my ( heavily-researched ) opinions on this matter to the following two points: Colonel Blake and Trapper John were at the 4077th, along with all the rest of the original cast, since the very beginning of the war, as evidenced by the tag-line which runs across the bottom of our screens in the opening moments of the pilot episode: "Korea, 1950- A Hundred Years Ago" ( obviously a statement of war-weary sarcasm ) As per Pentagon and Department of Defense directives, no military draftee, regardless of rank, ( or lack of same ) will be required to serve more than a total of thirteen months in a front-line combat unit/combat zone. Now, since we know the Korean War began on June 25th, 1950, and Henry and Trapper John were both discharged within a week of each other, it is reasonable-QUITE reasonable- to assume that Henry and Trapper were discharged within a week of each other, as ed by the events of "Abbysenia, Henry", and "Welcome to Korea", meaning that their thirteen months of required service had come to an end by-extrapolating from July 1950- ( since the war broke out on June 25th, it is also very reasonable to assume that it took the Army a few weeks to get it's experimental 'MASH' units in place, placing the events of Season One, Episode One clearly in July of 1950 ) to August of 1951! Henry and Trapper's military obligations end after their required thirteen months, they are discharged, and their replacements arrive, again, squarely in August of 1951! This leaves a good twenty-three months of Korean War left to go, ( August 1951-July 1953 ) which nicely s Margaret's statement to BJ in "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" that his TWO YEARS of service at MASH will enable him to land a surgical position at any hospital in the world! ( she was quite correct about that! ) So- between these two twin points, ( and several others I COULD make ) it is safe-and

The deeper issues of medical ethics aside, I am going to go with "White Gold" ten times out of ten, because I actually don't watch 'M*A*S*H' for deep drama and ethical clashes- I watch it to laugh!! A directive that was definitely abandoned by all of the subsequent writing staffs of the at-times dreadfully-painful later seasons. Trapper John forever!!

I have always struggled with the hypothetical choice of, given the choice, "Would you rather have seen a fourth season of ABC's 'Batman', ( which would have involved a drastic and dramatic overhaul of that show's status quo, in order to re-stoke it's dwindling audience's interest in it, most notably the total retirement of Robin the Boy Wonder ) or, having Henry Blake remain on with 'M*A*S*H', for it's entire eleven season-run, thus sparing us both the installment of the positively coma-inducing Sherman Potter, and, quite possibly, the deterioration of quality which dragged the show to it's slow and murderously panful end, in 1983. I will, undoubtedly, go to my grave not being able to choose between these two very highly-desirable scenarios, but I must insist that the Golden Triumvirate of Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John McIntyre- and Henry Blake, was the Straw That Stirred the Martini on 'M*A*S*H', and their respective replacements were just weak Band-Aids in the 'M*A*S*H' scheme of things. Writing this has me, at the moment, leaning towards eleven seasons of Henry Blake, but that will undoubtedly change again at my next viewing of 'Batman'!

Between Gal Gadot, the Wonder Woman of Our Time, and Miss Rachel Zegler, the Breakout Starlet of the Early Twenty-First Century, I am going to go see this wonderful ( npi ) film, and LOVE it, even if it DOES turn out to be the biggest bomb of this decade!

They're going to have to work awfully hard to top their last effort, 2003's "JLA/Avengers"- although I am certain that Thor is more than ready for his rematch with Superman, and-let's face it- Captain America was robbed in his defeat to Batman, down in the sewer! ( robbed of victory by a face-full of raw sewage! Oh, the indignity! ) A Swamp-Thing-Man-Thing smackdown would be interesting, and I would welcome any excuse to visit with "Wonder-Storm", ( or whatever her name is ) again!