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A turkey? I think NOT! I grew up watching M*A*S*H, from season one I found the entire series to age very well, even in 2005. What I'm finding as the series has cycled around again via the daily repeats on the Hallmark Channel, is that as the series moved along and through various cast changes, the characters matured and the show evolved from being closer to slapstick in its first couple seasons to a much more family atmosphere that felt a lot more real. Not to take anything away from Henry Blake, trapper John or Frank Burns...those characters and shows were sheer comic genius and there's been nothing like them before or since...but I found BJ Hunnicutt and Colonel Potter to be more down-to-earth and more believable characters with real emotions and I felt like we got to know the characters better in the later years (even Winchester showed a side of himself towards the end that no one would have expected when he first came on board). Gary Burghoff left during season eight for the same reasons that Larry Linville did after the fifth year...he simply felt he had done all he could with Radar's character. The cast changes didn't change things for me even the slightest in my enjoyment of the show...facts of life for an ensemble like "M*A*S*H" or "ER" where people come, people go and the characters adapt. Season eight of this series brought some very touching and some very funny moments to what will always be in my mind one of the best half-hours on television for years to come.