They've just released the complete third (and for my money, best) season of the M*A*S*H TV show on DVD. This is the year that ends with Henry Blake getting on that helicopter and sailing off into sitcom history and oblivion at the same time. You can purchase this splendid collection from the Amazon folks by clicking here. And while you're at it, feel free to order the first season and the second season. These DVDs come with an option to turn off the laugh track, for which we have Great Britain to thank. Unlike CBS, the British TV broadcasters wanted to run the show without any artificial guffaws, so Twentieth-Century Fox never did a composite audio track. On their master copies, they kept the laughs on separate channels so they could strike off prints with or without. "Without" is much better.
But forget about that; let's discuss that DVD cover. Maybe my memory is failing but wasn't McLean Stevenson a lot taller than Gary Burghoff? Wasn't that part of the charm of those two men working together? For that matter, wouldn't the cover scene be funnier if the two guys were back-to-back but their backs didn't line up? And while we're at it, might not the cover be more appealing if Mr. Burghoff's head weren't so obviously pasted onto someone else's body? (Matter of fact, it wouldn't surprise me if that's a woman's body.) Add to this the fact that the entire pose is out of character for Henry Blake and Radar, as well as the mood of the series, and you have to wonder what — if anything — was going through the brain of whoever designed this sucker. They should have put him on that helicopter.