Sifting for Gold

I woke with an image today of a piece of meat that had been hammered to tenderize it, and I sensed nonverbally that it meant I should shift my approach this week to “sifting” rather than “pounding” on a topic. So what might that mean for the topic of television Better Endings?

What are some benefits we may sift from the dross of television fare? I’d say when we become interested in or identified with either one character or an entire ensemble cast, and when we are witness over time to positive transformations in those ‘character arcs’, this can lead to personal growth and development in ourselves, by association.

So I invite you to focus on some transformational storylines from TV to uncover Life Lessons you have gained insights about through the adventures and interactions of some of your favorite characters. Transformational storylines require some basic character “flaws” initially that may get resolved or transformed over time.

M.A.S.H. comes to mind. We see in this popular sitcom an ensemble cast of rather disparate seeming characters at first, who have been thrown together at a medical triage station near the front lines in South Korea, during the Korean War. But since nothing is truly accidental, especially in storytelling, this odd assortment of personalities is actually not random at all. Let’s explore the key characters and traits they represent, traits that may have archetypal reflections for the audience!

Some M.A.S.H. Character Traits:  Strengths/ Weaknesses

Maj. Hawkeye Pierce  jokester, intelligent, man of conscience / sarcastic, cynical, drinks alot

Maj. John ‘Trapper’ McIntyre  comical, blythe, accomplice to Pierce / buffoon-like, shallow

Maj. B.J. Hunnicut   loyal friend to Pierce, introspective, good husband / depressive

Sgt. Radar O’Reilly  acquisitive, resourceful, ‘common man’/ self-abnegating at times

Maj. Margaret Hoolihan  military upbringing, sharp, crisp leader / promiscuous, overbearing

Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III  intelligent, highly educated, musician / out of his element, snooty

Col. Sherman Potter   competent but “allowing”, retirement aged / dismissive of order

Col. Henry Blake    fatherly, compassionate / drinks too much, gullible at times

Priv. Maxwell Klinger  passionate, rulebreaker, inverts norms / overly self-oriented, escapist

Father John Patrick Mulcahy   pious, resourceful, caring / doubtful at times, sense of inadequacy

Major Frank Burns   rule-governed, hapless luck / awkward, philandering

Over the many seasons that the TV series MASH was on the air, most of these characters experienced major epiphanies that led to subtle and sometimes extreme character transformations.  All of them experienced together what the anthropologist Victor Turner would call “shared liminality” resulting in  “communitas”. Liminality is the ‘between and betwixt’ situation of these characters overall in the war context: they have been stripped from their lives in normal society and they are caught “in the margins”; in the nebulous, dangerous shadowland of the MASH unit. They attain communitas by putting aside their individual differences of rank and their normal social status as civilians in order to realize their common goal of administering medical aid to wartime victims, serving together as a well-organized team.

In the context of interactional encounters that occurred over time through the series, our key characters faced their own weaknesses, and developed their strengths, over and over again.  As we laughed at their foibles and reveled at their strengths, we laughed ALONG with them, as at our own selves. This is how this ensemble cast came to mirror our own archetypal traits, as Americans perhaps, but moreso as humans immersed in the “human comedy” of life.

You can reflect for yourself about how the individual MASH characters transformed over time. What Life Lessons can we sift from our collective memories of this beloved TV series? Put aside our differences to exercise Conscience in response to terrifying threats. Learn to laugh at ourselves and be grateful for Friendship, that overlooks or tolerates our foibles, at least, and that fosters and supports our efforts at change and growth, at best.

The series finale of MASH was culturally iconic and ‘expiative’ of all of the ills of warfare. Hawkeye Pierce suffers a nervous breakdown and submits to psychoanalysis. This betokens a human epiphany that was central to the overall message of MASH—which provided a metaphor for the Viet Nam War and its aftermath in the American collective conscience. War is brutal and potentially destructive to the human spirit, Pierce’s breakdown asserts. Human conscience and sensitivity will not allow the vicissitudes of war to triumph. Hawkeye responds well to analysis but he will go home a changed man, a doctor in a home town community where he will get to know his patients personally, as individuals.

******   ******

It’s in the in-between
that the real magic happens.
The seeds are planted,
the roots take hold…
and we blossom into who
we were meant to be.

~ Kristen Jongen
re-blogged today from Brenda’s
FriendlyFairyTales.com

TUNING IN

Tuesdays are Prompts days at Better Endings, relating to our weekly theme, which this week is television Better Endings.  I’ll list some topics you might write or talk about, or share your Comments or stories about, in relation to the Better Endings concept. Is there a TV series you’ve always wished would have ended differently, especially one you felt personally invested in while the series was on the air?  Or, is there a specific episode of a favorite television program you would love to see a Better Ending for?

I’ll list some possible topics for creative re-scripting in a bit. But overnight while I was contemplating this theme, I realized how television as an expressive MEDIUM is a blank canvas for the imagination to project upon. To me, much of contemporary TV fare is vacuous, little more than comic or dramatic drivel based on overused characters and tedious plots. Maybe that reveals my age (59), showing I am jaded about contemporary TV situational comedy and drama. I grew up with the original Star Trek and heady fare like Mission Impossible, The Prisoner , The Avengers and Dr. No; plus raucous, 60’s-70’s ‘revolutionary’ romps including Laugh-In, The Love Boat, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, all of which presented a ‘new’ world of magical-thinking possibilities and romantic license. But closer to my point: If you think of television as a blank canvas, what would you really LIKE TO SEE projected there?

Last night I envisioned a Reality program that would be somewhat of a cross between TED Talks and How It’s Made.  A challenging global issue, like World Hunger, would be given to a Think Tank assembly of inventors, political savants, natural scientists and social scientists, and engineers from relevant fields, with a global audience free to call in with their ideas, too. The program would stay on that challenging issue, inviting pertinent policy makers and politicians as needed, for as long as the assembly took to arrive at practical solutions and then to actually IMPLEMENT them, at least on a small scale that could then realistically be expanded to a whole scale transformation. What a concept! Middle East peace, asteroid deflection, fresh water sustainability, free and renewable energy with non-harmful means of extraction and generation, etcetera…now, there’s a TV program I would tune into! (Are there any producers or screenwriters out there?) Why COULDN’T we use television or other worldwide information media to arrive at win-win situations to global problems as a collective, species wide think tank?

Okay now, let me rein this in some. Here’s a list of possible ‘prompt’ topics to apply Better Endings to regarding television.  Feel free to Comment with your own ideas:

• Family situational comedies
• Crime dramas
• Science documentaries
• The composition of ensemble casts (who would combine well, for what kinds of programs?)
• Memorable series endings re-writes (e.g. Friends, Seinfeld, the Mary Tyler Moore show, Lost, All in the Family)
• Projected ‘good’ endings of current series
• Day-TV soap operas
• Sci-fi drama series
• Documentary series
• Reality TV

If you think of a good “through-line” (that is, a one sentence zinger that describes a fully envisioned episode or series concept), please send it to share! The sky’s the limit…well actually, not even!

Thanks for stopping by. And always, Better Endings to You! – Linda