#freeze frame

Hey everyone! I’m here to say I like MASH’s freeze-frame endings, which began very early on in the series’s run. Many cantankerous fans in the past—if forums are anything to go by—have found them too corny for a show that contained healthy amounts of pathos. True, the freeze-frame is an old sitcom trick, used in some of the more tiresome shows out there (“Hogan’s Heroes” is one that did it before MASH came along). However, in the case of a series whose episodes are all neat little pieces of cinema, the freeze frame functions beautifully—as does the slideshow of the episode’s other notable moments, shown with the closing credits. For me, seeing this is like watching stills from a good movie, and it’s not hard to imagine that this is what MASH’s creators had in mind.

In short, the device is yet another example of MASH’s ability to have it both ways: punchy and corny like a sitcom, elegant and reverent like a film. The final moment of each episode is almost always comic, but even when it isn’t the technique can be employed well. For instance, here’s the freeze-frame at the end of “The Interview.” Truffaut might have liked it.