while I loved the TV show MASH saying it was better than the movie, no way. The movie IS the reason the TV show took off IMO
Agree that the movie made the TV show possible, but I still think the show was better. The OP's comment about character development is one reason. Others are that the show had multiple dimensions, i.e. the movie, while raucously funny, was pretty much a pure anti-Army screed, while the TV show displayed the dual nature of the 4077 situation. Sure, there was Army silliness, but there was also competency and compassion in characters like Hot Lips and the two commanders, Henry Blake and Sherman Potter. In the movie, both Hot Lips and Blake were pretty much idiots. The real-life model for Henry Blake was regular Army, but he let the drafted surgeons have their fun because he both recognized and needed their skills. There was mutual respect. The TV production brought that out.