The good boss: Harry Morgan, Col. Sherman Potter of M*A*S*H, dies at 96

By Richard K. Barry

Harry Morgan died Wednesday morning. He was 96 years old. Many would remember him as Colonel Potter from the long-running television series M*A*S*H.  Of course, there were many other roles for Morgan, including Officer Bill Gannon, partner to Sgt. Joe Friday, on the updated Dragnet series that aired from 1967 to 1970.

And then, as the obit in The New York Times put it:

In more than 100 movies, Mr. Morgan played Western bad guys, characters names Rocky and Shorty, loyal sidekicks, judges, sheriffs, soldiers, thugs and police chiefs. 

But to a generation or two, starting in 1975 and running to 1983, and then in reruns forever after, he was Colonel Sherman Potter, commander of the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit in Korea.

It's a very corny thing, I know, but there are certain television shows that feel like they are a part of our lives. Watching Bonanza on Sunday nights at my grandparent's house in the 60s when I almost inevitably fell asleep lying on the floor in front of the television; the entire family gathering together to watch All in the Family in the early '70s; and M*A*S*H seemed to be around for all sorts of life's changes.

Given that it premiered on September 17, 1972 and ended on February 28, 1983, it was there from the beginning of my high school years to my mid-20s -- a fairly good stretch of time.

As circumstances would have it, though, the most significant experience watching the show that I recall is gathering with half my college dorm every day at 4:00 p.m. to catch reruns in the late '70s. That this stands out as a significant memory from my undergraduate days might make you think I wasted some time at Oswego State University, and you wouldn't be wrong, but there it is.

After a while shows like this are comfort food, you watch them because they are familiar and we gravitate towards the familiar. Colonel Potter was always a cool character, though. Serious, because somebody had to make sure the important things got done. But he wasn't an asshole. Maybe we hoped that, in our final days of university, before having to get a job, it was possible we might have a boss who was serious enough to make sure things got done but who could also be cool about it.

That was Colonel Sherman Potter.

I suppose a lot of people will post the clip from the final episode of M*A*S*H in which the Colonel rides his horse off into the sunset. And so will I. 

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)