I love this movie so much

Powerful

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is a 25-minute short film featuring Emmy Award winner Gary Burghoff, who reprises his Walter character for this little mix of comedy and drama. Yes I think there are certainly enough dramatic aspects in here to categorize it as such, which is also why I must say that the laugh tracks were really annoying and irritating, especially as none of the comedy in here was truly laugh-out-loud funny and I personally felt it delivered more from the dramatic perspective. I also guess that is what the makers had in mind as the movie ends with a moral question on whether to arrest a young man or not. With "makers" I am also referring to people who made M*A*S*H as some of these also worked on this pilot episode. However, it did not get picked up despite coming out immediately after the end of the very successful and lung-running series I just mentioned. And I am not really mad about it. I have never seen M*A*S*H, but judging from this short film here I have no interest in watching it, let alone a series that follows this short film. Burghoff is fine, but the rest of the cast is not really good. Not recommended.

I saw the pilot for W*A*L*T*E*R. Now I know beyond a doubt why they never made it into a series. Here's an interesting tidbit: It was directed by Bill Bixby! I wouldn't be surprised if it did NOT appear on his resume. Even having the asterisks in the title (Radar's real name of course) is dumb.O'Reilly returns to Iowa, sells the farm & livestock and sends his mother to live with his aunt. His new bride leaves him for another man right after their honeymoon. (what!?) He decides to commit suicide, and goes to a drugstore to buy sleeping pills to overdose (+ aspirin b/c sleeping pills give him headaches (broom-che!)). The drugstore clerk, Victoria Jackson!, cheers him up and they become friends. His cousin Wendell gets him a job on the police force in St. Louis. Jocularity ensues.Radar goes back home and they make a show about him AFTER he loses the farm? Blech. You may as well have a show about him after he BUYS the farm! To have a show about Radar anywhere but in Ottumwa Iowa is bogus. Miss this! I seal it: DNW: Do Not Watch!

"W*A*L*T*E*R" was a painfully misguided spin off from "M*A*S*H"--as was "After M*A*S*H". The big difference is that "W*A*L*T*E*R" only lasted one episode and was apparently only shown to half the United States. I don't think they bothered showing it to everyone because they realized they had a bad idea in the pilot.So what is so bad about the pilot? Well, they made the character pathetic and sad--and this is supposed to be a comedy! And, to top it off it had a VERY obtrusive laugh-track--one that OFTEN was used during the saddest and most awful moments in the show. Let me give you a few examples--all of which you learn about through flashbacks. First, Walter loses his farm (ha, ha, ha). Next, he gets married and his bride disappears--running off with another man (ha, ha, ha). And, finally, he goes into a pharmacy to get some drugs so he can commit suicide (he, he, he). Whose idea of funny was this? Was the show written by a serial killer?! Now I am NOT saying you shouldn't watch it--heck it's only 25 lost minutes in your life. But I am saying that I can see exactly why the network didn't pick it up--the show was maudlin. But, if you like the idea of Radar as a cop (talk about miscasting) and want to see Victoria Jackson before she was a regular on "Saturday Night Live", then by all means give it a shot. Just don't say I didn't warn you!

Taking "Radar" out of Walter O'Reilly removes much of the character's charm. On M*A*S*H, Radar was a young man from Iowa, stuck in the middle of a war, trying to keep the 4077th running without losing his mind. Although W*A*L*T*E*R attempted to recast this fish-out-of-water concept by making Walter a rookie cop, there is little to differentiate Walter O'Reilly from any other police officer new to the job. The few remnants of his precognition seem out of place and his relationships in the pilot are generic or silly.What made the Radar character so wonderful on M*A*S*H was his interaction with the rest of the M*A*S*H cast — particularly Colonel Blake and Colonel Potter — and his mix of naivete and cunning. In W*A*L*T*E*R, the character is older and more cynical, and placed in the stale trappings of a by-the-book sitcom. Gary Burghoff did his best, but he had very little to work with.