When did M*A*S*H jump the shark for you?

Never

BJ Hunnicutt

The show lost Stevenson (a huge blow) & Rogers (100x preferable to Farrell) after s3, then show runner Larry Gelbart after s4.

But if you must have one turning point, it can be narrowed down not to one season, or one episode, or even one scene, but one shot:

"The Late Captain Pierce"
s4 e4

A bureaucratic mistake leaves the army thinking that Hawkeye Pierce is dead, and he simultaneously enjoys the lack of responsibility that comes from being legally deceased, with trying to contact his father back in Maine to tell him he's still alive.

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Captain Pratt (Eldon Quick), who promises to fix the error, but the paperwork is voluminous and the protocol involved is time-consuming. In the meantime Pierce, with no money or mail, will have to remain, in Pratt's words, an "unperson." In a fit of anger, Hawkeye decides to accept his fate and desert as a suppositious cadaver; despite Digger's protest that he can't take passengers, Hawkeye climbs on board Digger's cadaver bus and prepares to leave saying, "I'm not a passenger, I'm cargo." As a deluge of wounded arrive, B.J. attempts to dissuade Hawkeye from leaving, but citing Trapper and Henry's respective departures, Hawkeye argues that the wounded will keep coming whether he's there or not. The bus drives off, but stops just outside camp in front of Rosie's Bar; Hawkeye grudgingly climbs out the back door and walks back to camp.

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After that moment, MASH would never again be the same show.

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When Pvt Charles Lamb was shipped back to the States

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to be Radar's little brother

When they didn't even cast Duke Forrest for the television cast.

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the cast loved Larry Linville and hated Gary Burghoff

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ex child star Jackie Cooper directed some s2 episodes

He had nothing but praise for Linville & Rogers

He did not care for Alda, who was already throwing his progressive weight around. Per JC, AA would not shoot the original ending of "The Sniper" (the sniper is killed), & insisted a new ending (sniper is wounded, surrenders, & Hawkeye patches him up) be written on the set.

Cooper HATED Stevenson ("the most uncooperative actor I ever worked with") & Swit.

I don't recall him giving an opinion on Burghoff.

When trap left I didn’t like it as much

Never. It definitely dropped off but I still liked it until the end. Somewhere, I still have the VHS copy of the finale that I recorded when it aired.

Of course, I was a kid. Now, when I see those latter episodes in reruns, they're pretty annoying. Alan Alda is such a sanctimonious, narcissistic jerkoff.

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Never

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Nah, I think it actually did at some point midway in the last season. But, I still upvoted you.

It was quite remarkable to stay that good for that long, with the major cast changes.

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Colonel Flagg should’ve been in every episode!

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No, that would have been too much. But they definitely should have used him more, say 3-4 times a season.

I also wished they'd used Captain Pak (Pat Morita) more. He was only in two episodes.