[OC] M*A*S*H episode ratings across all 11 seasons, with special episodes highlighted — do the experimental ones actually rate higher?

Long-time M*A*S*H fan, and I had a theory that the "special" episodes… the Dear… letters, the experimental format ones like The Interview and Point of View, and the big milestones like Abyssinia Henry, were disproportionately better rated than regular episodes. So I pulled the data to find out.

Built in Python using the official IMDb datasets, with Plotly for the charts. You can toggle the special episode markers and cast-directed episodes on and off.

Spoiler: the Milestone episodes (Abyssinia Henry, Goodbye Farewell and Amen etc.) do rate noticeably higher. The Dear episodes are more mixed than I expected. Make of that what you will.

I also included a check for cast directed episodes which are definitely a mixed bag (poor Jamie Farr!).

Interactive version here: https://admiralross2400.github.io/mash-imdb-analytics/

Tools: Python, pandas, IMDb public datasets, Plotly, JupyterLab

Source: IMDB

Code: https://github.com/admiralross2400/mash-imdb-analytics/blob/main/mash_analytics_v2.ipynb