M*A*S*H
 M*A*S*H
was a fictional account of Dr Richard Hornberger's years at the
8055 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in Korea.
Hornberger's book was turned into an award-winning film by
Twentieth Century Fox who fortuitously did not destroy their
collection of green army tents as Fox president William Self then
wanted to try a television series.
Despite the certainty of network advisers that the grisly
humour of doctors delving into the shrapnel-ridden torsos of
wounded American and Korean soldiers would be quite unsuitable as
entertainment, a pilot show was duly made.
 New York stage actor Alan Alda
was persuaded to take the lead
role of the Martini and nurse-loving doctor Captain Hawkeye Pierce
(pictured at left) for $10,000.
Alda flew home from LA to New Jersey every weekend
for seven years, but his salary did rise to $5 million a year.
American daytime soap star Wayne Rogers came in as Hawkeye's
equally irreverent yet caring colleague, Trapper John; Larry
Linville came in as pompous Major Frank Burns, who was happiest
when he spoiled everyone's fun; Loretta Swit played the bossy
busty Major 'Hotlips' Houlihan; McLean Stevenson played the
none-too-sharp Colonel Blake; and Gary Burghoff returned from the
film version to play Radar O'Reilly, the squinting signals clerk
with long-range hearing and the ability to appear a split second
before being summoned.
M*A*S*H the series was born, featuring the antics of the
4077th MASH, immediately south of the frontline in Korea and only
6,133 miles from Toledo.
At first the show was only a moderate success. Network bosses
had insisted on fewer serious stories and more skirt-chasing. They
had also censored out such words as 'breasts' and 'virgin' (though
writer Larry Gelbart snuck that in the following week, inventing a
soldier from the Virgin Islands).
A
great improvement came after Gelbart interviewed a bunch of real
MASH doctors and went to Korea with Gene Reynolds.
 Several true stories couldn't be included in the show as they
were too bizarre - one whole unit dying their hair red for a
party, for example, or deliberately getting frostbite to get
demobbed.
The stories of the doctors, nurses, patients and administrators
of the 4077th brought both comedy and pathos into the viewing
audiences homes. The sitcom broke many traditions and set many new
standards.
It also was one of those rare occasions when the series was
better than the movie it sprang from. Cast transitions were made
effectively and a whole new concept to the meaning of television
comedy was born - the introduction of "dramedy".
The jokes were brilliant . . .
Frank Burns: "Why do people take an instant dislike to
me?"
Trapper John: "It saves time Frank".
"This Man has a chest wound, he should be in
surgery"
"But he's Chinese"
"OK, we'll operate with chopsticks"
"Anyway, Klinger's not a pervert"
"How do you know?"
"I'm a pervert. We have meetings. He's never there"
 The
series ran for 11 years - 8 years longer than the war it depicted!
Similarly it's impact on the television viewing audience may,
fortunately or unfortunately, be more significant than the Korean
war.
Eventually, after 251 episodes, M*A*S*H ran out of
anecdotes to turn into plots. Alan Alda tired of putting boot
polish on his hair to hide the grey.
The show had collected 14
Emmy Awards, received 99 nominations, and Alda had won awards as
one of the show's writes and directors as well as its leading
actor.
The extra-long final episode, 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen',
aired on 28 February 1983, attracting a record-breaking audience
of 125 million people.
Charles Winchester (David Ogden Stiers), sadly, had the
enjoyment of his beloved classical music marred permanently when a
group of Chinese soldiers he'd taught to play Mozart were killed;
"For me, music had always been a refuge from this miserable
experience," he observed. "Now it will always be a
reminder."
Max Klinger fell in love with a Korean woman named Soon-Lee
(Rosalind Chao), married her and later joined Father Mulcahy
(William Christopher) and Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) at a
stateside VA facility in the After Mash spin-off.
The last we saw of Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan
(Loretta Swit), she was off to the 8063rd after loading a jeep
with so much luggage there was no room for Winchester, who was
supposed to share it with her. But she didn't go without a parting
gift - Winchester's copy of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets
From the Portuguese, which she'd wanted so badly.
 Hawkeye
faced and overcame an emotional breakdown via a stint in a psych
facility to return to the 4077th and the ensuing goodbyes.
He and B.J. (Mike Farrell) managed one of the most touching
farewells to ever hit the small screen, as Hawkeye's chopper lifts
off and he sees the word "goodbye," spelled out in
stones, which his friend hadn't been able to speak in person.
TRIVIA NOTES
Apart from the announcements periodically made over the camp
PA system by Radar O'Reilly and Max Klinger, all PA announcements
were made by actors Sal Viscuso or Todd Susman, both of whom
appeared in an episode or two themselves.
While After Mash and Trapper John MD both proved
to be popular spin-offs from the series, a third, usually
forgotten spin-off also made it to the pilot stage . . .
W*A*L*T*E*R focused on the post-military police career
of Walter O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff), who had now dropped the
"Radar" part of his identity.
Directed by Bill Bixby, the pilot never made it to series.
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