Today in Television History: M*A*S*H

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As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

September 17, 1972

M*A*S*H first aired

M*A*S*H (the television series) developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film MASH (which was itself based on the 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker). The series is a medical drama that was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS. It follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. M*A*S*H's title sequence featured an instrumental version of the song "Suicide Is Painless", which also appears in the original film. The show was created after an attempt to film the original book's sequel, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine, failed. It is the most well known version of the M*A*S*H works.

The series premiered in the US on September 17, 1972, and ended February 28, 1983, with the finale becoming the most watched television episode in

U.S. television history at the time, with a record-breaking 125 million viewers (60.2 Rating and 77 Share) , according to the New York Times. In contrast to the high turnout for the final episode of M*A*S*H, it struggled in its first season and was at risk of being cancelled. However, season two of M*A*S*H placed it in a better time slot (airing after the popular All in the Family) and the show became one of the top ten programs of the year and stayed in the top twenty programs for the rest of its eleven-season run. The show is still broadcast in syndication on various television stations. The series, which covered a three-year military conflict, spanned 251 episodes and lasted eleven seasons.

Many of the stories in the early seasons are based on real-life tales told by real MASH surgeons who were interviewed by the production team. Like the movie, the series was as much an allegory about the Vietnam War (still in progress when the show began) as it was about the Korean War.

In 1997, the episodes "Abyssinia, Henry" and "The Interview" were respectively ranked number 20 and number 80 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. In 2002, M*A*S*H was ranked number 25 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

M*A*S*H aired weekly in its original CBS run, with most episodes being a half-hour in length. The series is usually categorized as a situation comedy, though it is sometimes also described as a "dark comedy" or a "dramedy" because of the dramatic subject material often presented. The show was an ensemble piece revolving around key personnel in a United States Army Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH; the asterisks in the name are not part of military nomenclature and were creatively introduced in the novel) in the Korean War (1950–1953). The "4077th MASH" was just one of several surgical units in Korea. As the show developed, the writing took on more of a moralistic tone. Richard Hooker, who wrote the book on which the television and film versions were based, noted that Hawkeye's character was far more liberal in the show than on the page (in one of the MASH books, Hawkeye makes reference to "kicking the bejesus out of lefties just to stay in shape").

While the show is traditionally viewed as a comedy, there were many episodes of a more serious tone. Airing on network primetime while the Vietnam War was still ongoing, the show was forced to walk the fine line of commenting on that war while at the same time not seeming to protest it. For this reason, the show's discourse, under the cover of comedy, often questioned, mocked and grappled with America's role in the Cold War. Episodes were both plot and character driven, with several episodes being narrated by one of the show's characters as the contents of a letter home. The show's tone could move from silly to sobering from one episode to the next, with dramatic tension often occurring between the civilian draftees of 4077th—Hawkeye, Trapper John, B.J. Hunnicutt, for example—who are forced to leave their homes to tend to the wounded and dying of the war, and the "regular Army" characters, like Margaret Houlihan and Colonel Potter, who tend to represent ideas of patriotism and duty. Other characters like Col. Blake, Maj. Winchester, and Corp. Klinger, help demonstrate various American civilian attitudes towards army life, while guest characters such as Eldon Quick, Herb Voland, Mary Wickes, and Tim O'Connor also help further the show's discussion of America's place as Cold War war-maker and peace-maker.

Series creators Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds wanted M*A*S*H broadcast without a laugh track ("Just like the actual Korean War", Gelbart remarked dryly), but CBS rejected the idea. By season two, a compromise had been reached, whereby the producers were allowed to omit the laugh track during operating room scenes if they wished. As a result, few scenes in the operating room contain laughter. Certain episodes omitted the laugh track completely ("O.R.", "The Bus", "Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?", "The Interview", "Dreams", "Point of View", "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen") as did some international and syndicated airings of the show. The first five seasons of the series contained a noticeable laugh track, similar to other laugh-tracked sitcoms of the period, but by Season Six, newer, significantly quieter, laughs were recorded and employed. In the United Kingdom, where the show was broadcast by the BBC (and therefore also without advertising breaks), the laugh track was removed entirely from all episodes.

On all released DVDs, both in Region 2 (Europe, including the UK) and Region 1 (including the U.S. and Canada), there is an option to watch the show with or without the laugh track.

Syndicated broadcasts in the U.S. and UK today retain the original U.S. laugh track.

To quote Dr. Sidney Freedman, "Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice".

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa