M*A*S*H (US TV series)

***M\*A\*S\*H*** is a 1972–1983 American television series 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, which was produced with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS, follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea during the Korean War. The show's title sequence features an instrumental-only version of "Suicide Is Painless", the theme song from 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. The television series is the best-known version of the M\*A\*S\*H works, and one of the highest-rated shows in U.S. television history.

The series premiered in the U.S. on September 17, 1972 (May 20, 1973 in the UK), and ended on February 28, 1983, with the finale, showcased as a television film, titled "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", becoming the most-watched and highest-rated single 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. It had struggled in its first season and was at risk of being cancelled. Season two of M\*A\*S\*H placed it in a better time slot (airing after the popular All in the Family); the show became one of the top 10 programs of the year and stayed in the top 20 programs for the rest of its run. It is still broadcast in syndication on various television stations. The series, which depicted events occurring during a three-year war, spanned 256 episodes and lasted 11 seasons. The Korean War lasted 1,128 days, meaning each episode of the series would have averaged almost four and a half days of real time. Many of the stories in the early seasons are based on 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.

The series is usually categorized as a situation comedy, though it is also described as a "dark comedy" or a "dramedy" because of the dramatic subject material often presented.

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 (Alan Alda), Trapper John (Wayne Rogers), and B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell), for example  – who are forced to leave their homes to tend the wounded and dying of the war, and the "regular Army" characters, such as Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit) and Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan), who tend to represent ideas of patriotism and duty (though Houlihan and Potter could represent the other perspective at times, as well). Other characters, such as Col. Blake (McLean Stevenson), Maj. Winchester (David Ogden Stiers), and Cpl. Klinger (Jamie Farr), help demonstrate various American civilian attitudes toward army life, while guest characters played by such actors 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 warmaker and peacemaker.

While most of the characters from the movie carried over to the series, only four actors appeared in both: Gary Burghoff (Radar O'Reilly) and G. Wood (General Hammond) reprised their movie roles in the series, though Wood appeared in only three episodes. Timothy Brown (credited as "Tim Brown") played "Cpl. Judson" in the movie and "Spearchucker Jones" in the series. Corey Fischer played Capt. Bandini in the film and was the guitar-playing dentist "Cardozo" in the episode "Five O'Clock Charlie".

Other notable guest actors included Alda's father, Robert Alda, Ron Howard, Leslie Nielsen, Patrick Swayze, John Ritter, Laurence Fishburne, Pat Morita, Shelley Long, and Teri Garr.

#### Spin-offs

M\*A\*S\*H had two spin-off shows. The short-lived After MASH (1983–85) inherited the parent show's Monday night time slot and featured several of its characters reunited in a Midwestern hospital after the war. The more successful Trapper John, M.D. (1979–86) took place nearly three decades after the events of M\*A\*S\*H and depicted Trapper John McIntyre as chief of surgery at a San Francisco hospital. In an unpurchased television pilot, W\*A\*L\*T\*E\*R (1984), Walter "Radar" O’Reilly joins the St. Louis police force after his farm fails following his return to the U.S.

***Trapper John, M.D.*** is an American medical drama television series and spin-off of the film MASH (1970). Pernell Roberts portrayed the title character, a lovable surgeon who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979 to September 4, 1986. Roberts played the character more than twice as long as had Wayne Rogers (1972–75) on the TV series M\*A\*S\*H.

***After MASH*** is an American sitcom produced as a spin-off and continuation of M\*A\*S\*H that aired on CBS from September 26, 1983, to May 31, 1985. The series takes place immediately following the end of the Korean War and chronicles the adventures of three characters from the original series: Colonel Potter (played by Harry Morgan), Klinger (played by Jamie Farr) and Father Mulcahy (played by William Christopher). M\*A\*S\*H supporting cast-member Kellye Nakahara joined them, albeit off-camera, as the voice of the hospital's public address system. Rosalind Chao rounded out the starring cast as Soon-Lee Klinger, a Korean refugee whom Klinger met, fell in love with and married in the M\*A\*S\*H series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen."

***W\*A\*L\*T\*E\*R*** is a 1984 pilot episode for a spin-off of M\*A\*S\*H that was never picked up. It starred Gary Burghoff, who reprised his M\*A\*S\*H character. It was shown as a "CBS Special Presentation" on July 17, 1984.

The episode relates the adventures of Corporal Walter "Radar" O'Reilly after he returns home from the Korean War. He is no longer calling himself "Radar" and has moved away from Iowa after he sent his mother to live with his aunt. Settling in St. Louis, Missouri, by the beginning of the series he has become a police officer, though his character is still as in the original series.