M A S H by Anthony Lane Stahlhut

By Anthony Lane Stahlhut (Age: 47)
Copyright 02-02-2005

Picture Credits:

M A S H was a Robert Altman adaptation of a book written by Richard Hornberger. First released as a movie and later adapted for a TV series. The movie and the TV show, were based on a mobile army surgical hospital, during the Korean war. The movie was a comedy, but it had many serious situations. The doctors used humor to deal with the barbaric conditions and overwhelming pain and death they had to face each day. They called it meatball surgery because they only did enough to get the patient able to make the trip to the Seoul. The 4077th was the first in line for critical patients. In the movie Donald Southerland played the main character, Hawkeye Pierce, a surgeon with the 4077th MASH unit. His partner, Trapper John played by Elliot Gould, the head nurse, Hot Lips Houlihan, played by Sally Kellerman and the company clerk, Radar played by Gary Burghoff were a few of the more important characters. The movie focused on the daily problems concerning the arrival of wounded soldiers and the lives of the doctors and nurses.
When the TV series came out, the cast was not the same. Alan Alda had replaced Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce. Wayne Rogers was Trapper John and Loretta Switt was Hot Lips Houlihan. Gary Burghoff played Radar in both the movie and TV series. The TV show ran for 11 years and the cast members changed from time to time except for Hawkeye and Hot Lips. MASH was one of the greatest sit-coms (in my opinion), the series dealt with many controversial subjects. It also dealt with many of the problems that we all face in life with our work and relationships. Some shows would have you laugh one moment and cry the next. Much like real life, the shows would have you believe everything was ok and then look out. In one show, the Colonel was going home. The 4077th had a great party and an emotional good bye to Col. Blake. Later at the end of the show while the doctors were again in surgery, Radar came into the room with an urgent message. Colonel Blake’s plane had been shot down and had crashed, there were no survivors. This show ended in silence as the camera moved around the room from face to face showing the cast members crying. Each week the audience would live and breath the excitement of war on the front lines. We journeyed through the lives of the characters, we cried at the sorrow of death and pain endured and laughed at the doctors antics. When this showed ended, I cried. Thank God for reruns!

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03-10-2008 Eric Gasparich

I used to love M*A*S*H a great deal, a long time ago. I learned a good deal of biting wit from Hawkeye, BJ, and Winchester. It still has the best retort I’ve ever heard uttered on air. It came from, of all people, (early) Klinger: he and Sergeant Zale had been fighting off and on all through the episode, and finally Klinger tells Zale “If my dog had your face, I’d shave its butt and teach it to walk backward.”

But then, many years passed, and I started watching reruns. I find I’m not enamored as I once was for various reasons.

I once met a Vietnam era M*A*S*H surgeon. He didn’t really want to talk about his experiences. In fact, he was physically incapable of it. The Western Mind does so recoil from horror, much preferring it packaged and microwaveable in film. Sometime after that was when I started seeing reruns, and saw it in a bit different light.

For one thing, I realized that Hawkeye and Trapper really had no use for anyone who didn’t think exactly the way they did. At least Frank Burns was an honest bigot.

For another, I had come to find plot driven stories far superior to character driven stories. M*A*S*H is as good a marker as any for that time period in American TV where series got away from plot driven stories and went into the soggy narcissism of the character based stuff. Somewhere around the fourth and fifth seasons of M*A*S*H is where that happened. I now find that some of my most favorite episodes at that time are now the most unbearable to watch now. In that regard, recent series like CSI and Law & Order were a welcome innovation: they were a return to plot driven stories.

M*A*S*H is considered one of the greatest. Jump the Shark.com has it as one of it “Never Jumped” but myself, I can hardly stand to watch any episode from the sixth season on. Thus do our idols crumble, I suppose.

01-16-2008 Jordan Screws

Ah, M*A*S*H. I love that show… I started watching reruns of it when I was 19. I loved how all the characters interacted to try and bring some humor to an ordinarily grim business: treating the wounded and sick of the Korean War. Yes, there was military discipline and a military background, but the show did a masterful job of portraying ordinary men and women doing an unwanted job while retaining their humanity. Such a combination of comedy and seriousness is delicate, but M*A*S*H managed to reach it and maintain it throughout its run. It did become somewhat “preachy” near the end, but it highlights the fact that no matter how much humor people try to bring into it, war is no laughing matter. I would say that M*A*S*H is by far the best “oldies” show I have seen.

Major Charles Emerson Winchester was particularly amusing: an elitist trying to adapt to having to work with “commoners” while keeping up appearances of wealth. He could be annoying and oppressing, but even he could show kindness at times. I also liked Colonel Potter: he reminds me of an uncle I have as far as the white hair and no-nonsense attitude goes. Thanks for bringing back memories.

06-14-2005 Andrew Findlay

I’m sorry I never commented on this before now considering it was the winning entry in one of my contests. Unfortunately the day I judged the contest was the same day I was having my internet disconnected, so I was under a little time pressure.
Yes, Mash was a great tv show and I sometimes watch reruns of it on tv. Even though it was a comedy, it really did deal with many serious issues of the war. This was a really good summary of the show and I think anyone reading it might start to watch the show if they haven’t already.
Another good war drama I really liked was ‘Tour of Duty’ which dealt with the Vietnam war.

04-21-2005 Brian Dickenson

Well Anthony there is not much left to be said about your article. Except of course to say that I found it very well done.
I was a great fan of the program when it showed here in the UK, as were millions of other viewers.
I remember Korea well.
I must say that although I thought the film version was good, I thought the TV series to be far better.
One thing that puzzles me is the photograph you have used. It does not look like the Korean conflict.
Maybe it’s just my memory.
Brian.

03-20-2005 Gregory Christiano

Another comprehensive and entertaining review of a great TV series and movie. Nice job Anthony

03-19-2005 Anthony Lane Stahlhut

Sorry, no clean socks!

03-18-2005 Christopher Carlson

Well Pops! Could it be in coincidence or in the blood that my favorite sitcom is MASH?

Great write!

You just forgot one thing:

I will have an extra dry martini filtered through a clean army issue sock please. Oh, with two olives if there are any left from that last care package.

02-13-2005 Jenna T.

Excellent!!! My “old Stuff” contest ended days ago, and I kept it there just in case anyone ever wanted to enter it later. I thank you for entering it, I enjoyed this piece very much! A HUGE chance you will be declared the winner; I changed the date of my contest ending just in case anyone else wanted to enter. EXCELLENT JOB!

02-12-2005 Buddy Ales

Wow! An excellent and informational write, Anthony! I myself have watched the series from time to time, reruns of course, but have never known about this information before now.
The only problem I see is a grammatical error or two, just one or two.

~Buddy~

02-07-2005 James Shammas

When I was Pre-Med in college and realized I would become a simple human being taking care of other human beings, MASH became my favorite sitcom. I have yet to see a more natural and harmonious integration of comedy and trajedy in a work of art or film. It really was a metaphor for life, which all great art must be (including poetry), in my opinion. The fact that the series ran three times as long as the war it depicted, is a testament to its greatness.
Nice tribute!

Jim

02-03-2005 Gregory Christiano

Yes, Anthony, this was an excellent series about a forgotten war. The cast was superb and the stories relevant. You’ve given a nice synopsis of the program.

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