Mash how long did it run

This unique episode, thought to be the best of the entire series, is almost entirely devoid of comedic elements and did not even contain a laugh track. The show survived many changes in its cast of characters.

Of all the starring characters, only Hawkeye the Chief Surgeon , Major Houlihan the Head Nurse , Klinger a cross-dressing corpsman , and Father Mulcahy the Chaplain were in the show for its entire run. Klinger and Mulcahy, were, in fact guest stars for the first few seasons of the show and only elevated to the main cast later. Henry Blake, the commander of the th, buffoonish as a military superior but a skilled surgeon nonetheless, left when the actor who play him, McLean Stevenson, decided to leave for career advancement reasons.

In the final episode of Season 3, "Abyssinia, Henry" , Henry Blake had accumulated enough points to be granted a discharge and was given a fond farewell by the rest of the unit but in the dramatic last scene, it was reported that his plane had been shot down over the Sea of Japan and he was killed.

None of the cast with the exception of Alda, who wrote the scene knew about that development until a few minutes before Burghoff was told to go in and have Radar report that Blake had died. Up until then, as far as anyone knew, they were going to get a message that Blake had arrived safely home.

This development garnered a barrage of angry mail from fans. Stevenson died in February of cardiac arrest. Trapper John McIntyre, another surgeon, was also written out when actor Wayne Rogers decided to leave the series after the end of Season 3 due to disagreements about his character.

He felt that his character was never given any real importance, that all the focus was on Alda's character. Rogers has also mentioned that he was told to sign a "morals clause" on his contract renewal, which he refused to do. Season 4 was thus in many ways a turning point for the entire series. At the beginning of the fourth season, Hawkeye was informed by Radar that Trapper had been discharged while Hawkeye was on leave, and audiences did not see Trapper's departure.

At the same time, Colonel Sherman T. Potter played by Harry Morgan was assigned to the unit as commanding officer, replacing Blake, while B. Hunnicutt played by Mike Farrell was drafted in as Trapper's replacement. The series, while still having an element of comedy, gradually became more emotionally rounded.

Major Houlihan's role continued to evolve during this time; she became much more friendly towards Hawkeye and B. She later married an infantry officer based in Tokyo, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscott "I could never love anyone who didn't outrank me" , but the union did not last for long. The "Hot Lips" nickname was rarely used to describe her after about the mid-way point in the series. However, Swit did originate the Cagney role in the made-for-TV movie which served as the pilot. Larry Linville who played the officious and bureaucratic surgeon Major Frank Burns was frustrated with the lack of development of his character, and decided to leave at the end of Season 5.

During the first episode of Season 6, Frank Burns had suffered a breakdown after Margaret's marriage to Donald Penobscott and was transferred stateside with a promotion, all off-camera. Major Charles Emerson Winchester III David Ogden Stiers was brought in as an antagonist of sorts to the other surgeons, but his relationships with them was not as acrimonious, although he was a more able foil. Unlike Frank, Winchester did not really care for the Army and was a very highly skilled surgeon whom the others respected professionally.

At the same time, as a Boston "blueblood", he was also snobbish, which drove much of his conflict with the other characters. Still, the show's writers would allow Winchester's humanity to shine through such as in his dealings with a young piano player who had partially lost the use of his right hand, or his keeping a vigil with Hawkeye when Hawkeye's father went into surgery 8, miles away, or his continuing of a family tradition of anonymously giving Christmas treats to an orphanage.

Wood as "General Hammond". Like in the film, Radar had an extraordinary ability to detect the arrival of choppers transporting wounded long before anyone else and appeared to have a knack for premonitions. He could usually anticipate orders well enough to recite along as they were given, and kept the business end of the th running extraordinarily smoothly. Burghoff left the series in , and rather than adding a new character to replace him, the company clerk role was taken up by Jamie Farr as Corporal later Sergeant Klinger, whose antics never got him the discharge he wanted.

Radar's departure meant Klinger's and Farr's role was expanded, his attempts at being discharged were downplayed, and he almost never wore women's clothing anymore. Klinger even shaped up well enough to get a promotion, and the camp counted on him as a "scrounger", who could obtain nearly anything.

Main article: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen. By Season 10, although still doing very well, the producers, writers and cast were feeling that they were running out of good stories to tell.

Harry Morgan , who played Colonel Potter, admitted in an interview that he felt "the cracks were starting to show" by Season 9. The cast voted by a majority to end the series following the Season 10, but CBS and 20th Century Fox offered the actors a shortened eleventh season, permitting an opportunity for the show to have a grand finale. So towards the end of Season 10, the producers and writers began work on the finale, a production effort which just grew and grew.

The finale, which first aired on CBS on February 28, , was written by a large number of collaborators, including series star Alan Alda, who also directed.

The episode drew The episode's plot chronicles the final days of the Korean War at the th MASH and features several storylines intended to show the war's effects on the individual personnel of the unit, and to bring closure to the series. After the cease-fire goes into effect, the members of the th throw a closing party before taking down the camp for the last time. After tear-filled goodbyes, the main characters go their separate ways, leading up to the iconic final scene of the series.

The last episode to be produced was actually "As Time Goes By". In the process, they also decide to bury any past enmities they may have had. The filming day of filming for that episode was a major event and extensively covered on media. He was full of interest in me, wanting me to know his love for the show, his intentions and concerns.

It was one of the more extraordinary moments in my wonderful career. Swit: The first day we met, I can still visualize the room. I see where everyone was sitting. It was an important moment in my life. We were all on the same page about what we were going to say. Alda: Most of the time actors disperse and go to their dressing rooms between shots. We sat around in a circle of chairs making fun of one another, having fun. I brought my mother from Hawaii to visit the set.

Larry took her to lunch at the commissary. Swit: [Linville] was a riot. Ten times out of 10 the directors were thrilled. The writers worked in a building originally built as a schoolhouse for Shirley Temple.

Metcalfe: You can have the greatest writers in the world, like we did, and never come up with some of the rich ideas we put on film. Dishell: We drove out to the L. We ended up doing a story about the receiving a shipment of eggs, which no one had eaten for months.

Wilcox: A surgeon from the , Maurice Connolly, told us about a North Korean soldier brought in for surgery. He takes a hand grenade out and pulls the pin. Everyone not doing surgery in the OR got down on their hands and knees until they found the pin and put it back in. We used that. We were that tuned in to what their experiences were. In addition to the transcripts, writers went searching elsewhere for ideas.

One of his customers was Danny Thomas, who was American Lebanese. Harry tells Danny his son wants to be a writer. Larry never forgot that. Klinger became Lebanese because of Danny Thomas. We found it looked dull when the camera was talking.

That was perfect. Elias: Dave and I won a Humanitas Award for an episode about a soldier accompanying his wounded buddy to the It was based on a real story of a manager tagging along with a big star for an ophthalmologist appointment. While there, the ophthalmologist asked the manager if he wanted his eyes checked, too. The manager agreed and the ophthalmologist discovered he had cancer. Alda: I was always thinking in terms of writing.

I gave Larry a few scenes that I thought might work. My first script borrowed the idea from the play La Ronde , circling around, using a pair of long johns that went from one person to another.

Farrell: I came up with an idea once and asked Burt what he thought of it. OK, let me take a shot at it. They encouraged without dragooning anybody. Alda: I wrote an episode where Margaret sees a jockstrap on the table and starts going nuts. Hawkeye had walked through a clothesline and had them slapping him in the face. Is there something holy about the male genitalia?

They never gave a reason why. They just stuck to it. The next year, we had a similar moment and the same thing happens. The actors gained ownership by participating in table reads and contributing ideas. Farrell: Gene would take us through the script, page by page, to see if anyone had any questions or suggestions. I thought, these people want to hear from the actors about the script?

Swit: I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Margaret and Frank. She was a bright, ambitious and talented nurse. He also stabbed me with a scalpel in the OR. Burghoff: Larry and I worked out how to make Radar innocent in contrast to the sophisticated doctors. That innocence became a special kind of sounding board for the insanity and horror of war. They agreed with me. Pollock: This surgeon told us a story about a field commander with a high casualty rate visiting their MASH unit.

The doctors put a Mickey in his food, told him he had appendicitis and then operated on him to keep him from the front. Mike had a problem with doing that. Farrell: I said B. We debated over it a long time. Metcalfe: Mike expressed some very good points. We decided B. Hawkeye ended up doing the operation alone. Isaacs: Ken and I rewrote it with Alan. We ended the show with Radar telling them there are choppers with more wounded on their way in.

In other words, Hawkeye accomplished nothing. A few shows in particular stand out with cast members for what they represent, the envelopes they pushed and the emotions that surfaced from cast and audience.

At the end of season four, CBS asked for a last-minute additional episode. Burghoff: Larry knew at that point that no one knew the characters better than the actors playing them. It was a supremely divine matter of artistic trust. To my way of thinking, that episode should be in a museum. Farrell: I remember thinking how flattering that these geniuses wanted us to contribute our own take on who these people were.

It was typical of these wonderful people to try and figure out how to do something unusual, new and exciting. Alda: We were given recorders and a list of questions. Larry took the best of that and punched it up with better lines.

Some of the best stuff came out that way. How could anybody look upon that and not feel changed? Blake gets discharged and plans for his return home. He was such a tenderhearted, kind man. Farr: I heard NBC was trying to sabotage our show. Mac was a guest host on The Tonight Show and they were teasing him with the idea that he could be the replacement for Johnny Carson.

Reynolds: He had people telling him he could be a star. Some of the stuff put forward was quite exaggerated, outrageous promises that people were in no position to fulfill. Metcalfe: We thought he was making a mistake. The chemistry of a character, a performance — all fellow actors contribute to that success. Reynolds: Burt, Larry and I talked it over.

We all lamented that death on the show was as impersonal as it was on the news. We thought everyone should feel a personal loss. What happened next surprised cast members and audiences alike, redefining loss on television.

Metcalfe: We said we have one more scene to shoot. Everyone got a manila envelope with a page inside. Linville [who played Maj. That was gracious. Of course, Mac was as torn apart as we all were.

His character dies and he was that character. Swit: We all fell apart. Henry was Mac and Mac was Henry. You could hear the sobs. It just devastated us. Metcalfe: We got so much mail. Some people thought it was great and others were very upset. That was the response we were hoping for. Burghoff: Gene and Larry made the right call. An operation is performed on a wounded soldier at the th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, twenty miles from the front lines of the Korean War on August 4, Credit: Corbis via Getty Images.

It is thought that Hornberger was the first to flout those rules—and scenes in his bestselling book back up the theory. When word got to other MASH units, doctors started doing arterial repairs there, too, and after the Korean War ended in , doctors who dared to do the surgery helped further medical knowledge about how to repair human arteries and other blood vessels.

As for Hornberger, who went on to work in at the VA and in private practice, he dealt with the trauma he experienced during the Korean War by writing about it. It was the perfect moment for a novel about war: the Vietnam War was looking more and more intractable and Americans longed for a lighter take on war. The book was adapted to a hit movie and then a TV show that helped capture life in the unit.

Like the books he wrote, it included a strong-willed head nurse, a Korean teenager whom the doctors sent to the United States for college on their own dime, and a doctor who dressed in drag at least once. And it helped capture the sarcasm and heart of Hornberger himself through Hawkeye Pierce, whose sarcasm and heart helped his friends and patients sustain operating conditions that were primitive and, often, nearly hopeless.

The show helped the public deal with the emotional toll of Vietnam, and illustrated the harsh conditions of both conflicts for future generations. Eventually, viewers came to see the show as a kind of allegory for the Vietnam War. He hated the anti-war sentiments ascribed to him by the public.