MAS*H

TV Series
1972–1983
TV-PG
25m

IMDb RATING

8.5/10

65K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

306

Alan Alda, David Ogden Stiers, Gary Burghoff, William Christopher, Jamie Farr, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, and Loretta Swit in M*A*S*H (1972)

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Medical Drama Satire Sitcom Comedy Drama War

The staff of an Army hospital in the Korean War find that laughter is the best way to deal with their situation.The staff of an Army hospital in the Korean War find that laughter is the best way to deal with their situation.The staff of an Army hospital in the Korean War find that laughter is the best way to deal with their situation.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.5/10

65K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

306

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 14 Primetime Emmys
- 64 wins & 153 nominations total

Episodes251

Browse episodes

TopTop-rated11 seasons12 years

Trivia
William Christopher contracted an almost fatal case of hepatitis at the start of the fifth season, resulting in his having to miss several episodes. As a result, producers were planning to write Father Mulcahy out of the show. However, Alan Alda pushed to keep him on the series, knowing how dependent Christopher was on needing steady work to help raise his autistic son. Alda went as far as writing an episode to incorporate Christopher's real-life illness into Mulcahy, helping to convince producers to keep him on the show.

Goofs
Throughout the series, Douglas MacArthur is referred to as though he is still in command of the UN forces in Korea. MacArthur was relieved of command by President Truman about ten months into the war: April 11, 1951 to be exact. However, the references are often due to MacArthur's influence in military strategy, and dates don't always line up in the series.

Quotes
Hawkeye: War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

Crazy credits
In the closing credits of the episode "Tuttle", "Captain Tuttle" is listed as playing "Himself".

Alternate versions
Some TV networks aired the show with the laugh track turned on and some with it turned off. The final show however 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen' was never supplied with a laugh track as it was thought inappropriate for the story-line.

Connections
Edited into Making 'M*A*S*H' (1981)

User reviews203

Review

Featured review

9/10

Korea. Vietnam. Iraq. It's still funny.

I've read several recent (2019) reviews of MASH here on IMDB. Many of them take a political slant, calling the show "anti-war", "left-wing", or (and this is my favorite) an "Evil Mockery of all good things and American Values". Frankly, every word of those comments is partisan hooey, colored by the divisive political landscape we live in at present.

I'm a 19 year, career military member and am currently deployed to Iraq. I just watched the entire-run of this show at a rate of 2 episodes per night and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can want some of the topics it presents to be political, but they're not. The overwhelming majority of them are simply the musings of people who seem to have an incisive and witty understanding of what it means to be deployed far away from home.

Those insights are what keep the show watchable. Being critical of war doesn't make the show liberal. It makes it rationale. Broaching progressive subjects doesn't make it left-wing. It bases it in reality. Arguing that war should be the absolute last means of persuasion doesn't make it a mockery of American values. It makes it a commentary on what those American values have historically been.

The years have been rough on MASH insomuch as portrayals of sexism and alcoholism are concerned. Outside of that, the show holds up as a commentary on war at large-be it in Korea, Vietnam, or Iraq. Simply put, it's still funny.