Just curious if a spinoff was always planned by CBS or did MASH's monumental finale ratings cause execs not to end the party?

The way I understand it the cast of M*A*S*H took a vote to see who wanted to continue the series and who wanted to call it quits. The only ones who voted to continue were Harry Morgan, William Christopher, and Jamie Farr. Obviously it wasn't possible to continue the series with only 3 main characters remaining so the comprimise was to create the spinoff series AfterMash to allow these 3 actors to continue on playing their characters while creating a situation where the absence of the other characters could easily be explained and dealt with.

If I remember correctly, Jamie Farr was the most vocal as far as wanting to continue with his character. It might have been more of a plea rather than having much to do with ratings of the finale, or at least that's how I recall things going down.

....so the comprimise was to create the spinoff series AfterMash to allow these 3 actors to continue on playing their characters while creating a situation where the absence of the other characters could easily be explained and dealt with.

Kind of the same way "The Golden Palace" was after "The Golden Girls."

...because CBS didn't want to lose the momentum (or ratings) the original series had on Monday nights from 1978 through '83. Even though the network had "solid" nights of programming {Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday}, who could forget such new series that fall as "EMERALD POINT N.A.S."? "WHIZ KIDS"? Or "CUTTER TO HOUTON"? They were hour-long dramas that disappeared by mid-season, or the end of it. "AfterMASH" was the network's ONLY new comedy series introduced that season, and was supposed to be what "ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE" had been to "ALL IN THE FAMILY"- a successful "spin-off". It wasn't. Even though it was 10th in the Nielsen ratings that season, there was something about it that caused more viewers to switch channels. That's why CBS moved it to their equivalent of "Death Valley": Tuesdays at 8pm(et) for the fall of '84. They KNEW it wasn't going to last a full second season, and "killed" it at mid-season, with a few episodes eventually "burned off" in May 1985.

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