What was the timeline for the M*A*S*H series. I believe the producers said something like the first three seasons were actually six months. Or something like that. Does anyone know any of what I'm trying to talk about?

There are varying opinions about what exactly the timeline is, but I would say the first three seasons were a year, and the final eight took place over a two year period.

At the begiining of season four Hawkeye mentions that Trapper John (who had just left) was his best friend for a year.

In the final episode when Margaret sends a telegram to a hospital recommending Charles for a job, she mentions that she has known him for two years.

There are a few more examples that give some clues about the timeline in various episodes, but these are the first I can think of. My head isn't working too well today. I gotta get off the sauce.

;)

Originally posted by TVAdam
What was the timeline for the M*A*S*H series. I believe the producers said something like the first three seasons were actually six months. Or something like that. Does anyone know any of what I'm trying to talk about?

It seems in general they follow a timeline, but after Col. Potter arrived, they took several liberties with dates. For instance, he was introduced as having joined the 4077th in Sept 1952, but there are episodes involving him that pre-date this time.

One is the episode that takes place over the course of a year and Col. Potter bookends the episode playing Father Time as 1951 in the beg. & 1952 at the end....."May the new year be a damn sight better than the last one, and may we all be home before she ends!"....or something like that. The focus of the episode is the gang buying stuff from a Sears catalogue.

Another show has Col. Potter judging the 4077th Olympics, coinciding with the Helsinki, Finland Summer Games of 1952. When Potter arrived in 9/52 Frank & Hot Lips were still an item. She went on to meet, court, marry & honeymoon with Donald Panobscott in subsequent episodes. In this Olympic episode which has to be the summer of 1952, they had already been married and were going on leave together, hoping to win the MASH Olympics to earn extra leave time.

Timeline doesn't jive, but great storylines! I think that was all they were concerned with in general.

I read that the show had no specific timeline. For instance in the episode "Peace on us"-the one that goes from New Years of 1951 to New years of 1952, they don't even mention Col. Blake, Trapper & Frank Burns, and the show started in Sep. of 1951!


Some people don't like this one because they just ignore Col. Blake, Trapper, Frank Burns, Ho-Jon, and all the rest.

Originally posted by TJL


In the final episode when Margaret sends a telegram to a hospital recommending Charles for a job, she mentions that she has known him for two years.

;)

I wouldn't put too much into the number of years quoted on the show. Remember, the actual Korean conflict didn't last as long as the show did, so I'm sure they crunched the numbers a bit to give them some credibility.

:wave:

Let me see.

1950
Hawkeye Pierce
Trapper John
Henry Blake
Margaret Houlihan
Frank Burns
Radar O'Reilly
Father Mulcahy
Cpl. Klinger

1951 (First Part of the year)
Hawkeye Pierce
B.J. Hunnicutt
Sherman Potter
Margaret Houlihan
Frank Burns
Radar O'Reilly
Father Mulcahy
Cpl. Klinger

1951 (Second Part of the year)
Hawkeye Pierce
B.J. Hunnicutt
Sherman Potter
Margaret Houlihan
Charles Winchester
Radar O'Reilly
Father Mulcahy
Klinger

1952
Hawkeye Pierce
B.J. Hunnicutt
Sherman Potter
Margaret Houlihan
Charles Winchester
Father Mulcahy
Klinger

The Pilot episode said Korea, 1950. And in Henry's final episode, Radar's gift had the inscription "Korea, 1952" on it. So that was just wrong. Plus, it does seem like they treat the first three seasons as one year. Margaret was wrong when she said she knew Winchester for 2 years. She only knew him for a year and a half. It just seemed like two years. Also, B.J.'s daughter was turning 2 in the final episode. And she had been mentioned since his debut.

Also, a sad note. In a season one episode, Henry's wife gave birth to a son. Since he never made it home, Henry's son never met his dad. And Henry never met his son.

TV Adam, I thought BJ mentioned his daughter quite a bit throughout the eight years we saw him on the series.

And in a Trapper John ep they mentioned A Captain(?) Forrest who'd been at the 4077th TWO years earlier. So I got the feeling it was at least 1952 in that ep (as the Korean War began in '50).

I was going to ask a similar question. Watching the episodes on TV Land over the last few weeks, I noticed that BJ came in 1952. But in a New Year's episode with Potter & Winchester, it was earlier (probably was "Peace on Us" - but I thought the new year was 1951).

This thread answers my questions.

I was going to ask a similar question. Watching the episodes on TV Land over the last few weeks, I noticed that BJ came in 1952. But in a New Year's episode with Potter & Winchester, it was earlier (probably was "Peace on Us" - but I thought the new year was 1951).

This thread answers my questions.

Yeah...trying to figure out the timeline just doesn't work lol! My guess is the producers never expected it to last as long as it did, so they initially weren't concerned with the timeline, but as the show started lasting longer, they had to try to set a time. Oh well! Still a great show lol!

Yeah...trying to figure out the timeline just doesn't work lol! My guess is the producers never expected it to last as long as it did, so they initially weren't concerned with the timeline, but as the show started lasting longer, they had to try to set a time. Oh well! Still a great show lol!

:yeahthat

Col. Blake-"Radar tell me, do you honestly understand any of this"?

Radar-"I used to think about it, but it was keeping me up nights".

At least we didn't discover that seasons 4 through 11 were some awful nightmare that Henry Blake had while he was lying in a coma recovering from the plane crash! :D (Although that would have been an interesting way to end the show...)

At least we didn't discover that seasons 4 through 11 were some awful nightmare that Henry Blake had while he was lying in a coma recovering from the plane crash! :D (Although that would have been an interesting way to end the show...)

Good point!

Good point!

At the risk of stating the obvious - why should the years work, unless someone knew when the series started that it would run for 11 years? They aren't trying to produce a history of the Korean War after all.

They made very few references to dates in the series - I would think for this reason.

Let me see.

1950
Hawkeye Pierce
Trapper John
Henry Blake
Margaret Houlihan
Frank Burns
Radar O'Reilly
Father Mulcahy
Cpl. Klinger

1951 (First Part of the year)
Hawkeye Pierce
B.J. Hunnicutt
Sherman Potter
Margaret Houlihan
Frank Burns
Radar O'Reilly
Father Mulcahy
Cpl. Klinger

1951 (Second Part of the year)
Hawkeye Pierce
B.J. Hunnicutt
Sherman Potter
Margaret Houlihan
Charles Winchester
Radar O'Reilly
Father Mulcahy
Klinger

1952
Hawkeye Pierce
B.J. Hunnicutt
Sherman Potter
Margaret Houlihan
Charles Winchester
Father Mulcahy
Klinger

The Pilot episode said Korea, 1950. And in Henry's final episode, Radar's gift had the inscription "Korea, 1952" on it. So that was just wrong. Plus, it does seem like they treat the first three seasons as one year. Margaret was wrong when she said she knew Winchester for 2 years. She only knew him for a year and a half. It just seemed like two years. Also, B.J.'s daughter was turning 2 in the final episode. And she had been mentioned since his debut.

Also, a sad note. In a season one episode, Henry's wife gave birth to a son. Since he never made it home, Henry's son never met his dad. And Henry never met his son.


In Radar's Report, year 2, he plainly says it's 1951, so this timeline doesn't work either....

Oh well :)

In Radar's Report, year 2, he plainly says it's 1951, so this timeline doesn't work either....

Oh well :)

Well in Blake's final episode, Radar states that it's 1952. And then in a Potter-BJ-Winchester episode, it's New Years 1950 becoming 1951. So they were all screwed up with the years. I was just trying to compact the cast changes into a three year timeframe, even if the dates were incorrect.

Ah! I see! It'd be nice if they could all neatly fit in....the dates are pretty much the only thing wrong with the show in my world lol...but, c'est la vie I guess :)