'M*A*S*H' went gunning for laughs with a serious theme

[Brian Damage]

What's the most-watched episode of a TV program ever?

Here's a hint: The series celebrated the 25th anniversary of its final episode last month and still airs on channels such as TV Land. Final clue: It featured a character called Radar.

The answer for just about anybody over 40, and a lot of even younger viewers, is "M*A*S*H."

The comedy/drama had its debut in 1972 and closed out on Feb. 28, 1983, with an average of more than 106 million people watching that finale. The last episode still ranks as the No. 1 program in TV history, including Super Bowls.

Of course, most people could only get three or four channels back then. "M*A*S*H" probably couldn't drum up that kind of audience today with hundreds of channels to choose from.



Or maybe it could.

"M*A*S*H" started out as a sitcom, and the early chapters were the funniest by far. The show initially stayed away from the controversial dramatic plots that developed in later years when it almost bordered on being preachy sometimes.

The series was based on the best-selling novel and movie about the Korean War, but that war soon became a stand-in for the war in Vietnam.

The strongest anti-war scripts arrived long after the United States had left Korea. But the protest against the Vietnam War was still at a fever pitch when "M*A*S*H" first appeared, and not just with college kids and war protesters but with a majority of people who wanted the fighting to end and the soldiers to come home.

If the polls are right, that's the same way most people feel today about the war in Iraq. But there's nothing even remotely like "M*A*S*H" on television today.

Some critics say that's because Vietnam was a much larger involvement of American forces with a lot more casualties. Young men were drafted to fight there against their will as opposed to the volunteer army that's in Iraq now. There also seemed to be more bitterness and anger about Vietnam.

But that still doesn't answer why there's nothing like "M*A*S*H" on television today. Maybe it's because the TV networks were much braver in the '70s.

Besides "M*A*S*H," programs such as "All in the Family" were using humor to explore all kinds of social controversies and uttering politically incorrect words and phrases you couldn't probably get on network television today. Shows such as "Maude" took on abortion and were in men's faces about equal rights.

Where are those kinds of shows now? They're not even on cable, unless you count programs such as "The Daily Show." Instead, the comedies we see are mostly about romantic relationships. Nobody watching them would even know there was a war on or that the nation was deeply divided over many issues.

That's just the point. The networks don't want to bother viewers who tune in to escape everyday life with anything heavy. Not only that but inserting stuff about Iraq dates the show and is bad for selling reruns. Of course, that begs the question of why people still watch repeats of "M*A*S*H" more than a generation after it came on the air.

Perhaps because the show had little to do with war in many people's minds. "M*A*S*H" offered a truckload of laughs with the shenanigans of Hawkeye, Trapper John, Radar, Klinger and especially Frank Burns and Hot Lips Houlihan. The show had a great cast and terrific writers.

But it also went straight for the gut when it approached war and dying and made no apologies for doing that. Comedy is in such a sorry state now that no one would even think of proposing something like "M*A*S*H."

"M*A*S*H" took refuge under the cover of the Korean War. Nobody could do anything similar using the camouflage of Vietnam because the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq are too eerie.

And now people don't even have Iraq at the top of their most-important lists since the economy has taken a hit, although many observers think it will still be a major issue later on. But even if it is, there won't be any 2008 versions of "M*A*S*H" because television has changed too.

It may have been easier for CBS to break from the pack and take chances when there were only three networks. Today the media business is much more competitive, and the tendency is to play it safe.

The result is we get one silly, stupid sitcom after another that are doomed to failure because there is nothing memorable, much less meaningful, about them. "M*A*S*H" proved you could laugh and cry about serious things in life. It deserved that audience record it set.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/...TS15/803120999

[Mikado]

Yes, we could sure use a new M*A*S*H today!

[Miss Lisa]

That's true. Shows back then weren't afraid to cover things that were controversial, and why should they? The things they cover, like abortion, are things that realy do happen in real life. The problem today is that every one is afraid of offending some one else. People seemed to handle that much better. All in the Family for example. Archie Bunker, in my opinion, is one of the funniest characters on TV, but no one would be brave enough to have a character like that on a TV show.