Innovative 'M*A*S*H' Brought On Many Changes to Television

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LOS ANGELES — Beer. Banter. Belly laughs.

Substitute tent-made martinis and it could have been the 4077th as 10 M*A*S*H veterans sit for an interview — and a round of drinks — after being honored at the seventh annual TV Land Awards (Sunday, 8 ET/PT).

The post-show chat matches the dark comedy, with flashes of comic repartee accenting thoughtful reflection on a groundbreaking series that boasts a record 105 million viewers for its 1983 finale, a number likely never to be matched by series TV.

Seated at three round tables are producers Larry Gelbart and Burt Metcalfe and stars Alan Alda (Hawkeye Pierce), Loretta Swit (Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan), William Christopher (Father Mulcahy), Kellye Nakahara (Lt. Kellye Yamato), Jeff Maxwell (Pvt. Igor Straminsky) and Alan Arbus (Maj. Sidney Freedman).

Also in attendance are Hawkeye's consecutive partners in crime: Wayne Rogers (Trapper John) and "my friend here on my left," Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicutt).


"Always on your left," says Farrell, long a political activist.

Gelbart doesn't hesitate when asked about the TV influence of the goings-on at a Korean War surgical unit: "Everywhere," as raucous laughter from his colleagues follows.

The documentary style of "The Interview," a favorite of those assembled, is echoed in a recent ER episode. An episode of House followed the action from a patient's perspective, as an earlier M*A*S*H offering did.

M*A*S*H integrated irreverent humor and bloody trauma; the writers got many of their ideas from Korean War surgeons. Writers and producers had to battle network censors along the way.

In 1972's pilot episode, Alda remembers having to substitute red lights for blood and, later that season, being unable to use the word "virgin."

"It wasn't even a reference to sex. Radar (Gary Burghoff) said, 'I'm a virgin at that,' meaning I've never done that, and they said, 'You can't say that,' " he says. "The next week, Larry had dialogue where I'm talking to a soldier and I say, 'Where you from, son?' He says, 'The Virgin Islands, sir.' "

(Burghoff couldn't make it, Gelbart says, and Jamie Farr, who was Cpl. Klinger, is doing a play. Neither Harry Morgan, who played Col. Potter, nor David Ogden Stiers, who was Maj. Winchester, were present, either.)

Becoming a top-10 hit after a so-so ratings start gave the writers more leeway. "The first year, we wanted to say circumcision, and the network said no. In the fourth year, we did a circumcision," Gelbart says.

The characters' comic sensibilities reflected the other side of the dramatic coin, an effort to stay sane in insane circumstances, Rogers says. (When accepting the Impact Award, they asked viewers to support real veterans when they return from war.)

Over M*A*S*H's 11-season CBS run — more than three times longer than the actual war — the show "made the choice to go inside the characters and relationships more, so it was not just about the high jinks," Farrell says.

It was a matter of practicality, too, Metcalfe adds. "You can only say, 'Klinger, take off that dress' ..."

"... 112 times," Alda finishes.

The show also assumed a more serious tone. "The longer the war or the series went on, the more affected these characters were by it. It made Hawkeye go crazy," Swit says. The innocent Radar "had to grow up because of the circumstances."

"And because he was 60," Farrell says, referring to the show's longevity.

Gelbart notes that war is an ever-relevant topic, although it helps to have the distance M*A*S*H had in presenting a conflict from 20 years earlier. "It was continually referencing the history of that period, using baseball, the Murrow show, things that really happened," Christopher says.

It timed well, however, with the later years of the Vietnam War, they say. "It was about Korea, but I know Larry saw resonance," Alda says.

The Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts may be too close, Gelbart says, noting the Iraq war drama Over There didn't catch on with viewers.

He refers to M*A*S*H as "pro-peace" rather than "anti-war," a label often attached to it, and Alda disputes any impression that the show got on a soapbox to express a point of view.

"What made the show what it was was to see the lives of people going through the stress of the war and the carnage. How did it affect them as people?" Alda says. "We weren't making speeches about war. We were, for the first time on TV in a comedy show, taking it seriously."