M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H (an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American war comedy drama television series that aired on CBS from September 17, 1972, to February 28, 1983. It was developed by Larry Gelbart as the first original spin-off series adapted from the 1970 feature film M*A*S*H, which, in turn, was based on Richard Hooker's 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The series, produced by 20th Century Fox Television for CBS, follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War (1950–53).
| Also known as |
 also known as
|
||
| Genre | |||
| Created by |
created by
|
||
| Based on | MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors (1968 novel)
by Richard Hooker and M*A*S*H, (1970 film) directed by Robert Altman |
||
| Developed by | |||
| Written by |
written by
|
||
| Screenplay by |
screenplay by
|
||
| Story by |
story by
|
||
| Directed by |
directed by
|
||
| Creative director |
creative director
|
||
| Presented by |
presented by
|
||
| Starring | |||
| Judges |
judges
|
||
| Voices of |
voices of
|
||
| Narrated by |
narrated by
|
||
| Music by |
music by
|
||
| Theme music composer | |||
| Opening theme | "Suicide Is Painless" (Instrumental)
|
||
| Ending theme | "Suicide Is Painless" (Big Band Version)
|
||
| Composer |
composer
|
||
| Country of origin | |||
| Original language | English
|
||
| No. of seasons | 11
|
||
| No. of episodes | 256 (list of episodes)
|
PRODUCTION
| Executive producer |
|
||
| Producer |
producer
|
||
| News editor |
news editor
|
||
| Production location | |||
| Cinematography |
cinematography
|
||
| Animator |
animator
|
||
| Editor |
editor
|
||
| Camera setup | |||
| Running time | 30 minutes; except "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" (2 hours)
|
||
| Production company | |||
| Distributor | |||
| Budget |
budget
|
RELEASE
| Original network | |||
| Picture format |
picture format
|
||
| Audio format |
audio format
|
||
| First shown in |
first shown in
|
||
| Original release | September 17, 1972 –
February 28, 1983 |
CHRONOLOGY
| Preceded by |
|
||
| Followed by | |||
| Related shows |
Hawkeye: Sidney? Hawkeye Pierce. Did I interrupt you in the middle of someone?
- M*A*S*H 4077 is based a real MASH unit.
- This television series, set during the Korean War, lasted eleven seasons. The actual Korean War lasted only three years.
- While most of the characters from the movie carried over to the series, only three actors appeared in both: Gary Burghoff (Radar O'Reilly) and G. Wood (General Hammond) reprized their movie roles in the series (though Wood appeared in only three episodes). Timothy Brown (credited as "Tim Brown") played "Cpl. Judson" in the movie and Spearchucker Jones in series.
- Throughout the run of the series, any "generic" nurses (nurse characters who had a line or two, but were minor supporting characters otherwise) were generally given the names "Nurse Able", "Nurse Baker", or "Nurse Charlie". These names stem from the phonetic alphabet used by the military and HAM operators at the time. During the time period of the Korean War, the letters A, B, and C in the phonetic alphabet were Able, Baker, and Charlie (since then, the standard has been updated, and A and B are now Alpha and Bravo). In later seasons, it became more common for a real character name to be created, especially as several of the nurse actors became semi-regulars. For example, Kellye Nakahara played both "Able" and "Charlie" characters in season three before becoming the semi-regular "Nurse Kellye"; on the other hand, Judy Farrell (then Mrs. Mike Farrell) played Nurse Able in eight episodes, including the series finale.
- By the time the series ended, three of the regulars were promoted: Klinger (Jamie Farr) from Corporal to Sergeant, and Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) from Lieutenant to Captain. Frank Burns (Larry Linville) was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel when he was shipped back to the US following Margaret's Marriage. (Farr and Christopher also saw their names move from the closing credits of the show, to the opening credits.) Radar O'Reilly was temporarily promoted to Second Lieutenant, but disliked officer's duties, and asked Hawkeye and B.J. to "bust" him back to Corporal.
More...
This page is the FamousFix profile for M*A*S*H. Content on this page is contributed by editors who belong to our editorial community. We welcome your contributions... so please create an account if you would like to collaborate with other editor's in helping to shape this website.
On the M*A*S*H page you will be able to add and update factual information, post media and connect this topic to other topics on the website. This website does skew towards famous actors, musicians, models and sports stars, however we would like to expand that to include many other interesting topics.