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Feb 22, 2018 · Robert Altman’s feature film M*A*S*H became a surprise hit in 1970, motivating CBS to adapt it for the small screen. Whereas the movie was rated R, the network believed it could create a more ...
- Marc Freeman
Sep 15, 2022 · It began as a satire, morphed into comedic drama, made Emmy history through 11 seasons, and ended with a final episode watched by TV’s biggest audience for a scripted series. Fifty years after ...
- Jim Mckairnes
Jan 1, 2024 · M*A*S*H: The Comedy That Changed Television, directed by John Scheinfeld, is a documentary that examines the classic 1972-83 series M*A*S*H and its enduring appeal 40 years after its...
It took an incredible effort (and many years!) to get funded, but thanks to Dan Harrison at FOX, we now have the definitive story of this iconic show and its beloved characters as told by the people who made it.
- Synopsis
- Mobility: Change in Tone
- Mobility: Change in Characters
- End of The Series: "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen"
- The Last Day of Filming
- Critical Reception
- Narrative Format
- The Laugh Track
- Realism
- Continuity Errors and Anachronisms
Although M*A*S*H has been classified as a "situation comedy", it proved to be something quite different. Some critics have referred to it as television's first "dramedy". From the beginning, its producers had intended that it was not to be "Abbott and Costello goes to war".So, like the movie which spawned it, the television series recounted in 26 m...
One significant shift observed by many viewers as the series progressed was a move from pure comedy to become far more dramatically focused. In the earlier seasons, the show placed most of its emphasis on the "zany" elements, but later focused on more serious topics and character development. However, both the serious and the comedic sides were pre...
The show survived many changes in its cast of characters. Of all the starring characters, only Hawkeye (the Chief Surgeon), Major Houlihan (the Head Nurse), Klinger (a cross-dressing corpsman), and Father Mulcahy (the Chaplain) were in the show for its entire run. (Klinger and Mulcahy, were, in fact guest stars for the first few seasons of the show...
Main article: Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen By Season 10, although still doing very well, the producers, writers and cast were feeling that they were running out of good stories to tell. Harry Morgan, who played Colonel Potter, admitted in an interview that he felt "the cracks were starting to show" by Season 9. The cast voted (by a majority) to end ...
Although "Good Bye, Farewell and Amen" was the last M*A*S*H installment to be broadcast, it was filmed at the beginning of Season 11. The last episode to be produced was actually "As Time Goes By".In this episode the 4077th M*A*S*H personnel bury a time capsule with items symbolizing their lives and experiences during the war. In the process, they ...
See: M*A*S*H TV Ratings At the end of its first season, the show ranked 46th of 86 shows in the Nielsen ratings (averaging a 17.5 rating and a 27 share) and was in danger of being cancelled. CBS responded by moving the show to Saturday night, between hits All in the Family and Mary Tyler Moore. As a result, M*A*S*Hwould end the next nine of ten sea...
Main article: M*A*S*H TV series narrative formats Unlike other sitcoms which were usually filmed live on a sound stage before a studio audience, M*A*S*H was filmed either at the Fox Ranch or on Stage 9 in the Fox Studios. This allowed the directors and screenwriters to experiment with various narrative formats which were quite rare and considered h...
The producers wanted the show broadcast without a laugh track, but were overruled by CBS; eventually, as a compromise, the operating room scenes were shown without a laugh track. However, the show as first seen in the United Kingdom was broadcast by the BBC without a laugh track. Later, the Paramount Comedy satellite channel later rescreened the se...
Main article: M*A*S*H and verisimilitude One of the key success factors of M*A*S*H was arguably its realism. As Peggy Herz put it, while M*A*S*H dealt with the horrors of war, viewers found it funny because the people in it were believable.Many of the plotlines in the series were based on real-life tales and events told by hundreds of real life Kor...
Main articles: Anachronisms in M*A*S*H, Continuity errors in M*A*S*H, Other errors in M*A*S*H and The M*A*S*H timeline Despite the emphasis on realism, M*A*S*H did have the occasional anachronism. And just as there are M*A*S*H fans who delight in compiling the types of bathrobes used, the dresses in the Klinger collection or the view outside Potter...
Apr 3, 2024 · M*A*S*H: The Comedy That Changed Television is a treasure trove of secrets of M*A*S*H, a classic TV series based on the novel of the same name about three army doctors by Richard Hooker....
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Is mash a'situation comedy'?
Jan 2, 2024 · TVLine got eyes on the wonderfully thorough and incredibly moving, sometimes highly emotional special, then hopped on the phone with its executive producers, John Scheinfeld and Andy Kaplan, to...
