This TV show originally dropped when I was in first grade and it ended when I was a junior in high school. I started watching it regularly when it was in syndication and I watched the 1983 finale, along with enough viewers to make it the most watched scripted television broadcast in history for the next 25 years.
I still watch it now, since it is so easily streamed on Hulu. I watch it mainly because it makes me feel good prior to sleeping. I guess it comforts me, like there is one place in the world that is still clever, hates war, and realizes that we are largely powerless against forces that belittle us all.
I see its many flaws: Its often outdated, WWII generation comedy, its weak, though significant attempt at 1970s diversity, the appalling sexism of its first few seasons, the sometimes infuriating self-satisfaction that the show developed regarding the nobility of the 4077 staff and their mission, the fact that there were only two episodes that focused on the nurses (aside from Margaret Houlihan), and the intolerable sanctimony of Hawkeye Pierce.
Yet, the show was astoundingly ahead of its time in several ways. I joked about it’s diversity. But at a time when riots were happening across the country, triggered by court-ordered bussing, portraying a white doctor Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) cozily dancing with a black nurse (Ginger Bayliss, played by Odessa Cleveland) was a bloody huge deal. This was only a few years after Dr. King’s assassination as well as the police assassination of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. And the assassination of Medger Evers. And the Klan’s 16th street church bombing. And the Pettis Bridge battle. And the Klan murder of the three civil rights workers. Etcetera. There was also a sub story about them straightening out a wounded white bigot who was afraid of receiving “darkie blood,” which was even more ground breaking (and included Ms. Cleveland as well). A later episode had a story about white commander who resented the desegregation of the military, which was also effectively confronted (“And the Tooth Shall Set You Free”).
In an early episode (entitled “George”) the eponymous, homosexual soldier confided in Hawkeye that he was gay and had been beaten by his fellow grunts when they found this out. Hawkeye and Trapper worked to keep the uptight, odious Frank Burns from ruining George’s life with a dishonorable discharge. This empathetic reaction was simply not done in 1970s TV, or if homosexuality was addressed it was invariably portrayed as pathological.
I commented earlier about MASH’s rampant sexism. In early episodes, Margaret was routinely addressed as “Hot Lips,” (a holdover from the much more misogynistic M.A.S.H movie), was often derided for her seemingly masculine leadership qualities, and was frequently portrayed as desperately needing her sniveling, married lover Frank Burns. In later episode, Margaret Houlihan got married (ridding herself of Frank Burns) then divorced, and then triumphantly asserted herself as an independent career woman. This was at the same time that my mother was occasionally confronted by college professors who scorned a middle aged woman’s desire to earn a B.S.. At this time Anti-feminists like Phyillis Schlafly and Anita Bryant intoned that the only proper place for women was as an appendage to their husbands. It is significant, though, that a necessary step in the evolution of Margaret’s character was when actress Loretta Swit took a hiatus during the forth season and acted on Broadway. Producers agreed to allow her character to develop in order to persuade her to return. https://outsider.com/entertainment/mash-one-actor-fought-character-change-took-brief-hiatus-because-it/
There was still another episode (“Inga”) in which ladies’ man Hawkeye was faced with his own sexism by a quietly competent female surgeon. There was yet another episode (“Taking the Fifth”) when Hawkeye, still filled with his oversized male ego offered to share a bottle of wine with any one of the (all female) nursing staff who wanted to spend a romantic evening with him. The nurses answered with an amusing practical joke that turned Hawkeye’s sexist objectification on its head. Except for All in the Family, these kinds of issues were seldom if ever addressed in 1970s TV.
What would a new incarnation of MASH look like? First of all, it absolutely must have hour long episodes. Trying to squeeze an anti-war comedy into 25 minutes means that the show has to lean on well-meaning platitudes to deal with the emotionally complicated and usually revolting issues of war, pain, injury, homesickness, and bigotry. Second, the nurses have to be named characters with significant lives apart from assisting surgery, post-op, and sex scenes. Stories should focus on them, as well as the doctors, and the war itself . With that in mind, as well as what I already said about diversity, there should also be stories about the KOREANS! The show is supposed to take place in Korea, but I see more Koreans on an average trip to a Skokie grocery store. Finally, the show really has to have some profanity. In my experience, few military actions take place with out at least a few “fucks” and “goddamns.” My apologies, Father Mulcahy.
It would also be improved if there was just enough army by-play to remind us that they really were in the service. There are countless scenes in the old show in which BJ, Hawk, and other regulars met higher ranking officers or even generals and they didn’t so much as touch their foreheads as a salute. True, when the show started, America was more anti-military than at any other time in my lifetime. But after a few years (certainly after the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan and his bellicose foreign policy, followed by the 1982 bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon) that attitude changed.
I need to add more to this, but it’s time to feed our pets.
Out here.
Bittersweet Abattoir 