A 1970s Time Capsule from #AtoZChallenge @AprilA2Z – M is for M*A*S*H

A 1970’s Time Capsule

POP CULTURE

Be sure to visit my News and Noteworthy post today as well.

The A to Z Challenge has dueling decades going on.  Check out the 1980s theme from a fellow blogger HERE

Set near Seoul, Korea, behind the American front lines during the Korean War, M*A*S*H was based on the 1968 novel by Richard Hooker and the 1970 film produced by 20th Century Fox and directed by Robert Altman.  M*A*S*H would come into our livingrooms for more than a decade.  M*A*S*H premiered on the CBS television network in September 1972. Under threat of cancellation during its first season because of low ratings, the show turned things around the following year, landing in the top 10 in the ratings and never dropping out of the top 20 for the rest of its run.

Its title came from the initials for the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, an isolated compound that received wounded soldiers and was staffed by the show’s cast of doctors and nurses. At the heart of M*A*S*H were the surgeons Dr. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda) and Dr. “Trapper” John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers).

These roles were played in the Altman movie by Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, respectively.

Hawkeye and Trapper’s foils on the TV show were Dr. Frank Burns (Larry Linville) and Senior Nurse Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit), who disapproved of the surgeons’ boozing, womanizing and disregard for military authority.

Other key characters in the series were the bumbling camp commander, Lt. Col. Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) and his clerk and right-hand-man, Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff).

While the show began as a thinly veiled critique of the Vietnam War, its focus switched to more character-driven plot lines after that war’s anti-climactic end, allowing the series to continue to hold the public’s attention as it developed. In the middle of the show’s tenure, Alda began to take more and more creative control, co-writing 13 episodes and directing more than 30, including the series finale. Alda became the first person ever to win Emmy Awards for acting, directing and writing for the same show.  In my opinion, Hawkeye was one of the best and beloved television characters of all time.

Elements such as long-range and tracking camera shots as well as sophisticated editing techniques distinguished M*A*S*H from more traditional TV sitcoms. From the beginning, the influence of Altman’s movie was evident in the cinematic nature of the show’s camera work. In addition, each half-hour episode of M*A*S*H contained a signature mixture of dramatic and comedic plot lines, and its success marked the rise of a new genre of TV show dubbed “dramedy.”

After earning consistently high ratings throughout its 11-year run, M*A*S*H enjoyed enduring popularity in the following decades, as it became one of the world’s most syndicated shows.

A to Z on the Music Charts

Maggie May by Rod Stewart reach number 1 on Billboard Hot 100 on October 2, 1971 and stayed number 1 for five weeks.

A to Z At the Movies

Grossing more in America than any other British film in 1975, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a cult classic and considered one of the greatest movies of our time.

All images in this article are in the public domain. For any YouTube clips embedded in my posts, I am not the uploader.