Though this has mostly become an IASIP blog at this point, I’ve got to take a hard left and write for a long ass time about a different show. After four years, I’ve finally finished M*A*S*H.
A few quick notes before I get into my rambling. Firstly, I’m gonna connect the show back to my personal life probably a bit too much, which is entirely too much to put on the internet, but I just can’t disconnect this show from who I am at this point. Also, like I said, I watched all eleven seasons over the course of four years, which means I don’t have a great memory of many episodes, especially in the early seasons. The same goes for characters that were only in those early seasons. I’m not trying to write a masterful analysis of the show or anything, because I don’t have the talent or memory for that, I’m just gonna give my overall thoughts on the show, the characters, and what it’s meant to me over the years. I don’t expect anyone to read this because I’m not really sure if there’s a market on tumblr for a show whose finale aired in 1983. Oh well, I have been itching to write about this show and I need to. This is probably gonna be a little raw considering I watched “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” roughly ten minutes before starting this essay.
Also, omg, almost forgot to say: SPOILERS!!! Please, if you enjoy sitcoms and genuinely great social commentary performed by a fantastic cast, give MASH a try. Don’t dismiss it because of the length or time period, I promise it’s worth your time. Don’t let some fool like me spoil the whole thing for you. Anyways.
I will never forget the first episode of this show I ever saw. It was late summer in 2022 before my freshman year of college. I was sitting on the couch, probably with fuck all to do, and my mom turned the channel. She’s a big sitcom fan and watches them on weekend mornings, so I figured I’d be settling in for Seinfeld or something. Instead, S3 Ep11: “Adam’s Ribs” came on. I asked my mom what the show was about, and she said what most people would say: “doctors in the Korean War.” I sat and waited for the horrors, for the suffering and pain that was sure to find the screen. Battle and bloodshed at 9am? Sure, why not, I got shit else to do. Instead, I watched with mild confusion and intense amusement as Hawkeye Pierce went insane for twenty-two(ish) minutes trying to get ahold of ribs. I sat there totally dumbfounded. I still remember how I kept saying to my mom, “Aren’t they in a war?? Why aren’t they helping people??” She kept responding with what was essentially “it’s a comedy!” I made fun of the show as we watched that episode, calling it ridiculous and silly. Setting a sitcom during a war and trying to make it actually funny? The idea was so appalling to me that I was ready to dismiss it. And yet, time went by, and I never really stopped thinking about MASH. About the absurdity, the comedy, about how Hawkeye somehow lit up the screen even though I had no clue who he was. And yet, most of all, what stuck with me from that episode was the comfort it brought me. There was sense of safety in that world despite me knowing so little of it.
Cut to me starting freshman year. I had trouble adjusting to college, like many people, and I found myself looking for a sense of home. Something to tether me to my family, something to comfort me, and something to make me laugh. Like a guardian angel, there was MASH. So, eighteen-year old me sat in her room, fired up her ancient laptop, pressed play, and found home. Today, I finished the show, and tomorrow, I graduate from college. Over the past four years, Hawkeye and the gang have brought me immense joy, safety, and laughter in a time in my life with very little consistency. I’ve had four different homes over the past four years, eight semesters of different classes, and yet through them all, MASH was there to bring familiarity to somewhere so foreign. Now, obviously, I didn’t binge the show or have any crazy fixation on it. If I had, I would’ve finished it long ago. MASH was more important to me to exist as somewhere to always go back to. A home base. Something always waiting for me. So, while I’d go without the show for months at a time, I knew I would always be able to go right back and find home again.
My ability to jump in and out of the show in the way I did is a testament to the time and place MASH existed during. Each episode (apart from the finale) is designed to be approachable whether you’ve seen every episode or not a single one. The characters are infectiously powerful and strongly written (though not always consistently, we’ll get there), meaning you really do know who they are from a single episode. The only through-line through the show besides its characters is its most important plot point: the Korean War.
War is the central theme of this show, and MASH has courage that not many sitcoms, both in the 70s when the show was made and now, possess. MASH takes a firm stance of anti-war and sticks with it through the entire show, never attempting to rationalize, glorify, or enshrine something so deeply dark and sinister. If there is one thing MASH wants you to know, it’s that war is a stain on humanity and benefits no one except the most powerful, evil fuckers who are profiting from it. MASH does in fact get that point across, and, to some people, even does so too vehemently, but you have to give them credit. We continue to live in a world of wishy-washy comedy that somehow tries to hide from politics, from stance, from meaning. Inherently, those shows make a statement anyway: blind conservatism. That’s why MASH feels so special to me. I don’t care that they hammer it into your brain episode after episode that “war bad,” because fuck, war is awful and someone’s got to keep saying it until it sticks. MASH takes place during the Korean War, but it’s really more about the Vietnam war, a “war” that is technically a conflict because the US never declared it a war in the first place. Though that war was on its way out by the third season of the show, the echoes of it along with the Korean War are the life and fire of MASH. There is a clear purpose to this show and it’s comedy. The characters and storylines are almost always designed for laughs, but there’s always that underlying reality waiting for the characters. At any minute, they could hear choppers, and all bets are off. There are no laugh-tracks in the OR. There’s nothing funny about surgery, and there’s certainly nothing funny about death.
I’m not trying to say that MASH is perfectly executed or that every episode is done well. This show, as progressive as it was for its time, still was written in the 1970s. It takes them many seasons to write the one female main character in a human way, and even then, they still sometimes push her to the wayside. There’s even an early episode, S2 Ep9: “Dear Dad…Three” where one of the plotlines is the main gang darkening a racist patient’s skin after he complains about receiving blood from a black man. There’s definitely good intent with this episode, but it’s sloppy and, ironically, kind of racist. It’s left a bad taste in my mouth since I watched it literally four years ago. I’m sure there are several other episodes that don’t tackle what they’re addressing very well, but all in all, even those episodes exist within a show that is, in my opinion, stellar at its storyline. The way it does this is, primarily, through its fantastic cast of characters.
I’m going to give every main character their flowers (or not, depending on how I feel about them). I originally was going to from least favorite to most favorite, but I think I’ll go more-so based on how the discussion flows.
I’ll start off with Henry Blake. He’s the CO for the first three seasons before his tragic death in the S3 finale. This is still probably one of the most shocking moments in the show. It is genuinely depressing and done so well, but so sadly. The poor guy never gets to go home. As for him as a character, it’s been a longgggg time since I’ve watched any of his episodes, but I remember liking him well enough. He was funny and incompetent (if I’m remembering right), and when he died, I didn’t know how they’d replace him. Enter: Colonel Sherman Potter.
Potter is the first of several great examples at how MASH was able to replace previous cast members and somehow make the show better for it. The creators and writers understood that you can’t replace a character with someone like the previous one. Trying to insert a clone or copycat only leads to comparison. More often than not, that new character won’t hold up to who they’re trying to represent. So, with its character replacements, MASH instead adds someone entirely different to the person whose shoes they’re filling. Potter is older, seasoned, a no-nonsense leader who knows what the hell he’s doing. And yet, he has a soft spot for the main troublemakers. He’s got quirks, a sense of humor, and a peculiar talent at painting. He loves his horse, his wife, and his team. I’ve always thought Potter was the perfect character to be the leader of the 4077. He’s the perfect person to rein in the gang when he needs to and let them fly when they have to. He has a great sense of judgement, duty, and leadership. I’ve also always really appreciated that while Potter respects his position, he doesn’t respect the army at large or the war he’s been stuck in. He works with the other characters to undermine the army when they’ve done a disservice to them and isn’t afraid to stand up for his team. Above all, Potter is a doctor. He makes that clear despite his long-standing army career. I think he’s such a wonderfully written and played character, and I’ve always appreciated his addition to the show. I did spend a lot of the later seasons scared that he’d be killed off or written off in some other way, and I’m so glad that didn’t happen.
Next, I’ll make a pivot to Father Mulcahy. I never thought I’d ever be fond of a priest character, but I really love Mulcahy. He’s a genuinely sweet, gentle man who becomes incredibly brave, yet remains kind. I don’t have too much to say about him other than that I’m fond of him and his silly voice. He makes religion feel safe, which is not often how I feel about the topic. He’s a great way to introduce religious concepts and plotlines to the show without them feeling too mean-spirited nor too preachy. There’s a good amount of nuance in a lot of Mulcahy’s storylines. I think it’s sad that he lost his hearing in the finale, but I think it was a realistic plot point and worked well with his character.
John “Trapper” McIntyre is an interesting one for me. I know that a lot of people are fond of him and prefer him over his eventual replacement, but I just never really got the “hang” of Trapper. I thought he was funny and a good friend to Hawkeye, but I also found him and Hawkeye too similar. Trapper almost felt like a worse version of Hawkeye. Hawkeye’s got whimsy and, though he sleeps around, he’s a single man. Trapper has a wife and frequently cheats on her, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. He’s also not as light or jovial as Hawk, which makes him end up feeling like a lesser character. I suppose that’s what Wayne Rogers thought, too, because he left the show after feeling like Hawkeye had too much of the spotlight. I think that it’s clear early on that Hawkeye is supposed to be the main character, but I suppose Rogers never got the memo. Apart from the sourness of his exit from the show, I think Trapper’s character was inherently flawed to begin with because of everything I just named. He just doesn’t have enough distinction from Hawkeye. With Trapper gone, and with Trapper being sort of a failed character, the writers knew they had to pivot. They knew Hawk’s new bestie had to be someone who could get along with him while simultaneously being very different compared to him. Luckily, BJ Hunnicutt is up to the task.
In my book, BJ is worlds above Trapper as a character. He’s a family man with a loving wife and daughter who he stays (mostly) loyal to, which is already a stark contrast to his predecessor. He’s also got a quieter sense of humor and a much more mellow attitude compared to Hawk. While Hawkeye losing his shit and yelling at anyone in sight is a regular Tuesday, that’s not the norm for BJ. That makes BJ’s occasion outbursts all the more meaningful and surprising. You know that when he’s lost his temper, it’s for a good reason. BJ’s anger also feels more “real” and intense compared to Hawk’s. Both have their place and purpose, but when BJ’s mad, I almost start getting a little afraid of him. He doesn’t have the theatrics of Hawk’s stronger emotions, meaning BJ feels more grounded in reality. I really think he’s a brilliant character. His chemistry with Hawk is so palpable and the absolute highlight of the show. Their friendship is one of the things that kept me coming back to MASH. They are an infectiously likable duo. But, anyway, I’m getting off track. BJ succeeds so well at playing a foil to Hawk while simultaneously being his closest ally. It’s a hard line to walk, but it’s pulled off very well. It keeps their friendship realistic, but also makes their conflicts more plausible as well. They agree on many aspects of life, but it’s those aspects of difference that make them so interesting together. BJ’s connection to Peg and Erin is one of the sweetest parts of his character. It gives him such great motivation. I also think it sets him up perfectly as a point of envy for Hawk when they’re having a conflict. BJ has a family to go back to, has a home, has a future waiting for him. Hawk does too, but not in the same way, and I think that sets up a slight amount of resentment that is utilized creatively. BJ perhaps most importantly understands his role as a supporting character and, ironically, because of that ends up just as important as Hawk. Whereas Trapper was fighting for the same spotlight as Hawk, dimming both of them, BJ is allowed his own space, his own light without standing Hawk’s shadow. Ultimately, BJ is a goddamn sweetheart with a gentle, calm demeanor, and yet an infectious, intelligent humor. I love him dearly and am so so happy he is part of the main cast for most of the show.
I’ve been too kind, so now I want to talk about who I think is genuinely the only irredeemable character of the show. Frank Burns, man. Does he have any good moments? As aforementioned, I watched the Frank seasons long enough ago that I don’t remember the individual episodes very well, but I do remember that I hate Frank’s guts. They write him to be purposefully absolutely awful. He’s 100% the villain of the story, and not only does he burn up (haha get it) his own character, but he tanks Margaret’s as well. We’ll get there, but for now I’ll focus on Frank as an individual. I truly do not remember a single thing I like about him. He’s nasty, racist, cowardly, petulant, pro-war, and, notably, the only member of the medical staff who is repeatedly described as horrible at their job. Frank is the love-to-hate character and that’s in all honestly all he’s good for. I know some people probably prefer the Frank era, but wow oh my god I do not. Part of that is because I love his follow-up so goddamn much.
Frank leaves the show unceremoniously and doesn’t get much of a send off, cause he’s awful. He is replaced by a fascinatingly written character who ends up being one of the most complex characters on the show, maybe second only to Hawkeye. Charles Emerson Winchester at first seems like he’s about to be just as shitty as Frank, and that’s kind of how he’s written early on. Still, like the other “replacement” characters, Charles is cleverly the complete opposite to Frank. He’s an excellent surgeon, well-educated, and generally not a fan of the whole war thing. And yet he’s also pompous, rude, self-centered, arrogant, and painfully egotistical. I say all of this, but I have to admit: I love Charles. I really, really love him. That’s because though he’s set up to be a replacement villain, he quickly becomes so much more than that. He’s often the target of Hawk and BJ’s schemes, but he’s not an adversary in the same way Frank was. Sure, he fights with the rest of the cast, but he’s given the freedom of his own character arcs. He’s complicated and multifaceted, often finding himself on the same side as Hawk and BJ, especially as the show goes on. I’m also always just a sucker for the pompous prick character. I just find him charmingly annoying with an emphasis on the charm rather than the annoyance. He ends up having a genuine love for the other characters and grows over time, learning how to take blame and forgive others. He’s not perfect, and he does end up the asshole in many episodes, but he is so much better of a character compared to Frank. There are actually things to like about Charles, but I can definitely see why people hate him if they do. I just grew so fond of him. I often found his one-liners to be the most clever and the ones to make me laugh out loud the most often. His “I’m better than this” attitude makes him hilarious when he’s muttering to himself, though when it’s more outspoken, it gets to the level of obnoxious that it’s meant to be at. One of my favorite Charles moments is in one of the very late episodes, which I saw recently. He spends his portion of the episode vehemently defending a stuttering patient being bullied by his comrades. The viewer is left questioning this defense until the end of the episode reveals that Charles’ sister Honoria talks with a stutter. This episode is such a great character study for Charles because it shows him as compassionate, and yet that compassion may have only originally developed because of his direct connection to it. It adds shades to his humanity. I also love the late episode where Hawkeye is worried sick about his own father, which leads to a telling conversation with Charles. Charles reveals that his relationship with his father was cold at best and strained at worst, a moment that is so well-acted that it made my heart twist with sympathy. I really hope there are other Charles lovers out there, because he is just such a fascinating character who I think deserves more attention.
Now, I’ve got to reopen the can of worms I briefly toyed with during Frank’s paragraph. Margaret Houlihan is, in my opinion, the character who changes the most drastically throughout the show. For the first half or so, especially the Frank era, she’s written pretty poorly. She’s treated subhuman by the characters and the writers for the “crime” of being a woman. She’s Frank’s little sidekick, used in his schemes and thrown away by him when she’s no longer useful. Their romance is the worst thing they put poor Margaret through, but it’s by far not the only thing. The constant digs at her and her appearance, calling her “Hot Lips,” not allowing her a single plotline of her own. And yet, as the show’s tone shifted (more on that later, too), she finally shifted, too. Through intense, continuous work by Loretta Swit (Margaret) who had to constantly fight for Margaret to not be a punchline, Margaret was finally able to blossom. When Alan Alda (Hawkeye) joined the writing team, he heavily supported Swit’s vision, allowing this character to, by the grace of god, have a real personality. Margaret goes from one note nothingness to being incredibly complex. She’s an army brat and by the books, no-nonsense, often even cruel with her leadership and power, but she’s also gentle. She becomes compassionate as her relationships with the rest of the cast develop, and she allows herself to show emotion. Her past and upbringing become motivations and explanations for her attitude, which she is allowed to work through over time. In the seasons where Margaret has realized her full potential, she is a fucking gem and the star of every scene she’s in. She is genuinely infectious to watch. It is a goddamn shame it took them so long to give her a full character. The later seasons are the ones I remember most right now, so I see her as this fully-realized person, but I know that when I go back to the beginning I’m in for a kick in the face. Oh, Margaret. I am so sorry they center so many of your plotlines around men, even later in the show. She ends up being a great female character, but the effort it took is something that is still seen today in so many sitcoms. Well-written sitcom women are a blessing and a rarity. It’s a wonderful thing that Swit, Alda, and, eventually, the other writers were on board to write her in the way that they did, but it’s a shame it took them so long. I give Swit all the credit in the world for fighting for her vision. Without her, Margaret would’ve forever remained “Hot Lips.” Rest in peace, Loretta Swit.
Oh, man. This next one hurts. My beloved Radar O’Reilly. Radar was from the very start my second favorite character, and that remained true up until the day he left. He is fucking wonderful and I’m so sad I haven’t seen his seasons in so long. The episode where he leaves genuinely ruined me. I was so upset to see him go, and I had every right to be, because Radar is wonderful. In a cast full of mostly older, cynical professionals with experience and humor to combat the horrors, Radar enters with an entirely different skill set. He’s young, afraid, talented yet untrained, and painfully innocent. Just looking at him makes my heart swell. It does get comical as the show goes on that they keep pretending he’s still young, but man, I don’t care. I just adore him. He takes care of animals and runs around with his teddy bear, somehow always grasping the bravery he never thinks he can reach. He ends up under several wings. First Henry, then Potter, and ultimately, Hawkeye. He learns through them while also continuing to impress with his own skills. He’s just such an incredible breath of fresh air for the cast, and his loss is the only one that I feel they never recovered from. Radar was simply irreplaceable. His humor is one-of-a-kind, his spirit is so gentle, and his childish but endearing attitude keeps the 4077 alive. He is, in many ways, the heart of the show. I adore him so much. It makes me sad that he wasn’t around during the more serious later seasons. I would’ve loved to see what plotlines they wrote with him during that era.
I mention that the show doesn’t really recover from Radar’s loss, which is the segue I’m using to finally talk about Maxwell Klinger. I think Klinger is a character the show derails pretty heavily. When Radar leaves, they made the decision to not directly replace him with a new cast member. While I think that was probably the best move considering how late in the show Radar’s last episode is, they end up metaphorically assassinating another character to make up for Radar’s absence. In the Radar seasons, Klinger is wonderful. He’s not as important as the rest of the cast I’ve talked about so far, and he works just fine that way. His cross-dressing is so endearing to me, and though it’s not done in a queer way, as a queer person watching now, it always made me happy to see that the camp was never derogatory toward Klinger’s outfits. Sure, they were played for laughs, but it never felt malicious (queerness in the show is something I’d like to talk about, but that’s another essay). But when Radar leaves, Klinger is given the impossible task of filling in his shoes. Thus, everything that makes Klinger work is snuffed out. He’s forced into a main cast he doesn’t belong in and loses the more eccentric parts of himself to be more believable as a main cast member, especially in the darker second half of the show. I honestly don’t like Klinger all that much after Radar leaves. All of his sparkle kind of leaves with Radar, and he ends up a one-note military man without much of the humor that made him likable in the first place. It just doesn’t feel realistic that he becomes so dedicated to his work and uniform after his behavior in the Radar seasons. I don’t hate him or anything, I just think he ends up being kind of wasted. His movement into the main cast also means I’ve got to give a shit about Rizzo, who they force into Klinger’s old secondary role, but Rizzo sucks. He’s boring and obnoxious and I don’t give a damn about him.
So, that leaves me with the elephant in the room and the elephant in the show: Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce. Words can’t really describe the love I have for Hawkeye. He is by far one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. I feel a genuine emotional attachment to him, which is insane, but oh well. I just fucking adore him. MASH, unlike many shows now (for better or worse), has absolutely no shame in Hawkeye being the absolute favorite and the absolute lead. There’s a special mission upcoming? You know Hawkeye’s going on it. Something bad happened in camp? Hawkeye’s involved. Something shitty happened in the war? You bet Hawkeye has something to say about it. Hawkeye is the most important, Hawkeye is the most developed, Hawkeye is the most dedicated. That reality makes it all the more insane that he works so well. Alan Alda has such a deep commitment to this show that he appears in every episode, gradually becoming more and more important in the process of its creation. Now, I don’t know much about Alan Alda as a person (how could I, he’s a random actor I have never met), but I am deeply impressed by the way he devotes himself to this character and this story. He is clearly so passionate about his stance on war, and it infects the entire show. But that is only one shade of who Hawkeye is. Hawkeye is eccentric, absurd, loud, hilarious, painfully talented, and painfully tortured. He’s a desperately lonely man fighting a war he has incredible disdain for and spends most of the show trying to not drive himself insane, as is blatantly clear by the finale. Hawkeye is just one of those characters who has it all. He’s just special. He carries the show on his back and keeps it feeling alive, keeps it from jumping the shark. He’s also a character who I feel changes very much over the course of the show, almost in a similar way to Margaret. After the tone shift I’ll talk more about in a moment, Hawkeye becomes much deeper of a character. He spends less time trying to prank his friends and sleep with girls and spends more time on lamenting the war and trying to find a sense of justice in an unjust system. He becomes so complex, so torn, so lost. It’s almost depressing to watch what he goes through, but he always ends up on top. He always finds his way back to hope, to joy, always finds safety in his friends and his work. He’s forced into purpose a lot of the time, especially when he doesn’t want it, but he can find solace in saving lives. I just, man, I fucking love Hawkeye. Who doesn’t? How could you not? He’s everything you could ever want in a main character. Also, like, he’s bisexual. It straight-up feels intentional sometimes even though I’m 90% sure it isn’t. Don’t care. Hawk is canonically bisexual to me.
Jesus, I’ve been going on and on. I swear, I’m almost done.
MASH, as I’ve been alluding to, is considered to have two main “eras.” The first five seasons are lighter, more comedic, but through season six and by season seven, the show transitions to its second, darker, “dramedy” half. Which half you prefer honestly depends on what you’re looking for in a television show. Those who were wanting a comedy were put-off by the heavy-handed anti-war tone and darkness of the latter half, and those yearning for a more serious take on the war found the earlier seasons less interesting and more vapid. As for me, as someone who prefers the characters, tone, and humor of the later era, it’s no surprise that I prefer those seasons. Still, like I said early on, you really can jump into this show anywhere. It famously has a confusing continuity in which the characters seem to be in no consistent timeline. One episode they’re in a heat wave, the next they’re freezing in their tents. One episode they’re celebrating Christmas, the next it’s July. I’ll never forget how S9 Ep6 “A Year for All Seasons” threw me through a fucking loop because it, insanely, passes an ENTIRE YEAR in ONE episode. Since the Korean War was three years long, this time skip implies that the first nine seasons take place in, like, a year max?? Maybe?? It’s fucking wild. But it doesn’t really matter. This show running eleven seasons for a three-year war gives the characters a sense of purgatory as the show goes on. As you watch later and later, you start feeling like you’re trapping these poor people in this never-ending war. And yet, they get out. They all make it. I watched the entire finale with a pit in my stomach, convinced someone would be cheaply killed off, but it never comes. They finally let the MASH 4077 free.
This show is known for how heavy-handed it becomes, an aspect that bothers some but sits well with me. Still, I think one of the most poignant scenes in the entire show comes in a very subtle moment in the finale. As the war is in its literal final hour, the entire cast has found themselves in the OR, still patching people together. The man on the radio counts down the end of the war, announcing its completion to the room. For a brief moment, everyone pauses. And then, right back to surgery. Like nothing happened at all. Because though the war was over on paper, it was far from gone. People in Korea were still dying as the clock ran out. Lives were still ruined, Korea was still flattened, trauma was painfully endured. The war may have ended, but for those poor souls in that OR tent? That war may never truly end for them. And yet they keep going, keep operating, because that’s what they do. Doctors and nurses especially are the unsung heroes of war while simultaneously being the profession which naturally opposes it. MASH handles this dichotomy with grace, intellect, and, most importantly, humor. Above all, this show remains hilarious, even in its somber finale.
I just adore this show. I cannot wait to watch re-runs with my mom this summer as a college graduate. I’ve changed a hell of a lot in the past four years, but through it all, I still love this sitcom. Hawkeye has a lot of great quotes, but I’ve had one in my notes app forever that I think sums up the tone of the show well. In the S4 Episode “Hawkeye,” he states,
“I give you the human person. Thumb and fingers flexing madly, straining to keep aloft the leaden realities of life: ignorance, death, and madness. Thus we create for ourselves the illusion that we have power, that we are in control, that we are…loved.”
By the way, he says this with a concussion. While jugging.