Today in History : M*A*S*H debuts on CBS

One of the most successful television programs of all time, MASH was a phenomenon that very few other TV shows can compare to. Although I would imagine that a lot of the production value and humor would be lost on the younger people of today, it is still worth noting that this was a magnificent achievement and it all began today.

The year was 1972

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MASH means Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and the show is meant to take place in Korea during the Korean war. Although the show is primarily a comedy, it also contains what is considered some of the most touching and dramatic sequences in television during its near 11-year run and there were plenty of tears after the final episode which was entitled "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" and was 2 and half hours long.

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This extremely touching series finale was watched by an estimated 125 million people and was a highly anticipated event at all U.S. military bases in Korea. This was provided for free by the producers of the show and it was aired live despite the 14-hour time-zone difference. This probably doesn't seem like a big deal now, but remember, there was no internet in 1983.

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Although the show focused primarily on humorous situations outside of the O.R., the major dramatic sequences were brought about because many of the main characters were doctors or surgeons (as the name of the show suggests) and while humor was sometimes used during operations, the directors and producers were adamant that the ubiquitous "laugh track" was not to be used at any time during medical procedures. Go ahead and have a look, the laugh tracks are used at all other times during the shows, but NEVER in the operating theater.

In test audiences, viewers were shown the episodes with and without the laugh track and there was no noticeable difference between the audience reactions. Executive producer Larry Gelbart once said "...our show was a film show – supposedly shot in the middle of Korea. So the question I always asked the network was, 'Who are these laughing people?"

Ultimately the studio got their way, as they tend to. Later, DVD's were released where viewers had the choice to switch off the laugh track.

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Although a vast majority of the filming took place on a sound stage, the sets seemed considerably less fake than all other sitcoms of the time and even of today. I think this is due to lighting choices, I dunno, this is just my personal opinion.

The main theme entitled "Suicide is Painless" and the intro itself certainly doesn't give off the vibe of this being a sitcom and for people unfamiliar with the show's format, it might have been a bit of a surprise.

The show averaged around 20 million viewers per episode and won a ton of awards throughout their 11 year run including a Peabody award (which is quite rare that this prestigious award be given to a comedic-television show.) It was in the top 10 "most watched" shows during it's early years and remained in the top-20 for the entirety of its run. TV-Guide ranked it as the 8th best television show of all time.

While it might end up being boring to the high demands of entertainment expectations of today, this show is more than a laugh-fest. It exposes the horrors of war and the internal mechanisms that people employ to deal with that.

Due to contract issues the episodes were removed from Netflix in 2016 but all 256 episodes of MAS*H are available on Hulu.

If you were only going to seek out one or two, I would recommend looking for "Abyssinia, Henry" (final episode of season 3) and "The Interview" (final episode of season 4) as these are considered to be the "best."