Classics: M*A*S*H

Creating a television show can be a lot like throwing darts. You have a dart board, or in this case, an audience, and your darts, which would be the shows. Supposedly, everything you throw is an actual dart, though once in a while a few steak knives get tossed (Anyone remember the show they tried to make out of the Geico cavemen?). In the end, however, a simple flick of the wrist can spell doom or gloom for your score. The same could be said for television shows. One single misstep in the writing, casting, or any other part of the production, and the whole idea will be a dud before it even airs. It’s a miracle some shows make it to two, or even three, seasons. But what about eleven seasons?

Eleven seasons -and eleven years- of a television show is a triumph to say the least. Few shows ever see that point, and the ones that do, do so for good reason. Forty years ago, when the television show M*A*S*H* first aired, the idea that it would be running for eleven seasons was beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. And yet, it prevailed from the years 1972 to 1983. But why? What about it was so great?

For one, the show was about war - the Korean War to be exact. War has always been something that Americans of every generation know about; either you’re living through one or the generation before you did. At the time that M*A*S*H aired, the Vietnam War was at the forefront of the minds of the people. When viewers tuned in to see surgeons and doctors patching up wounded soldiers, it was something a lot of them could relate to. Sure, if they were watching, they obviously weren’t on the front lines, but they might have been once, or they might have known someone who was. M*A*S*H was a connection to that harsh life.

M*A*S*H had something else going for it too - something that may seem almost startling to those who’ve never watched it before. It was a comedy.

If M*A*S*H was a comedy, how hard was it to flirt with the razor thin line between funny and offensive? More importantly, how hard was it to flirt with it and never cross it? The idea of wounded soldiers getting extensive surgeries in a tent in the middle of the harsh Korean landscape doesn’t sound funny at all. However, that is exactly what happens in each episode. So, why was it so funny? Was it because of characters like Hawkeye and Honeycutt, two wisecracking surgeons who spent their free evenings drinking and pranking their bunkmate? Or was it because of Klinger, a corporal so bent on trying to get sent home by reason of insanity, he took to cross-dressing?

The obvious answer is ‘all of the above,’ but even that isn’t quite the true answer. The reason M*A*S*H was successful as a comedy is because it pulled you away from the death and the despair that war brought, even if it was only for a half an hour once a week. It reminded the audience that every soldier in a war is also a human, even when their surroundings seek to desensitize them.

To be sure, the show had its serious moments, as light-heartedness can’t always, and shouldn’t, overshadow war. However, it was the careful balance of serious and funny that made the show hit the hypothetical target. So now, as we look back on the 40 year anniversary of M*A*S*H, we can see why the audience in America kept watching for eleven years. It gave people the familiarity they were naturally drawn to, but it also gave them the hope and the happiness that helps people get through war and strife. Like a true comedy, its purpose was to entertain and bring smiles and laughter to the living room. Like a true classic, it has done so for generations.