Spring in the head and heart: Letters from home, Army medics and a guy in a dress
Good comedy series about war medics. About what anyone, who comes back from war, comes back with. About how someone dresses up so there's no... There were times when I wanted to laugh, times when I wanted to cry and were sorry.
MASH. A Novel About Three Army Doctors is a 1968 novel written by Richard Hooker (the pen name of former military surgeon H. Richard Hornberger) with the assistance of writer W.C. Heinz. It is notable as the foundation of the M*A*S*H franchise, which includes a 1970 feature film and a long-running TV series (1972–1983). The novel is about a fictional U.S. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in South Korea during the Korean War. M*A*S*H (an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American war comedy drama television series that aired on CBS from September 17, 1972 to February 28, 1983. It was developed by Larry Gelbart as the first original spin-off series adapted from the 1970 film of the same name, which, in turn, was based on Richard Hooker's 1968 novel MASH. The series, produced by 20th Century Fox Television for CBS, follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War (1950–53). Starring Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Loretta Swit, Larry Linville, Gary Burghoff, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, Jamie Farr, William Christopher, David Ogden Stiers. Longtime supporting cast members included Kellye Nakahara, Jeff Maxwell, Johnny Haymer, Allan Arbus, Edward Winter and G. W. Bailey. The series varied in style and tone – including broad comedy and tragic drama – which can be attributed to fluctuating writing staff over the life of the show and the variety of sources contributing to the stories. The show's title sequence features an instrumental version of "Suicide Is Painless", the original film's theme song. Its final episode, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", was the most-watched television broadcast in the US from 1983 to 2010, and it remains both the most-watched finale of any television series and the most-watched episode of a scripted series. The 4077th consisted of two separate sets. An outdoor set in the mountains near Malibu. Calabasas, Los Angeles County, California, was used for most exterior and tent scenes for every season. This was the same location used to shoot the movie. The indoor set, on Stage 09 at Fox Studios in Century City, was used for the indoor scenes for the run of the series. The Malibu location is today known as Malibu Creek State Park. Formerly called the Century Ranch and owned by 20th Century Fox Studios until the 1980s, the site today is returning to a natural state, and is marked by a rusted Jeep and a Dodge ambulance used in the show. Two board games were created based on the show. The first came out in 1975 and was published by Transogram, and the second was published in 1981 by Milton Bradley. A M*A*S*H video game was produced by Fox Video Games in 1983. It was criticized for trivializing the war, lacking the nuance of the film and TV show. A trading card set was published in 1982 by Donruss. Also in 1982, Tri-Star International produced a set of MASH action figures, with vehicles and a play set.
