Could M*A*S*H be the best American television show of all time? I would say yes. The series, which garnered 19 Emmys and 109 nominations, ran for 11 seasons (from 1972 to 1983) – almost four times longer than the Korean War, which is where it was set. Its grand finale was the most watched non-sports show in American TV history, a record it still holds today.

Based on the 1968 book, “MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors”, and then the popular 1970 feature film, M*A*S*H (with asterisks), the TV show began to diverge from its initial comedic roots fairly early on in its long run by incorporating some heavy drama in with the lighthearted hijinks, which were most often perpetrated by surgeons Captains Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (played by Alan Alda), “Trapper” John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) and, later on, B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell) against Majors Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit), Frank Burns (Larry Linville) and, later on, Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers). Trying to keep everyone sane during the long days and nights of what they called “meatball surgery” and the general madness of war that was playing out on their doorstep were Colonels Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) and, later, Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan), Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff) and Father Francis Mulcahy (William Christopher). This wasn’t always easy especially with characters like cross-dressing Corporal Max Klinger (Jamie Farr) constantly trying to get out the army on a Section 8 psychiatric discharge.

The new TV documentary, M*A*S*H: THE COMEDY THAT CHANGED TELEVISION, looks back at this beloved and influential cultural icon with a mixture of contemporary and past interviews from the show’s producers and stars, many of whom have sadly passed away. Burghoff, who is the youngest of the surviving cast members (the others are Alda, Farrell, Swit and Farr) is 80.

The show came along at an interesting time in the US. In 1972, the country was well entrenched in Vietnam but public sentiment against the war there, which had been around since 1965, was at a tipping point. The show’s producers recognised this and the writers started to incorporate anti-war messaging into their stories of characters who, for the most part, are good people who are put in a bad situation that most of them didn’t want or ask for. The producers felt it important to say that the people who are doing the fighting or saving the lives of others are not the ones the public should be holding to account.

By the show’s third season, changes were afoot but the TV audience didn’t know about them until they played out on our TV sets. Wayne Rogers and McLean Stevenson let their egos get the better of them and both decided to leave the show. In the season finale that year, Henry receives an honourable discharge and gets to go home. If his goodbye salute to Radar isn’t touching enough, the show’s closing scene, which is included in this documentary, is definitely one that changed television forever. No show had ever killed off a popular character in such dramatic fashion before. I know I cried during that scene and even thinking about it now, nearly 50 years later, puts a lump in my throat. That was the power of M*A*S*H. One moment it could make you laugh and the next it could make you cry. But Trapper’s departure and Henry’s death also created a new challenge for the showrunners – introducing new characters that audiences could get behind while acknowledging the effect that the two characters’ leaving would have on the ones who remained behind. Unlike any other TV show before it, no event that took place on M*A*S*H happened in a vacuum. (ALL IN THE FAMILY, which also ran on CBS at that time, was going in a similar direction with its character development.) The writers rose to the challenge, not just by creating new characters that audiences warmed to just as the other characters on the show did, but they also matured the existing characters. This was perhaps most clearly seen in Radar, Margaret and Klinger, especially after the fifth season when Frank went home and the pompous but very capable Charles arrived. As Radar was growing up, so was I. As the years went on, the producers and writers were able to tell new stories in ways that were revolutionary for television. The documentary mentions both “The Interview” from Season 4 and “Point of View” from Season 7 as groundbreaking episodes and I would have to agree.

I’d be lying if I said my eyes didn’t well up with tears as I watched this documentary. Between the memorable series clips and the interviews with the cast members and showrunners, it’s difficult not to get even a tiny bit emotional, but M*A*S*H: THE COMEDY THAT CHANGED TELEVISION barely delivers on its premise; that is, how it changed television. The documentary just scratches the topic’s surface, relying instead on rehashed interviews to fill out the runtime. Yes, it’s very touching that Loretta Swit had tremendous love and respect for Harry Morgan, or that McLean Stevenson admits that his dumbest career move was to leave the show, but what do they have to do with how the show changed television? There needed to be more of an examination into the impact the show had on the American zeitgeist and on the TV shows that followed it.

For the show’s fans though, it is well worth the trip down memory lane. M*A*S*H: THE COMEDY THAT CHANGED TELEVISION is streaming now on Hulu where available. I haven’t heard yet when/if it will come to Disney+ but I suspect it will be in a few months’ time. A lower res version is available for free now on YouTube if you don’t want to wait.

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