The Most Important Episode of MASH

June 25th 1950 the Korean war is set in motion America had taken it upon itself to try and stop the spread of Communism something the U.S felt South Korea was vulnerable to succumb to if it wasn't to intervene in an attempt to reduce the number of casualties in the front lines the U.S decided to play a military project in development since 1948 Mash an abbreviation of mobile Army surgical hospital where units of mainly civilian doctors and nurses deployed close to the front lines during the Korean War the goal of a mash was simple save lives triage adopted the dictum life takes precedence over limb function over anatomical defects mass units were not meant to bring one back to full health rather they function too at best to get a soldier back into action and at worst patch went up well enough so they can be sent back home now we jump way ahead to January 25th 1970. a movie by the name of mash releases in theaters a rough adaptation of a book of the same name which itself was a rougher County and romantization of the happenings of wartime surgeons during the Korean War Mash was a hit amongst audiences with both reviews of the time and modern reviews praising its comedy authenticity and overall presentation match grows somewhere between 41 and 81 million dollars in its first year release alone though it isn't exactly clear which of these two numbers is accurate nor if these numbers are adjusted for inflation what was clear though was that by the close of 1970 mesh was the second highest grossing comedy of all time this prompted CBS to Greenland a television adaptation of the novel something that the time may have seemed like a simple financial decision but would eventually become one of the most important projects in their history September 17 1972 thank you mashed out a lot of particularly interesting episodes delving into varying serious topics with most existing in the later seasons that said there's one particular episode in season one that predicted the tone Mash would later fully Embrace and in order to understand its importance we need to take a look back at the episodes that precede it on the surface match seems like your typical War comedy of the era throughout the first season classic tropes of the genre are prevalent foreign [Music] the first episode is your typical pilot with the characters being introduced one by one with a joke for each of them there's radar O'Reilly and Colonel Henry Blake damn it Raider how many times must die yes pilot so he's ready to take off at any time I want you to alert the General's pilot to be ready to take off at any time and that's an order the titular Hawkeye and Trapper I keep telling you we got to give up this preoccupation with keeping people alive or we'll never get out of here stoyos we're doomed maybe we should start using Rusty instruments stop washing our hands raise our prices and lastly Majors Frank Burns and Margaret Houlihan there are ladies present oh sorry baby major to you wait sorry major baby the next three episodes follow what you'd expect for a war should come at the time the match doing with the black markets doing their supplies Hawkeye and Trapper fighting over a girl unpacking let us help we're awfully glad you picked our unit we're not as large as some of the others but we are friendly very friendly actually we never met a nurse we didn't like Frank trying to press charges against Hawkeye for insubordination episode 5 is the first hint of something more with the plot focusing on a more serious topic a soldier coming under the mesh with a moose a slang term for his slave mesh handle is a topic of this magnitude as respectfully as the sitcom can but there are times where the comedy feels very forced this episode is important for what I would consider mesh dipping their toes into some serious storytelling though not yet fully pulling the trigger episode 6 would fully realize this instead of precedent for what Mash would be going forward we open on a War General Brigadier General Crandall Clayton who's been convinced by a war filmographer to participate in a fully fledged documentary about the ongoing War something positive to send to the families back home General Clayton decides that the best way to show positivity in such a dire situation would be to show a mass unit at work and what better unit to show than the 4077 who as he proclaims are the highest performing match in the war the director arrives at camp and after discovering Hawkeye's interesting sense of humor I've had experienced Lieutenant to amateur production in college I played Romeo and Juliet he decides to cast Hawkeye is the lead of the documentary this documentary is eventually completed though not without the director and his crew being very distracting to the surgeons of the 4077 and yet despite this Hawkeye would ultimately have a distaste with the disingenuous style the director was going for and would destroy the tapes under the cover of night after sending the director and his crew packing seemingly out of the blue hunk eye tries to and successfully convince his Colonel Blake to let the mash keep the camera and all the director's equipment Hawkeye didn't just want to star in this documentary he wanted to direct it you still got brickery script I hope so foreign we can make this movie ourselves there's a montage of the mash under Hawkeye's Direction slowly recreating many of the scenes seen the original documentary of course though when the documentary is finished and presented to the mash Hawkeye's vision is a bit unorthodox [Applause] very attractive military post mainly because the men of the 407 7th have no time for anything but the vital work they do gosh I'm glad they brought me here wait a minute have you got a reservation a reservation I'm afraid we're all booked up through New Year's and there are those rare moments when these Saints and surgical guard May relax with simple wholesome pleasures [Applause] [Music] [Applause] gentlemen I give you the war [Applause] seems very typical of Hawkeye until this three hours ago two hours ago we operated on him he's got a 50 50 chance we win some we lose some that's what it's all about no promises no guaranteed survival no Saints and surgical garb our willingness our experience our technique are not enough guns and bombs and anti-personnel mines have more power to take life than we have to preserve it not a very happy ending for a movie but then the war is a movie this one scene stands the representation of what mesh would eventually become and what it would be most well known for its subject matter in future Seasons Mash wouldn't shy away from serious topics and towards the end of its run it could be argued that it transcended its original status as a comedy it had become a fallen commentary on the tragedies of the war it was based on Mash is special it started as a generic cash grab in over 11 Seasons yeah 11 Seasons which even today is completely unheard of it created a legacy up until very recently its finale was the highest View television program of all time Mash is a remnant of a bygone era of Television an era where the viewer was kept engaged by a not entirely inaccurate dramatization of a real world event instead of which superhero died in the CGI shitstorm and I say that as an MCU fan though its comedy may be dated and sometimes a bit insensitive it transcended its comedic Origins to become something more something thought-provoking I may be Generations removed from its intended audience but even so Mash will forever have a special place in my heart as the show that became so much more than a cash grab

Channel: EarthToFatt

Views: 219,907

Keywords: MASH, M*A*S*H, 4077, 4077 MASH, MASH 4077, Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Radar, Trapper, Hawkeye, Colonel Blake, Henry Blake

Id: rU-yZ_Lsses

Length: 8min 3sec (483 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 01 2022