Created by Larry Gelbart,MAS*Hremains a watershed American sitcom that helped redefine the TV format during the 1970s. Based on Richard Hooker’s 1968 bookMASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctorsand adapted from the 1970 Robert Altman film, the TV series lasted for 11 seasons from 1972 to 1983 and remained on the air for 251 episodes.
With a marked shift from comedy to drama after Season 3,MASHwon a total of 14 Primetime Emmy Awards during its unforgettable run. Frankly, there hasn’t been a show like it since, although that might be based on a variety of factors. Set during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953,MASHfollows a ragtag unit of Mobile Armed Surgical Hospital soldiers led by Hawkeye (Alan Alda),a wisecracking doctorwith a pacifistic viewpoint.
Along with his fellow soldiers, Hawkeye tries to keep morale high while nursing injured soldiers back to health as the war continues in the background. Aside from providing much-needed levity in a time of war, the landmark series helped evolve the tropes and tenets of TV sitcoms that continue to be felt across the media landscape. Yet, with such a glaring absence in its wake, here’s why the TV-loving world needs another show as healing and hilarious as MAS*H.
5Laughter is the Best Medicine
If nothing else,MAS*Hproved thatlaughter is indeed the best medicine. Although the sitcom debuted two decades after the Korean War in which the story takes place, 1972 was a time of great political upheaval and uncertainty in America. There was the Watergate scandal, the fallout from the Civil Rights movement, and perhaps most unsettling, the fatigue of the senseless Vietnam War.
Society was in a dark place whenMAS*Hcame along and made it okay to find humor in dark subjects, and release pent-up tensions and anxieties through a subversive war comedy. The first three seasons ofthe classic and rewatchable sitcomaired while the Vietnam War was still ongoing. As such, the show often made salient political commentary on the U.S.’s role in Vietnam as well as the Cold War before it.
Not only are the characters in the show able to combat their sense of trauma through humor, but viewers also feel a vicarious sense of relief by finding humor in an otherwise horrific scenario. While America isn’t technically at war in 2023, the current conflict in the Middle East is a reminder that a show likeMAS*Hcould have an invaluable impact among war-torn viewers desperate for a ray of hope in a dire situation. There is a therapeutic quality to the show that is starkly devoid in today’s TV landscape.
4A Current Lack of Medical Comedies
While there is a current overabundance of medical dramas on TV, there isa glaring lack of medical comediesnowadays. AfterMASH, Scrubstook the mantle of the comedic hospital workplace comedy and retained the honor for a solid decade from 2001 to 2010. Since then, melodramatic medical shows likeNew Amsterdam, The Good Doctor,andThe Resident have dominated the TV landscape and left little room for the necessary need to laugh as a form of healing. As a result, a show likeMASHis vitally necessary in 2023 to fill the spiritual void.
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Apart from the dearth of medical comedies on TV, there’s an even smaller subset of medical comedy shows set during wartime. The laughter-as-a-form-of-healing convention has been supplanted by much more alarmist shows likeChicago Med, Code Black, andThe Night Shift,necessitating the return of a positive, uplifting, and inspirational medical comedy likeMASH.
AlthoughGrey’s AnatomyandNurse Jackietouch on humor, the overall lack of medical comedies at a time when countless hospital dramas are being produced only necessitates the return of a show likeMAS*Heven further.
3Appreciation For Doctors During Wartime
Another reason why a show likeMASHis needed in 2023 is to express worldwide appreciation for the doctors and medical professionals who risk their own safety to save the lives of others during times of conflict. For example,Doctors Without Borders(Medicins Sans Frontieres) was formed in 1971, one year beforeMASHpremiered.
However, it wasn’t until the ’80s and ’90s that the humanitarian organization rose to prominence, gained substantial funding, and began changing the world through medical efforts in war zones around the world. AlthoughMASHconsists of American medical soldiers, a show like it today would go a long way in raising awareness and calling attention to outfits like Doctors Without Borders that were less prominent whenMASHfirst aired.
While it’s easy to take sides in a TV show about war, few things are more valuable than a group of dedicated medical professionals from around the world coming together, leaving their political ideologies behind, and cooperating to ensure the safety of innocent lives. Considering how far organizations like MSF have come sinceMAS*H’s inception, it’s only right to pay homage to them in a newfangled version ofthe long-running sitcom.
2Organic Character Development
Given today’s binge-style streaming service climate, TV shows leave very little room for organic character development that unfolds naturally over time. Too often, TV shows adhere to a quantity-over-quality formula which consists of a gripping opening episode, a love-it-or-hate finale, and a spate of boring filler episodes in the middle to pad out the run time. Worse yet, if a show doesn’t perform up to standard, it’s canceled before the characters are allowed to unveil their fully-rounded personas.
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This was never a problem withMAS*H, a show that deliberately veered from comedy to drama andfeatured rich, three-dimensional characterizationsin the process. For example, when the series began, Hawkeye was a wisecracking womanizer who hid his pain behind a booze canteen and a brash devil-may-care attitude. By Season 4, Hawkeye transitioned to a much more somber and introverted character whose PTSD after seeing so much death and carnage in the war deeply affected his personality.
Characters were able to grow, evolve, devolve, make mistakes, and learn from their past transgressions in ways that are often conveniently streamlined in modern-day TV shows. Of course, the longevity of 250 episodes across 11 years allows for such dramatic character arcs, another trend that is less common nowadays. If nothing else, a show likeMAS*Hbeing made today would go a long way in improving the writing and quality of TV character work.
1Anti-War Sentiment
Perhaps most important of all, the reason a show likeMASHis necessary in 2023 relates tothe thematic anti-war sentimentthe series professes. When the show first aired, the Korean War setting served as a trenchant metaphor for The Vietnam War, which was taking place in real life until the skirmish ended in 1975. Nowadays,a well-aged sitcom likeMASHcould theoretically take place in a more recent conflict like the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, which in turn could serve as a sobering allegory for the current fight taking place in the Middle East.
The idea is to bring the world together through fervent pro-peace messaging. Part and parcel with the lack of war comedies on the small screen, the need for ardent anti-war stories is magnified in contrast to the overwhelming spate of pro-military TV shows. Whether it’s recent examples likeThe Terminal List, The Last Ship, The Brave, Das Boot, Six, SEAL Team, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,etc., there is an unbalanced surplus of current TV dramas that glorify war and advance pro-military sentiments.
Even the biggest movie franchises likeStar WarsandTheAvengersoften rely on epic war stories to entertain the masses, yet rarely rebuke the profound ramifications of war that leave the world worse off. In addition to revolutionizing the sitcom format by evolving from comedy to drama, allowing characters to naturally develop and grow over time, and pushing the boundaries in terms of main character deaths and partial onscreen nudity,MASH.was unafraid to makea bold antiwar stance. As TV shows become formulaic and disposable, and continue to favor quantity over quality, a show likeMASHis essential for a variety of reasons in modern times.
