MASH "The Final Episode"

[Graham Ritchie]

Who can remember watching the final episode "Goodbye Farewell and Amen" back in 1983. After a 11 seasons 256 episodes starting in 1972 through to 1983 MASH was the most popular TV series ever created, The final episode had a estimate audience of 105.9 million people watching it.

I was first introduced to MASH when, the New Zealand family I was boarding with in 1973 for over a year, and wonderful people they were I should add, would watch it on there B/W TV.

Last night rather than watching the usual movies on the Epson VP, I thought I would screen that final 1hr 55min episode from a DVD on the Epson, and thoroughly enjoyed watching it to. MASH the TV series, I understand was filmed on 35mm so it looks great even projecting the DVD. Its hard to imagine that, its now very close 40 years since that final TV airing. MASH through the antics of the superb cast always made me smile. A few years ago I was down with the "flu", what cheered me up was watching one MASH episode after another from the complete DVD set.

Some screen shots from last night

[Osi Osgood]

There were a number of moments in that final show that were nearly tear jerkers, the Korean band that the doctor enjoyed being killed, the "Padre" finding that he is going deaf, and, of course, the ending. It was a phenomenon, as the second show, "After M.A.S.H." only lasted a season or less, I believe.

[Steve Klare]

I was in college and had a part time job that let out at 9PM, just as the episode began. We left an hour early that night to be home in time.

We didn't see the last show again for many years, but it's on Cable quite often, especially on holidays like Veteran's Day and Memorial Day.

Osi!
-a suggested punctuation improvement:

From:
"the Korean band that the doctor enjoyed being killed"
To:
"the Korean band that the doctor enjoyed, being killed"

-c'mon! They were prisoners of war and there's still the Geneva Convention!

(-it's kinda like "Let's eat, Grandma!" vs. "Let's eat Grandma!")

There was a very obscure second sequel called *W*A*L*T*E*R* about Radar O'Reilly's life as a Police Officer. I don't think it went further than the pilot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS8Vd1vVqXc

[Ed Gordon]

The episode "Goodbye Farewell and Amen" is listed as the most viewed TV series episode (in the US) at nearly 106 million viewers. I don't think the series as a whole can be found on any top 10 list however. The few that I checked seem to rate the "I Love Lucy" series as being on top. Now that broadcast TV dead, and we no longer watch TV shows as a group, "Goodbye Farewell and Amen" will probably never be surpassed as having the most viewers at a single time.

[Steve Klare]

I've always thought it was a great show because when other people would have long run out of ideas, they actually managed to stay creative. This is no small task in a show where the situation basically only changes according to the weather. (-at least Lucy moved to Connecticut!) It's also a rare show in so far as it lost a lot of its original cast and characters and managed to bring in replacements at least as good if not better.

I basically divide *M*A*S*H* into Henry Blake and Sherman Potter eras. It's interesting that the "replacement era" episodes outweigh the original cast episodes more than two to one.

They were wise to end the series when they did: The real Korean war lasted about 3 years, the TV version was 4 times that much. Enough is enough!

[Joe Caruso]

I was one of the millions who watched it first-run, on CBS-TV 2...only wished we could have seen what happened with Rosie...Shorty so wonders

[Graham Ritchie]

We have seen many re-runs of MASH on TV here over the years. Just to test things out. My son Steven called this morning, I said guess what I watched on the VP the other night, "hint hint" it starts with "M" and it was a most popular TV series. Straight away he replied "MASH" full marks was my reply. In fact we do this kind of thing over the phone quite a bit.....guess what I watched last night kind of thing .........

Joe that was a good point what did happen to Rosie?

[Ed Gordon]

Joe that was a good point what did happen to Rosie?

I had the same question, and found this: https://mash.fandom.com/wiki/Rosie

[Graham Ritchie]

Thanks for that link Ed, that was interesting.