AlthoughMASHis often remembered as a hilarious sitcom, the show’s greatest trick was sneaking one timeless message into every episode of the series. Set in Uijeongbu, South Korea during the Korean War,MASHwas a sitcom adapted from director Robert Altman’s 1970 movie of the same name. Both were based on Dr. Richard Hornberger’s novelMASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, published under the pseudonym Richard Hooker. Many of the characters from the book were adapted directly into the movie and show, including Radar, Hot Lips, and Hawkeye.
AlthoughMASH’s devastating deathsproved that the sitcom had its moments of crushing sadness, it is still striking to see just how fun the classic sitcom is on a re-watch.MASHmay be set in the middle of a seemingly never-ending war, but the series mines a lot of classic character comedy from the antics of the main characters. Alan Alda’s sardonic Hawkeye is one of the most influential sitcom protagonists of all time, a sharp-talking, witty womanizer with a surprisingly solid moral core.
MASH Is An Anti-War TV Show Disguised As A Sitcom
MASH’s Serious Real-Life Message Was Never Lost Amid The Fun
Countless TV shows have copied the show’s blend of drama and comedy in the decades sinceMASH’s record-setting series finale aired, and the show’s fingerprints can be detected on everything fromScrubstoThe Sopranos, toFallout, toCommunity. However, one thing that very few TV shows have recaptured is the fearless manner in whichMASHaddressed real-life politics.MASH’s strong antiwar themes and exploration of trauma saw the series become the biggest TV show in the world in an era when America’s ongoing invasion of Vietnam still bitterly split the country’s public opinion.
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By being undeniably funny,MASHsnuck a radical antiwar message into the biggest television show in the worldby exploring the trauma of conflict years before this became a mainstream talking point. Getting viewers invested in the characters only to kill them off unceremoniously was a perfect way to remind viewers of the pointless bloodshed that defines war, while episodes likeMASH’s heartbreaking finaleunderlined the psychological cost of wartime trauma. WhileMASHwas set during the Korean War, in many ways, the show was one of the American media’s clearest treatises on the Vietnam War.
MASH’s Anti-War & Sitcom Blend Is Why It’s So Good
Most episodes ofMASHfocused on knockabout comedy, even if Hawkeye occasionally voiced his dovish views on disarmament. For the vast majority of the show’s runtime,MASHforegrounded character comedy while constantly reminding viewers of the human cost of war. Beloved characters like Henry Blake died unexpected, unglamorous deaths in a way that ensured, no matter how much escapist fun viewers had, the grim specter of war was ever-present. Compared to more brutal war stories likePlatoonandFull Metal Jacket,MASHreached the heart of its audiences with a bawdy sense of humor and unique charm.
There is weight and emotional heft to the jokes ofMASH, since even the show’s silliest episodes implicitly acknowledge the horrors of an ongoing real-life war.
This made the tragic moments all the more disorienting, ensuring they felt as discordant and jarring as war should. While there areepisodes ofMASHviewers can safely skip, the show’s use of humor is effective enough to deserve further study. There is weight and emotional heft to the jokes ofMASH, since even the show’s silliest episodes implicitly acknowledge the horrors of an ongoing real-life war. It is this balance of tragedy and comedy that elevates the original series above so many other TV shows.
The Author Of MASH’s Book Didn’t Like The Show’s Anti-War Message
MASH’s Original Author Disagreed With The Sitcom
Ironically,the man behindMASHwasn’t against war as viewers might assume, and Hornberger barely even watched the show during its run as a result. According to Dr. Richard Hornberger’sNew York Timesobituary, the author was surprisingly unimpressed with the TV adaptation. Per his son, William Hornberger, ’’He liked the movie because he thought it followed his original intent very closely, But my father was a political conservative, and he did not like the liberal tendencies that Alan Alda portrayed Hawkeye Pierce as having.” WhileHawkeye was arguablyMASH’s best character, Hornberger was more hawkish than his fictional counterpart.
Per his son, “My father didn’t write an anti-war book. It was a humorous account of his work, with serious parts thrown in about the awful kind of work it was, and how difficult and challenging it was.’’ Evidently, while Hornberger was eager for readers to learn about the hardships of his Korean War experience, he wasn’t as averse to the idea of sending more troops to a similar fate. As a result, although he was the original creator of its main character, Hornberger barely watched the show asMASHdominated the airwaves and won over audiences worldwide.
