M*A*S*H: The Comedy That Changed Television - video Dailymotion

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00:00:00Hey, I think we're in the army.

00:00:17The thing that I loved about M.A.S.H. is that it could be very funny and very serious at

00:00:24the same time.

00:00:25Boy, you really are a sicko, mental.

00:00:28Just because I spend most of my waking hours fixing up small wounds so they can go back

00:00:31and get bigger and better wounds, you think I'm mental?

00:00:33Another thing I loved was we could work in every conceivable style.

00:00:37Bully!

00:00:38Burlesque, drama, melodrama, satire, and sometimes all at once, sometimes all in the same episode.

00:00:47Henry, you're not going to endorse this idiot's application, are you?

00:00:50That's major to you, Captain.

00:00:52Henry, you're not going to endorse this major idiot's application, are you?

00:00:55They said there weren't going to be any more casualties.

00:00:58Frank, if I were you, I'd sue North Korea for every penny they've got.

00:01:02You were dealing with the insanity of war.

00:01:05This neighborhood is going to hell.

00:01:08And you had to have a bunch of doctors who created their own insanity so as not to go

00:01:13crazy themselves.

00:01:15Where did you get those costumes?

00:01:17What costumes?

00:01:18The costumes you're wearing.

00:01:20These aren't costumes.

00:01:21We stopped shaving last month.

00:01:23Ah!

00:01:39Henry, get me a driver.

00:01:40Certainly.

00:01:43Count off.

00:01:44One, two.

00:01:45That's about it.

00:01:47Get me the hell out of here.

00:01:50They cared about one thing.

00:01:51They cared about saving lives.

00:01:53Pierce, you did good work.

00:01:55Oh, yeah.

00:01:56Another three or four wars, I'll be sensational.

00:01:58This will be a real test of my leadershipmanship.

00:02:01So?

00:02:05No booze.

00:02:07You always entertain first and deliver the message second, especially if you're doing

00:02:12a show about a real war.

00:02:14War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

00:02:18War and Peace?

00:02:19Yeah, well, Tolstoy was very flexible.

00:02:21He went either way.

00:02:22I have to give credit to the writers.

00:02:25I mean, we had great writers on MASH.

00:02:28I'm a communist.

00:02:29An atheistic, Marxist, card-carrying...

00:02:32Bolshevik.

00:02:33No, honest.

00:02:35The writing was good.

00:02:36The acting was good.

00:02:38The producing was good.

00:02:39The directing was good.

00:02:41Where can you go wrong?

00:02:42There's here Eisenhower spending a lot of time playing golf.

00:02:46More fun than playing president.

00:02:47What's his handicap?

00:02:48A lot of people say Nixon.

00:02:50We had become a social phenomenon.

00:02:52I'm damn proud of these.

00:02:54Nobody gave them to me.

00:02:56I earned them.

00:02:58And I'm just as much a major as any other major.

00:03:01As it was happening, we knew.

00:03:05We knew how lucky we were, how blessed.

00:03:09I make a motion that the war be ended.

00:03:11I second the motion.

00:03:12You can't end the war just like that.

00:03:14You've all heard the motion.

00:03:15Those in favor, raise your right hand.

00:03:17Aye.

00:03:18Those opposed.

00:03:19Nay.

00:03:20The ayes have it.

00:03:21Let it be recorded that the war was ended on this date at 9.32 p.m.

00:03:30Here they come.

00:03:32I don't hear nothing.

00:03:33Wait for it.

00:04:15This is the story of indispensable military surgeons.

00:04:19They have the army over a barrel.

00:04:22But do they take advantage of it?

00:04:24Yes.

00:04:26MASH, a motion picture that raises some important moral questions.

00:04:31And then it drops them.

00:04:33I thought the movie was funny.

00:04:35I thought it was terrific.

00:04:37The outrageousness of it.

00:04:39This isn't a hospital.

00:04:41It's an insane asylum.

00:04:45The film is its own thing.

00:04:47We copied the visual style using the same locations, the same sets.

00:04:51But we developed our own personality.

00:04:54Who are you?

00:04:55Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce.

00:04:57Who are you, Sarge?

00:04:59What do you think this star means?

00:05:02You're Tinkerbell?

00:05:04The one man who is most responsible for the success of MASH is Gene Reynolds.

00:05:10Gene Reynolds brought all of the creative people together.

00:05:14I love seeing Gene at work.

00:05:16First of all, he's a great director.

00:05:18And he's a great producer.

00:05:20Fox asked me to shoot a pilot for MASH.

00:05:25And that was a very exciting invitation.

00:05:28A little hospital where the goal is to save lives.

00:05:32In the middle of a war where the goal is to destroy life.

00:05:36This format is just powerful, overwhelming, touching, funny.

00:05:40Gave us a wonderful opportunity.

00:05:42At this particular mobile army hospital,

00:05:44we're not concerned with the ultimate reconstruction of the patient.

00:05:47We only care about getting the kid out of here alive enough

00:05:49for someone else to put on the fine touches.

00:05:51We try to play par surgery on this course.

00:05:54Par is a live patient.

00:05:56We had an extra ingredient that most shows don't have.

00:05:59We were telling stories about people who really lived.

00:06:03This was Korea, early in July 1950.

00:06:07Among the first to arrive were the medics.

00:06:10Field surgeons, aid men, litter bearers, ambulance drivers.

00:06:14Nurses arrived in a mobile surgical hospital unit on the way to the front.

00:06:19I think we really wanted to respect them

00:06:21and be true to what they had lived through.

00:06:24How long have we been at this?

00:06:26I started surgery in 1932.

00:06:29I mean this session.

00:06:32M.A.S.H. was based on a book by a doctor who had served in Korea.

00:06:37I've seldom had characters handed to me

00:06:40as unique and outstanding as the running characters in M.A.S.H.

00:06:45And so my first challenge was who's going to write this pilot?

00:06:49You know, you can't miss if you've got good material.

00:06:53Larry Gelbart was an absolute genius.

00:06:56His talent and the depths of it.

00:06:58He could be wildly funny, but at the same time he had substance.

00:07:03I used to introduce him as my friend the genius.

00:07:06And he said, don't, don't say that.

00:07:08But he was just the most extraordinary creative force

00:07:12actors could hope to have around.

00:07:14Gene Reynolds asked me if I'd seen a feature film called M.A.S.H.

00:07:18As it happened, I had just seen it the night before.

00:07:20And he said, well, 20th Century Fox has talked with CBS

00:07:24and they'd be interested in financing the writing of a pilot script.

00:07:28Would I be interested?

00:07:29And I said, if we could retain the spirit of the film itself,

00:07:33I'd be very interested.

00:07:36We came up with an original story.

00:07:39We hammered that out in about a week.

00:07:41And I came back to L.A. to build the sets and to cast the show.

00:07:45But I was not receiving the script.

00:07:47Finally I called him and I said, look, we're building the sets,

00:07:51we're ready, we're getting warm here.

00:07:53And he said, how's it coming?

00:07:55And I said, I just mailed it and hung up.

00:07:59And then having said I mailed it, I realized I had to write it.

00:08:02We had talked so much about it and it had been marinating so long.

00:08:05I mean, it sounds boastful to say I wrote it in two days, but I did.

00:08:08Radar!

00:08:09Radar, don't do that.

00:08:11Yes, sir, you want to see me, sir?

00:08:13Yes, but let me say I want to see you before I see you.

00:08:16Mr. Hamilton.

00:08:17Hot lips.

00:08:19Hot lips.

00:08:22Your conduct in there was not only unbecoming an officer,

00:08:25it was equally reprehensible as a medical man.

00:08:28Frank, I happen to be an officer only because I foolishly opened

00:08:31an invitation from President Truman to come to this costume party.

00:08:35And as for my ability as a doctor, if you seriously question that,

00:08:38I'm afraid I'll just have to challenge you to a duel.

00:08:41It was a perfect pilot.

00:08:43Perfect.

00:08:44It was nothing, the best pilot I've ever seen.

00:08:47In the sense you didn't have to change anything.

00:08:49It was all there.

00:08:51We put it on the air.

00:08:53Our scheduling wasn't as good as the show,

00:08:55because the first year we put it on Sunday at 8 o'clock

00:08:58opposite really tough competition.

00:09:00We weren't too thrilled to be there, and of course it was confirmed

00:09:03by the numbers being kind of ordinary.

00:09:08Sir, we do have just a little bit of a problem here.

00:09:12In the course of that first season, and you're down in 50th place,

00:09:17your mind runs to the possibility of cancellation.

00:09:21Pierce, you're in very deep trouble.

00:09:28What do all these people want more than anything else?

00:09:30To go home.

00:09:32What do they really want?

00:09:35Sex.

00:09:38I actually didn't come on with a roar.

00:09:41We had people that liked the show very much,

00:09:44but the numbers didn't respond.

00:09:46I think Freddie Silverman, who was then the head of the network,

00:09:49deserves a lot of credit.

00:09:51It took a good network executive, and a lot of them don't have that,

00:09:54to hang in there. Not easy.

00:09:57In spite of the ratings, it started winning awards,

00:09:59and everybody was so high on it that we picked the show up

00:10:02and moved it to 8.30 Saturday following All in the Family the second year,

00:10:06and immediately was the number two show.

00:10:10We're a hit.

00:10:12We were in heaven because we were doing really, really well,

00:10:15and the show just kept building on itself for 11 years.

00:10:22It was a very entertaining show, which also happened to be about something.

00:10:26I firmly believe that people tuned in

00:10:29because they wanted to be entertained by these people.

00:10:31It's galling to hear officers ridicule command.

00:10:34I'm not an officer.

00:10:36Two guys from the draft board caught me with a big butterfly net.

00:10:39There you go. There's your lounge lizard at war.

00:10:43That hurts.

00:10:49I was in the Utah State Prison when they sent me the script,

00:10:53and it was the best script I'd read while in prison.

00:10:57I was making a movie in this prison, and I got the script,

00:11:01and I was really knocked out by it.

00:11:03Certainly the best pilot I'd ever read.

00:11:05Gee, I was standing around minding my own business,

00:11:07and all of a sudden, poof, a star is born.

00:11:10We tested 6 or 7 actors for that role,

00:11:14and Alan, he was a wonderful actor with great dimension.

00:11:18He could be funny, and he could be sensitive.

00:11:21He just really had every element of it that we could possibly hope for.

00:11:26Does every new nurse fall in love with you here?

00:11:29No, only the ones with taste.

00:11:32Do you think I have any?

00:11:34I don't know. Let me taste you.

00:11:36I was worried that it might be hijinks at the front

00:11:39that the show would slip into.

00:11:41So they reassured me that I didn't have to worry

00:11:44about it turning into McHale's Navy

00:11:46or shows that audiences enjoyed and that were fun,

00:11:49but that didn't deal with the reality of the situation

00:11:53in which the characters found themselves.

00:11:55Our willingness, our experience, our technique are not enough.

00:12:00Guns and bombs and anti-personnel mines

00:12:03have more power to take life than we have to preserve it.

00:12:07Not a very happy ending for a movie, but then no war is a movie.

00:12:12Hawkeye was a super-intelligent, extraordinarily gifted surgeon,

00:12:17an angry man who did not want to be where he was,

00:12:21made no bones about not wanting to be where he was,

00:12:24hated the war, hated authority,

00:12:26held most people above him in contempt.

00:12:29When I got into this war, I had a very clear understanding

00:12:32with the Pentagon, no guns.

00:12:35I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune,

00:12:39I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, carry Grant,

00:12:42cash and carry, carry me back to old Virginia.

00:12:45I'll even harry-carry if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun.

00:12:49I think of Hawkeye as a flawed person, much more flawed

00:12:52than people seem to give him credit for.

00:12:55They think of him as a likable doctor of humanitarian,

00:12:59but he was a womanizer, he drank too much,

00:13:02he was way too much of a smart aleck

00:13:04to want to sit next to him for too long at dinner.

00:13:07I just don't know why they're shooting at us.

00:13:09All we want to do is bring them democracy and white bread,

00:13:12transplant the American dream, freedom, achievement,

00:13:15hyperacidity, affluence, flatulence, technology, tension,

00:13:19the inalienable right to an early coronary sitting at your desk

00:13:22while plotting to stab your boss in the back, that's entertainment.

00:13:26I've never worked with an actor before

00:13:28who didn't have to be told how to read a line,

00:13:31or underline a word, or italicize it, or give him the stage direction.

00:13:35It was remarkable.

00:13:36Alan not only brought a great sense of humor to the character

00:13:40and an intelligence to the character,

00:13:42he brought the joie de vivre, the life of the show.

00:13:47Why don't I trust you guys?

00:13:49Because we're not trustworthy.

00:13:55Trapper would walk in anywhere

00:13:57and you knew he was looking for trouble.

00:14:00They're both impossible!

00:14:01You stay out of this, Hot Lips,

00:14:03or I'll stop selling tickets to your shower day.

00:14:07There was that air about him.

00:14:09Okay, what can I do here to upset the apple cart?

00:14:13I'm taking 10 minutes.

00:14:15I'm on 10 minutes.

00:14:17Between us, we got 20 minutes. Let's go.

00:14:27Wayne and I got very close very fast.

00:14:29I've never had a martini that way, may I?

00:14:31Oh, please.

00:14:33Goes great with a soap chaser.

00:14:35We both realized that this relationship

00:14:38had to be a warm, close, real relationship.

00:14:41What could they do, send us to the front?

00:14:43We're at the front. Maybe they'll put us in front of the front.

00:14:46They enjoyed one another's company,

00:14:48both on screen and in real life.

00:14:51That was a chemistry that came through.

00:14:53I think the audience perceived that underneath all of this,

00:14:57that these are two people who genuinely liked each other.

00:15:00If we didn't, it wouldn't have worked.

00:15:02Forget it.

00:15:04I was too impressed to have you arrest me.

00:15:08We did it again. Screwed up in reverse.

00:15:11I keep telling you, we got to give up this preoccupation

00:15:13with keeping people alive, or we'll never get out of here.

00:15:16It's no use. We're doomed.

00:15:18Maybe we should start using rusty instruments.

00:15:20Stop washing our hands.

00:15:22Raise our prices.

00:15:23We would go to the dailies and look at a scene

00:15:26that we had already shot.

00:15:28It was in the can, gone.

00:15:30Nothing you can do about it.

00:15:32And we would go back and do that scene again.

00:15:35If I'd done this instead of that,

00:15:37or if you'd done this instead of that,

00:15:39it might have gone this way instead of that way.

00:15:41That was a constant massaging of trying to make it better.

00:15:45We were always trying to make it as good as we could.

00:15:49Ahem.

00:15:59Ahem.

00:16:04And this is the OR, which, of course, we use as an operating room.

00:16:07This war is getting very popular.

00:16:09Every half hour, another tour.

00:16:11Raider, on your way out, drop these by the gift shop, will you?

00:16:13These guys love to get you.

00:16:15All right, Corporal, I'll take over from here.

00:16:17Uh, if you like me, I can show her the ropes myself.

00:16:21But who's going to show you?

00:16:23He doesn't mean it.

00:16:24Get out.

00:16:25But she does.

00:16:26You had these sophisticated doctors

00:16:28in this horrible war experience.

00:16:33A void was there.

00:16:37What are you doing here?

00:16:39I was drafted, sir.

00:16:42Radar, we used Gary Berghoff,

00:16:46who had been wonderful in the film,

00:16:49and Gary was a very talented young actor that I knew of,

00:16:53and of course, he had established himself already in the part.

00:16:57Why, uh, Radar?

00:16:59Uh, sometimes I can tell what's going to happen

00:17:03before it happens.

00:17:04Is that so?

00:17:05Yes, sir.

00:17:06The officer's latrine is to the right, sir.

00:17:08Thank you.

00:17:09You're welcome.

00:17:11You needed a character that was from a reflectionary perspective,

00:17:16like a little kid.

00:17:18You, uh, always sleep with a teddy bear?

00:17:23Well, not when I'm on duty, sir.

00:17:26You needed a character where the experience of war

00:17:31registered on their face for the first time.

00:17:35They've already knocked out one of our generators.

00:17:38They smashed our water tank, and we got three people wounded.

00:17:42Well, listen, if you don't believe me,

00:17:45listen for yourself.

00:17:52Did you? Did you?

00:17:54Hello? Hello?

00:17:57Gary did it brilliantly.

00:17:59He was the, the, always the 19-year-old virgin.

00:18:04What do you want to be?

00:18:07A hot lover.

00:18:10Or even a cold one, I don't care.

00:18:12Radar was this captivating, naive,

00:18:15who loved being with the big guys.

00:18:18Drink, Radar.

00:18:19Oh, no, no.

00:18:21What's your problem?

00:18:22And keep in mind, we can't work miracles with height.

00:18:25And not sure what to do,

00:18:27except he knew how to do his job beyond the ability of any human being.

00:18:32But at the same time, he was innocent.

00:18:34He didn't know about drinking, he didn't know about women,

00:18:37he didn't understand war.

00:18:39We're under fire, sir!

00:18:40For hell's bells, we're a hospital!

00:18:48It's against the Geneva Convention.

00:18:51I'm not for it either, sir.

00:18:53His boyishness was such a delight.

00:18:55How could you not like Radar O'Reilly?

00:18:58Wow, a citation.

00:19:00I wonder what my mom's going to say.

00:19:02She'll probably say her boy has changed over here.

00:19:04And she'll be right.

00:19:06Yeah, I guess so.

00:19:08You still going to talk to us, now that you're a hero and everything?

00:19:10Oh, sure, I still talk to ordinary people.

00:19:13Radar, I'm going to do something now I've hardly ever done before.

00:19:17You're not going to kiss me, are you?

00:19:27Stay tuned for more MASH.

00:19:29Colonel Blake, you are not listening to me.

00:19:32You'll have to speak up, Frank, I'm not listening to you.

00:19:37I did not hear that, and if it comes to that,

00:19:40I will deny any complicity with or knowledge of

00:19:43that sort of cheap, low, sneaky, underhanded maneuver.

00:19:49Think you can do it?

00:19:52Colonel Blake personified this small-town doctor

00:19:56from Bloomington, Illinois,

00:19:58who should never have been over there

00:20:01and was totally incapable of being a commanding officer.

00:20:05Well, I'm afraid this is what you call your command decision.

00:20:09It's lonely at the top time.

00:20:11Strictly something for your leader.

00:20:16Well, Henry?

00:20:18Oh, golly, whatever you people decide is fine with me.

00:20:23His discomfort and his sense of his own inadequacy

00:20:27was very rich in terms of writing for him

00:20:30because he just had that marvelous bumpkin quality.

00:20:35This month's topic is marital sex and the family.

00:20:39Louder, Henry.

00:20:41And the family.

00:20:43The first part.

00:20:45Marital sex...

00:20:47Let's hear it for this month's topic!

00:20:52McClain, Stevenson.

00:20:54Oh, what a delight.

00:20:56Yes, sir.

00:20:58McClain was hilarious.

00:21:01At ease, men.

00:21:03Mack had a tremendous sense of comedic timing.

00:21:07Just give me the needle, huh?

00:21:09Edison Mack!

00:21:11Just give me the...

00:21:13Gordon! Mayday! Mayday!

00:21:1699, 98...

00:21:20His genius was in his reactions.

00:21:25He didn't have to make the thing, he just had to react to it.

00:21:29That was his brilliance.

00:21:31Not that there's a lot of pressure or anything like that,

00:21:34it's just that every now and then,

00:21:36say, your least little pressure will build up to the point

00:21:39where there's an incredible amount of pressure around here.

00:21:42Radar! Would you bring in some brandy, please?

00:21:45What was Radar's attitude towards Colonel Black?

00:21:48It was just basically doing the job for him

00:21:51that he knew Colonel Black needed to have done,

00:21:55whether he knew it or not.

00:21:57Blank papers? Yes, sir.

00:21:59Is that a good idea?

00:22:01It's a cut down on your workload.

00:22:03You sign them now, lady, you don't have to borrow.

00:22:06But should I have really signed blank papers?

00:22:08I can't answer that, sir.

00:22:10You're the one that signed them, I didn't.

00:22:12Colonel Black tried to be as officious and military

00:22:15as he possibly could.

00:22:17Radar could see through all of that,

00:22:19saw through him completely.

00:22:21Sir, I've alerted the general's pilot

00:22:23so he's ready to take off at any time.

00:22:25I want you to alert the general's pilot

00:22:27to be ready to take off at any time.

00:22:29He anticipated his every move, his every gesture.

00:22:31Oh, I was hoping to give you a box of your favorite.

00:22:35That was wonderful chemistry between the two of them.

00:22:38Colonel Black? Yes, sir.

00:22:41The timing was very important, and we learned...

00:22:45And we learned to augment each other's timing too.

00:22:48There's something inherently funny about 2 people

00:22:51talking almost about the same thing at the same time.

00:22:54Very, very good.

00:22:56I took all the golf clubs and I hid them,

00:22:59and then I sewed up the hole in the nurse's tent.

00:23:02It gave you great insight into his character,

00:23:04that he could anticipate what I was going to say.

00:23:07It also gave great insight into my character

00:23:09in that I wasn't listening to what anybody said.

00:23:12I was going to play a racking game,

00:23:14started with slot A and used washers 1, 2, 3.

00:23:17Tied her up, picked up the spits,

00:23:19and we got our own barbecue.

00:23:21You know, it was, you know, we just, we loved it.

00:23:25So long, Radar. I'll hold down the fort.

00:23:27Down the fort.

00:23:31The, uh, men detest me, don't they?

00:23:34Oh, no, sir.

00:23:36You can tell the truth, they hate me, don't they?

00:23:39Just your guts, sir.

00:23:43Frank Burns, tough part to play,

00:23:46because he was a villain, but he was a funny villain.

00:23:49That's the last tray you're going to upset, soldier.

00:23:52There's a war on, and we've no time for violence.

00:23:55Mm-hmm, he's an amalgam of basically

00:23:59every irritating putz I've ever known.

00:24:03We're all in this together with a common goal,

00:24:06to serve our country and repel the godless horde

00:24:08from the north that would engulf our way of life.

00:24:11Frank, he's okay, but you're making me sick.

00:24:15Godless horde.

00:24:18Oh, nerds to you.

00:24:21I designed the ultimate hypocrite,

00:24:23in kind of a way a guileless hypocrite,

00:24:25because he doesn't know that he is one.

00:24:27He's just trying like hell all the time,

00:24:30and he's, like, constantly wrong,

00:24:33but he doesn't know that.

00:24:35They're not going to like this.

00:24:37I didn't come here to be liked.

00:24:39You certainly came to the right place.

00:24:41Larry Linville had such a tough job on the show

00:24:45because that character was such an extreme character.

00:24:50I'll teach those dirty little enlisted rats to love me.

00:24:54It's amazing how he was able to fill it with humanity,

00:24:58because if there was a wrong position to take,

00:25:01that character took it.

00:25:03Army standard triage procedure is as follows.

00:25:06American wounded, first.

00:25:07Allies, second.

00:25:08Enemy, last.

00:25:09Repeat, last.

00:25:10Frank, that man is bleeding more than anybody in here,

00:25:13with the possible exception of your nose

00:25:15if you don't get out of my way.

00:25:16And he was tough on everybody,

00:25:19totally blind to how he offended people,

00:25:22how rough he was on Margaret.

00:25:24Take your face and...

00:25:26your married face and get out.

00:25:29A Beck plays ear, Miss Snake in the Grass.

00:25:32You should talk, you two-timing four-flesher!

00:25:38Frank.

00:25:41They saw this gem of an actor who can do this,

00:25:45so they kept feeding him those things.

00:25:48No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

00:25:49It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair!

00:25:51It's my magic, it's mine, it's mine, it's mine!

00:25:54I know, darling, there, there.

00:25:57Oh, I already wrote, Mommy.

00:26:00Oh, your mother will understand.

00:26:02I mean, my wife.

00:26:06Buzz off!

00:26:08And for Loretta to have to play opposite this,

00:26:11to think that she's in love with this character,

00:26:15now that's hectic, that's hectic.

00:26:19What date?

00:26:20I had no date with Major Burns.

00:26:23We're just acquaintances.

00:26:25Oh, we run into each other once in a while.

00:26:29Well, he can't run into you tonight.

00:26:37Oh, Loretta was absolutely fantastic.

00:26:39She brought so many different colors to that character.

00:26:42She could be very serious,

00:26:43and then she could be funny being serious.

00:26:45Colonel, colonel, come back in here, please!

00:26:47What is it, Major?

00:26:48It's Donald, he's hurt himself

00:26:49by hurting and doing a rope climb on the obstacle course.

00:26:52Donald, you're always training so hard.

00:26:54Colonel, request permission to go to him, please.

00:26:56We're very busy, Major.

00:26:57But he doesn't hurt you!

00:26:59He needs you here.

00:27:00He won't let me go, it's a stupid war!

00:27:02Hot Lips is a wonderful character

00:27:04because the character is unique.

00:27:06The woman has to have strength and courage

00:27:09and resolution and so forth to be an officer.

00:27:12But she's a woman, and she has femininity,

00:27:15and she has impulses.

00:27:16They want to keep us apart because we're symbols

00:27:20of what a decent man and woman can mean to each other.

00:27:25Without the tawdryness

00:27:26that fills their sordid little affairs.

00:27:29Yes, yes.

00:27:30Take one step closer and I'll bite your chest

00:27:33right through your shirt.

00:27:35Larry Linville and I were a joke,

00:27:38and I felt after the first,

00:27:42maybe even half of the second season,

00:27:45it was wearing thin.

00:27:47Oh, Frank, you're so above average.

00:27:51It started to be awkward.

00:27:53Why would this gal,

00:27:54with so much going for her, so much brights

00:27:58and so much integrity,

00:28:00hook up with not only a married man,

00:28:02okay, she's lonely, there's nobody else or whatever,

00:28:06but a nincompoop.

00:28:07Listen, I was sound asleep,

00:28:09and suddenly there's all these wounded!

00:28:11It's nearly midnight,

00:28:12why can't they fight from 9 to 6?

00:28:14Maybe the next war, Frank, maybe the next.

00:28:17The best description I can give you of Loretta

00:28:20is the fact that Hot Lips became Margaret.

00:28:23There were times I had to fight

00:28:24for the integrity of the character,

00:28:26there's no question about that.

00:28:28I'm in control, and I'm going as far

00:28:31in this man's army as any woman can go!

00:28:34One of the things I loved that Loretta did

00:28:36was she was relentless in wanting to make sure

00:28:39that the character of Margaret was a real woman

00:28:42and not a one-note joke.

00:28:44What do you suppose I am deep down?

00:28:46Deep, deep down? A woman.

00:28:48Go a little deeper.

00:28:50A major. I'm me.

00:28:53Sometimes a nurse, sometimes a major,

00:28:56sometimes a woman in love,

00:28:58sometimes all three at once.

00:29:00Sounds like it's crowded in there.

00:29:02And sometimes it's lonely in there.

00:29:04The maturation of her character,

00:29:06both from her perspective and from the perspective

00:29:09of the producers and writers of the show,

00:29:12was a tribute to Loretta.

00:29:14She wanted to be taken seriously as an actress

00:29:17as well as a character.

00:29:19Can you imagine what it feels like

00:29:22to walk by this tent and hear you laughing

00:29:26and know I'm not welcome?

00:29:30Did you ever once ever offer me

00:29:33a lousy cup of coffee?

00:29:36We didn't think you'd accept.

00:29:40Well, you were wrong.

00:29:47Ah, yes. MASH proving once again

00:29:50all's fair in love and war.

00:29:53Hey, soldier.

00:29:56You forgot your purse.

00:30:03Halt!

00:30:06Friend or foe?

00:30:08I am General Barker.

00:30:10How do I know you're not one of them

00:30:12with a clever makeup job?

00:30:14Corporal Klinger, isn't it?

00:30:16Ah!

00:30:22Okay, he's here. Let's have it.

00:30:24What's wrong with Klinger?

00:30:30What's wrong with Klinger?

00:30:33The premise of Klinger's existence was that his M.O.

00:30:37was that he wanted to get out of the Army

00:30:40on a Section 8, that he was nuts.

00:30:42Everybody know Klinger?

00:30:44Major Friedman?

00:30:45Ah, the psychiatrist.

00:30:47Still trying to get out wearing dresses, Klinger.

00:30:50Earrings with a sweater?

00:30:52Larry wrote this character, and the moment I saw it,

00:30:55I said, oh, that's beautiful, and I said,

00:30:57I got the guy for it, Jamie Farr.

00:30:59Jamie Farr has these skinny, bony legs,

00:31:02and he's got a large nose.

00:31:04He's a natural comedian,

00:31:05a wonderful comedian.

00:31:07He'd be great dressed as a woman.

00:31:09He's the guy.

00:31:10I'm Section 8, head to toe.

00:31:12I'm wearing a Warner bra.

00:31:13I play with dolls.

00:31:14My last wish is to be buried in my mother's wedding gown.

00:31:17I'm nuts.

00:31:18I should be out.

00:31:21Horse hockey.

00:31:23He was the court jester of the camp,

00:31:26and they certainly needed that.

00:31:29I love your gloves, Klinger.

00:31:31Sears catalog.

00:31:32They were having a white sale.

00:31:33You trace your hands on a piece of paper

00:31:35to give them your right size.

00:31:36However, if you want the black ones,

00:31:38which aren't on the white sale,

00:31:39you really don't care, do you?

00:31:40It was at best a sitcom character,

00:31:42and he pranced and danced and did all this silly stuff

00:31:45with the dresses and the hats and everything.

00:31:47But beneath it all, I want to go home.

00:31:49I don't want to be here.

00:31:50This is crazy being here.

00:31:51People are shooting at you.

00:31:52You know, for me, that justified it all.

00:31:56How did he try it this time?

00:31:57Pretending to be a business girl.

00:32:00Klinger, Klinger, where did your mother and I go wrong?

00:32:05Jamie was wonderful.

00:32:07He had so much humanity

00:32:09that would come up

00:32:11through the hijinks that he was doing.

00:32:15Another week in command,

00:32:16and I'd have had you out of that dress.

00:32:18I'm not that easy.

00:32:20laughter

00:32:23And I loved the way he did it,

00:32:26over the top quite often,

00:32:28but with such energy, such joy,

00:32:31that I just kind of had to laugh and say,

00:32:34oh, God, Jamie.

00:32:36Sir, you've got to let me go, sir.

00:32:38I just have to get married.

00:32:39You're not pregnant, are you?

00:32:41Don't be ridiculous, sir.

00:32:42Me?

00:32:43You're the one who looks like

00:32:44he just blew out a gun with a wind.

00:32:46There wasn't a character like Klinger on any show ever.

00:32:49It was an original character, as I say to people,

00:32:52because every time a man always put on a dress,

00:32:55it was as a disguise, but no one put on a dress

00:32:58and then played it straight.

00:33:00What are you doing?

00:33:03Can't a guy have a washing set

00:33:05without somebody biting him on the neck?

00:33:07Biting who?

00:33:08I was biting you.

00:33:09No, you weren't, you were biting me.

00:33:11Klinger, what are you doing in here?

00:33:13Just borrowing a little of your shampoo, Major.

00:33:15It's wartime, we all got to help each other.

00:33:17No, we don't!

00:33:18You get out of here, you pervert!

00:33:20Pervert?

00:33:21Who bit who, Major?

00:33:24My mother said, oh, Jamie's my favorite.

00:33:27I said, you mean next to me, of course,

00:33:30and she said, no, Jamie's my favorite.

00:33:32Thank you, Mother.

00:33:33Thanks, very nice.

00:33:34Disgusting!

00:33:35You have your nerve wearing white.

00:33:38Jealous.

00:33:39I hated that character, I hated it,

00:33:43until, until later on,

00:33:45when it became more than a one-joke character.

00:33:49With Klinger, we played out the dresses

00:33:52in the Section 8 for longer than was needed.

00:33:55It was easy for us to shake up Klinger's

00:33:58areas of responsibility

00:33:59and Klinger's whole attitude toward the war.

00:34:02I didn't want to lose, as he said,

00:34:04the Klinger spirit, but at the same time,

00:34:07I wanted to make it somewhat different.

00:34:10I know it's 6 in the morning, Lieutenant,

00:34:12but I've got to talk to General MacArthur.

00:34:14Just tell him Max Klinger's on the phone.

00:34:17Yeah, he knows me,

00:34:18I've been sending him love letters for a year.

00:34:21Hello? Hello?

00:34:23See if he gets my vote for dictator.

00:34:28Um, Tate, are you all right?

00:34:30Just out of breath, I ran from chapel.

00:34:33Happily, you ran for nothing,

00:34:35but I bring no last rites today.

00:34:37Oh, thank heaven.

00:34:39Uh, could I show you something in a get-well prayer?

00:34:46Bill Christopher is a totally unique human being

00:34:50with a totally unique sense of humor,

00:34:53a totally unique approach to acting,

00:34:56and a totally unique approach to life.

00:34:59We thank thee for guiding us safely to this place

00:35:02and ask thy blessing that we may continue to heal

00:35:05and do thy work and for a speedy end to this war.

00:35:09I mean, uh, police action.

00:35:11Uh, well, you know what I mean, Lord.

00:35:15Amen.

00:35:16Well, Bill, I've heard Bill say that he thought

00:35:19Nash was a series about a priest in Korea.

00:35:22I think he really believes it.

00:35:26Terribly sorry, Padre.

00:35:28That's all right, General.

00:35:30I'll just turn the other cheek.

00:35:32He played the character so honestly and wholeheartedly.

00:35:36Given our circumstances, the best of us can behave

00:35:40in erratic and irresponsible ways.

00:35:42That note that he was playing was,

00:35:45these are my children and my friends,

00:35:48and, um, they're not perfect,

00:35:50but that's what makes them interesting.

00:35:52Having heard about the callous prank

00:35:54you played on poor Major Winchester,

00:35:57I choose not to speak to you.

00:35:59For if I did, I would tell you

00:36:01you are a goon and a block-headed bozo!

00:36:05This is a man of God.

00:36:07I'm above name-calling on.

00:36:09Good day.

00:36:10He's a man who's out of his depth,

00:36:13uh, a lot of the time.

00:36:15I think Mulcahy felt that he had something to perform

00:36:18that was very special, but he does fumble occasionally.

00:36:22My friends, the Lord said this to Aaron,

00:36:26after the passing away of his beloved sons,

00:36:30Nadiv and Abihu.

00:36:33laughter

00:36:39It's rather warm in here.

00:36:41Some other individual might be able to do it better,

00:36:45but it's, he's the only one, he's the one they got,

00:36:48and he's, uh, he's willing to put himself on the line

00:36:51and just do his best.

00:36:53I have to say a prayer first.

00:36:55Make it a damn short one!

00:36:57I can't think of any.

00:36:59Oh, my God.

00:37:00Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts,

00:37:02which you are about to receive

00:37:03in thy bounty through Christ our Lord.

00:37:05Amen.

00:37:06That's grace!

00:37:08He just had a resilience that Bill captured perfectly

00:37:12of no matter how dark the moment,

00:37:15how, how difficult the situation,

00:37:17it was all gonna work out,

00:37:19and nothing was gonna defeat him

00:37:21because he had faith,

00:37:23literally and figuratively.

00:37:25You're going to have to believe, whether you believe or not.

00:37:28Fortunately, you've fallen into the hands

00:37:30of the best medical unit in Korea.

00:37:33I swear it.

00:37:34Just have a little faith in these doctors.

00:37:37Just a little.

00:37:39Try, okay?

00:37:40He was exactly the man that we needed in that circumstance

00:37:44with these kids who were wounded

00:37:46and with these doctors who were crazy

00:37:48and with his nurses who were angry and frustrated.

00:37:52He was like an island of both innocence and empathy.

00:37:57Great, great, sweet, kind empathy.

00:38:00Listen to me, B.J.

00:38:02I try to stay out of the way

00:38:03because what you people do here is so important.

00:38:06But understand, at a time like this,

00:38:08what I have to do is just as important.

00:38:11And no one, not you nor anyone else,

00:38:13is going to stand between me

00:38:15and the performance of my sacred office.

00:38:19I'm sorry, Father.

00:38:22This wasn't just going to be a comedy

00:38:25with a real war as a backdrop.

00:38:28They were going to show that horror.

00:38:32Pierce, are you scared?

00:38:34Don't be silly. I'm too frightened to be scared.

00:38:41Take it easy, kid. I'm a doctor.

00:38:44But I need Dr. Pierce.

00:38:46He's the only one who can help me.

00:38:48I'm Pierce. What's the problem?

00:38:50You're my problem. I think I love you.

00:38:53I think in terms of a show finding itself, it takes a while.

00:38:58And there were a few watershed moments along the way.

00:39:03I remember an episode called Sometimes You Hear the Bullet

00:39:07in which an old friend of Hawkeye's,

00:39:09they knew each other back in the States.

00:39:11They'd been pals.

00:39:12And he comes there as a freelance journalist.

00:39:15Listen, what I don't understand is what a guy like you

00:39:18with your background is doing here in the infantry.

00:39:21Why aren't you a correspondent or something?

00:39:23Look, if I was a correspondent, I'd be reporting the war.

00:39:26In the infantry, I'm living it.

00:39:28So what's the difference?

00:39:30Here.

00:39:32Here's the difference.

00:39:34You never hear the bullet. Is that a book?

00:39:37Yeah, it's about the war.

00:39:39And it's being written by a soldier, not a correspondent.

00:39:43That was the first real dramedy episode that we did.

00:39:48Attention, all personnel, all medical personnel.

00:39:50That's what I'm talking about.

00:39:52A whole regiment took it in the teeth a while ago.

00:39:54It's going to be a long night. Come on.

00:40:04And it was a departure. It was, it took guts.

00:40:08I heard the bullet coming.

00:40:14It's like in the movies.

00:40:18So you'll change the title of the book, that's all.

00:40:21Sometimes you hear the bullet. It's a better title anyway.

00:40:24Well, that was a very important show.

00:40:27It was the first time we really dealt with the doctors

00:40:31being touched and moved and not themselves again

00:40:36after a surgery, instead of just walking on saying,

00:40:39let's have a drink.

00:40:40Give me some retraction and suction.

00:40:42Father Mulcahy, I can't get a crush in.

00:40:47I've lost the pulse.

00:40:49I'm going to open the chest. Give me a knife.

00:40:53I said give me a knife.

00:40:55Pierce, go help McIntyre.

00:41:00It was the first time we killed a character who wasn't an extra,

00:41:06who most importantly was somebody that Hawkeye knew

00:41:10and that Hawkeye had great affection for

00:41:13and that Hawkeye then had an enormous reaction upon his death.

00:41:18I mean, I know why I'm crying now.

00:41:20Tommy was my friend and I watched him die and now I'm crying.

00:41:25I've watched guys die almost every day.

00:41:27Why didn't I ever cry for them?

00:41:29Because you're a doctor.

00:41:32What the hell does that mean?

00:41:34I don't know.

00:41:36If I had the answer, I'd be at the Mayo Clinic.

00:41:39Does this place look like the Mayo Clinic?

00:41:42Look, all I know is what they taught me at command school.

00:41:45There are certain rules about a war.

00:41:48There are certain rules about a war.

00:41:51There are certain rules about a war.

00:41:54And rule number one is young men die.

00:41:57And rule number two is doctors can't change rule number one.

00:42:03An executive from CBS said,

00:42:06let me tell you how you've ruined this show.

00:42:09You've ruined MASH because you can't kill people

00:42:13or you can't have serious stuff this serious

00:42:16and expect to stay on the air.

00:42:19We got certain negative comments about the show isn't as funny

00:42:22and it's gotten more serious,

00:42:24but then there were other people who did like it

00:42:27and the ratings kept going up.

00:42:29And that was really important in allowing us to realize

00:42:32that, wow, we can do serious stuff here, really serious stuff.

00:42:36Everybody knows war is hell.

00:42:38War isn't hell. War is war and hell is hell.

00:42:41And of the two, war is a lot worse.

00:42:43How do you figure that, Hawkeye?

00:42:45Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to hell?

00:42:48Sinners, I believe.

00:42:50Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in hell.

00:42:53But war is chock full of them.

00:42:55It was against war.

00:42:57It didn't matter whether it was World War I, II, III, IV, V

00:43:00or Vietnam or, you know, Afghanistan or anything.

00:43:04War is a terrible thing. People are getting killed.

00:43:07This sort of action is contagious.

00:43:09One man decides he's not going to fight, it catches on.

00:43:12Next thing, you know what you've got on your hands, peace.

00:43:15Some of us had been in the military in any way, shape or form.

00:43:18Some of us had been in the military.

00:43:20But I think all of what we did on MASH was say, war makes no sense.

00:43:25This killing, this bleeding, this horror,

00:43:28this maiming of human beings must stop.

00:43:31Hey, she's just a little kid.

00:43:33Eight years old.

00:43:35I got a granddaughter back home who was about eight.

00:43:37What happened to her?

00:43:39Somebody dropped a bomb on her village from an airplane.

00:43:41Who did it?

00:43:43Somebody dropped it, he didn't autograph it.

00:43:45No, I mean, was it one of theirs or one of ours?

00:43:47What difference does that make?

00:43:49A lot, it makes a lot of difference.

00:43:51Not to her.

00:43:53When the series went on the air in 1972,

00:43:55we were of course heavily involved in Vietnam,

00:43:57and this country was, you know, woefully short of heroes,

00:44:00and the medical people on the show

00:44:03represented that missing component.

00:44:06If you ask me, you guys are like Superman.

00:44:09You're all set.

00:44:13guitar plays softly

00:44:32Good night, Superman.

00:44:37I had gotten too big for my britches, I think.

00:44:40You could do anything with that show,

00:44:42and they did do anything.

00:44:44I was shocked.

00:44:46I got good news, honey.

00:44:48I'm coming home.

00:44:50Honest, for good.

00:44:56Colonel?

00:44:58Do you know what I found in this morning's mail?

00:45:00Ah, now that's a tough one.

00:45:02Now hum a few bars, will you, Radar?

00:45:05You're going home.

00:45:07I'm going home?

00:45:09You got all your points, they're discharging you.

00:45:11McLean Stevenson was wonderful as Colonel Blake,

00:45:14but he began getting restless

00:45:16and expressing the desire that maybe he wanted to move on.

00:45:19People were whispering in his ear,

00:45:21you can have your own show.

00:45:23But they didn't say, but you won't have Larry Gelbart.

00:45:26You won't have the cast around you, you won't have Radar,

00:45:29you won't have all these people around you,

00:45:31you won't have the same situation.

00:45:33There were a number of things that went into that.

00:45:36I had gotten too big for my britches, I think.

00:45:38I've never admitted that.

00:45:40I'm talking now to hopefully millions of people.

00:45:44Henry, we're giving you this party.

00:45:47You know why?

00:45:49Because I'm going home.

00:45:51Wrong.

00:45:53Because you're one hell of a human being.

00:45:55The thing I didn't realize

00:45:58was that people

00:46:02really didn't give two hoots in hell

00:46:06about McLean Stevenson.

00:46:08They loved Henry Blake.

00:46:10I got good news, honey.

00:46:12I'm coming home.

00:46:14Honest, for good.

00:46:16Yeah, the orders just came through this morning.

00:46:19I ought to be coming through the front door

00:46:21in about 3 days.

00:46:23I don't know what you've heard about this, but I was there.

00:46:26This was a show where McLean's character was leaving.

00:46:30It was also the last show of our season.

00:46:33A lot of mash has faded a little.

00:46:36I can't tell you the plots,

00:46:38but I can tell you to describe that day.

00:46:40Bless you, Henry Blake.

00:46:42Your work here will never be forgotten.

00:46:45Thank you, Father.

00:46:47So long, Henry. Good trip.

00:46:54When I looked at him, I saw radar,

00:46:57but I knew I was saying goodbye to Gary Burghoff.

00:47:00All that relationship that he and I had together

00:47:03that was so special to us,

00:47:05all the work that we did, we did together.

00:47:11Behave yourself, or I'm going to come back and kick your butt.

00:47:22Mac and I were finished, and we were leaving the set,

00:47:26walking out the door to our dressing rooms.

00:47:29As we approached the door,

00:47:31Larry Gilbert and Gene Reynolds were walking in

00:47:35And so I had this manila envelope

00:47:38with the last page in it that they'd ever seen,

00:47:41and I gave them each a copy, and they looked at it,

00:47:45and they were really, it's not often in your life

00:47:48that you see people stunned,

00:47:51and they really could not believe what was on the page.

00:47:55I was shocked.

00:47:57I didn't say anything.

00:48:00And I remember...

00:48:06Alan sort of asking why,

00:48:10and Larry answering the question.

00:48:13Well, to us, it shows the futility of war.

00:48:22Radar, put a mask on.

00:48:24If that's my discharge, give it to me straight. I can take it.

00:48:28I have a message.

00:48:34Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake's plane

00:48:40was shot down over the Sea of Japan.

00:48:46It spun in.

00:48:51There were no survivors.

00:48:59Ah!

00:49:01Ah!

00:49:24This was a leading character that everybody loved,

00:49:28and they killed him.

00:49:30The reason we kept it a secret

00:49:32was to keep the actors from being influenced by that information.

00:49:36If they started to film the show

00:49:38knowing that Henry was a dead man by the end of the episode,

00:49:41their performances would have been quite different.

00:49:43Good as they are, you can't help it,

00:49:45because they would have been dealing with their emotions as people,

00:49:48as co-workers of McLean Stevenson.

00:49:50I could cry now. It was, um...

00:49:53It was devastating to us.

00:49:56On thinking about it,

00:49:58I think it showed how good a show we really had.

00:50:02We could do things that were so believable

00:50:08that we could emotionally affect

00:50:12even ourselves.

00:50:14I think it was a very grown-up thing to do, a very sensible thing.

00:50:17We had hundreds of letters from viewers saying,

00:50:19you tricked us, you sucked us in, we thought this was a comedy show,

00:50:22how dare you toy with our feelings.

00:50:24All those letters are in the Smithsonian Institute.

00:50:27And I'm very proud of that show.

00:50:31May I tell you the greatest compliment I ever heard for the show?

00:50:35I'm going into a restaurant,

00:50:37and a man approached me in the parking lot.

00:50:39He said, Mr. Berghoff, may I speak to you for a moment?

00:50:42I said, sure.

00:50:44He said, I was in the trenches in Korea.

00:50:47And he said, when I came back home, I was changed.

00:50:53And my wife knew that I needed to talk about it,

00:50:57and I couldn't bring myself to talk about it.

00:51:01And he said, when your show came on the air,

00:51:05it was the first time that I could reach over

00:51:08and touch her on the arm and say,

00:51:11see, honey, that's the way it was.

00:51:17We always tried to tie the entertainment value

00:51:21into the reality as much as we possibly could

00:51:24in our small way.

00:51:29See ya!

00:51:34I had this terrible thought

00:51:36that if MASH fails in its fourth season,

00:51:39I'm going to wear it around my neck for the rest of my life.

00:51:43And oh, my God!

00:51:45Can I have my pillow back?

00:51:47No.

00:51:52Are you kidding?

00:51:54Hey, would I kid you?

00:51:56Why didn't you think of it before we left home?

00:52:08When the series first started,

00:52:10it was with the assumption that Trapper John

00:52:13and Hawkeye would be equals.

00:52:15And over the course of time,

00:52:17it didn't seem to work out quite that way.

00:52:20The series kind of slanted more toward Hawkeye,

00:52:23so ultimately, Wayne decided that he wanted to leave.

00:52:27What's a scam?

00:52:29Just about to draw straws to see who's out and defuses the bomb.

00:52:33Boy, do I know when to come into a room.

00:52:36Because I didn't think I was fulfilling my time.

00:52:40I wasn't being used enough to satisfy what I wanted to do.

00:52:47That may sound a little nuts,

00:52:49and probably as I look back on it, it probably was a little nuts.

00:52:53Thanks, Trent.

00:52:55What?

00:52:57You made it bearable.

00:53:00I was lucky.

00:53:02You were honest and open.

00:53:07You let me lean on you.

00:53:11No charge.

00:53:14We lost McLean Stevenson, we lost Wayne Rogers,

00:53:19and the people who came in, not to replace them,

00:53:23but to add, you know, a new note

00:53:27to this cacophony of sound that we were already making,

00:53:31it just was like adrenaline.

00:53:34Fish, I'm just a little confused.

00:53:37Hawkeye, don't let a little confusion throw you, Captain.

00:53:40One of the first things you learn over here, B.J.,

00:53:43is that insanity is no worse than the common cold.

00:53:46B.J., welcome to Korea.

00:53:52First day, Gary Burghoff walked up, shook my hand,

00:53:56said how glad he was to have me there.

00:54:00Loretta did the same thing.

00:54:02Hi, Margaret, how the heck are you?

00:54:04You jerkface, you louse's mouth!

00:54:06Oh, you're just saying that.

00:54:08It was just like homecoming rather than me being the new guy.

00:54:17So pitch in, muddle through, pip, pip, and a whole schmear.

00:54:21Ours not to reason why, ours not to let him die.

00:54:26In other words, do your job as best you can...

00:54:29You got it.

00:54:33We looked a long time before we found somebody

00:54:36who could share the swamp.

00:54:38Mike was perfect.

00:54:39I'm here to discuss something besides underwear.

00:54:42Make it brief.

00:54:43Oh, that's very bad.

00:54:45Funny, but fast.

00:54:46It's a spiritual problem.

00:54:47Give me a minute and I'll come back as a nun.

00:54:50Careful, Klinger, dressing as a nun can be habit-forming.

00:54:53One of the first rules of making these switches

00:54:57is whatever you do, make it different.

00:54:59Doesn't mean you're going to get an actor who's better

00:55:02or the former actor was not as good.

00:55:04Just make it all as different as you possibly can.

00:55:07You?

00:55:08Me what?

00:55:09Never been unfaithful?

00:55:11To whom?

00:55:12Well, who could you be unfaithful to?

00:55:14Myself or Opener.

00:55:15No, come on, you know what I mean, to your wife.

00:55:17You mean if I ever strayed?

00:55:18Never checked in somewhere without a toothbrush?

00:55:20Never.

00:55:21Never been tempted?

00:55:23Tempted's another subject.

00:55:24Ah, you have been tempted.

00:55:26Never, but it's another subject.

00:55:28Hawkeye could be caustic and he could be sarcastic.

00:55:33I think Mike's character B.J. was gentler,

00:55:37who sometimes brought it down

00:55:39to more of a Norman Rockwell dialogue

00:55:42with his feelings toward his family.

00:55:44So there was contrast, but at the same time, the camaraderie.

00:55:48That must be some awful name you're hiding

00:55:50if you won't even tell your best friend.

00:55:52You're such a nudge.

00:55:53It's nudge.

00:55:54There, I told you something, now you tell me something.

00:55:57No use, I won't budge.

00:55:59Decency, that was the best word for Mike Farrell,

00:56:02I think, is that he had a quality of decency

00:56:04that was just remarkable,

00:56:05that we incorporated from his own personality

00:56:08into the character.

00:56:09At some point, Gene Reynolds came up to me and he said,

00:56:12how would you feel about it if B.J. was tempted?

00:56:15We had a scene where B.J. falls off the Fidelity wagon.

00:56:21And I said, it depends on how you resolve it.

00:56:26And they wrote a show where B.J. and this nurse,

00:56:30she was heartbroken and B.J. tried to console her

00:56:32and pretty soon the consoling her turned into something else.

00:56:36And then B.J. was wracked with guilt.

00:56:38Oh my God, what have I done?

00:56:40I'm miserable.

00:56:42I'm a happily married man, not like Frank Burns is happy

00:56:45because his wife owns real estate.

00:56:48I adore my wife and my kid and my marriage.

00:56:52I know.

00:56:53I don't like being unfaithful.

00:56:55I'm not looking around.

00:56:56I'm lucky to have what I've got.

00:56:58You're right, you are lucky.

00:57:00It was a great exploration of this character

00:57:04and his dedication to his wife

00:57:05and his desire to be faithful to her

00:57:08and his being a human being who screwed up.

00:57:12You were helping somebody and it got out of hand.

00:57:14You made a mistake.

00:57:15I sure did.

00:57:19What's that?

00:57:21I'm writing Peg about it.

00:57:22Wrong, wrong, wrong.

00:57:24Don't be an idiot.

00:57:26You made one lousy goof and you want to punish yourself,

00:57:28but don't punish her.

00:57:30Do not tell Peg.

00:57:32Don't tell anybody what you just told me.

00:57:34This will pass.

00:57:35Like a kidney stone.

00:57:37Simply take a vow.

00:57:39Raise your right hand.

00:57:40Come on, come on.

00:57:42I promise to be a good and faithful husband,

00:57:44to write nice, cheerful letters home,

00:57:46to think of Peg often,

00:57:47and to keep my fat hands off Nurse Donovan.

00:57:49Do you vow?

00:57:51I vow.

00:57:52I feel better about you already.

00:57:53Thanks.

00:57:54When Wayne left and Mike came in,

00:57:56now Mike and I had a similar relationship,

00:57:59although the characters were very different.

00:58:01You don't know me very well, do you?

00:58:03Maybe I know you better than you think I do.

00:58:04Oh, really, oh, you think so?

00:58:05Yeah, I think so.

00:58:06I always had to get the last word in.

00:58:07Yes, that's right.

00:58:08Oh, yeah, I can prove to you right now I don't think.

00:58:09Oh, come on.

00:58:10No, I can't really.

00:58:11Just say something and walk away.

00:58:12All right.

00:58:15I think you're a very competitive person.

00:58:17Fine.

00:58:18You just did it.

00:58:19Did what?

00:58:20Just got in the last word.

00:58:21That doesn't count.

00:58:22Then don't say anything.

00:58:23I knew we needed to develop a friendship, too,

00:58:25and that was very easy.

00:58:26We had a wonderful, joking relationship.

00:58:29Okay.

00:58:30Not another word!

00:58:32No problem.

00:58:33It's no use!

00:58:35Wrong.

00:58:36A lot of the affection between those two characters

00:58:39was what Mike and I felt for each other.

00:58:42You still love me for all my faults?

00:58:44What faults? You're perfect.

00:58:45Just for that, I'm gonna let you get the last word in.

00:58:48Thank you.

00:58:49You're welcome.

00:58:51Take that horn out of your ear.

00:58:56On your feet, soldier.

00:58:57I'm Colonel Potter.

00:58:59Oh, boy.

00:59:07Gee, sir, you sure know how to take care of your people.

00:59:09I got a soft spot for Klinger.

00:59:11He looks a little like my son,

00:59:13and he dresses a lot like my wife.

00:59:16You've got to be kidding me.

00:59:18He looks a lot like my wife.

00:59:20You can't mention any of these replacements

00:59:23like Harry Morgan without mentioning Burt Metcalf.

00:59:27Burt, casting genius, he has a real eye for casting.

00:59:32Very talented at that, always right on the mark.

00:59:35A year or two earlier, Harry Morgan had been cast

00:59:40as a general who was absolutely bonkers.

00:59:44I mean, he was a total nut.

00:59:47Well, we can stand and fight, or we can have lunch.

00:59:53Lunch!

00:59:54Yeah, I'm a little hungry myself.

00:59:57That was a very good episode and funny, and he was terrific,

01:00:01and I said, you know, I don't think it matters.

01:00:05Why don't we use Harry Morgan again?

01:00:07Well, Harry gave us a chance to have another kind of camp commander,

01:00:12a regular army man,

01:00:13someone who would stand up for the thing we were always knocking down.

01:00:17Wait a minute, Pierce, are you deef?

01:00:19I'm giving your hijinks the heave-ho post-haste!

01:00:22I'm the boss here!

01:00:23We were very honored to have him

01:00:25because he was such a well-known and accomplished actor,

01:00:28and he was wonderful in the part.

01:00:30There's a time to step in and a time to back off.

01:00:33Pull the reins too tight and the horse'll buck.

01:00:35You had good people under you,

01:00:37you should have let them go through their paces.

01:00:40You know, this is pretty good.

01:00:42Someone should be writing this down.

01:00:45To my golden tongue!

01:00:47He could take a line and do it in such a way

01:00:53that you had not imagined that line being delivered.

01:00:57Great logs of Limburger!

01:00:59Hot mustard!

01:01:01I think that's a lot of buffalo bagels.

01:01:03That is grade A 100% bull cookies!

01:01:06Mule fritters!

01:01:07Bourgeois!

01:01:08Wafer biscuits!

01:01:09Your turkeys gave everybody the trots!

01:01:11Holy hemostat!

01:01:13Horse hockey, pardon my French.

01:01:15He was my friend, my colleague,

01:01:20my, uh, my father sometimes, my...

01:01:24He was everything.

01:01:28What's with her?

01:01:29We're worried about you, Colonel.

01:01:31I appreciate that.

01:01:32I suppose.

01:01:33Now, if you'll all put the tear ducts on simmer,

01:01:36I'll lay out the whole story.

01:01:38Well, the one I liked the best,

01:01:41because I got an Emmy from it,

01:01:43was the thing we did called Old Soldiers,

01:01:46which was about a town team

01:01:48that I think five of us had made World War I.

01:01:52We were in France under a heavy artillery barrage.

01:01:56My buddies and I laid low in an old French chateau.

01:02:00We were quite a group, the five of us.

01:02:03Went through hell together

01:02:06and lived to get drunk about it.

01:02:09What a great bunch of guys.

01:02:11And I tell you, one time I started,

01:02:15I couldn't even get through the scene.

01:02:18Forgive me, I can't talk about this and him

01:02:23without a struggle.

01:02:26As much as my old friends meant to me,

01:02:31I think you new friends mean even more.

01:02:36So I'd like you to share this bottle with me.

01:02:40We'd be honored, Colonel.

01:02:42Colonel Potter was this wonderful, decent, thoughtful,

01:02:46talented, intelligent man

01:02:49who had had this extraordinary career

01:02:52treating us like comrades,

01:02:54treating us like his equals.

01:02:56Just one thing, I'd like to make the first toast solo

01:03:00to my old buddies.

01:03:02The idea was stunning to me, and I think to all of us,

01:03:07we were all wrecked by the end of that scene, wrecked.

01:03:11You were the friends of my youth.

01:03:14My comrades through thick and thin

01:03:18and everything in between.

01:03:21I drink to your memories.

01:03:25I loved you fellas,

01:03:28one and all.

01:03:36Okay, that's the old, now for the new.

01:03:40To love and friendship.

01:03:48A lot of shows would have faltered and died

01:03:52when you have major characters like that leaving.

01:03:56Not our show.

01:03:57I'm a surgeon, I'm not a circus roustabout.

01:04:00You're a clown.

01:04:01You're a buffoon, bozo.

01:04:02Bottle it!

01:04:07Blood and guts burns.

01:04:11Ha!

01:04:14Arrgh!

01:04:25Larry Linville was a wonderful actor

01:04:27who was so limited in a way in that part.

01:04:31I really was sorry to see him leave the show.

01:04:34You dirty rat, you!

01:04:36James Cagney.

01:04:38What I wanted to see was

01:04:40more sides to the character come out,

01:04:42more 3-dimensionality to it

01:04:44so he could have more fun as an actor doing it.

01:04:47Some people have said,

01:04:48you know, why didn't the role progress?

01:04:50Why didn't he become more humane,

01:04:52more compassionate, more sensitive,

01:04:54more comprehending, more understanding?

01:04:56And I said, what do you want him to be, Alan Alda?

01:04:59I said, if he becomes these things, then he's Hawkeye.

01:05:02He's no longer Frank.

01:05:03And I think maybe part of the reason he left

01:05:06was because he'd reached the end of the line

01:05:08with what he could do with the character.

01:05:10Give it another shot.

01:05:12Get it, get it, get it, get it, get it!

01:05:16I thought he'd never leave.

01:05:18I remember Bert coming up to us one day,

01:05:20and he said, I've got a guy

01:05:22who is going to be coming in here to replace Larry.

01:05:26What is that odor?

01:05:28North wind cesspool, east wind latrine.

01:05:31The wind is from the south.

01:05:33Oh, that's the kitchen.

01:05:36Sir, are you the doctor we've been waiting for?

01:05:39Quite likely.

01:05:43In comes David Ogden Stiers playing this naughty S.O.B.,

01:05:47you know, Charles Emerson Winchester III,

01:05:50who thought everybody was beneath him.

01:05:52Due to my background and breeding,

01:05:54it was inevitable that I attend the finest schools,

01:05:57Choate, Havard,

01:05:58the Massachusetts Institute of Snobbery.

01:06:01When they get this way, I usually just

01:06:03hit them with a rolled-up newspaper.

01:06:05I loved it that when David Ogden Stiers came into the show,

01:06:09he was not asked to play anything like the character

01:06:13that Larry Linville had played.

01:06:15Good evening, Lieutenant.

01:06:17Time for the changing of the guard.

01:06:19Pierce, I have come to relieve you.

01:06:21I'm sure the patients will be relieved as well.

01:06:23A creature of pattern, habit,

01:06:26um, regularity,

01:06:28who finds this all very disturbing.

01:06:31Hunnicutt, if there is a God,

01:06:33there will be a time in your life

01:06:35when you are in dire straits

01:06:36and in desperate need of a wealthy, influential friend.

01:06:39When that time comes, I pray that you will turn to me

01:06:43so that I can laugh in your face.

01:06:45That character that he created with the accent,

01:06:48I mean, he was just such a rip to work with.

01:06:52He was just so funny and wonderful.

01:06:54Okay, you can start with the bedpans and work your way up.

01:06:58Absolutely not, absolutely,

01:07:00and unequivocally not!

01:07:01Me wash and clean?

01:07:03I'm a doctor, not a woman!

01:07:05He's going to be every bit the surgeon you and Hawkeye are.

01:07:11Um, and so the competition between you

01:07:15is going to be on a very different level.

01:07:17Do you want it good, Colonel, or do you want it fast?

01:07:20Good and fast. This isn't Boston General.

01:07:22We're a mash unit. We do a volume business.

01:07:24Well, I'm sorry, I was not trained on an assembly line.

01:07:27Neither was I, Nurse Wrench.

01:07:28He's placed in a place that made him feel demeaned,

01:07:34exercising his honed talents in a manner far beneath him.

01:07:41But mostly I think it's his tolerance.

01:07:43He's not very well practiced at it.

01:07:45I feel I could be more useful in Tokyo or even the States.

01:07:49Not to me, Commissioner.

01:07:50This meatball surgery of yours

01:07:51is causing my skills to deteriorate.

01:07:53They're wasting away!

01:07:54Don't change the color of your face!

01:07:56I'm out of humber, and I'm out of patience!

01:07:58This place is driving me mad!

01:08:00Each of these cast changes was in a way fortuitous

01:08:05because it shook up the chemistry of the show.

01:08:09It made each actor have a new facet

01:08:12to his or her relationship to this new character.

01:08:16Instead of taking the easy way out,

01:08:18you stood up for a principle.

01:08:20Yes, I did, didn't I?

01:08:24Well, I certainly won't let that happen again.

01:08:27I have the perfect Christmas gift for you, Pierce.

01:08:31Crutches for your lame wit.

01:08:33Ha, ha, ha, ha.

01:08:37You scale the heights, Pierce.

01:08:39Allow me to take my leave

01:08:40before you decimate me with a says you

01:08:43or, God forbid, an oh, yeah, gentleman.

01:08:50You're going home.

01:08:52I'm going home, sir?

01:08:54You heard him right, Radar.

01:08:57Your time has come.

01:08:58People ask me, they've been asking me for 30 years

01:09:02why I left the show.

01:09:04Attention out there, would Corporal Radar O'Reilly

01:09:06please report to his going-away party?

01:09:08All of your friends would love to see you

01:09:10while they can still see.

01:09:12Bye-bye, bye buns.

01:09:13My life at that time,

01:09:15it was a beautiful picture that was all crooked,

01:09:18and I had to step back big time

01:09:21in order to grow as a human being.

01:09:24Part of my stepping back, unfortunately, included M.A.S.H.

01:09:28I didn't leave the show, my contract expired.

01:09:31You know, I had a 7-year contract.

01:09:33I just didn't renegotiate it

01:09:34because I was stepping back from everything.

01:09:39Hawkeye! Hawkeye!

01:09:42I hear them.

01:09:46Radar, there may not be time for me.

01:09:48I'll find you, Hawkeye.

01:09:52My goodbye party was interrupted

01:09:56because the wounded came in.

01:09:58I said to myself, what a wonderful moment!

01:10:00I can cry my eyes out,

01:10:02and I can do this wonderful dramatic moment.

01:10:05I could just completely fall apart.

01:10:08And the director said,

01:10:10if I were you, I would fight the tears.

01:10:13And I said, no, no, just let me do it, okay?

01:10:17So the next day in Daly's,

01:10:19I look at the screen, and it's awful.

01:10:21I mean, it is just terrible.

01:10:23The director was right, I was wrong.

01:10:25I turned to Bert, I said, please, can I do this again?

01:10:29And he said, yes, you may.

01:10:50We did some, maybe 15 or 20 shows

01:10:53in which we experimented radically

01:10:56with the way we told the story.

01:10:58You've read a lot of Hemingway

01:11:00and his reports from Madrid and the Spanish War.

01:11:03He romanticized that war, I think you might agree.

01:11:07He used to love reading Hemingway

01:11:11because he wrote so well.

01:11:14But now that I'm here, I can't understand

01:11:16why anybody would willingly go to a war,

01:11:20would go with enthusiasm,

01:11:23would want to be there while it's happening.

01:11:27I'd do anything to get out of here.

01:11:31Good evening, ladies and germs.

01:11:33I'm sorry I'm late, but my watch stopped.

01:11:35It had to, it's been running fast all week.

01:11:40We also had this wonderful alliance with the audience,

01:11:44at least one that I imagined we had,

01:11:47that you knew if you experimented on a show,

01:11:51and we did some, maybe 15 or 20 shows

01:11:54in which we experimented radically

01:11:56with the way we told the story.

01:11:58And we had the feeling that if it went too far for them,

01:12:02if it was too experimental, they knew we'd be back next week.

01:12:07Incoming!

01:12:15I adored every episode where we broke ground.

01:12:18There was one called Point of View.

01:12:20Okay, we're almost there.

01:12:22Listen, just relax.

01:12:23The surgeons here are the best, I mean the best.

01:12:26The whole episode was from the point of view of the patient.

01:12:30You never saw a reverse.

01:12:32It was always what he saw

01:12:34through his entire trauma and treatment.

01:12:37Hey, how's he doing?

01:12:39Better.

01:12:40I told you.

01:12:42There is another show we did.

01:12:44It was called Lifetime.

01:12:46It took place in real time,

01:12:48and we even put a ticking clock on the screen.

01:12:51The doctors were racing against that clock

01:12:53with only 20 minutes to find and transplant an organ

01:12:56to save the life of a wounded soldier

01:12:58and prevent him from being paralyzed.

01:13:01Congratulations, partner.

01:13:03Pour in the antibiotics.

01:13:05Kelly, time.

01:13:08It's 255 in 25 seconds.

01:13:12We're 3 1⁄2 minutes over, damn it!

01:13:15Maybe the hypothermia bought us some time.

01:13:18Yeah, on the other hand, maybe it didn't.

01:13:20Hawkway saved his life.

01:13:24Yeah, well, I guess that's something.

01:13:26It's more than something, it's everything.

01:13:29The following is in black and white.

01:13:32This is a room in Korea,

01:13:34a room most of the men fighting the second year of the war

01:13:38would rather not see.

01:13:40This is an operating room in a MASH,

01:13:43Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

01:13:45We had seen a documentary that Ed Murrow had done in Korea

01:13:49called See It Now,

01:13:50and we'd always had the notion of doing a show like that.

01:13:53And the fact that they were doing it in black and white

01:13:56to take a chance and say,

01:13:57okay, we're going to do this like a newsreel,

01:14:00was very interesting.

01:14:02Bored?

01:14:03How many times can you watch those training films

01:14:05they send over here?

01:14:06VD is the enemy, and don't let this happen to you.

01:14:09I'd like it to happen to me, to break up the boredom.

01:14:12Just kidding, honey.

01:14:13So they gave us tape recorders,

01:14:15all the actors had tape recorders

01:14:17with questions to answer.

01:14:18Larry trusted us enough to know

01:14:20that we would respond from our characters.

01:14:22At that point, we understood our characters so well.

01:14:26This is my third war.

01:14:27I was in the big one,

01:14:28then the Second World War, and now Korea.

01:14:30I hope war is getting smaller as a trend.

01:14:33You've been here some time,

01:14:34somewhere between some time and eternity.

01:14:36Larry took all of that material that we had improvised

01:14:39into the tape recorders,

01:14:40but also the material that had been punched up by Larry,

01:14:44so it was more pointed, funnier.

01:14:46There's no harm in doctors being ordered

01:14:48to behave as patriotically as possible.

01:14:50Well, doesn't patriotism have to come from the heart?

01:14:54I don't have that problem.

01:14:56Number one with me is the toilet seats.

01:14:58They give you slivers and splinters,

01:15:00and you can't really reach around

01:15:01and take them out yourself.

01:15:02Boy, that's when you find out who your friends really are.

01:15:06Then the interviewer would ask us questions

01:15:09we hadn't expected,

01:15:10so we were on the spot, on camera,

01:15:12and some really good stuff came out of that.

01:15:15You've got to understand,

01:15:16I'm not working on sick people here.

01:15:18I'm working on hurt young people

01:15:20with essentially healthy bodies

01:15:21that have been insulted by ammunition.

01:15:24It was really a real piece of wonderful theater

01:15:30that allowed us as actors in character

01:15:34to talk about what we're experiencing

01:15:37in this god-awful place under these circumstances.

01:15:40When I first came here,

01:15:41I couldn't walk down a corridor full of wounded people

01:15:44without being sickened by it,

01:15:45and now I can walk down without noticing them.

01:15:48For me, I thought it was raw and beautiful and honest.

01:15:53I don't mind being the only priest here.

01:15:55It's sort of fun to have a corner on the market,

01:15:59but, well, what was the question?

01:16:02When I got my version, I found that

01:16:05there was this wonderful thing written there

01:16:08that I had nothing to do with.

01:16:10Laurie wrote it.

01:16:11When I read it, I was so moved.

01:16:15When the doctors cut into a patient,

01:16:20and it's cold, you know,

01:16:22the way it is now, today,

01:16:27steam rises from the body.

01:16:33And the doctor will,

01:16:36will warm himself over the open wound.

01:16:43Could anyone look on that and not feel changed?

01:16:48What a moment.

01:16:50What a television moment.

01:16:53And nobody could have, you know,

01:16:56done it more sensitively than Bill Christopher.

01:17:08Next on MASH.

01:17:18There it is.

01:17:19That's the sound of peace.

01:17:23Ladies and gentlemen,

01:17:24five minutes ago at 10-01 this morning,

01:17:27the truce was signed in Panmunjom.

01:17:29The hostilities will end 12 hours from now at 10 o'clock.

01:17:33The war is over!

01:17:40The Korean War was only about 3, 4 years,

01:17:43and here we had been at it for 11.

01:17:4511 years.

01:17:46At some point, you're going to be running out of jokes,

01:17:52out of stories.

01:17:53We're stopping because we feel,

01:17:56we feel that if we went further,

01:18:00we would risk squeezing it dry.

01:18:03Hi, I'm Burt Metcalf.

01:18:05I'm the executive producer of MASH.

01:18:07It's been my good fortune to be here for 11 years now.

01:18:12It seems like all on this stage.

01:18:14Sitting next to me is Alan Alda,

01:18:16whom I suspect you all recognize readily.

01:18:19We're talking to you from Stage 9,

01:18:2220th Century Fox in Los Angeles.

01:18:24This is the operating room, the OR,

01:18:26in which we've done a number of memorable sequences

01:18:30over the years,

01:18:31and we wanted to talk to you a little about

01:18:33what we hope will be another memorable show for you,

01:18:36a two-hour final expanded version of MASH

01:18:38in which we're going to bring to a conclusion

01:18:41the Korean War and the 11-year run of MASH

01:18:43on television.

01:18:44I mean, people are looking forward

01:18:46to an emotional experience

01:18:47when these people that they've been watching for 11 years

01:18:50and whose fortunes they've been following

01:18:53finally come to that point where they separate.

01:18:56I thought it would be too flippant for us

01:18:59to just say, ah, the war's over,

01:19:00that's nice, that's great,

01:19:01let's go home and pick up our lives.

01:19:03It seemed like something we ought to deal with.

01:19:05My hope was to tell a story

01:19:09that showed the war ending

01:19:11and the doctors and nurses going home,

01:19:13but to show that in some way

01:19:15everybody had been affected by the war,

01:19:18that they were all going home

01:19:20with some kind of a wound.

01:19:22Dear Dad,

01:19:23for the first time I understand what a nervous disorder is

01:19:27because it seems I've got one.

01:19:29I guess I'll be seeing you soon

01:19:30since I doubt if I'll let a surgeon operate

01:19:32whose cheese has slipped off his cracker.

01:19:35Dear Lord,

01:19:37I know there must be a reason for this,

01:19:40but what is it?

01:19:43I answered the call to do your work.

01:19:46I've devoted my life to it,

01:19:47and now how am I supposed to do it?

01:19:51What good am I now?

01:19:53What good is a deaf priest?

01:19:55I thought it was interesting having Father Mulcahy

01:19:57get that disability and be angry with God

01:20:01that God had thrown him a curve.

01:20:06No, no, no, no, no, no, wait!

01:20:10Now don't, now don't you do that!

01:20:12No!

01:20:21My God, they're musicians!

01:20:23Winchester had this great passion for classical music,

01:20:27and early on in the show

01:20:30confronts a group of Chinese POWs

01:20:35who are musicians,

01:20:37and he gets them to perform Mozart's clarinet quintet,

01:20:43and it's a marvelous portion of the story.

01:20:47Doctor?

01:20:51It wasn't even a soldier.

01:20:54It was a musician.

01:20:55Later on, he learns that they're all dead.

01:20:59It becomes an enormous emotional upheaval for him.

01:21:10They threw you curves,

01:21:12and that was what was so good about that show.

01:21:16I now pronounce you husband and wife.

01:21:22I thought it would be really fun to have him be the one,

01:21:27the one who was trying desperately to get out of Korea,

01:21:31to fall in love with a Korean woman

01:21:34and be the one who stayed in Korea.

01:21:46Goodbye, Margaret.

01:21:48Goodbye, Margaret.

01:21:49I know you've got your career in order,

01:21:52but don't forget to have a happy life too.

01:21:55Harry and I, again, Margaret and Potter

01:21:58had their very serious, loving relationship.

01:22:05You're a dear, sweet man.

01:22:08I'll never forget you.

01:22:10I had to get through saying,

01:22:12You're a dear, sweet man, I'll never forget you,

01:22:15and I still can't do it

01:22:17because I never will.

01:22:19I mean, he was just, we were just so close.

01:22:30Loretta, you have very tearful eyes now,

01:22:33so this has got to be a very tearful moment for you.

01:22:36No.

01:22:38Yes, it is.

01:22:40Very.

01:22:42Very.

01:22:44I'm not doing well.

01:22:46How much are you going to miss the show?

01:22:50How much would you miss your honor?

01:22:53It was, for me, it was this perfect ending

01:22:58to a perfect experience.

01:23:04To this day, the MASH series finale

01:23:07is the highest-rated telecast in the history of television.

01:23:12It's a record that will never be broken.

01:23:15Nobody really knows how big that audience was

01:23:17because there were people watching in town halls,

01:23:20hundreds of people in front of one set,

01:23:22and they only counted the TV sets

01:23:24and tried to figure it out from that.

01:23:26So I like to think that we don't really know

01:23:29how big the audience was, but it was pretty big.

01:23:31It was about half the country watching at one time.

01:23:34In exactly 8 hours, the Korean War will be officially over.

01:23:37It's a time for a summing up,

01:23:39and these are the most up-to-date figures we have.

01:23:42The cost of the war to the United States

01:23:44was $22 billion.

01:23:47Don't look at me. I only get $300 a month.

01:23:50In human terms, the cost was much greater.

01:23:53Some critics have said that MASH is more than a TV show,

01:23:56that it did something in terms of changing

01:23:59the attitude of the American television audience towards war.

01:24:02Do you agree or disagree with that,

01:24:04and how do you think it may have changed the American attitude?

01:24:06Well, that's a big question.

01:24:08I think that it's clear that MASH fitted into

01:24:10a lot of the feelings of the country

01:24:12when we had come to Vietnam,

01:24:14and I don't feel that I'm the best person to expound on this,

01:24:18but MASH in its development, of course,

01:24:21began to deal with social issues,

01:24:23and I was, you know, we all felt

01:24:26that the things that we were able to touch on were meaningful.

01:24:30The acting was superb, a lot of the writing was very good,

01:24:34well-directed, just a very carefully crafted show

01:24:38with some ideas that are timeless.

01:24:40Good is good, and it lasts forever.

01:24:43It's the legacy that was left by a bunch of people

01:24:47who actually loved what they were doing.

01:24:49Okay, and action.

01:24:52One of the questions that I've often been asked over the years

01:24:56is why did we think the show was so successful?

01:24:59And I've always said that the audience loved those characters,

01:25:04but somehow, subliminally, they also got the sense

01:25:08that the actors loved one another.

01:25:11And cut!

01:25:13Ah, we're good.

01:25:15That's a wrap!

01:25:17Yeah!

01:25:32I think I'm proud of all those people

01:25:36that made it possible.

01:25:39All the writers and the actors and the whole gang.

01:25:44I think the feeling generally is one of

01:25:48sort of an overwhelming sadness

01:25:51because it's never going to be like this again.

01:25:55It's breaking up a family.

01:25:57It is, it's sad.

01:26:00The constant camaraderie

01:26:03and the constant humor and respect and love,

01:26:06it was synchronicity.

01:26:08It doesn't happen often, or maybe even ever again.

01:26:12Father, I may never see you again, and before you go,

01:26:15there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a long time.

01:26:18Your shirt's on backwards.

01:26:20Uh...Mash changed my life.

01:26:23And I always say, well, you know, the blessings

01:26:26that Mash showered on me were so great

01:26:29that I think I'm a pretty lucky actor.

01:26:34A couple of days ago, somebody asked me

01:26:37if I thought Mash had made me a better actor,

01:26:41and I said I didn't know about that.

01:26:44But I know it's made me a better human being.

01:26:49And there aren't many shows you can say that about.

01:26:52Colonel, before you go, we've been thinking about it,

01:26:55and there's a little something we'd like to give you.

01:26:58It's not much, but it comes from the heart.

01:27:17It's hard to remember all of the wonderful things

01:27:20I went through on Mash, because it happened so long ago.

01:27:24Sometimes it seems like it happened

01:27:26to a completely different person.

01:27:28But fortunately, he lets me live in his house.

01:27:32Look, I know how tough it is for you to say goodbye, so I'll say it.

01:27:40Miss you.

01:27:42I'll miss you. A lot.

01:27:45The show resonated with people in a way that, in my experience,

01:27:49has not happened before and has not happened since.

01:27:52The clichés when we were doing the show was from people who said,

01:27:55I never watch television, and I never miss Mash.

01:27:58The one I hear today more than any other is,

01:28:01I used to watch the show with my father,

01:28:04or I used to watch the show with my grandfather.

01:28:07Now I watch the show with my children.

01:28:22And I watch the show with my grandfather.

01:28:41And a big hello, you daddy-o's, mommy-o's and nc-o's,

01:28:44from Big Daddy O'Reilly.

01:28:46Big Daddy, just play the records.

01:28:48Got you covered, big cat.

01:28:49What?

01:28:50That means yes, sir.

01:28:51Real cool.

MAS*H: The Comedy That Changed Television

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