M*A*S*H: From Film to Television
The Antiwar Movie that Became One of TV's All Time Sitcom Successes
Apr 1, 2009
Besides the obvious changes to the cast, key differences in tone and comic style allowed for the enduring success that followed from the idea to turn M*A*S*H into a series. More than an extension of its cinematic forebear, new stories and themes were realized over its 11-year run for a changing American audience.
M*A*S*H Gives a D*A*M*N
It was 1970 when Robert Altman broke into the New Hollywood with M*A*S*H, a war film that features no combat sequences and focuses instead on an a group of military surgeons struggling to care for the wounded—as well as their own psychological trauma. Altman's sardonic take on the absurdity of war came from Richard Hooker's 1968 novel based on his own wartime experiences as an enlisted surgeon.
M*A*S*H was released as Vietnam-era protests reached their peak. The film's stated setting of Korea may have pleased ideological censors but did little to hide the topical nature of its subject. Contrasting fun-loving personalities like Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper John (Elliott Gould) with the steady stream of bloody soldiers and nagging memories of life before the war, its unapologetic, satirical realism recalls an updated version of Dr. Strangelove or Catch-22 (also adapted for film in 1970).
Training its observations on the psychological effects of war rather than intellectual political queries, M*A*S*H is more the everyman's film than Strangelove while coming across as more clear (and more funny) than Catch-22's confused sarcasm. Coupled with Altman's pioneering use of zoom lenses and overlapping sound techniques, M*A*S*H was a major success as both a popular film (the Grand Prix at Cannes, a handful of Oscar nominations) and a conscientious social document.
Tour of Duty Extended
Two years later writer/producer Larry Gelbart brought M*A*S*H to CBS as a half-hour sitcom that would eventually air for almost three times as long as the duration of the Korean War itself. By 1973 M*A*S*H was one of TV's highest rated programs; its metrics would remain strong through its 1983 finale.
The new M*A*S*H featured a new cast, notably Alan Alda as Hawkeye and Jamie Farr as Maxwell Kilnger (only Gary Burghoff was held over from the film as Radar O'Reilly). This cast was better suited to the overt comedy required by television's mass audience and episodic structure. As the original producers migrated away from the program and new creative voices emerged (namely Alda, who wrote and directed dozens of episodes), other characters entering and exiting in true revolving door fashion.
By the early-'80s M*A*S*H had taken on a more somber tone, using humor only to punctuate its didactic statements. Ironically, this fundamental change brought the series closer to its roots in Altman's film. If the configuration of the television audience shifted in reaction to such changes, its total viewership did not decline. Younger viewers with little memory of Vietnam, let alone Korea, were continually drawn to M*A*S*H. The much-promoted series finale in February, 1983 drew a record TV audience and set up decades of syndication that have outlived several new wars as well as television's reinvention of itself.
Had M*A*S*H been adapted directly for television its prospects for any kind of success might have seemed unlikely. Attentive to the special needs of the television format, with its audience, logistical requirements, and long-term self-reflexivity all different from those of a feature film, the emphasis on comedy and the gradual shift toward dramatic storytelling gave M*A*S*H the particular value that few spin-offs have achieved.
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