M*A*S*H: Anti-War But Not Antiseptic
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
In the Beginning
On September 17, 1972, CBS introduced television viewers to M*A*S*H, a half-hour comedy set in an army hospital situated approximately five miles from the front lines during the Korean War. The M*A*S*H acronym stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
At first, M*A*S*H appears to be an ordinary, run-of-the-mill military comedy. It depicts the usual antics associated with military settings, including outwitting the establishment, coping with boredom and monotony, and finding glimmers of sunshine during the horrors of war. We saw these themes in other military-based properties, e.g. Hogan’s Heroes, Mr. Roberts.
But M*A*S*H was no ordinary show.
In fact, M*A*S*H evolved into one of the most intelligent, powerful, and gripping shows of the polyester decade. It struck a chord that resonated for eleven years and 251 episodes.
First, some background is in order.
Dr. Richard Hornberger served as a surgeon in the M*A*S*H 8055th during the Korean War. Influenced by his golf swing, Hornberger used the pseudonym Richard Hooker when he detailed his experiences in a novel. Initially rejected by seventeen publishers, M*A*S*H found a publisher, a readership, and a transformation to the big screen at Twentieth-Century Fox. The success of the book, film, and television series results significantly from timing. By the early 1970’s, an anti-war sentiment pervaded after years of American involvement in Vietnam. The time was ripe for stories to tackle subjects related to war.
The Television Transition
Like the movie, the television series’ central character is Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce, a.k.a. Hawkeye. His nickname results from his father having read only one book -- The Last of the Mohicans. Hawkeye’s cohorts at the M*A*S*H 4077th or ‘four-oh-double natural’ were Lt. Colonel Henry Blake, the befuddled commanding officer; Walter ‘Radar’ O’Reilly, the company clerk with the ability to hear helicopters bearing wounded beyond normal hearing distance; John ‘Trapper’ McIntrye, Hawkeye’s partner in surgery, practical jokes, and drinking to escape the pressure of surgery in a war zone; Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan, a ‘regular army’ nurse who has passion, admiration, and respect for Major Frank Burns, an inept ‘regular army’ doctor.
After three seasons, Dr. B.J. Hunnicutt and Colonel Sherman Potter replaced Trapper John and Colonel Blake respectively. Charles Emerson Winchester III replaced Frank Burns in the sixth season. The three characters contrasted greatly with their counterparts.
Where Trapper was a skirt-chaser like Hawkeye, B.J. was adamantly devoted to his wife Peg.
Where Henry Blake was intimidated by Army protocol, Sherman Potter was a dedicated ‘regular army’ career man, though he earned the respect of the staff.
Where Burns was inept, gullible, and fragile, the Boston-bred Winchester was excellent, intelligent, and strong.
The only major character created specifically for the television series was Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger, an average guy from Toledo, Ohio who dressed in women’s clothing. The cross-dressing was a ploy to convince the doctors to declare him mentally unfit. In military lingo, Klinger wanted a Section 8 discharge.
M*A*S*H did not focus on the action of war, but rather, the consequences.
The show never backed away from the realities of war. It treated the subject intelligently, thoughtfully, and provocatively. Some stories in particular show the depth of the characters. These stories set the tone of quality which became the show’s benchmark.
Harsh Realities
One first-season episode explored unchartered television territory, In Sometimes You Hear The Bullet (1st Season, 1972-73), Hawkeye’s friend Tommy Gillis is researching a book about war. Gillis wants to debunk the myth perpetuated by glorious war movies where the hero hears the bullet that kills him. Gillis wants to call his book You Never Hear the Bullet.
Later, Gillis is brought to the 4077th as a patient. He confesses to Hawkeye on the operating table that he heard the bullet that wounded him. Despite his surgical talent, Hawkeye cannot save Gillis.
Hawkeye breaks down and cries. He admits to Henry Blake that this is the first time he cried since arriving at the 4077th. Henry shows rarely seen blunt wisdom in his acceptance of reality.
Look, all I know is what they taught me at command school. There are certain rules about a war. And Rule Number One is young men die. And Rule Number Two is doctors can’t change Rule Number One.
Hawkeye then turns an underage soldier over to the military police. Played by Ron Howard, the soldier left the U.S. for Korea to impress his girlfriend. Hoping to prevent another young man’s death or at least the distinct possibility, Hawkeye receives a heartfelt I hate you! He responds, Let’s hope it’s a long and healthy hate.
Sometimes You Hear the Bullet was the first M*A*S*H episode, perhaps the first television episode to strike at the root of the emotions affecting doctors.
Abyssinia, Henry (3rd Season, 1974-75) marks another television landmark. This episode broke a cardinal rule of television -- never kill off a major character. In Abyssinia, Henry, Henry receives his discharge, celebrates the end of his military career, and plans his stateside return.
He never makes it home.
A particularly touching moment occurs in the penultimate scene. Henry is about to get in the helicopter that will take him to the airport when he notices Radar still saluting him. Henry goes to Radar and says, You behave yourself. Or I’m gonna come back here and kick your butt. The exchange shows the father-son relationship between the two, made even more distinct by the episode’s final scene.
While the doctors operate on wounded soldiers, Radar enters the operating room without a mask. After Trapper admonishes him, Radar bluntly states that Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. There were no survivors. A brief montage of Henry’s ‘finest’ moments followed.
Red Tape
The show’s military backdrop provided ample opportunities to make fun of military bureaucracy, ineffectiveness, and red tape.
In The Late Captain Pierce (4th Season, 1975-76), we saw the darker side.
The Army incorrectly pronounces Hawkeye dead and notifies his father. Meanwhile, Hawkeye contends with a paper pushing Army bureaucrat and a soldier named Digger. Digger has orders to take a body, preferably Hawkeye’s, back to his superiors. At the end of the episode, Hawkeye figures if you can’t beat them, join them. He gets on Digger’s bus with the dead soldiers only to depart because of choppers bearing wounded soldiers.
Surgeons Can Bury Their Mistakes, Psychologists Cannot
M*A*S*H thoughtfully explored psychological problems connected to war.
When a patient or doctor needed psychological counseling, Dr. Sidney Freedman made frequent ‘tent calls’ to the 4077th. A particularly powerful episode is Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler? (4th Season, 1975-76). A soldier replaces his own identity with that of Jesus Christ.
Of the 4077th personnel, Hawkeye needs Sidney’s advice the most. In Hawk’s Nightmare (5th Season, 1976-77), he has bad dreams about childhood friends after making a point about the youth of wounded soldiers.
In Bless You, Hawkeye (9th Season, 1980-81), a patient smelling like a wet, burlap sack triggers a long-buried childhood memory for Hawkeye. The memory sets off sneezing fits with no medical explanation. Sidney helps Hawkeye through the ordeal with his usual gentle, perceptive, and clarifying manner. Through an emotional walk down memory lane, Sidney and Hawkeye learn that a cousin revered by Hawkeye pushed Hawkeye into a lake when they were row boating. Hawkeye repressed and reversed the memory. He convinced himself that he fell in the lake where he emerged smelling like a ‘wet, burlap sack.’ The odor ignited the memory but Hawkeye’s psyche dealt with the emotional pain through physical agony.
The final episode of M*A*S*H explores Hawkeye’s psychological territory deeper than any previous episode. Goodbye, Farewell, Amen (11th Season, 1982-83) sent the 4077th personnel home when the hostilities of the Korean War ceased in July of 1953. The appropriately titled series finale had a few obstacles in store, though.
The staff picked up some locals after a July 4th outing. To avoid being detected by the enemy, they stopped the bus during the return trip to camp. Everyone is absolutely silent except for a baby.
Hawkeye has an off-screen mental breakdown after the Korean mother smothers her baby to death. The show opens with him in a hospital under Sidney’s care. He continually tells Sidney that the women smothered a chicken.
Again, Hawkeye alters the pivotal action in his mind.
Again, Sidney probes Hawkeye’s several retellings of the event until Hawkeye achieves a gut-wrenching realization, admittance, and catharsis of the tragic event.
Youth
The young age of the wounded was a running theme throughout M*A*S*H. In End Run (5th Season, 1976-77), star college football player turned sergeant Billy Tyler has a leg amputated. Tyler is the proverbial athlete cut down in his prime. Surprisingly, his inspiration to keep moving forward comes not from the doctors or spiritual leader Father Mulcahy, but Radar. He identifies with Radar because they are both Iowans.
Radar himself became a Purple Heart recipient in an episode deeply detailing the relationship between Radar and Hawkeye. In Fallen Idol (6th Season, 1977-78), Radar is wounded on the way to a Seoul pleasure trip. Since Hawkeye convinced Radar to visit Seoul, he becomes guilt-ridden. The guilt overwhelms Hawkeye and he gets drunk with a consequentially massive hangover. The hangover causes Hawkeye to leave the Operating Room during a session. When Radar hears what happened, he confronts Hawkeye. An intense exchange follows revealing Radar’s hero worship and Hawkeye’s weariness of it. Though the friendship will never be what it once was, Hawkeye and Radar slowly, tentatively, and eventually mend their bond.
Nothing Like Being There
Other 4077th personnel sought out action to better understand the soldier’s experience on the front lines.
One of Father Mulchay’s jobs was to provide understanding, compassion, and sensitivity to wounded soldiers. In Mulcahy’s War (5th Season, 1976-77), a patient challenges Father Mulcahy because of his lack of battle experience. The challenge inspires Mulcahy to see the action up close and personal. With Radar, he ventures to an aid station and winds up unexpectedly performing an emergency tracheotomy amidst shelling whiled guided by Hawkeye via radio.
In The Life You Save (9th Season, 1980-81), Charles faces the action after a sniper attack. He comes within an inch of death, literally, as a bullet goes through his cap. Obsessed with death, Charles goes to a battalion aid station. He refuses to return to the 4077th until he finds the meaning, if any, of death. After talking with a soldier who is about to die, Charles apparently satisfies his quest and leaves for the 4077th. He metaphorically leaves his cap at the aid station.