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https://theconversation.com/m-a-s-h-50-years-on-the-anti-war-sitcom-was-a-product-of-its-time-yet-its-themes-are-timeless-190422>
"
MASH, stylised as M*A*S*H, is the story of a rag-tag bunch of medical
misfits of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital thrown together against the
horrors of the Korean war in the 1950s. The series endured for 11 seasons, from
September 1972 to the final episode in 1983.
Originally it was centred on two army surgeons, the wisecracking but empathetic
Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce, played by Alan Alda, and the deadpan “Trapper” John
McIntyre, played by Wayne Rogers.
The show had an ensemble cast and different episodes would often focus on one
of the featured characters.
There was the meek Corporal “Radar” O'Reilly, cross-dressing Corporal Klinger,
the easy-going Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake and pious Father Mulcahy. The
antagonists, conniving Major Frank Burns and Major Margaret “Hot Lips”
Houlihan, were foils for Hawkeye and Trapper but occasionally were central
characters in some episodes too.
Based on the 1970 movie, itself based on a novel,
MASH was designed as a
“black comedy” set during the Korean War.
It was really a thinly veiled critique of the war in Vietnam raging at the
time.
The creators of the show knew they wouldn’t get away with making a Vietnam war
comedy. Uncensored news broadcasts showing the viciousness of Vietnam were
transmitted straight to the American public who were, by now, growing jaded of
the increasingly brutal war.
Setting the series 20 years earlier allowed the creators to mask their
criticisms behind a historical perspective – but most viewers realised the true
context."
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
