better than one hundred million people tuned in to bid “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” to the docs, nurses and staff of the fictional 4077th mobile army Surgical Hospital on at the present time in historic previous, Feb. 28, 1983.
the ultimate episode of the hit CBS sitcom “MASH” remained basically the most-watched tv program in American historic previous for 27 years.
It was lastly surpassed by super Bowl XLIV (the Saints over the Colts) in February 2010.
Its finale stays to be basically the most watched scripted tv current in American historic previous, forty years later.
“MASH” debuted in 1972, whereas the usa was nonetheless combating the Vietnam battle, sharing the darkish, comedic antics inside a subject hospital set in the course of the sooner Korean battle.
“‘Goodbye, Farewell and Amen’ acquired a gargantuan 60.three rating and seventy seven share … a whopping one zero five.9 million people watched on common over the two-and-a-half hours, with that quantity peaking at 121.6 million inside the ultimate six minutes,” writes MeTV.com in a 2022 retrospective of the landmark second in American broadcast tv.
“MASH” sitcom actors, from left, Jamie Farr, Loretta Swit, David Ogden Stiers, Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell, Alan Alda and William Christopher in publicity portrait, circa 1978. (twentieth Century-Fox tv/Getty photos)
The seventy seven share meant that better than three-quarters of all of the people watching tv that evening time had been watching this one episode of “MASH.”
It drew a extreme-share of eighty two in San Francisco, in line with a report on the time from selection.
“whereas the numbers are spectacular, what makes ‘Goodbye, Farewell and Amen’ endure are the feelings.” — MeTV.com
“Advertisers, who spent as a lot as $450,000 per 30-second enterprise spot, apparently acquired their money’s worth,” selection famous.
“MASH” was so in vogue all by its eleven-season run that Prince Charles visited a taping of the current whereas on a two-week tour of the usa in 1977.
He then joined a luncheon with the forged, nonetheless in costume, in line with an associated Press report on the time.
Added MeTV, “whereas the numbers are spectacular, what makes ‘Goodbye, Farewell and Amen’ endure are the feelings. merely put, the prolonged ending caught the touchdown.”
England’s Prince Charles talks with American actor Alan Alda, who performed Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce on “MASH” all by a go to to the set of the current, Oct. 27, 1977. This “MASH” episode, entitled “Comrades In Arms (half 1),” aired on Dec. 6, 1977. (CBS picture Archive/Getty photos)
The episode closed with Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) leaving the unit by helicopter, when he appears to be like down and sees the phrase “Goodbye” in massive letters spelled out with rocks — the message left behind by fellow army subject surgeon B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell).
It was truly a “goodbye” to the nation from in all probability basically the most beloved casts in tv historic previous.
“Viewers laughed on the characters’ antics in Rosie’s bar or The Swamp with Hawkeye, nestled in his purple robe, the coloration of royalty,” the Hollywood Reporter wrote whereas celebrating the thirty fifth anniversary of the finale in 2018.
“MASH” was at numerous occasions darkish, deep, considerate, scathing or cynical — but always riotously humorous.
“They mourned losses inside the working room, sensed how tightly Radar (Gary Burghoff) clung to his Teddy bear at evening time, and felt Maxwell Klinger’s (Jamie Farr) delight in his Statue of Liberty outfit and B.J. Hunnicutt’s damaged coronary heart as he missed his daughter’s childhood.”
l. a. – JANUARY 1: Pictured is Jamie Farr (as Cpl. Maxwell Q. Klinger) on the CBS tv sitcom, “MASH” in 1977. (CBS by way of Getty photos)
The viewers that was glued to the tube for the ultimate minutes was so massive it disrupted the plumbing infrastructure of NY metropolis when the curtain closed.
“So many people rushed to the restroom after the ending, the following stress drop from flushing bogs brought on a surge inside the tunnels that convey water from the Catskills to prolonged island,” wrote MeTV.
The sitcom was primarily based on the hit 1970 film “MASH,” which in flip was impressed by the 1968 e book “MASH: A Novel of Three army docs” by Richard Hooker, the pen identify of a former army surgeon.
“MASH” the tv current was at numerous occasions darkish, deep, considerate, scathing or cynical — but always riotously humorous.
CBS tv commercial as a end result of it appeared inside the Feb. 26, 1983 concern of tv information journal — an for the ultimate episode of “M*A*S*H,” which was broadcast on Feb. 28, 1983. that contains William Christopher, Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit, Alan Alda, David Ogden Stiers, Harry Morgan and Jamie Farr. (CBS by way of Getty photos)
people better than forty years in the past, tens of millions of them veterans of World battle II, Korea or Vietnam, associated deeply to the struggles of the males and females of the 4077th.
Alda, who not solely starred in “MASH” however helped script the ultimate episode, was a U.S. army veteran who truly served in South Korea shortly after the battle there ended.
All of them had been certain collectively by responsibility and customary humanity, whereas lamenting the state of a species so quick to kill every completely different.
Farr, too, served inside the army in Korea throughout the identical time.
“MASH” paired quick-witted docs pulled from civilian life to patch up badly wounded and dying American boys, and typically the enemy, whereas skewering army regulation, thrown collectively with profession army regulars making an try to protect up order.
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All of them had been certain collectively by responsibility and customary humanity, whereas lamenting the state of a species so quick to kill every completely different.
“MASH” was, in its essence, divine anti-battle comedy inside the custom of “Catch-22,” fed to a nation nonetheless patching up the bodily and societal wounds of the Vietnam battle.
Press convention earlier than ultimate episode of “MASH” in February 1983. From left, Loretta Swit, Mike Farrell, David Odgen, Jaime Farr, Alan Alda, Harry Morgan, William Christopher and forged. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella assortment by way of Getty photos)
Its success was created by a novel confluence of circumstances: a chopping-edge, brilliantly written, effectively-acted emotionally fascinating comedy that aired on the acceptable second in historic previous.
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The proof of its connection was found inside the historic dimension of the viewers forty years in the past as we converse.
“In constructing the landmark collection, its forged and crew forged a bond of affection and respect that lives to at the present time: a love for fact in storytelling, a love for the viewers they had been entertaining and a love for every completely different,” said the Hollywood Reporter.
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