On September 17, 1972, M*A*S*H premiered on CBS, beginning an eleven-season run that would help reshape what American network television could do. Developed by Larry Gelbart from Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel and Robert Altman’s 1970 feature film, the series followed the doctors, nurses, and support staff of the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War.
Set in a frontline field hospital, M*A*S*H paired sharp antiwar and institutional satire with stories of exhaustion, loss, friendship, and resilience. Alan Alda starred as the irreverent but deeply committed surgeon Hawkeye Pierce, alongside Wayne Rogers as Trapper John McIntyre. The show repeatedly placed absurd military bureaucracy and comic mischief beside the urgent realities of surgery and the emotional toll of war.
Over time, M*A*S*H earned wide critical and popular acclaim for demonstrating that a prime-time network series could address grief, political frustration, moral ambiguity, and the human costs of conflict while retaining warmth and humor. Its 1983 finale, “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen,” became one of the most-watched television broadcasts in U.S. history, securing the program’s place as a landmark in television storytelling.
Image: Cast members of M*A*S*H in 1973. Photograph by Harry Chase, Los Angeles Times, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
