Student Blog: It's M*A*S*H Time!

Those of you who know me probably know I have been obsessed with the TV show M*A*S*H this summer. For those of you who don't know me, I will explain what I mean when I say 'obsessed.' I often go through what I call "phases of interest." I will be highly interested in one thing, usually a celebrity or TV show, for a period of time. I tend to think about whatever this interest is constantly and do loads of research whether that be through watching the show as often as possible or learning all I can about a celebrity. When the obsession dies down, the interest doesn't go away. I still love my past hyper focuses such as The Office, Helena Bonham Carter, and Meryl Streep, but they aren't always on my mind the way M*A*S*H is currently.

If I am hyper focused on a tv show, I usually go through a weird phase of missing the show almost as if the characters were family members once I finish the entire series. As I have just recently finished watching M*A*S*H, this is how I am feeling, so writing about the show will have to do instead of watching it. Without further ado, I give you 5 reasons I fell in love with M*A*S*H in no particular order:

(Spoiler Warning. I'm going to talk about a few details of the show that are meant to surprise the viewers. This warning may seem dumb since the show has been over for almost 40 years now, but the warning is mostly for Olivia. Olive, if you're reading this definitely stop here.)

1. Ahead of its time themes that have lasted the decades

The premise of M*A*S*H is the day to day life of the members of the 4077th MASH unit during the Korean War. We see the nurses and doctors tend to their patients and cope with life and participation in a time of war. The dry, sarcastic humor of the main character's such as Hawkeye Pierce and Max Klinger is dripping with antiwar sentiment. Keep in mind this show was airing during the Vietnam War. The protest of unnecessary fighting and violence is a sentiment still present in today's society. As Gary Burghoff (starred as Radar O'Reilly) put it, the show was making "pro-humanity statements." A theme I believe should always be prevalent in media and arts.

2. Alan Alda's laugh

There are always small details in shows that really make them my comfort show. One of those details is Alan Alda's laugh. Alan Alda played the main character of M*A*S*H, Hawkeye Pierce. Alda's laugh is just absolutely infectious. Hearing it never fails to make me smile, and since he laughed in just about every episode, I found myself smiling during the entire series.

3. Major Margaret Houlihan

I know I said this list is in no particular order, but Margaret Houlihan is the number one reason I love M*A*S*H. In the first few seasons of the show and in the movie, Margaret is mostly referred to as 'Hot Lips.' The actress who played her, Loretta Swit, pushed for Margaret to be more than just a punchline, and it worked! Margaret very quickly became one of the strongest characters on the show. She had a mind and feelings and so much more humor and spunk than she was originally given. That is another ahead of its time takeaway from this show. Women are fierce and powerful and more than just eye candy for the male characters. I've been trying to be a bit more like Margaret in my everyday life since watching the show. She takes what she wants and doesn't take crap from anyone.

4. Physical comedy

Season 10, episode 16 has one of the funniest scenes in comedy television (in my opinion). Hawkeye and his two tent mates, BJ and Charles, get into a fight about cleanliness which ends in the three of them competing over who can be the messiest. They pour coffee all over the tent, tear apart feather stuffed pillows, break records. They are essentially on a rampage of their own home, and the entire scene involves 0 talking. Physical comedy is one of my favorite genres to act in and watch when it is written well. Let me tell you, the M*A*S*H writers wrote it well.

5. Bond between cast mates

In season 3, Colonel Henry Blake is sent home from the war. Henry was very well liked by most of the other characters, especially his clerk Radar O'Reilly. While headed home to his family, Henry's helicopter is shot down by enemy snipers, and the unit is crushed when they are told the news. As it turns out, the only person in the cast that knew Henry's character was being killed off was Alan Alda. The writers even took the last pages out of the scripts, so no one would find out until they were rolling. All their reactions were genuine. I think it says a lot about a cast that they are so connected they have genuine, heartbroken reactions to the death of another character. Obviously, the actor who played Henry wasn't actually dead, but the cast had grown to love each other so much that they even loved each other's characters. That kind of bond shows in the acting too. That bond makes every single scene more powerful because they trust each other to play off one another and take risks. The Korean War is announced officially over in the series finale and the peace treaty is signed. All of the characters are crying and smiling with pure relief, and as I watched, so was I. I was relieved to see them all go home alive. With a cast as close as a family, the show begins to feel so real.

The moral of the story is go watch M*A*S*H if you haven't already, and if you have, go watch it again. I know I'm going to.

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