In its last year, the M*A*S*H TV series had been struggling coming up with new ideas. People who worked around it started to frazzle, pressured to come up with something fresh; the cracks began to show.
So they all gathered together officially and put the question up for a vote. The future of the show remained in the hands of those who were there for its birth, some newer ones too. Those who voted to continue the show apparently lost, but were responsible for the spin-off, AfterMASH, which commenced in 1983.
It's Hard To Say Goodbye
The cast and crew of M*A*S*H must have had a tough time letting go after the filming of the finale. After working for 11 seasons together, they had long since ceased to see each other workmates and had segued into the closeness of a family.
Funnily enough, the series finale wasn’t really the finale. Not for the cast and crew anyway. They gathered one more time after the filming of the monster last episode to capture one more sub-finale of sorts. Technically, the last show they ever made was “As Time Goes By.” Then they buried those time capsules and turned their backs on M*A*S*H, carrying only their memories with them.
The Mysterious Hat
By now you, can’t be surprised when M*A*S*H produces another odd item, showing up and disappearing mysteriously, like those time capsules, teddy bear, and the dress. The show ran for 11 seasons and a lot of things happened under our noses.
When the series had just started, credits were lined up in the film to highlight how and where the series had drawn its main ideas from. Alan Alda was shown with a hat in the process. This same hat was used by Donald Sutherland in the movie, and then it mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen again throughout the remainder of the show’s life.
Based On A Novel
For all the smashing success the M*A*S*H TV series ended up enjoying, it didn’t show much promise when it began. In fairness to its creators, they were starting something that was relatively new and potentially controversial at the time. It was the first military-drama-comedy ever aired on TV, and many viewers found the amalgam an unusual one.
Even Larry Gelbart, who wrote the pilot show, didn’t know much about it at all while living in the United Kingdom. What made him write M*A*S*H was his deep appreciation for Robert Altman’s film. How the tides have turned since then! While the TV show has been insanely popular, many fans aren’t even aware that it was based on the book and movie that preceded it.
Never Released
Throughout the eleven seasons of the M*A*S*H TV series, as diverse as the subject matters and themes they tackled were, it is worth noting that only one episode was deemed unfit to air. The episode wasn’t really unlike every one of those that had been shown, but the network regarded it to be thinly unpatriotic.
It concerned a number of military men who were calling for their repatriation back to the States, bidding against each other to travel home first. Management thought the back message controversial and demoralizing and didn’t want to trigger sentiments of those opposed to the war back home. Many soldiers wanted to go home and this episode would’ve incited it even more. So it never flickered to life on our TV screens.