The Chris Moeller Archives

The Top 50 TV Shows of All-Time: #8

#8- "M*A*S*H" CBS 1972-1983
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The non-fiction Korean War lasted four years. This series about an American army mobile hospital in the middle of the conflict lasted 11. During the show's epic run, 251 episodes aired, cast members came and went, and two or three times, at the end of heavy artillery shelling near the hospital, this exact banter took place. Hawkeye: "Do you hear that?" Answer: "No." Hawkeye: "That's what I mean." This is the show that brought multiple plotlines to episodic television, and it's still rare for a show to employ them alternately as dramatic and comedic in the same episode, as "M*A*S*H" frequently did. Uncommon for its time, it was shot entirely on film and frequently outdoors as well. The traditional laugh track was used, but occasionally removed to heighten the impact of certain plotlines. The series had a definitive anti-war point of view, and was certainly adapted from film (by the legendary Larry Gelbart) as a comment on the Vietnam War, which lingered on during the 1970s in an increasingly bloody and illegal fashion. It became increasingly popular as it aged, and as its characters matured, and the final episode was seen by more people than any other single television episode ever. In syndication, it lives on as arguably the most watched program, and one of the most admired, and why am I still writing about it when you know just as much about it as I do. The end.

posted by CM @ 9:00 PM