ALL WAR IS HELL
Swayze; Howard in show; Sutherland and Gould
THE classic sitcom ★
M*A*S*H turns 50 today, showing medics battling to save victims of combat while trying to stay sane.
Airing at the same time the US was fighting the Vietnam War, the show came to be seen as a commentary on that conflict.
Here NADINE LINGE ★
reveals 12 facts about the show...
THE show was based on the 1970 film starring Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould. Both were taken from Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors.
Hooker – real name Richard Hornberger – served as a surgeon in the Korean War in one of the M*A*S*H units and was the basis for the character “Hawkeye” Pierce.
But he was not a fan of Alan Alda’s antiwar portrayal, saying he “trampled on my memories”.
The theme tune Suicide Is Painless was used without lyrics on the show.
The original version for the film was written by director Robert Altman’s 15-year-old son, who went on to earn over €1.15 million from it.
Nurse
Apart from Alda, the only star to appear in nearly every episode was Loretta Swit – head nurse “Hot Lips” Houlihan.
Jamie Farr played Corporal
Klinger, who tried to get a psychiatric discharge by dressing in women’s clothing. The inspiration came from comedian Lenny Bruce, who successfully used a similar ruse to get discharged from the US Navy.
Both Alda and Farr served in the Korean War and Farr even wore his own dog tags in the show. Wayne Rogers (“Trapper” John McIntyre) was an officer in the Naval Reserve, while Mike