So everybody assumed that I put that stuff in my writing. But actually, I don't like to write political messages, and I don't like plays that have political messages, so I don't think I'm responsible for that I think it's what people assume, because at the time I was trying to help get the Equal Rights Amendment passed. For the 1983 finale, CBS charged sponsors 450,000 for each 30-second block of commercial time, a sum worth more than 1,000,000 today.) The people in MASH units worked long hours and endured. more of interest if you took it more seriously, so we had silly, stupid, farcical boofo stuff that we did, but it always had - or we tried to find an underpinning of - the hard stuff.
if we didn't show the bad effects of the war and just did a standard service comedy, we were, in a way, denying the real experience of the people who had lived through that time.ĪLDA: Trivializing it, yeah.
So they already didn't like some of the seriousness, because we realized we were doing. It captivated America and became the most watched.
In fact, the guy who ran the network, when he saw the show with the guy dying on the operating table, said "What is this? A situation tragedy?" MeTV Des Moines proudly presents a Veterans Day presentation of the series finale episode of MASH- Goodbye, Farewell and Amen. The episode was written by eight collaborators, including series star Alan Alda, who also directed. Closing out the series 11th season, the 2 12-hour episode first aired on CBS on February 28, 1983, ending the series original run. Larry was the first one to write a show in which a guy died on the operating table. 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen' is a television film that served as the series finale of the American television series MASH. Cast members and crew recall the final episode of TVs 'MASH,' called 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen,' that aired on Feb.
there's like a myth on the internet that I made it more political and I made it serious - more serious. MeTV Remembers the MASH Finale TV Listings. MARON: I know that some people have said that when you had more writing power in M*A*S*H, that it was able to get a little deeper.ĪLDA: I don't know some people don't. Click to expand.Alda adressed this last year with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast: