For eleven years, M*A*S*H represented the finest that television had to offer -- a pioneering series that contained both comedy and drama, not afraid to deal with previously controversial or taboo subjects.

M*A*S*H originated as a novel by Richard Hooker, a pseudonym for Dr. Richard Homberger, who served in a real M*A*S*H (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit during the Korean War. Ingo Preminger snapped up the film rights to the book, which had been rejected by 17 publishers before William Morrow published it.

The Twentieth Century Fox film version of M*A*S*H was released in 1970 and quickly became an unexpected hit. Written by Ring Lardner, Jr. and directed by Robert Altman, M*A*S*H was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture and won an Oscar for Best Screenplay. It starred Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland as Trapper and Hawkeye, two wisecracking surgeons for whom the Korean War was a playground when they were not saving lives in surgery. The language and graphic depiction of the wounded and the operating room shocked and mesmerized the American public, which was in the midst of protesting the Vietnam War.

With the film's success, 20th Century Fox Television and CBS decided to turn M*A*S*H into a TV comedy to be produced by Gene Reynolds, whose credits included a pair of Fox series, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and "Room 222." Reynolds first flew to London to meet with Larry Gelbart, whom Reynolds wanted to write the pilot and join the series. Gelbart was, and still is, one of Hollywood's best writers. His credits include "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" on Broadway, "Tootsie" and "Oh, God" on film and "Caesar's Hour" on television.

When Gelbart finished writing the script, Reynolds and associate producer Burt Metcalfe started casting. They knew that the film's stars would not be interested in devoting themselves to a television series, so they set about looking for new actors. Gary Burghoff, however, was willing and available to reprise his role of Radar O'Reilly in the television series.

Metcalfe went through an extensive search for Trapper John, and selected Wayne Rogers, who had been a soap opera star on "The Edge of Night." McLean Stevenson wanted to portray Hawkeye, but was persuaded to play Lt. Colonel Henry Blake instead. Gene Reynolds remembered Larry Linville's work from a "Room 222" audition and cast him as Frank Burns. After adding Loretta Swit as Hot Lips Houlihan, the only role still unfilled was Hawkeye Pierce.

Alan Alda read the M*A*S*H script and was considering the role of Hawkeye, but he had some reservations. He did not want the series to become "Abbott & Costello Go to War." Gelbart and Reynolds assured Alda that M*A*S*H would not be another hijinx-at-the-front series that had been seen many times before. They were striving for dark humor to mask the frustrations of the doctors and nurses who operated under a tremendous strain. The 4077th M*A*S*H was not, however, devoted to war or country: it was devoted to saving lives. Alda, clearly pleased. signed his contract one day before rehearsals were to begin.

Gelbart returned to the United States to write and produce the series on the Fox lot, riding his bicycle between his Old Writer's Building office and Stage 9. Before filming started, the network and studio agreed to some rather unusual demands for a brand new series. Reynolds wanted the series shot on film, not tape, and a day of rehearsal for the cast. Also, for added realism, a set was built at the Fox Ranch for outdoor shooting.

But the biggest battles were to come, as the CBS censors were afraid of M*A*S*H becoming too serious and dealing with controversial subjects. The network was not concerned about the antiwar nature of the series, it was just anti-serious, according to Gelbart.

Eventually, as the series' popularity grew, M*A*S*H was able to tackle subjects such as adultery, racism, homosexuality and violence. A key network concession was the right to stage scenes in the operating room. Gelbart and Reynolds lost one major battle - they did not want a laugh track, but CBS insisted. No laughter, however, was to be heard in the operating room.

One Gelbart invention during the first season was Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger, a man who wore dresses hoping to get a "Section 8" discharge from the army. Klinger, portrayed by Jamie Farr, supplied a considerable source of humor as he constantly tried to escape from Korea. Another character that developed during the early years was Father Mulcahy, the camp chaplain, played by William Christopher.

M*A*S*H had a rocky first season on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. Ratings were very poor, and the producers were unsure about their chances for survival. Gelbart had not quite found his pace and style, so the scripts were somewhat uneven during the first year. Fortunately, the network renewed the series for a second season, switching its timeslot to Saturday nights after "All in the Family," and a hit was born.

To improve the quality, Gelbart increased the amount of research into the Korean War; he interviewed people who had served in the war and, in 1974, made a trip to Korea with Reynolds. By the second season, the scripts were improving and audiences made M*A*S*H one of the all-time comeback stories in television.

Once the series achieved high ratings, Reynolds and Gelbart could keep the network at bay. Gelbart's scripts incorporated more drama into the storylines, which tried to reflect the horrors of war. Viewers were hooked.

But by the end of the third season, McLean Stevenson wanted to leave M*A*S*H for other starring roles. Gelbart and Reynolds made an extraordinary decision: Lt. Col. Henry Blake was killed in a plane crash as he headed home in the season's final episode, "Abyssinia, Henry." They kept the surprise from the cast until the moment before the scene was to be shot, and everyone, especially Stevenson, was stunned. When the episode was broadcast, it provoked a flood of angry letters from viewers. Gelbart and Reynolds tried to patiently answer them, explaining that the atrocities of war can be no more poignantly expressed than when such a beloved character as Henry dies senselessly.

Between years three and four, Wayne Rogers wanted to bow out of his role as Trapper John. With two popular characters leaving the series at once, CBS was nervous that the show would be weaker. But the changes refreshed the writing staff and added a sense of reality—people were killed in war, they were sent home. Nobody stayed forever, and new characters replaced old. Col. Sherman Potter, a regular Army soldier since World War I, was assigned to replace Henry. Capt. B.J. Hunnicut took Trapper's place both in the operating room and in Hawkeye's life. Yet, while Henry was as much one of the boys as Hawkeye and Trapper. Potter was a father figure. B.J., instead of having Trapper's free-spirited, slightly lecherous qualities, was a devoted husband and father.

While ratings did not suffer during the fourth season, Gelbart grew tired after nurturing the series through 97 episodes. So, after four seasons, Larry Gelbart left M*A*S*H. His departure created a void in the writing staff. Burt Metcalfe, Don Reo, and Allan Katz were named producers and they, along with executive producer Gene Reynolds, carried on M*A*S*H's level of quality.

After the fifth season, two more major changes occurred: Gene Reynolds left to produce "Lou Grant," and Larry Linville. who played the officious Major Frank Burns, also decided to call it quits because he felt his character had been pushed as far as possible. When Frank Burns was discharged, Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, a Boston blueblood played by David Ogden Stiers, was transferred to the unit.

Burt Metcalfe assumed the producing duties after Reynolds left, which he would handle for the remainder of the show's run. With Reynolds and Gelbart gone, changes in the series were inevitable. As news from Vietnam faded from the front page, M*A*S*H took on a more introspective viewpoint, and the characters were given a chance to evolve.

The greatest change took place in Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan, played by Loretta Swit. At first a by-the-book major who fooled around with the married Major Burns, she slowly showed a more human side. Margaret involved herself with the nurses on a more personal level, she dumped Frank for marriage, and began to see that Hawkeye and B.J. were not quite the malcontents she once thought they were. Eventually, her marriage crumbled and she turned to the members of the 4077th for friendship.

In the eighth season, the last major change occurred--Gary Burghoff, who played Radar since the 1970 film, left the series in a tearful goodbye. Although for much of the series he was a boy filled with Iowa naiveté, Radar said goodbye to Hawkeye, leaving him his teddy bear, and symbolically, his innocence. Burghoff, the producers thought, could not be easily replaced, so Klinger gave up his dresses to assume the role of company clerk.

By the eleventh season, M*A*S*H was still at the top of the ratings, but the actors and writers started to feel they were burning out. New storylines were harder to come by, so the cast took the unusual step of voting to bring the show to a conclusion. Having proven that television could be a great source of culture and quality, M*A*S*H left the airwaves in February, 1983.

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognized M*A*S*H with 99 Emmy nominations and 14 awards. It also received countless other awards, including the prestigious Humanitas Award in 1975 and the George Foster Peabody Award in 1976.

M*A*S*H has left its imprint on two decades as a symbol of American popular culture. The millions of fans around the globe welcomed the souls of the 4077th into their living rooms to see them struggle against the hardships of war. Week after week, the message was clear: "War is Hell."