The year 2008 was the 36th anniversary of M*A*S*H premiering on CBS as well as the 25th anniversary of the series coming to a close. Time sure flies. It was a relatively slow year, with the biggest story probably being the restoration of the M*A*S*H site at the Malibu Creek State Park in California. The site was unveiled on February 23rd, 2008 (the 25th anniversary of the series finale airing) with actors Mike Farrell (B.J.), Loretta Swit (Margaret), William Christopher (Father Mulcahy) and Jeff Maxwell (Igor) in attendance alongside producers Gene Reynolds and Burt Metcalfe and frequent director Charles Dubin. Some 300 fans were also on hand to help celebrate

Also in February, W.C. Heinz, a writer who helped author Richard Hooker write his novel MASH, passed away at 93. In July, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, who developed the mobile army surgical hospital for the United States, passed away at 99 (I didn’t report it until September).

In August, newly repackaged DVD sets of the series began appearing in stores after first being an exclusive to Costco. And in September, repeats of M*A*S*H began airing on broadcast network ION Television (joining cable channels TV Land and Hallmark Channel).

In November, Alan Alda auctioned off some of his memorabilia from the series — including an autographed copy of “Inga,” an episode he wrote, and the boots he wore throughout the series — in November to raise money for the Bob Woodruff Foundation. The boots were unable to find a buyer. And in December, one of the creator’s of M*A*S*H*, Larry Gelbart, was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and inducted into its Hall of Fame.

Edited January 3rd, 2009 at 9:10AM ET

I cannot believe I forgot to include the customary quote by Colonel Potter, from “A War For All Seasons:”

“Here’s to the new year. May she be a damn sight better than the old one, and may we may we all be home before she’s over.”

It took me a little longer than I had originally planned but I’ve finally finished integrating WordPress into M*A*S*H, Finest Kind. After successfully adding WordPress to Television Obscurities I decided to do the same with this site. It makes updating a heck of a lot easier and, hopefully, means I can do so more often in the future. There are a lot of odds and ends about M*A*S*H I’ve wanted to talk about but could never find the right way to present it. Now I have a new avenue and I’m going to make the best of it. Check back often to see what I come up with.

I decided to retroactively add all of the recent updates (starting in August of 2007) to WordPress. I won’t be going back more than that, however. And so far, I haven’t allowed commenting on any of the existing articles, features or other parts of the website. I may in the future if there is interest. Comments are enabled on individual posts, however, so go to town. Please let me know if you find any broken links or images or have any problems of any kind.

I have to thank all the people at WordPress who have asked and answered questions. When I was having problems, I found plenty of help there. Simple Thought Productions created software that lets me use Jeroen Wijering‘s FLV Media Player without too much trouble. Semiologic’s Subscribe Me plug-in means I don’t have to learn anything about RSS (Real Simple Syndication). And IntroSites .html WordPress permalink on PAGES plugin (with a little tinkering) meant I could keep all the existing URLs in WordPress.