Hallmark Channel is having a two-day M*A*S*H marathon this weekend, which according to posts at the official Hallmark Channel community forums was promoted as early as last Saturday. The first portion of the marathon began this morning at 10AM with “M*A*S*H – The Pilot” and ended at 5PM following “Love Story.” It starts again tomorrow at 10AM with “Tuttle” and runs through 8PM with “The Sniper.” In all, the marathon includes the first 34 episodes of the series.

This appears to be a one-off marathon; Hallmark Channel’s listings through August 20th do not include additional episodes of M*A*S*H. As far as I know, this is the first time M*A*S*H has been seen on Hallmark Channel since July of 2010.

(Thanks to TWoods)

M*A*S*H has not been seen on Hallmark Channel since mid-July and will not be part of the cable channel’s official fall schedule. A variety of Martha Stewart programming will be the cornerstone of the channel’s afternoon/early evening schedule starting in September, with sitcoms The Golden Girls, Who’s the Boss? and Cheers airing multiple times in the early morning, evening and late night. According to Sitcoms Online, the schedule may change as Hallmark learns how the Martha Stewart programming performs. M*A*S*H, along with Little House on the Prairie and The Partridge Family, are said to be “resting” and could conceivably return at any time.

M*A*S*H continues to air on broadcast network Ion Television and cable channel TV Land, although as of September Ion Television will only air M*A*S*H on Saturday afternoons when it is not airing a movie. As for TV Land, starting in September it will air M*A*S*H from 4-6AM on weekday mornings and 8-10PM on Sunday evenings.

I’ve updated my feature on The Hallmark Channel’s M*A*S*H Bash specials, broadcast in January and May of 2007, respectively. In fact, each special now has its own page. Wayne Rogers hosted the first 12-hour marathon on January 1st, 2007 and you can watch four of his introductions here. Jamie Farr hosted the second marathon on May 31st, 2007 and you can watch all of his introductions, both specific and generic, here.

It seems that Hallmark Channel has pulled M*A*S*H from its schedule once again. According to the cable channel’s online schedule, M*A*S*H is nowhere to be seen through Saturday, August 14th. Hallmark started airing the series in September of 2003 and showed it consistently until October 2009, I believe, when it was pulled for the first time. It returned later that month only to be pulled again in November, not returning until January of 2010. It was pulled in February and didn’t return until May.

How Hallmark hopes to build its audience when it constantly changes its schedule is beyond me? And M*A*S*H isn’t the only show to suffer from abrupt removals and surprise returns. On the other hand, Hallmark must be doing something right because it was the 23rd most-watched ad-supported cable channel in prime time for the week ending July 18th, according to Media Life Magazine.

Thanks to arlo, who left a comment on my February post about M*A*S*H and Hallmark Channel, I can report that as of this Monday (May 10th) M*A*S*H has once again returned to Hallmark Channel, with four episodes airing Monday through Friday from 5-7PM. There’s no way of knowing how long the show will stay on the air this time around; the Hallmark Channel online schedule has it scheduled at least through Friday, June 4th. According to this post at the Hallmark Channel forums, M*A*S*H can now be seen in high definition on Hallmark Channel HD.