According to a September 28th, 1972 article in The Montreal Gazette, M*A*S*H was broadcast in Canada on the CBC, Fridays at 8PM. L. Ian MacDonald reviewed the series, suggesting that “successful television series are seldom derived from the cinema and, at first glance, MASH seemed a most unlikely prospect.” He continued, writing that “the film’s essentially anti-bureaucratic plot was certain to be diluted and its rollicking sexual aspects deleted so that TV might employ yet another safe sit-com — a sort of medical Hogan’s Heroes.” And yet, according to MacDonald, “the television treatment of MASH is remarkably faithful and, in its half-hour format, ideally suited to the film’s episodic quality.”
Discussing the second episode (“To Market, to Market,” originally broadcast September 24th, 1972 on CBS), MacDonald noted that its black market theme, “even in the lighest [sic] context, was unthinkable in television’s recent past. Equally inadmissible was most dialogue connoting sex, however funny.” MacDonald ended the review with a look at the cast:
Alan Alda’s perception of Hawkeye is just right. His frivolous carryings-on never entirely conceal a simmering rage against the Catch-22 syndrome and other forms of incompetence.
McLean Stevenson’s reading of the status conscious colonel is not so one sided that his essentially decent qualities are forgotten. Loretta Swit’s Hot Lips, while a bit below Sally Kellerman’s unforgettable film characterization, is nevertheless firm enough, while Larry Linville is perfect as Hotlips’ lover, the hapless Maj. Frank Burns.
The series is a hopeful stirring for television.
Sources:
MacDonald, L. Ian. “Against the odds M.A.S.H. is good TV fare.” The Gazette (Montreal). 28 Sep. 1972: 29. (Read Online at Google News Archive)
