I’m continuing my look at M*A*S*H memorabilia, this time focusing on magazines. The following list includes more than 40 issues of a seven different magazines ranging from Cracked to TV Guide. This is not a complete list of every magazine with an article about M*A*S*H. I decided not to include local TV newspaper inserts/magazines or foreign magazines. I’ve also tried to only mention magazine issues published while M*A*S*H (and AfterMASH) were on the air. Also, I’ve noted which issues feature M*A*S*H covers.
Aside from one or two issues of TV Guide, I don’t own any of these issues. I’ve gathered the most accurate information I can from listings on eBay and other online sources. I apologize in advance for any mistakes or omissions.
When possible, I’ve provided links to articles that are available online.
Cracked
March 1973 – Cover; M*A*S*H parody
July 1977 – Cover; M*A*S*H parody
May 1979 – M*A*S*H parody
May 1980 – Cover; M*A*S*H parody
January 1981 – Cover; M*A*S*H parody
November 1981 – Cover; M*A*S*H parody
October 1982 – Cover; M*A*S*H parody
May 1983 – Cover; M*A*S*H parody
Cracked published a “M*A*S*H Fun Book” in September 1983 collecting four parodies from earlier issues.
Dynamite
January 1976 – Cover; Article, Harry Morgan and Mike Farrell
December 1981 – Cover; Article, M*A*S*H‘s 10th anniversary
MAD
April 1974 – M*A*S*H parody
October 1970 – M*A*S*H parody
October 1982 – Cover; M*A*S*H parody [Read Online]
National Inquirer
January 18, 1983 – Cover; Article, Final episode of M*A*S*H
Newsweek
February 28th, 1983 – Cover; Article, M*A*S*H series finale
People
March 17, 1975 – Cover; Article, Alan Alda [Read Online]
March 6, 1978 – Article, Medical Advisor Walter Dishell [Read Online]
March 13, 1979 – Cover; Article, Loretta Swit [Read Online]
April 9, 1979 – Article, Mike Farrell [Read Online]
July 23, 1979 – Article, Jamie Farr [Read Online]
November 17, 1980 – Article, Filming the 200th episode [Read Online]
June 15, 1981 – Cover; Article, Alan Alda [Read Online]
August 21, 1981 – Article, David Ogden Stiers [Read Online]
December 27, 1982 – Article, Larry Gelbart [Read Online]
March 7, 1983 – Article, End of M*A*S*H [Read Online]
May 16, 1983 – Article, Jamie Farr [Read Online]
October 24th, 1983 – Cover; Article, AfterMASH [Read Online]
March 4, 1996 – Obituary, McLean Stevenson [Read Online]
April 24th, 2000 – Obituary, Larry Linville [Read Online]
TV Guide
February 24, 1973 – Cover; Article, Alan Alda
February 9, 1974 – Cover; Article, Loretta Swit
August 10, 1974 – Article, Gary Burghoff
August 24, 1974 – Article, Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart visit Korea
November 2, 1974 – Cover; Article, Wayne Rogers
August 30, 1975 – M*A*S*H review by Frank Rich
September 27th, 1975 – Article, Jamie Farr
January 24, 1976 – Cover, Cast changes on M*A*S*H
June 4, 1977 – Cover; Article, Alan Alda article
February 25, 1978 – Cover; Article, David Ogden Stiers article
March 17, 1979 – Cover; Article, Mike Farrell
January 5, 1980 – Cover; Article, Cast of M*A*S*H
April 25, 1981 – Cover; Article, Creating a M*A*S*H script
February 12, 1983 – Cover; Article, End of M*A*S*H
November 5, 1983 – Article, AfterMASH
January 7, 1984 – Cover; Article, AfterMASH
Do you own any of these magazines? Be sure to let me know about other magazines that include noteworthy M*A*S*H articles.
I think the all-time greatest “M*A*S*H” magazine cover was the one that appeared on — of all things — the Cracked humor magazine that was on racks in February of 1983 when the series ended (cover dated “May 1983”). It was probably the ONLY Cracked cover that wasn’t even done in a funny way, and was outright appropriately sentimental. I’ve wished for years that Cracked would’ve made a poster out of that cover. It’s this one here — and every “M*A*S*H” fan will absolutely LOVE this image if you’ve never seen it before: https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/1091061.jpg
Oh, and speaking of Cracked, they did also do an “AfterMASH” parody later in 1983. Ironically, the cover on that one is on “The A-Team”, which is the show that cause the cancellation of “AfterMASH” the following season. I think this was the parody where one of the jokes in the introduction had some line about how the show had decided to take “the three least interesting characters” and put them in their own spinoff show. Cover image is here: https://crackedreviews.blogspot.com/2010/11/cracked-203-sylvester-looks-good.html
Definitely never seen that image before from Cracked and you are absolutely right. That may be the best M*A*S*H image I’ve ever seen. The 4 who left the show throughout it’s run being there together and faded a bit, and really just having the entire cast from all the “era’s” of the show together in one image. That is really awesome. Thanks for making us aware of this.
I may be in the minority here, but I think AfterMASH was quite underrated. Not as great as the original, but a lot better than most of the crap on TV these days.
I don’t have many. I do own the first M*A*S*H TV Guide cover; a Seattle edition, if I recall correctly. I also own two copies of the issue spotlighting the finale – one is from out-of-state, I don’t remember where, but the other is from my neck of the woods, Northeast Ohio. (That one wound up being a personal chaser, and indeed, I rarely collect any TV Guides that aren’t local-to-me anymore.)
While I don’t *think* there was an article or anything like that in it, in the summer of 2001 TV Guide released one of their crossword magazines and it featured a M*A*S*H cover. I remember finding it at the store the day before my family’s trip to Chicago. I got it and still have it somewhere. I didn’t do any of the puzzles; I just wanted it because it was M*A*S*H-related!
Trying to list all of the local-only magazines with M*A*S*H covers/articles may not be impossible, but certainly very, very difficult. I’ve seen MANY from all over the place on eBay. I’ve got a couple local-to-me – actually two copies of the same issue, focused on the finale – that I stumbled across at an antique store several years back (just part of an overall old magazines mega score for me, but that’s another story), but those are the only ones I can recall having right now.
Agreed on the Cracked parody with the former cast pictured in the last one. But my favorite of those is the 1977 one because they really get the humor of that era M*A*S*H (season 5, not quite Gelbart witty, but pretty close). There are examples of ’70s cracked penchant for silly puns (Potter using a butter knife to “spread the word” – I think that’s the one it’s in), but a lot of the jokes could be in an actual M*A*S*H episode.
In MAD, the 1970 one is, of course, the movie parody. In the first TV parody, the writer generally doesn’t “get” the show, thinking of hijinks at the front, the very thing Alan Alda wasn’t going to do, and being insensitive to the horrors of war, the opposite of the show’s intent. Some of that era’s irreverence was captured well, however. The 1983 one had a better take on the rail end of the show’s run, though I was especially looking forward to seeing the article drawn by Mort Drucker this time, given his cover illustration. I thought he’s be especially great caricaturing Larry Linville. But no Larry on the cover, and Jack Davis (I’m a big fan) doing the inside piece.
Another listing:
Crazy
March, 1978 – M*A*S*H parody
This one was drawn by their resident Mort Drucker imitator Kent Gamble. At least I got an idea how Drucker MIGHT have drawn Frank Burns. The intro to the satire states that, up to that point, they hadn’t done M*A*S*H before, and, if my memory serves (I saved very few of my mid-period CRAZYs when thinning out my humor magazines later, and this issue was one I saved explicitly for the M*A*S*H parody), they didn’t do another.
Thanks for starting this list. For years I’ve wanted to try to collect all the M*A*S*H-related TV Guide covers, and I’ve never been sure how close I’ve been to finding all of them.
Is the puzzle magazine cover the one that has several military-related TV show characters (like Sgt. Bilko) doing a re-creation of the “Spirit of ’76” painting? I’ve got that one … and similarly never did the puzzle. Just bought it for the M*A*S*H cover!
Additional ones to add to the TV Guide list:
– Oct. 9-16, 2005: The “Scrubs” cast did a tribute cover of the Hawkeye/BJ/Potter “M*A*S*H” cover from the issue of Jan. 24-30, 1976. The 2005 cover also includes an inset of the original cover from 1976. The 2005 cover was one of several “tribute” covers they did that week when TV Guide was doing it’s last small-size issue. (Boy, THAT change was a huge mistake…..)
– Sept. 10-16, 1983: “AfterMASH” cast is included on the top part of the cover of the annual Fall Preview issue
– Good Housekeeping (March 1983, on newsstands during the month of the final episode) has Loretta Swit on the cover (with a small photo of Alan Alda) for an article by her about her cast members from “M*A*S*H”. I’ve got this one — my mom’s copy — and my sister cut out one small cartoon from the magazine to give to her math teacher. Unfortunately, that one small cartoon happened to be on the other side of part of the Loretta Swit article!
Found a MAD finishes off MASH polyester tapestry(flag?…has what feels like grommets…still in the packaging)at a yard sale today. Curious which magazine it was issued with.
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