This slipped past me but Aaron Handy III sent me an e-mail reminding me that it was 35 years ago last week that the feature film version of MASH had its network broadcast premiere. CBS aired the movie from 9-11PM as part of its CBS Friday Night Movie (it followed the series premiere of Planet of the Apes). The third season of M*A*S*H had premiered three days earlier on Tuesday, September 10th.
The broadcast ranked 18th for the week (for the record, M*A*S*H was 11th and Planet of the Apes 37th) [1]. CBS aired the movie again on Friday, March 5th, 1976. Here’s part of a full-page ad CBS ran in The New York Times promoting its Friday line-up:
Anyone remember watching this first network broadcast of the movie that spawned the series?
Sources:
“Rhoda Debut Tops National Nielsens.” Los Angeles Times. 19 Sep. 1974: H22.
Aaron, it looks like I accidentally deleted your comment while clearing out spam. So sorry!
I said it before, and I’ll say it again:
Wow! Your ad for the film looks better than mine! 😀
Thanks for adding the tidbit. 8)
(Good thing I printed this blog entry! 😉 )
Hmm…apparently my hometown’s CBS station, WWL-TV, bumped that night’s broadcast premiere of the 1970 MASH movie in favor of a local airing of Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun (as part of “Hollywood Premiere”). They rescheduled it across the board at 11:30PM. Perhaps they felt it unsuitable for family hour? :/
And of course this year marked the Ruby Anniversary of MASH‘s networkcast premiere on CBS (1974-2014). 🙂
Yes. And I watched the credits. CBS censors cropped the shower scene, when Hot Lips was naked and the shower dropped away but they missed the flash of the scene reprised in the credits.
Full frontal nudity on CBS before 11PM on a Friday in 1974 and very few eyes registered it.
In fact, I’m the only one I know of. So far