Today marks the 41st anniversary of the series finale of M*A*S*H, which aired on Monday, February 28th, 1983 on CBS. “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” ran an impressive two-and-a-half hours and earned a record-breaking 60.2 Nielsen rating. It remains the single highest-rated television program ever broadcast in the United States. Eight different writers helped pen the script for the finale: Alan Alda, Burt Metcalfe, John Rappaport, Dan Wilcox, Thad Mumford, Elias Davis, David Pollock, and Karen Hall.
CBS repeated “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” on Monday, September 19th, 1983. The series finale aired for the third and final time on network television on Tuesday, September 18th, 1984. It debuted in off-network syndication in February 1993 to mark the 10th anniversary of the end of M*A*S*H. “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” aired on cable for the first time as part of a 15-hour “Bootcamp Marathon” on FX on Sunday, September 6th, 1998.
Did you watch “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” when it originally aired 41 years ago? If not, when was the first time you saw it?
To begin with, I wish I had never started reading the comments.
Boy why do people dissect everything. MASH was my all time second favorite show in the history of TV, I’m 67.. My favorite show was NYPD Blue. I watched MASH because it made me happy, it made me said, and even made me cry a couple of times… Early on people said they hated Klinger, “A man that wears dresses!? Ugh!” Let’s not forget year it was.. I defended him several times.. I hated Frank and couldn’t wait for him to leave, UNTIL yrs later when I learned, after watching an actor I hated take on another part and realized, ‘If you hate someone that bad, he must he a great actor!’…
I watched because I laughed during 95% of the shows (the rest were serious all the way thru) But no matter how funny they were, they smack you right between the eyes with the reality of War!..
I didn’t care for the first 3 yrs. I remember saying, when I came home from work at 11:30 PM, I worked 2cnd shift back then, that I hope the newer ones were on… I never saw Henry’s last episode for yrs after it happened, I cried then and still do now, seeing it for my 8 or 10 time… even GBFWA, I couldn’t watch first hand (second shift)
A co-worker recorded it, a PR who knew the show buy couldn’t understand why I wanted it recorded, then he watched it before giving it to me… He expressed how wrong he was about the show all these years and thought GBFWA was one of the best shows he’s ever seen…
Those is what I loved about MASH it was for everybody.
I love the first 3 seasons now and as i got older I loved them more and more and couldn’t wait for them to roll back around again…and even came to an inner argument of which episodes i liked best, Blake or after Blake, we all loved Radar but i too hated his attitude when he was leaving.. he grew up with his argument with Hawkeye when he was injured.. but he grew up to much as he was leaving…but tben, I started reading all these letters tearing the show apart at certain episodes…
“What are they talking about I loved that episode, & “That’s Showbiz” was playing and I caught myself tearing it apart like the letters were about that episode.. agreeing with them until something made me laugh and brought me back to reality!
It’s one of, if not the greatest TV show that ever existed!!! Yes it had a couple of moments of “UGH!!” But what show hasn’t, if you wait 5 seconds it repairs itself.. Whether it was funny as hell or showing you the horrors of war.. it was a true Legend of writing and acting and no-one’s letter of criticism or hate will ever take that away from people like me that watch TV, (The Boob Tube) for that 1/2 hr of escape!!!!. I wait, all the time for another show that can make me set my lifestyle by shows like MASH & NYPD Blue.. but because of this, I will never go lurking around in letters about NYPD Blue.. & making me feel like I wasted all those great hrs of enjoyment!!!! It may have been called “Good-Bye FareWell Amen”.. but it will never really be “Good-Bye..!! Will it..!?
I appreciate this post