History Series / MASH

* YouLookFamiliar: Harry Morgan played a one-shot role as a visiting general before becoming Col. Potter. A handful of Asian actors tended to be various villagers as well. Even former supporting actor John Orchard (Ugly John) returned years later in a different role as a visiting Australian MP.

** [[YourMilageMayVary It could be argued]] that Hawkeye fit into this trope to some extent.

* AdaptationDistillation: The movie itself [[CompositeCharacter combined two characters to create Major Burns]]. The show removed the character Duke Forest altogether, and Ugly John and Spearchucker Jones [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappear without explaination]] later on in the first season.

* AbsenteeActor: Gary Burghoff renegotiated his contract to limit his appearances (as Radar) beginning in the fourth season. These absences became more frequent in the ensuing seasons, until practically every episode in season 7 (Burghoff's last with the show) seemed to have Radar "[[WrittenInAbsence away on R&R]]".

* FairForItsDay: The episode "George" comes off today as extremely dated, handling the subject of homosexuality in the military poorly and misleadingly. However, in the 1970's, having an episode that portrayed a gay soldier as a sympathetic character and a courageous Marine was really quite amazing.

** Also applies to Charles, who happened to be severely beating his CO in cribbage when the request for Frank's replacement came.

!!''[[{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]'' provides examples of:

*** And, in the season 11 episode "who Knew", he has such a wonderful evening with Millie Carpenter that she ends up wandering into a minefield.

* StockFootage: All the bugout footage of the camp being torn down. In the finale, you can even see Radar!

** Edward Winter, known as Colonel Samuel Flagg, first appeared as a Captain Halloran, an officer with the CID in the episode "Deal Me Out." In the episode he played poker with Sidney Freedman. When Colonel Flagg later met Sidney Freedman in the episode "Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler" he remarked that they once played poker together. Some fans apply FridgeLogic to claim Halloran as one of Flagg's (a CIA agent and self-proclaimed master of disguise) alternate identities.

** Also tried unsuccessfully by Hawkeye to get leave in the episode "Crackers, Bananas, and Nuts" and successfully by a one-off character in the episode "Major Topper" (that guy was so good, he even had ''Klinger'' snowed).

* FridgeLogic: If one of the camp's four doctors was hopelessly incompetant, how did they have a 97% survival rate?

Considering that [[{{Literature/Ptitleg61am70o3b3w}} the original novel]] consisted mostly of young doctors boasting about [[AManIsNotAVirgin how much sex they have]] and shows a truly awful degree of sexism ("Trapper" got his nickname for using a train toilet to take advantage of his prom date and nobody seems to care that this may have been rape as long as he 'got some'; 'Me Lay' is famous for using his absurdly crass pick-up line - "Me lay, you lay" - to acquire a stupendous 'batting average'; the ''doctors''' only interest in the epileptic whore down at the local brothel is in how much fun it is to have your penis inside her when she has a seizure; the reputation of the unit depends in part on the size of the dentist's male organ; the list goes on) to produce such a long, successful and at times thoughtful series is a fine example of PragmaticAdaptation, a very nice change in a world full of AdaptationDecay. Of course, Dr. Richard Hornberger, one-half of the writing team behind the pseudonymous author of the original book and allegedly [[AuthorAvatar the model for Hawkeye]], didn't see it that way, and was known to rant about it at length (in a sequel, ''MASH Mania'', he has his version of Hawkeye remark how he enjoys going down to the State University to "kick the shit out of a few liberals").

The show ran on {{CBS}} [[LongRunner from 1972 to 1983]], seven years longer than TheKoreanWar during which it takes place. At first seen as a wacky, slightly edgy sitcom based on [[{{Film/Ptitleg61am70o3b3w}} Robert Altman's 1970 movie]], the series moved away from strictly comedic storylines early in its run (Season 1's "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet" was the first TearJerker), and began to incorporate dramatic plotlines in conjunction with comedic ones in the same episode.