Painless Facts About M*A*S*H

#1 The Book, The Film, The Show

In 1968 a surgeon named H. Richard Hornberger and collaborator W.C. Heinz wrote a book called 'MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors' that was based on three real-life army doctors serving in the Korean War at the 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Two years later, filmmaker Robert Altman used the book to develop a script for a movie he was trying to get filmed. He called it MASH, and it was about the fictional 4077th unit (he cut the number 8055 in half.) Two years after that, CBS used the film to launch a 'dramedy' that ended up airing for 11 seasons, winning countless awards, and the highest rated finale in television history. But for even the millions of die-hard fans, who still watch the show in reruns, there are some facts about MASH that you may have never known, until now.

#2 Klinger

Jamie Farr as Klinger was only supposed to appear in one episode, however, he ended up being so popular on the show that he was quickly written in as a regular. The original script called for the character to be gay, but later it was changed to a heterosexual man who was just pretending to be crazy by dressing as a female to get a discharge from the Army. The audience loved him. When the character finally got a promotion, he quit dressing as a woman.

#3 The Pilot Was Easy To Write

The pilot episode took less than a week to write, three days to be exact. Larry Gelbart, who wrote the pilot, earned $25,000 for that ONE episode. He had read the book and seen the film and was told to keep the politics out of the series, and he went to town writing a script that won him an Emmy award.

#4 The Laughter Grew Quieter

Both Larry Gelbart and executive producer Gene Reynolds didn't want a laughter track at all, but CBS overruled their wishes because they had never done a sitcom without canned laughter before. You might have noticed, however, that there's no laughter track during the operating room scenes, and the noise grew quieter as the seasons passed. When shown in Britain the laughter is removed completely.

#5 Any Asian Will Do

Apparently, all Asians look alike. Everyone from second-generation Chinese-American actresses to Japanese actors played the part of Korean soldiers, officers, captains, and girlfriends. Pat Morita from The Karate Kid played on the show regularly. The only real Korean actor on the show was Soon Tek Oh, who played various North and South Korean roles.

#6 Radar’s Bear Was Sold

Radar had a stuffed bear that he slept with every night. Gary Burghoff, who played Radar, said Radar's teddy bear was lost for 30 years before it suddenly appeared out of nowhere at an auction in 2005. A medical student bought it for $11,500, and promptly sold it back to Burghoff.

#7 The Names Are Significant

The writers on the show had a lot of fun naming the characters, such as after ex-girlfriends, pets, cars, and professional athletes. In one episode, for example, all of the patients were named after the 1978 LA Dodgers team. The picture of Mildred on Colonel Potter's desk was actor Harry Morgan's real-life wife, and Klinger hails from Toledo, Ohio just like actor Jamie Farr. BJ's daughter in the show is named after his real-life daughter, Erin.

#8 Alda Did It All

Star Alan Alda directed 31 episodes and co-wrote 13. Now that's multitasking at its finest. He was also the very first person to win Emmys for directing, writing, and acting on the same show.

#9 It Had To Be Patriotic

The network didn't want any episodes depicting the soldiers being against the war and sent back several scripts for rewrites. The Vietnam War was winding down and the topic was considered too sensitive. One episode that showed soldiers standing outside in the cold so they could get sick and then go home was deemed unpatriotic by CBS but was filmed and never aired.

#10 The Time Capsule Was Found

In the episode "As Time Goes By" the cast buried a time capsule under the Fox Ranch, and just two months later the land was sold. A construction worker found it while tearing down property on the site and asked Alan Alda what to do with it. He said to keep it and that they guy "didn't seem very impressed" about his findings. Klinger's favorite dress was part of the capsule as well as a bra worn by Hot Lips, Loretta Swit.

#11 There Was Serious Star Power

Hundreds of big-name stars made an appearance on "M*A*S*H", including Shelley Long, John Ritter, Laurence Fishburne, Ron Howard (who played an underage Marine), Leslie Nielsen (who played a Colonel), and Patrick Swayze (who played a soldier with leukemia).

#12 The Cast Switched Parts

Originally, Mclean Stevenson wanted to play Hawkeye, but decided to take the role of Lt. Colonel Henry Blake instead.

#13 One Comedian Turned Down A Role

Comedian Robert Klein was offered the part of Trapper John, but he turned it down to focus on his stand-up routine. He said later he hoped he would live to regret his decision. Other actors who tried for parts were Larry Adams, James Caan, Lily Tomlin, and Shirley MacLaine was offered the part of Hot Lips Houlihan.

#14 There Were Real Soldiers On Set

Jamie Farr and Alan Alda actually served in the U.S. Army. Farr was sent to Japan and Alda served in Korea in the Army Reserve for six months. Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicut) served in the U.S. Marine Corps and Wayne Rogers served in the Navy.

#15 The Cast Complained A Lot

After receiving complaints from the actors about the script, writer Ken Levine, along with the other writers, decided to have the actors act out winter scenes in heavy coats in 90-degree weather on their Malibu ranch set. The complaints soon ended.

#16 The Show Had To Keep Secrets

The only person who knew beforehand that Henry Blake was going to meet his end and exit the series was Alan Alda, who was saddened by the departure and kept the secret from the rest of the cast. Writers used the opportunity for McLean Stevenson wanting to leave after the third season to "make a point" about the "wastefulness" of war and decided to kill off Henry Blake, Fans hated the scene and it only aired twice. CBS even cut it from the repeats after they received hundreds of thousands of complaints.

#17 Wayne Roberts Never Signed

Wayne Rogers was threatened with a breach of contract lawsuit when he quit the show but he had no contract holding him to his role. Producers had failed to make him sign one when he began playing the role. Rogers, who played Trapper John, said he missed the cast after he left but had no regrets about leaving.

#18 The Hat & Dress

Alan Alda wears a hat in the opening credits. This is the same hat that Donald Sutherland wore in the movie, but it never appeared anywhere else in the series.

The wedding dress worn by Klinger was worn by three different people on three different episodes. It was seen when Klinger married Laverne Esposito, when Hot Lips married Lt. Col. Donald Penobscot, and by Soon Lee, when she married Klinger.

#19 The Show Went Long

The show lasted longer than the Korean War. "M*A*S*H" aired from 1972 to 1983 on CBS. The Korean War lasted a little over three years. Fans didn't want the series to end but the writers and producers felt it had run its course and ratings had begun to drop. After they announced it was going to end viewership shot up to the top once more.

#20 The Series Finally Was Popular

The series finale holds the record for the most watched series finale of all time. 77% of the American population watched the final episode. 121.6 million people tuned into CBS on the night of Monday, February 28, 1983, to watch the cast say goodbye in an episode titled "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen." The commercials for the episode cost advertisers a half million dollars for 30-seconds, a record for that time. The finale was not actually the last episode filmed. It was filmed before the episode title "As Time Goes By" which had aired the week before the finale.

#21

There were actually three spin-off shows from the show, Trapper John, M.D. which aired from 1979-1986, AfterMASH which got cancelled in its second season, and W*A*L*T*E*R which was rejected as a pilot. It was supposed to follow the life of Radar O'Reilly as he adjusts to life back in the U.S. after the war but CBS decided it wasn't good enough. Producers tried to get it on another network but failed. The pilot has been aired only twice on television.