You can click on many of the facts, including plots, actors, and changing characterizations over time about most episodes of M*A*S*H here:
http://epguides.com/MASH/guide.shtml
Everyone seems to have a different list of his or her top ten episodes.
http://telewatcher.com/drama/mash/and-still-1-the-final-episode-of-mash/
In short, by understanding the history of M*A*S*H, i.e. with its dual focus on the Korean and Vietnam Wars, you will become a better Americanist--expert on Americana. For example, the Korean War was the first war in which helicopters were used extensively. It was the first time that America left a major war almost cold turkey without an unconditional surrender.
Learning about M*A*S*H will help you reflect on three generations of Americans--both their lives on the war front and the home front (from the late 1940s through the 1980s). That's because M*A*S*H was very therapeutic for Americans who heard only silence, shame or anger about either the Vietnam or the Korean wars in the years prior to the Gulf War in Kuwait.
Interesting, and reflective of the America I grew up in, is the fact that between 1973 and 1983, when the beloved TV series M*A*S*H ran once a weeknight on regular TV, the USA government never once moved to occupy any foreign territory. [Is it a coincidence that it wasn't until after last episode of M*A*S*H was shown, that Ronald Reagan sent troops to make war Grenada?]
Those were some good-old days, folks, in American foreign policy history--but most Americans did not really appreciate the dominant anti-war attitudes of USA citizens in that decade. Even Jimmy Carter described the American attitude a sort of malaise. Worse, the pro-militarized forces in American history have reported only of the failures and boondoggles of that decade.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/casualties.htm
Can we turn back the clock America? And leave behind the militarism and militarization of America from the late 1970s onwards?
Or can we at least in the 21st Century gain some foreign policy balance, i.e. moderation--instead of making war and writing blank checks to DOD?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17405
1 | 2
