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 MASH 4077 |  Commanding Office |  Meatball Surgeons |  Kilroy Was Here |
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| Alan Alda | as | Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce |
|---|---|---|
| Wayne Rogers | as | Capt. "Trapper" John McIntyre |
| Will Ferrell | as | Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt |
| Larry Linville | as | Maj. Frank Burns |
| David Ogden Stiers | as | Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III |
| Loretta Swit | as | Maj. Margaret Houlihan |
| McLean Stevenson | as | Lt. Col. Henry Blake |
| Harry Morgan | as | Col. Sherman T. Potter |
| William Christopher | as | Lt. / Capt. John P.F. Mulcahy |
| Gary Burghoff | as | Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly |
| Jamie Farr | as | Cpl. / Sgt. Maxwell Q. Klinger |
In Uijeongbu, Korea, the staff of the 4077th MASH patch up the UN soldiers during the Korean War, while finding unorthodox ways to prevent going insane.
Well, it's a period piece. That's the first thing to mention. Since it takes place in the early '50s, the show replicates a lot of the era's unrepentant misogyny, homophobia, and racism. While they fortunately dispensed with the character of "Spearchucker" Jones after the first few episodes, that left them without any Black representation. Something that a lot of people won't catch is that BJ Hunnicutt's character is written as a bit antisemitic (the standout examples being "The Bus" and "Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?"). Admittedly, that was a conscious artistic decision on the part of the screenwriters, many of whom were Jewish. Anyway, even though MASH makes fun of American jingoism and carries a blatant anti-war message, it still manages to present a pro-imperialist viewpoint that's just a bit to the left of "Manifest Destiny". There are a lot of shows, especially in later series, after the Vietnam War had ended, that directly addressed anti-Black and anti-Korean racism (despite characters continuing to refer to their location as "the Orient" and its people as "Orientals"), but previous shows could be disregarded by the fact of this 11-year programme chronicling a 3-year war.
As a trans woman, I appreciate the precarious situation of having to portray Klinger as a crossdresser. This was a fairly common draft-dodge, having men arrive at their draft board wearing women's clothes in order to be certified unfit for duty; and also as a last resort for deployed servicemen who wanted out. While I don't feel like Klinger's crossdressing was specifically used to facilitate jokes (though there are 3 noteworthy exceptions in "White Gold", "Inga", and "April Fools"); it does open a whole other box of spiders, in that he is now making fun of mental illness. Also, they did frequently use him to make racist Arabian and Roma caricatures.
6 out of 10 stars.
M*A*S*H is definitely not for everyone, but at least it's less blatantly misogynistic and racist than the film was. If you watch this, be prepared for a lot of racial and gender microaggressions, blatant anti-Asian racism, and racial slurs. If you'd prefer to miss Klinger's "crossdresser" phase, begin with Series 8.