Hello again, Queen’s History! We’ve got another throwback for you. This day in 1983 the world said, “Goodbye,” and “Farewell,” to the beloved TV show M*A*S*H after 11 seasons and 256 episodes with its’ finale episode, “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen.” A fair warning, I will try my hardest not to spoil anything, but if you’re really worried about have an episode from thirty-six years ago spoiled, maybe proceed with caution.
I don’t know about anyone else, but M*A*S*H was a staple of my childhood. Dinner was not complete without the signature theme song and the antics of the beloved characters. For those of you that may not know, M*A*S*H was a comedy-drama series that followed an American Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (per the name) during the Korean war of the early ’50s. This episode, in particular, shows the ending of the war, the packing up of the medical camp and the departure of the characters.
This episode has several storylines, but its main focuses are on mental health and the effects of war on those involved. One of the storylines was about the surgeon Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and his stay in a mental hospital. As a surgeon throughout this show, he is depicted as seeing and treat many atrocities that come with war. However, witnessing the death of a young child seemed too much for him, and he reacted in a concerning way. Throughout the episode, he works with the psychiatrist both in the mental hospital and back in the medical camp until he successfully faces his fears and treats a child that comes through the surgery room doors.
This episode also showed, like every episode, the attitudes and outlooks towards war. However, this episode differed in that it was portraying the end of the war and the feelings about being able to go finally go home. There are two particular scenes that stuck out to me as I watched this episode. The first was the announcement of the peace treaty being signed and the news that in twelve hours the war would cease. During this scene, everyone was seeming awoken in the morning hours and immediately jumped with joy, shouting and singing and celebrating the news throughout the living quarters.
However, the second scene is during a surgery scene where all the doctors and nurses are working on patients who had just been attacked on the road. The announcement comes through that in one minute the artillery fire that could be heard all around would stop, and the war would be officially over. When this happened, many of the same characters who, in the previous scene, were overcome with excitement, said nothing and immediately started working again, which makes sense. This show did an excellent job of showing the seriousness that was needed in this kind of environment.
I hadn’t seen this episode in what seemed like forever. So, when I decided to tackle this article, I suddenly had an excuse to watch TV. It was an almost two-hour long episode, and I must admit that the last thirty minutes of the episode drew a few tears, both out of empathy and happiness for these characters that, after 256 episodes, start to grow on a viewer. It does a great job wrapping everything up, and closing out everyone’s story.
So, if you haven’t seen M*A*S*H - which is hard to believe - I highly recommend.