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Intro:
There can be few series made for television that have had such an impact in countries all around the world as MASH.
This submission arrived as an obituary but wasn't best suited to being front page story. It was submitted anonymously and we could not therefore suggest to the submitter that he/she put it in a journal - if indeed they have one.
Nevertheless, the fact that somebody created a comedy about a war that had ended many years before, and in which every character would be memorable years later was a concept that few today would back financially as a sure-fire winner. But it was.
It can still be found being repeated on various channels, and the humour remains as sharp as it ever was - along with its anti-war message. It is perhaps a pity that more people don't remember that aspect of it. As well as much laughter there were also moments of intense sadness - but both caused the viewer to think more deeply about the subject of war, and of the doctors, nurses, medics (and clerks!) who never lifted a weapon in anger but who could still hold their heads up high when they finally returned home. Those who served in such roles were changed people as a result of the experience.
What do you remember of the characters that starred in MASH, and which scenes in particular spring to mind whenever a discussion such as this is started? Are there other TV series that have had such an impact on you, and would you recommend them to our community?
And the obituary? It is repeated in full after the break. It is well worth a read...[JR]
The American actor Loretta Swit, who has died aged 87, achieved worldwide fame as Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan, head nurse with a mobile army hospital during the Korean war, in the TV sitcom M*A*S*H. She appeared in all 11 series, from 1972 to 1983 – longer than the conflict that inspired it – taking over the role played by Sally Kellerman in the 1970 film.
Misogyny ran throughout the big-screen version of M*A*S*H in a way that was not present in the 1968 novel by Richard Hooker on which it was based.In the TV version, too, Major Houlihan, a strict disciplinarian, was the butt of sexist jokes from the surgeons and other men in the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit, particularly "Hawkeye" Pierce (played by Alan Alda). Swit – who had the only leading female role in the show – took a stand before the fifth series began. She was then allowed to contribute to her character's development, making Houlihan more three-dimensional, warm and brave. "I am a feminist, from the top of my head to the bottom of my toenail, and I favour playing strong women," she told the American magazine Closer Weekly in 2022.
From then on, Swit's character was referred to mainly by her real name rather than as "Hot Lips" and a more human side emerged when Houlihan broke down in front of her nurses, confessing she was hurt by the disdain they held for her because of her stern manner. The character's long-running relationship with Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) ended and she married Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscott (first played by Beeson Carroll and then Mike Henry), whom she later divorced when he cheated on her. Swit's performance won her two Emmy awards as outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series, in 1980 and 1982.
She might have had global recognition for a second TV role, in a programme that was groundbreaking for its portrayal of women, if the M*A*S*H producers had not refused to let her out of her contract. Swit played the police detective Christine Cagney, alongside Tyne Daly as Mary Beth Lacey, in the feature-length 1981 pilot of Cagney & Lacey. It was the first American police drama to feature women in the two lead roles. In Cagney & Lacey, there was gritty realism and the authenticity of women balancing their work and home lives but, as Swit was unavailable, Meg Foster took over as Cagney when the series began, replaced after six episodes by Sharon Gless.
Swit never had another starring vehicle. "Actors are always identified with certain parts," she said. "To some, Marlon Brando will always be the Godfather. That's just how it is."
Perhaps her best film role was as the first female American president – succeeding a former circus clown, a parody of Ronald Reagan – in Whoops Apocalypse (1986), the writers Andrew Marshall and David Renwick's variation on their British sitcom.
Loretta was born in Passaic, New Jersey, to parents of Polish descent, Nellie (nee Kassack) and Lester Szwed, an upholsterer, who anglicised the family name to Swit. She attended Pope Pius XII high school, Passaic, where she appeared in school plays, and Gibbs College, Montclair, New Jersey, then had various secretarial jobs. Moving to New York, she trained in acting with Gene Frankel at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1959. Her break in New York theatre came off-Broadway, at the Circle in the Square in 1961 when she joined the cast of the long-running Actors' Playhouse production of The Balcony, by Jean Genet.
She spent the rest of the decade exclusively on stage until travelling to Hollywood in 1969. Then, she began to get small roles on television, including three in Hawaii Five-O (between 1969 and 1972) and two in Gunsmoke (both in 1970).
Later, she starred on Broadway as Doris in Bernard Slade's "annual adultery" play Same Time, Next Year (Brooks Atkinson theatre, 1975-76), taking over the role originated by Ellen Burstyn. The New York Times observed that she gave a "stylish impersonation" of Burstyn, who had won a Tony award for her performance.
Swit was on Broadway again in Rupert Holmes's musical version of Charles Dickens's unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Imperial theatre, 1985-86), replacing Cleo Laine in the dual roles of the Princess Puffer and Miss Angela Prysock. One stage part that seemed made for Swit was the title character in the British playwright Willy Russell's one-woman show Shirley Valentine, which she took first in Chicago (Wellington and Wisdom Bridge theatres, 1990), then on an American tour (1995) and Canadian stages (1997 and 2010). The role of the bored Liverpool housewife escaping her humdrum life and uncaring husband had been played in the West End of London and the film version by Pauline Collins, who also took it to Broadway. Swit said of the character: "A lot of her experiences are universal – her ambition and desire, her lust for life and feelings of frustration at not fulfilling certain aspects of her own potential. I had kinship with her the moment I read the script."
Eve Ensler's comic and at times seriously political play The Vagina Monologues had Swit as one of the three women taking multiple roles, first at the Westside theatre in New York (1999), then in the West End (Arts theatre, 2001-02) and on an American tour (2002-03).
The actor was a passionate animal activist and supported many charities, as well as setting up her own, SwitHeart Animal Alliance. Her book SwitHeart: The Watercolour Artistry & Animal Activism of Loretta Swit was published in 2017.
Swit's 1983 marriage to the actor and lawyer Dennis Holahan ended in divorce 12 years later.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by turgid on Saturday July 05, @09:22PM (12 children)
We used to sit down quietly as a family and watch it once a week. I thought Hawkeye was great. I got that he was serious about the things that really mattered and frivolous about the ludicrous things in life. I could also see that he was a flawed character.
It was only when Loretta Swit died that I realised she was not Loretta Swift. I then had a look at something else and realised that Godber (and not Godper), Richard Beckinsale, was not Richard Beckinsdale. And the dude in The Hobbit is not Biblo Baggins.
I wish eye could reed.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Sunday July 06, @12:48AM (10 children)
MASH is going on strong in the Los Angeles, California, USA area. One of our local Over-The -Air TV broadcasters (METV OTA UHF ch56.3 where I am ) runs four episodes a day ( weekdays ).
https://www.metv.com/schedule/2025-07-07 [metv.com]
They almost seem like family. I hope Alda is not different IRL as his on-screen persona. It looks like that sitcom has influenced the entire world.
I wonder, as we inexorably slide into history, which TV series had any appreciable impact on us? For me it is Star Trek , Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, MASH, with honorable mention to Alfred Hitchcock and Twilight Zone. Those did far more than entertain, they taught me ethics, human nature, and common sense.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, @01:34AM (2 children)
For most Americans, it appears to be professional wrestling and UFC fights. Ethics and humanity are out the window
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, @11:20AM (1 child)
I have to agree. I am trying to be the change I want to see.
This is nothing new. When I was a kid, grandpa was showing me how the farm machinery worked. I was fully absorbed. And in that day, the first TV's were showing up on farms. Grandpa had one. I thought that thing was amazing. Grandpa took the back off so I could see all those tubes glowing and grandpa would tweak rows of little spindles in the back and the picture would tear every which-a-way, roll, pinch up, get real fuzzy, sharp, dim, bright, you name it, and finally something recognizable as a picture of something! I was simply spellbound with curiosity of what made that thing work.
Then the fight. Grandpa found no interest in it. To me it was like watching men trying to damage the TV . Yes I occasionally got hurt on the farm, but it certainly wasn't on purpose. I mean it really *hurt a lot* when something slipped and then something sprung loose and hit me or someone else. Sometimes it hurt for weeks! You mean to tell me people hurt themselves or someone else - on purpose -? And other people stand around and cheer? Grandpa tried to explain it to me that some folks were wired that way and he couldn't explain it either. Something about being a man and being a fool. Grandpa pointed at his corn - most of that is for the animals. Then he points to the animals - those are for the community. Then he points to the tractor - someone else made that for me. Same with everything else...fuel, electricity, tools lumber, books, everything was made by somebody, and being a man was to have something you had made to bring to the table to exchange for things other people made.
If you had nothing to give, all you did was take, well, you just aren't much of a man - you are just a parasite, about as useful as a varmint in the henhouse.
After hearing grandpa speak of all the things he had made, the dinners he provided, the things others provided, I saw the pride of being a man.
These people on TV were lower than a varmint. Taking a perfectly functional human body and hurting it just for show. No farmer would attack his own tractor for show. I never could figure out why anyone would take an interest in this. Go design something. Go build something. Or just help someone else do something so if you help someone else you also see how he does it.
Grandpa planted seeds in me that made me what I am...some call it "Asperger's" because I can't seem to fit in with what I think is lunacy. It's almost impossible to entertain me - just leave me alone and I will entertain myself designing things.
Gramps was the same way. Him and grandma out in the middle of nowhere in their own world, raising crops and animals, and planting seeds in grandkids. Probably selective breeding - same thing Grandpa did with his crops and animals.
It takes a special breed to be a farmer. It took everything I could do to get one part down pat...understanding what makes the machines go.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday July 06, @11:30AM
Pretty similar story here too. My grandpa and my dad taught me well in all kinds of useful things and when I was a small boy I was up there on the tractor, fixing engines, catching fish, collecting peats, repairing boats, planting potatoes, painting, cutting wood, doing sums, programming computers, learning about the world.
I never liked violence. I never wanted to take any part in it. I have a low pain threshold, apart from anything else and it seemed and still seems pointless and counterproductive.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Informative) by visiblink on Sunday July 06, @02:55PM (3 children)
Definitiely. One of my earliest memories is of the theme song drifting out from the house as I played outside in the twilight hours.
I know that the show helped to shape my outlook and politics. If I think about it, Michael Landon on Little House on the Prairie was also very influential as a role model -- kind of the epitome of what a good person should be.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday July 06, @05:05PM (2 children)
Positive, successful, humble, monogamous adult male role models have been expunged from media for political reasons since the 80s or so. Coincidentally around the time ratings started imploding. I guess they figure its worth the ratings loss.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday July 06, @05:52PM
Bring back Knight Rider and the A-Team.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday July 08, @03:31AM
People watch fiction on TV for drama -- for exciting stuff that's different from their everyday boring lives. I don't think it's political reasons that have deprecated "Positive, successful, humble, monogamous adult male role models". I think it's just easier to find the opposite interestingly scandalous, so said opposite keeps more viewers.
And it may be easier to write, too. Easier to create on-screen conflict/
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday July 06, @03:49PM
That's a small time nation-wide network. A "middle of the country" station owner eventually purchased two dozen or so TV stations and wanted to save money by pushing the same content to all the stations; what sells in Chicago will probably sell in Columbus, etc. The little mini-network was so successful that stations not owned by the guy wanted to join in on the fun... I think pretty much every state in the country now has an affiliate.
My only real complaint is they "seem" "subjectively" (possibly inaccurately) to have only purchased the rights to certain episodes they repeat seemingly often. They don't seem to televise all 79 Trek TOS episodes they "seem" to only televise the top 10 or so. I am not sure if this is accurate and I don't know if this problem extends to MASH.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday July 06, @04:42PM
I appreciate the backwards look and its interesting to think about; I'll suggest the closely related topic of what do the new TV shows tell us about the people watching, and point out that something like 90% of legacy network media is currently "procedural drama", which seems like a weird set of cultural values to me. Which might be why on a percentage basis nobody watches anymore.
Something like 90% of characters on TV today are cops, firemen, lawyers, or doctors, its just weird.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday July 06, @05:39PM
You can check out if/how much he's changed [apple.com] on his podcast, which was personally recommended to me. He also had an episode with a bunch of the M*A*S*H* cast a while back.
(Score: 3, Touché) by driverless on Sunday July 06, @09:47AM
Admittedly the way Ronnie Barker pronounced it it could have been anything from Gopper to Gobber.