I watched the first episode of M*A*S*H when it aired, though at one year (and 6 days) old, I don’t actually remember it. I do, however, acutely remember sitting on the couch in my school uniform, wrapped in an afghan, watching the final episode. And, like many people of my generation, I know M*A*S*H through the magic of reruns. M*A*S*H has always been there. Always been around. We ate dinner every night on folding TV tables in front of M*A*S*H (back to back episodes, at 6 and 6:30!) from as far back as I can remember, until the moment I moved out of my parents house.
Am I a fan of the show? I don’t really know. I don’t think I really have a choice. It is the soundtrack to my childhood, my adolescence. I know each episode from beginning to end. I know when the canned laughter will explode (and when it will be silent). It’s been probably 20 years since the show was a daily fixture in my life, yet I can still hear lines ringing in my head, like you might have a few bars of a favorite song looping endlessly. (“Ill gotten booty. or Ill gooten botty.” and “Bouncing Betty!” are two that are banging around inside my skull at this moment.)
So imagine my joy when I received the Martinis and Medicine Boxed Set as a gift this holiday season. Thirty-six discs include every episode from all eleven seasons, the original 1970 movie, a bunch of interviews, reunion shows, and some other stuff I don’t really care about but will probably watch anyway.
I dove right in and watched the pilot. And then the entire first season. And half of the second. And I realized that these these shows burned into my memory, but that memory belongs to a vastly different me from the me watching now. Decades have passed. I went to high school, went to college. I had a few careers, got married, had some kids, got not-married, made some friends, had a few more careers, lost some friends, and still there is M*A*S*H.
Seeing it all now, through the filters of both nostalgia and experience, I find it a completely different story. And I intend to take you through it with me, step by step, episode by episode. Whether you like it or not. And to paraphrase Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly, I’ll write slow because I know you can’t read fast.