MASH FAQ

Here's the lowdown on the unforgettable show about the Forgotten War. MAS*H began as a novel written by a surgeon who had been in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. After being rejected multiple times, the novel would go on to become a bestseller, leading to 14 sequels, an Oscar-winning movie that propelled its director and actors to stardom, and a multiple-Emmy-winning television series that lasted nearly four times the length of the war.

MASH FAQ looks at how the novel came to be, its follow-ups in literary form, the creation of the popular movie, and—most importantly—the television series that transformed comedy and television in the 1970s. Included are chapters on the top-20 pranks of MASH, the cast members' careers before and after the television show, famous guest appearances, and movies shown in the mess hall.

Beyond the fiction, MASH FAQ also features a brief chapter to put the war into perspective for easy referral—and looks at what led to the Korean War, how such medical units functioned, and how MASH shaped our perception of the era.