By Chloe Sipeki
The indication of a good TV show comes down to who is still watching when the credits roll. In the history of television viewing, there is has been no greater series-finale audience than that of M*A*S*H.
Beginning in 1972, the series was set during the Korean war (1950-1953) and focused on the fictional experiences of those working for the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Eleven years after it first aired, eight years longer than the war on which it was based, 106 million viewers tuned in to the final episode.
Until recently, M*A*S*H was still played regularly on Australian free-to-air television channels. While fans still love to reminisce on the comedy of another time, it can’t be ignored that there are concepts in M*A*S*H that are very out of place in 2024.
“I loved it,” Pal Sipeki, avid M*A*S*H fan, said of the sitcom. A man in his 80s, Sipeki says that he has watched the show for “many, many years” and has even re-watched the show three or four times because “every time [he] found something new in it”.
A recurring story line within the show had the character Corporal Maxwell Klinger attempting to get a psychiatric discharge from the army by cross-dressing.
“When someone would do that in those days … they would see it as funny,” said Sipeki. “It was a different time in those days about homosexuality.”
He doesn’t think the same content would be considered appropriate for modern comedy. “Today it would be out of touch to make a show like that.”
Sipeki is not the only one to feel this way about the show’s light-hearted approach to contentious topics. In 1970, the earlier film version of M*A*S*H was banned on American military installations because of its unfavourable and inaccurate representation of service in the army. Sipeki agrees that the show would have been insensitive to military personnel because “it was out of touch already in those days”.
Despite being aware of the homophobic and insensitive connotations within the show, Sipeki remains a fan “because I lived in that time. I was a young man in the time they made it, and it was very funny to me”.
At the time of its history defining finale, M*A*S*H was known for being a light-hearted comedy with cleverly woven themes of drama and tragedy. Sipeki’s perspective on the series highlights just how different comedy is 50 years on.
Featured image: M*A*S*H fan Pal Sipeki (left) and Jamie Farr as Corporal Max Klinger. Photos: Chloe Sipeki/Wikimedia Commons
