AfterMASH

AfterMASH
The AfterMASH title screen
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Continuation of the M*A*S*H TV series.
Starring	Harry Morgan Jamie Farr William Christopher
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	30
Production
Running time	24-25 minutes (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS FurthOther c
Original run	September, 1983 – May, 1985

AfterMASH is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from September 26, 1983 to May 31, 1985. A spin-off of the long-running hit series M*A*S*H (the name is a pun on Aftermath), the show took place immediately following the end of the Korean War and chronicled the adventures of three characters from the original series: Colonel Potter (played by Harry Morgan), Klinger (played by Jamie Farr) and Father Mulcahy (played by William Christopher). Morgan, Farr, and Christopher had voted in the minority when the cast of M*A*S*H elected not to continue the original series. AfterMASH premiered in the fall of 1983 in the same Monday night 9:00 P.M. EST. time slot as its predecessor M*A*S*H. It finished a very respectable number 15 out of all network shows for the 1983-1984 season, according to Nielsen Media Research television ratings. For its second season CBS moved the show opposite NBC's top ten hit the A-Team. This is when the ratings dropped considerably. The marketing campaign for AfterMASH featured pictures of Max Klinger (portrayed by Jamie Farr) in a nurse's uniform, shaving off Mr. T's signature mohawk. The none-too-subtle implication was that AfterMASH would trounce the A-Team in the ratings. But history was to have the final judgment — the A-Team continued until 1987, long after AfterMASH had become a distant memory. AfterMASH is now chiefly mentioned in discussions of unsuccessful spinoffs.

Synopsis

In the pilot episode, Colonel Potter returns home from Korea to his wife Mildred (Barbara Townsend) in Hannibal, Missouri. He finds retirement stifling, and after a friend drops dead while they play cards, Mildred suggests he return to work. He is soon hired thereafter by the cartoonish hospital administrator Mike D'Angelo (John Chappell) as the chief of staff at General Pershing Veteran's Hospital ("General General"). Max Klinger has found himself in trouble with the law in Toledo, disowned by his family for marrying a Korean, and unable to find an apartment that will rent to a mixed-race couple, he contacts Colonel Potter and soon thereafter he is hired as his assistant and leaves Toledo. Klinger's nemesis at General General is D'Angelo's executive secretary Alma Cox (Brandis Kemp), a mean-spirited woman who is forever trying to get him fired. Father Mulcahy, whose hearing was damaged in the final episode of M*A*S*H, is now suffering from depression and drinking heavily. After his hearing is surgically corrected, he stops drinking and joins Potter and Klinger at the veteran's hospital as the chaplain. Also on hand is the idealistic and talented young surgeon Gene Pfeffier (Jay O. Sanders) and old-timer Bob Scannell, a hospital resident of 35 years thanks to mustard gas. Possibly the best episode of the season was the Emmy-nominated "Fall Out", where Potter and Pfeiffer consider leaving General General, but reconsider when they link the leukemia seen in a patient with exposure to atomic testing. The season closed with Klinger being arrested for decking a shady real estate agent as pregnant Soon Lee goes into labor. Season Two opened with Klinger escaping from the county jail to attend the birth of his child, and remaining a fugitive until Potter gets him into the psychiatric unit at General General. Mike D'Angelo was transferred to Montana and was replaced by new administrator Wally Wainwright (Peter Michael Goetz). Dr Pfeffier was phased out late in first season and replaced by Dr. Boyer (David Ackroyd) who lost a leg in Korea and whose bitterness is matched by his excellent surgical skill. A new psychiatrist, Dr. Lenore Dudziak (Wendy Girard) arrives to begin the daunting task of evaluating Klinger, while Potter is horrified to get Alma Cox as his new secretary. The only other main character from the original series to appear on AfterMASH was Radar (played by Gary Burghoff), who appeared in a two-part episode. As Potter, Klinger, and Mulcahy prepare to head to Iowa for Radar's wedding, Radar shows up in a panic at Potter's house in Missouri, believing his intended has cheated on him in "It Had To Be You". The Radar character later appeared in a pilot called W*A*L*T*E*R, in which Radar moved from Iowa to St. Louis and became a police officer. (The series was never picked up, and the pilot was aired as a TV special on CBS exclusively in the Eastern and Central timezones; the show was pre-empted in Pacific and Mountain timezones by The Democratic Convention). The recurring character Colonel Flagg (played by Edward Winter) appeared in the second season, now working for the CIA and only too eager to testify against Klinger in "Trials". The post-war lives of the other members of the 4077th were fleetingly referenced throughout the show's run. Hawkeye contemplated quitting medicine but decided to go into pediatrics, while Winchester married his high school sweetheart and became chief surgeon at Boston General Hospital. The "current" whereabouts of Margaret Houlihan, B. J. Hunnicutt, and Frank Burns were never mentioned.

Format

AfterMASH exploited its connection to M*A*S*H whenever possible. Sometimes this took the form of plot devices, such as the episode in which Klinger arranged Col. Potter's civilian office to look exactly as it had in Korea. More generally, however, AfterMASH attempted to parallel the dramatic structure of its parent series. Because it took place in a veterans hospital, most of the episodes featured a storyline that highlighted the horrors and suffering of war, just as most episodes of M*A*S*H had done in the final seasons (however, while on M*A*S*H the characters were in the middle of the war and saw its horrors up close on a daily basis, AfterM*A*S*H could deal with such matters only secondhand, reducing their emotional impact). However, the series did not succeed in recapturing the feeling of the original, and was cancelled after thirty episodes were broadcast. The thirty-first episode (which was not a proper series finale) was never aired.

External links

• Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website w/info on AfterMASH
• Amazon.com - Listing for AfterMASH, availability pending.
• After MASH at the Internet Movie Database