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Posted: |
Nov 10, 2020 - 2:10 PM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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For 38 years I’ve had a memory of being in my 5th-grade class. I sat at the last desk in the row alongside the classroom sink and writing-paper drawers. Behind me was one of those dark green metal garbage cans that were in every South Florida classroom, and behind that was the double-door entryway which led to the east exit of the school (and to freedom).
One day I was up from my desk, leaning over the trash can to throw away some paper when some girl--I don’t remember who--walked by and said to me in an excited way, “M*A*S*H is going off the air next year!” I stood there, stunned. How could M*A*S*H end?!? The show was always around, on Monday nights at 9PM as well as in syndication.
Such was my shock that I was the only person I knew of who didn’t watch M*A*S*H’s classic, epic finale, “Goodbye, Farewell, Amen.” It wasn’t until New Year’s Eve 1999 that I finally watched it.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back now, it’s obvious that I neglected to watch “Goodbye, Farewell, Amen” because I refused to accept that M*A*S*H was going to end.
For 38 years I thought about the memory of that day in 5th grade, and wondered if I wasn’t just creating a memory or conflating it with something else. After all, why would the announcement come a year before M*A*S*H actually ended?
It turned out that my memory of that day in early 1982 was exactly when the announcement was made; I have a memory like a steel sieve, baby. Such is my difficulty in accepting the end of M*A*S*H that I still get deeply depressed whenever I watch "Goodbye, Farewell, Amen."
From a March 11, 1982 UPI article:
"'M-A-S-H' representative at 20th Century-Fox said the Korean War comedy-drama, starring Alan Alda as the cynical battlefield surgeon Hawkeye Pierce, would end in the middle of its 11th season, February 1983.
"A 20th Century-Fox representative said a tentative agreement had been reached between the studio, CBS, and the producers of 'M-A-S-H' to film only 16 segments for the 1983 season instead of the usual 20. The decision was made because key people in the Korean War series decided it had run its course.
'M-A-S-H' will conclude with a two-hour special on the end of the war as Colonel Potter, Hawkeye, Klinger, Father Mulcahy and the other members of 4077 prepare to return to their homes in the United States."
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/03/11/M-A-S-H-and-Barney-Miller-two-of-the-most-popular/9981384670800/
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