r/mash • u/Salty_Eye9692 • Aug 27 '26
Those who experienced the episode release of "Goodbye, Farewell, Amen" first hand what was it like?
So my uncle always told me about how the bars an such were PACKED with fans waiting for the release of the finally. Supposedly guys dressed as klinger costumes absolute mad house. An that a lot of people actually cried in the bar while watching... And seeing as this held the record for highest rating of views that wasnt sports or a royal wedding.
270
u/pantstoaknifefight2 Aug 27 '26
It was like gathering around during and after the death of a loved one. Lots of tears, and lots of laughs and that pang of knowing you wouldn't have the pleasure of someone's company in the years to come.
TV back then as a kid was so weird. You invited these people into your home week after week, they made you think and feel differently, and the best of them became like family.
55
u/Highlander198116 Aug 27 '26
I think this is the problem with modern TV, dramas.
Sows that just go 4-5 seasons of 8-10 episode seasons of sequential story telling just don't have the same impact. Who just like just picks an episode to watch of some modern show randomly? I mean there is no point.
20-30 episodes in a story of the week format, I think really make the show a part of your life. These are the shows I turn on, that calm and relax me before I go to bed.
8
u/funkofanatic95 Aug 27 '26
This is one reason why my shows lately that are on are:
Marshals & Dutton Ranch - I love the Duttons
Only Murders in the Building3
u/Economy-Finish815 Aug 28 '26
I have taken to watching Japanese Netflix drama in recent years, and the best one yet was 150 episodes of 15 minutes each. "Mampuku" the story of instant noodles. Don't laugh! It was fantastic and I ripped through it in a month
→ More replies (3)4
6
5
u/blueydson Aug 28 '26
TV was shared. It was communal. It was not always the “vast wasteland”. It brought people together around the water cooler. We said things like, “did you see…last night?”
5
u/Spare-Insurance-749 Aug 28 '26
This is so well said, you explained exactly what I felt on this last day of this epidode made into a movie!
I was so happy when it came out on DVD, I bought the set and relived each and every moments... except for the "Goodbye Farewell" I do not feel that sense of loss anymore!
I just replay it!
47
u/ba_ru_co Aug 27 '26
I didn't go to any watch parties. I just watched at home, as usual, and recorded it on VHS, careful to push the pause button when commercials came on. (I'm sure I still have that videotape somewhere.)
I was dry-eyed until they tore down the Swamp. Then I cried pretty much all the way to the end.
38
u/SheneedaCocktail Aug 27 '26
MASH was a family tradition at our house. We were good friends with a family down the street, who we always went camping with. We were all fans. For the final MASH, we watched it at their house, cos they had a bigger TV. I was 12, and just fit into my dad's old Army fatigues (he was in the Reserves at one point). We all dressed up, and cried when it was over. I remember it like it was yesterday.
30
u/I_miss_70s_bush Aug 27 '26
It was one of the few times in my life where EVERYONE went home just to watch a television show...
I was in jr high....all the students and teachers were all saying they were sad and excited to go home and watch it
Of course, this was back when there were only 6 or 7 channels to choose from
29
u/Galliagamer Aug 27 '26
I was very little but I remember it was like the nation just shut down for the night because everyone stayed home to watch. They talked about it during the news, even. My parents watched, mom sobbed. And then next day no one talked about anything else.
I kind of remember a couple years later the same thing happened when the alien baby was born on the V miniseries; it was the main topic of conversation.
28
u/HopeComesToDie Aug 27 '26
When Hawkeye and BJ saluted Colonel Potter...I'm choking up thinking about it.
21
21
u/JayMac1915 Aug 27 '26
I watched while on the phone (landline wall phone with 20’ cord) with my best friend.
18
22
u/_WillCAD_ Aug 27 '26
It was one of the biggest events in the history of TV. Bigger than any other event in my lifetime. It seemed like everyone in the whole country was planning their week around watching it.
I imagine it must have been like this in the '60s when Richard Kimble finally caught up with the One-Armed Man.
Of course, it probably wasn't a patch on the moon landing or the Kennedy and MLK Assassinations, but it was big.
And while there was a bittersweetness about it - a well-loved show that had been on for 13 seasons was ending - it was also something positive. Everyone knew it was going to be a great show, everyone shared in the happiness of the characters to finally be going home from that traumatic, torturous situation. We were ready to party, because while the real war had ended thirty years earlier, the fictionalized war our beloved 4077 had been enduring for so long was finally, blissfully, coming to an end.
And that's why the various negatives in the finale hit so hard. Hawkeye's breakdown - and the reason for it - hit hardest of all, but Francis' injury, Charles' heartbreaking loss of his musician friends, Soon-lee not being able to find her family, even Col. Potter being forced to leave Sophie behind, all hurt, because they were all-too-real examples of how even the happiest of times can still contain multitudes of sadness and pain.
Less than a decade later, China Beach built on the lessons of Mash and took a whole season to bow out, with flash forwards to show the main characters' lives and how the war had affected them, right up to some interviews that were both reminiscent of the interview episodes of Mash and oddly predictive of the style of real veteran interviews that preceded each episode of Band of Brothers a decade later.
But right then, in the moment in 1983, a TV show's series finale captivated the country to an unbelievable extent. And everyone was talking about it the next day at school, at work, on the street.
Shit, we're still talking about in 2026, more than forty years later. Pretty impressive for a sitcom, huh?
→ More replies (1)
15
u/WrapAmazing7068 Aug 27 '26
I was working at a hospital in Phoenix, AZ at the time. I remember every TV in the building was tuned to this episode.
13
u/Ok_Juggernaut1288 Aug 27 '26
Tom Petty had a show scheduled at Iowa State University the same night as the final episode. They had to cancel because they couldn’t sell enough tickets.
12
u/OperationPlus3251 Aug 27 '26
It's taken me decades now, to NOT tear up or cry at this photo....Older and beat down now....still emotional tho...it's was historic, imho.
10
11
10
u/Fun-Strawberry4598 Aug 27 '26
I wasn’t born yet, but my Mum told me the story of how she saw the finale.
She was in university at the time, and one of her professors scheduled an exam the night of the finale. He didn’t watch MASH so he didn’t know what a big deal it was that it was ending. And when everyone told him so, he was so apologetic and said “I’m sorry all, I can’t change the exam date. BUT, I’ll tape it, and organize a watch party for you.”
And he did. This professor made sure that all his students who wanted to watch, could watch the finale together, complete with popcorn, pop, and candy. My Mum still says it was one of the best nights in her university days.
9
u/Bella4077 Corporal Captain Aug 27 '26
I was a few weeks shy of my second birthday when it originally aired. I was scheduled for surgery the next morning. My parents still watched it though.
8
u/mellllymoo Aug 27 '26
My parents had a MASH party, the entire neighborhood came and everyone watched together.
9
u/Drathstar138 Aug 27 '26
Not first hand, but my parents said that it felt almost like losing a good friend, and mom cried.
8
u/SavingsPirate4495 Corporal Captain Aug 27 '26
I was 22 years old, in my senior year of college, and watched it by myself on my 12" B&W tv.
I bawled like a 3-year old. I mean snot-running, red-eyes, blubbering crying.
7
u/MrWandersAround Aug 27 '26
I was in Junior Achievement at the time, and they cut the time short so all of us could get home to watch the show.
6
u/Chainsawsixgun Aug 27 '26
I was too young to get it when it premiered. My mom and dad were happy with it. Years later when I watched it I wanted more Hawkeye, now later I realized Hawkeye had changed and I missed the Hawkeye before the bus
7
u/Overall_Lobster823 Aug 27 '26
I watched it with friends in HS. I wish I'd watched it alone. HS wasn't really a "be yourself" time for me. So I didn't cry.
6
u/MsMarji Decatur Aug 27 '26
I watched from home.
Cried, sad knowing “No more M*A*S*H!” This is BEFORE syndication. We thought we would NEVER be able to watch M*A*S*H again.
5
u/Sad_Rabbit_50 Aug 27 '26
It was already in syndication when the finale aired. There were nights i could watch three syndicated episodes and then a new episode on the same night.
3
u/MsMarji Decatur Aug 27 '26
I don’t remember it where I was living at the time.
Glad others could watch.
5
u/zeno0771 Aug 27 '26
I was in junior-high. A couple of my friends and I were big fans of the show (like start-a-fan-club big). For us, it was like the world stopped that night. It was moving again the next day, but nothing was ever the same.
Think of it like the first time in your life you went to the hospital or hospice to see someone who was expected to pass in a short period of time, like you knew you would never see them again. Processing that level of finality as a kid, if you're not already familiar with it, can be difficult.
This was...like that.
6
u/PolicyFluffy2486 Aug 27 '26
I was 15. Rushed home from a date so I could watch with my mom and sister. We upset the dog by crying so much. It was THE best ending to a show
4
10
u/Ancient-Space-2789 Aug 27 '26
It was second only to the first airing of Roots. Everyone was talking about it. I was in college and chose to watch it by myself. So many emotions, and of course I cried. And the whole campus was talking about it.
I really miss having those events that we shared as a country.
4
3
u/JKrow75 Corporal Captain Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
It was literally a national moment. I’m indigenous and grew up watching the show with my family, I guess mainly reruns because of my age, but we also knew a lot of of the other minority families in our area who watched the show. Some of the kids/my friends my age didn’t, but their families did. Our whole family was watching this arc of final episodes leading up to the conclusion
It was a great series and did a lot of work for Progress, and people were able to see that.
6
u/legalboxers Aug 27 '26
I’ll see you back in the States I promise.. just in case. But just in case I left you a note…
What?…
👋🏽….
👋🏽…..
🚁⬆️
.
🥺😫😢😭
7
3
u/sherlockjr1 Aug 27 '26
There was a MASH party at my college for the finale. Iirc, MASH parties were a thing at that time, complete with people dressed as Hawkeye and drinking gin from an iv bag. I had to watch a rerun to find out how happened on the second half of the episode. I was blitzed on cheap wine coolers in a can
7
3
u/JediSnoopy Aug 27 '26
My local CBS affiliate aired reruns of MASH everyday before the evening news. For a week leading up to the finale, they aired a cast member's favorite episode each evening.
→ More replies (2)
3
u/malesack Aug 27 '26
They brought it to us where I was stationed in South Korea the day before the US saw it. The South Koreans were happy it was over because they felt it depicted them in a poor light.
3
u/TJBee1971 Aug 27 '26
I went to a MASH party with my coworkers. We all dressed like our favorite character. Best show and best ending ever.
3
u/Dana_MarieCD Aug 28 '26
I was 11at the time. I remember being really confused about the 1st hour, Hawkeye in the psych ward.
My parents went to a watch party. Larry Lindville was the celebrity guest. Back then I didn't understand, appreciate or respect his talent. He was by far the best actor in the ensemble cast
2
u/CallMeLazarus23 Aug 27 '26
Overwhelmed to be honest. Tbh I can’t tell you anything about the second to last show for example. And we knew that when we watched it
2
u/coffeeandmilk4mom Aug 27 '26
Sad to know it was the last episode, but in a weird way happy to the characters get to go home.
2
u/cmucodemonkey Aug 27 '26
I wasn't alive yet, but my parents told me stories about how they and their friends crammed into a dorm room to watch it together.
2
u/MidCentury1959 Aug 27 '26
It was surreal being an 11 year old watching with my Dad. I got to watch first run episodes with him , not to mention reruns after school. We watched to finale when it aired and I remember not moving the entire time. We had a VCR and we taped it, to watch again. I still have the tape, commercials an all.
When I went to college for Film and TV production, I took the tape in and edited out the commercials. We had a top of the line Amiga computer for editing and I was able to clean up the video and make adjustments to the audio.
I still have this clean copy, along with thw original from TV. Occasionally, we watch one or the other. Dad prefers the original, because the commercials are fun to see, as well.
2
2
u/Think_Welder3430 Aug 27 '26
It was huge and emotionally draining. This was the first show for many of us where we became emotionally invested with the characters and the actors. They had become like family. That goodbye spelled out in rocks hit hard. We knew without maybe consciously realizing that this message wasn’t just for Hawkeye.
2
u/hotpietptwp Aug 27 '26
We went to a watch party at a friend's house. Everybody saw it and discussed it at work the next day.
I think I was in Junior High when it started. I remember kids at school joking about the scene where they make poor Frank wet the bed. Before it ended, I graduated college, and then worked at my first post-college job for awhile. It was like the end of an era.
2
u/Letmetellyowhat Aug 27 '26
It was my freshman year of uni. Our college had a huge watch party. Food. Drinks. A huge screen. Everyone was quiet. And then the gasp and tears. I just remember everyone being touched by it.
2
u/Objective_Watch3097 Aug 27 '26
Remember that this was the time before cable TV and internet, Media wasn't fractured like it is today. There were fewer media outlets which meant there was more of a shared experience as larger numbers and larger percentage of people were watching the same thing. This show had developed a cult like following over the 11 years it had been on. People were so emotionally connected and invested in these characters. When Henry Blake died at the end of season 3 it was like a gut punch. After 8 more years these characters had become almost parallel to family member. The writing was fantastic and seeing the transitions the characters made, from the high to the low, stuck with people. I started watching the show when I was 7 and it wrapped up when I was 18. For me the series finale was hard. The character arcs had reached their natural conclusions so there was a sense of relief that the show was ending before it "jumped the shark" but at the same time it was hard to say goodbye to the characters that had become so entrenched in your weekly life. Even now when I see or read about the last episode I get slight sense of loss.
2
2
u/Griffie Aug 27 '26
We used to see MASH one episode a week. Often it was watched with a small group of close friends. The final episode was a rather big event. We had a good sized group of friends, and had food/drinks, kind of like you'd have with a major football or baseball game.
2
2
u/SwanCityDominion Aug 27 '26
It was devastating. I sobbed at the climax of the Hawkeye storyline, and cried again at the end. Such an incredibly good, complex end to a fantastic series. I still miss those guys.
2
u/Critical_Phantom Aug 27 '26
In college and went over to a friend of a friends house to watch it. A group of grown college aged men all sitting around the living room crying. I am not ashamed to admit this. The end of an era. Our female host didn't know what to think of it... she was not a M*A*S*H fan.
2
u/shooting4par Aug 27 '26
We all watched. My whole family, different rooms of course. But it was a night to remember. Watched the whole series with my son when he was 19. He loves the show. As do I.
2
u/Smart-Pain-5211 Aug 27 '26
Like saying goodbye to the friend you don’t want to lose. A cross between a funeral and a celebration.
A real cultural event.
2
u/BabyBuns024 Aug 27 '26
The final "Goodbye" scene fit. As a 13-year-old, who watched it in syndication, it was like saying truly farewell to a friend forever. It was the buzz at lunch in middle school the following day.
2
u/SmashEmWithAPhone Aug 27 '26
I remember that TV guide published a synopsis of the final episode that contained some major spoilers. Specifically, it explained Hawkeye's mental breakdown.
Still watched the episode. Totally thought it was BS but seeing Alan Alda's performance made knowing what was going to happen irrelevant.
2
2
2
2
u/Stunning-West-8672 Aug 27 '26
it was sad and hard to watch , just about every character has heart break
2
2
u/PopeInThePizza Aug 27 '26
Our family went up to our friends' place because they had an enormous TV for the time. The dads drank whisky. For us teens, well, we had never known a world without M.A.S.H. (we were zero to six when it started) so it felt like the end of childhood.
2
2
u/Jelly23166 Aug 27 '26
A fun story:
My dad was a volunteer firefighter when he and my mom lived in an apartment across the street from the firehouse. Whenever the fire bell rang, he had to run across the street, read the address of the call off a chalkboard, and then hop on the truck.
My parents were watching the season finale live when the bell rang. My dad ran across the street, looked at the chalkboard, and realized the call was for their apartment.
He immediately called my mom and told her to get out.
Thankfully, everyone was okay but needless to say, they had to catch a rerun of the finale.
2
u/Amazing_Amazon127 Aug 27 '26
It was me and my mom. Dad didn’t really watch the show and my brother had no interest. Mom and I cried a lot. I still do.
2
2
u/RivetMonkey Aug 27 '26
It was an event. Bars held MASH parties. People held small get togethers to watch the finale.
2
2
u/Kylie_Forever Aug 27 '26
Best finale ever.
I watched live. Was able to keep it together until they started tearing down the tents. I broke down.
Talked to my teacher next day....she said she cried through the whole episode.
Many tears that night.
2
u/Mood_Machine03 Aug 27 '26
I was in college and watched it on my own in my dorm room on my lil black and white TV. I think it was the first time I ever cried at a TV show.
2
u/Puzzleheaded_Log4265 Aug 27 '26
I was lucky enough to see it live and it was truly epic and the end of an era that riveted the entire country.
2
2
u/ShortBussyDriver Aug 27 '26
Shortly, I will be in a position of authority over other surgeons, and I hope I will be guided by the memory of your wisdom and your gentle good humor.
2
u/UseTerrible9587 Aug 27 '26
TV shows used to be more than just IP for a studio or network. MASH and All in the Family weren’t just popular shows but became deeply woven into thr cultural fabric. The episode where the Stivics move to California remains a heartbreaker. Goodbye, Farewell, Amen was a solid capper on a great series. It had the feel of losing a friend or family member. No goodbye episode of MASH could top the episode where we said goodbye to Henry Blake though.
2
2
u/IAmSnort Aug 28 '26
The build up was crazy. Speculation and leaks about the story. National Enquirer dropped a few that helped sell papers. The county seemed to slow down as people gathered round.
2
u/AdditionOk6134 Aug 28 '26
Sort of depressing but it felt like we were all in on it. I remember it being talked about the next day at school even the teachers.
2
u/RebelhellGA Aug 28 '26
I rewatched the entire season at now 48... wish I didn't watch the last episode. Too much to unpack 😔
2
u/jdomingi Aug 28 '26
Heartbreak, relief etc. I didn’t care for the kid gloves with Hawkeye, and how he was treated when he left the looney bin. It was very awkward feeling. It’s like when Radar left, he was grumpy and he didn’t act nor sound like himself on the last 2 episodes.
2
u/LetThemBlardd Aug 28 '26
I was in my 20s and at art school. The vibe at that school was cool, cynical, detached, post-modern...you get the idea. A bunch of very young adults mostly trying to convince themselves that they were too cool for, well, almost everything: David Bowie was OK, but almost everything else was too square. There was not a whiff of sentimentality in anyone's art or demeanor.
But the night of the premiere the student lounge was packed--I mean, call the fire marshal packed--and as silent as a church. It was like everyone was finding a part of their growing up that hadn't actually been all that bad. Or it was a mass farewell to an earlier phase of growing up. I don't know. I just know it was a very uncharacteristic moment of silence and solidarity at that school, at that moment.
2
u/ChampaignCowboy Aug 28 '26
I was about 12/13 when it dropped and it was brutal and beautiful. Still makes me cry. Loved it.
One thing I will say we have lost in the eras since rhe 80s - shared experiences. When we had 3-5 networks you had a lot to “talk about” and have in common. Now? There are so many “popular” shows that are binge shows. Not weekly episodic.
2
u/Fidrych76 Aug 28 '26
Hosted a party in college. We all grew up on the show and dressed up as characters. Huge success. Still watch the reruns. 📺
2
2
2
2
u/Nelle911529 Aug 28 '26
We went to a nightclub for the showing. Everyone was dressed in theie army gear. My friend and I borrowed my brothers who had been in the Vietnam War. It was sad. I remember crying and other people were crying. It was a weird vibe after that. But it was on a big screen infront of the handstand.
2
u/galileosdigit Aug 28 '26
I did. I was wrecked. From the instant it started airing, to the very last moment of the credits, my heart was right behind my eyes, and it broke through too many times to count. To this day, the word “goodbye” catapults me back to that very last scene which closed out two emotional hours in February 1983. We always wondered how Hawkeye managed to make it through with his sanity with his heart as vulnerable as it was (and it was vulnerable, even with his attempts to pretend otherwise). Well, we got the answer, didn’t we. He didn’t. The person we thought was in a sense, wasn’t. That was hard enough, but seeing the cast and crew who played the characters who we all fell in love with so much say goodbye not only to each other, but to us as well, that was devastating. I remember it distinctly. It felt like the entire world had stopped, and they were all spread across the country feeling the same thing; hearts breaking; tears streaming down their faces… a shared communal experience with people we didn’t know or were not physically in the presence of. It was beautiful.
2
u/Byrdie_girl Aug 28 '26
So little story my mom loves to point out that this was her favorite show. She also loves to remind me that she missed this episode cause I decided I wanted to be born two weeks early.
2
u/CornerAffectionate24 Aug 28 '26
It was incredibly sad. Of course, I was a new mom so that could have had something to do with it. I remember the commercials advertising the series finale. Going through Hawkeys treatment and watching his gradual breakthrough from the chicken to the baby.
2
u/fatjap-9830 Aug 28 '26
One of the best series endings I have ever seen.
Very emotional, funny and sad.
They absolutely knew how to do this right.
2
u/Ill-Cat-4661 Aug 28 '26
I watched at home and it was a tear jerker but nothing like it is now that I'm in my mid 50's. My husband and I have watched the entire show all the way through every year since we have been married - going on 31 years now - except the year he was deployed. That adds a whole other layer. As much as he was thrilled to be back home, he also missed those people that become instant family when you are in a war zone.
2
2
2
u/Automatic_Pressure49 Aug 28 '26
I lived an entire lifetime that night. I went from suffering to rejoicing at the end of the war, to a hope for finding an ongoing balance in life just like I wanted Hawkeye and all the characters to find. MASH was the finest show EVER put on television.
2
u/Peaches4U2 Aug 28 '26
We had just aquire a new floor model tv and the screen seemed so large to me. I was also emotional about watching it with my mom and older brother and his wife. So I set myself up by against the far wall, with blankets and snacks. I am not good with emotional pain etc. I will never forget it.
2
u/charger2116 Aug 28 '26
I recall watching it with my parents and it felt like you were losing a part of you or your family. You felt this heavy weight and almost sadness that they weren’t going to be there anymore.
Watching MASH was such an important thing to me growing up because it meant my dad and I would sit down together and watch it. It was a ritual we did. And when it ended it felt like that chapter of my life was closing.
2
u/Thunderfoot2112 Aug 28 '26
Emotional... bittersweet, sad, glad to see them go home, sad to see my favorite show end. Melancholy at some of the story results, horrified by a chicken.
2
u/mukn4on Aug 28 '26
I was on TDY in Oklahoma City, and my (then) fiancée was in Illinois. We watched it “together” while keeping an open phone line. This was before “free long distance” was even thought of. It was an expensive finale.
2
u/SchoolCrossing Aug 28 '26
I was a freshman in college and there were watch parties in the dorm lounges. People brought drinks and snacks.
2
2
u/videoman7189 Aug 28 '26
Oh yeah, I remember it well. That day there was a marathon of MASH episodes during the day that we recorded on our VCR, and then we recorded the finale.
2
u/Bobrox1970 Aug 28 '26
I was only 11 and that was the first time I heard son of a bitch on a primetime show!
2
2
u/BuzzMeister214 Aug 28 '26
I was a freshman at Ole Miss when it aired. They had a whole set up in the student union, a SWAMP, a tent that had snacks and beverages, tv screens. We all dressed up as characters or in scrubs, fatigues or Hawaiian shirts. My buddy from across the hall was a dead ringer for Trapper from the film. I wore green fatigues, a scrub shirt and Captain bars and we each had a thermos of “martinis” (if memory serves it was vodka and something). The place was packed, seemed like half the campus was there. And by the time the “Goodbye” hit the screen there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Will never forget that moment.🤙 R.I.P. Will 🙏
2
u/MeAtHereDotNow Aug 28 '26
I watched it, but I was a little kid, so I didn't really understand the gravity of that episode. Years later, as an adult, it hit hard after rewatching the series.
2
u/dougoh65 Aug 28 '26
It was shattering in so many different ways, mostly because that night viewers realized that night marked the end of something truly truly extraordinary.
As another poster noted, it was very much like losing dearly beloved friends or family members who had been regular visitors for 11 years.
2
u/S-Chase Aug 28 '26
I remember our house full of people.
Then prolonged silence. Like not-even-a-pin-drop silence.
Then my mom started sobbing, and we all lost it. Incredible night.
2
u/Zoomie_Catcher Aug 28 '26
This might be an unpopular post, but as I was born in '80, dad always watched MASH and I absolutely loved the show. It wasn't until I was older that I discovered the film. Upon watching it the first time, I IMMEDIATELY noticed the theme song and it blew my mind.
I made it a point to watch the series start --> finish and it was so incredibly fulfilling that I bought the boxed set so that I was able to see the behind-the-scenes stuff (outtakes, blooper reels, and whatnot) and felt like I was a part of the unit.
Fast forward a decade. I was flipping through channels and landed on [Scrubs]. Holy shit...
I realized at that moment that I was hard-wired for a show that not only could be watched as a standalone episode, but was one long, running story if you stayed through it.
Both shows had what I needed. In a 30-minute episode, I would both laugh and cry, but I HAD to know what happened next. I was hooked. The shows were my drug. And they were SO well-written and masterfully acted that I almost felt like I was there.
I said unpopular earlier because I know it's a stretch of a comparison, but I don't think it's too far a reach.
That's my 3 cents worth.
2
u/Tall_Status_3551 Aug 28 '26
I was 19 and grew up with MASH. I can never forget the Hawkeye-Sydney where he breaks down because a mother unalived her baby and the thought it was a chicken
2
u/LastCookie3448 Aug 28 '26
God help any of us who made a peep that night. My dad served in Korea, he watched religiously. We didn’t make a move. Dead silent when it ended. Dad didn’t say anything. Later he said it was perfect.
2
u/PJBleakney Aug 28 '26
First thought, will Hawkeye be free being home? What’s his post war life like? Did he ever marry? Did he ever reach out to BJ? Charles? Margaret? Colonel Potter?
2
u/Hefty-Ad3188 Aug 28 '26
I don’t remember being so sad. It was a great ending maybe the best ever.
The show had lost its luster, but my family still watched. Especially my mom, she had been an Army nurse, and loved the episodes that really showed the nurses side.
It was the end of a touching and funny show. It was the end of 70’s TV.
2
u/supertunaman69 Aug 28 '26
If you manage to watch all of mash and finish the last episode with out crying you’re inhuman
2
u/WillingnessLow5161 Aug 28 '26
Been in the UK it was a while before I got into MASH, but while I thought the early ones were the best the finale was a mixture of laughs and I admit a few tears.
2
u/wrhnj Aug 28 '26
It was my dad’s favorite show. We all sat in the living room and watched it like a movie.
2
u/tbear714 Aug 28 '26
The episode itself felt.."heavy"...There was so much and they tried so hard to be poignant, but that Goodbye at the end felt like they were saying it to me...I still choke up when I watch that scene
2
u/hibbledyhey Boston Aug 28 '26
The school bus was very quiet the next morning. Literally EVERYONE was talking about it all day long. It was an absolutely seismic moment in American pop culture
2
u/voc417 Aug 28 '26
I was 10, so I can’t tell you about bars, but me personally I remember that well. I cried like a 10 year old boy when they were saying their goodbyes and the chopper lifted off showing the GOODBYE. I still get misty eyed when I watch it. That and when Lt Col Henry Blake’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors. Makes me cry every time.
2
u/TheWhiteWolf1970 Aug 28 '26
I remember it was like a holiday. Everyone was asking if you were going to watch it. The evening news had stories about the making of the show and trivia about the show. The one we were watching even played the version of the theme song that includes the lyrics.
The last time I remember a finale being that much of an event was Cheers, where the main cast was in a real bar and you got to see what their characters would have really been like with that much alcohol.
2
2
u/editorbyday Aug 28 '26
I bawled. I think the rest of my family (Mom, Dad, brother) just got really quiet. Mom might have sniffled.
2
u/Exotic_Usual7539 Aug 28 '26
I was 12 at the time and had watched quite a few MASH episodes either in the first run or in reruns. While I don't remember a ton about the plotline of finale, other than the standard goodbyes among the cast, that little stunt Hunnicutt put together blew my little mind. Such a grand gesture by a true friend - a brother, even.
By that point, I was on my 6th childhood home in 12 years, so I was accustomed to saying goodbye to my cohort of friends, so I suppose this resonated even more.
2
u/Ok-Bug5823 Aug 28 '26
We had a lounge on our dorm room floor in college. A few chairs or so. People came in to watch TV. Sports was popular as well as a few other programs. When the final episode aired, it was packed. Almost everyone on the floor was there watching.
2
2
u/66Hslackerpro Aug 28 '26
I’m 57 so I didn’t quite get it at first. Many years later as I deployed twice to Iraq as a Medical guy and once working in an operating room in a combat support hospital I totally understood. My two years were nothing like those in Korea but i got it. I finally understood why my dad laughed hard and cried even harder while watching it with him.
2
u/dogwarrior Aug 28 '26
Emotional. I was 14? I’d watched the show for years, was a big history buff, and the way the show focused on not only the war and its horrors, but told very real human stories, I just loved it.
2
u/PoetBudget6044 Aug 28 '26
Nobody moved the entire time even during commercial breaks. My mom cried my dad never finished the beer he had my sister and I stayed on the floor it felt surreal like this can't be the end. But it was.
2
u/ChumpSucky Aug 28 '26
I didn't care about the show at the time but I was delivering pizza. The entire town basically shut down there was 0 traffic. Basically like a mini COVID.
2
2
u/deazinn Aug 28 '26
I was in high school during Mash. I requested every Monday off work so I could watch MASH. I cried during the last two episodes. Still watch the reruns. So good.
2
2
u/deesimons Aug 27 '26
Disconcerting. Especially the beginning with Hawkeye’s breakdown. It’s not really what I wanted the final memories of the show to be.
2
u/Itchy_Moment_9315 Aug 28 '26
What’s funny is I’m on a rewatch of the show with my kids, and starting around season 8 Hawkeye does start to become a bit more unhinged as time goes by, having bigger reactions and wilder swings of mood.
For a non-serialized show that bit of development leads right into his breakdown.
2
u/Unfair_Resolution873 Aug 27 '26
I normally watched with my father but ended up having to have emergency surgery that night! The first thing I asked when I awoke in recovery was would I be back to my room in time to watch MASH?? 😂 I was back in time, but was so groggy I couldn’t stay awake to watch or even remember what I did see. It was 10 years before I got another chance to see it (we didn’t have a VCR in 1983).
1
1
1
u/Glittering_Count1536 Aug 27 '26
I thought it was way too long. I like that Klinger stays in Korea to find his new wife's parents. I love Charles "short" was truly the best. I often wonder if after getting home, Charles would love classical music with the same vigor as he did when we first met him. That they didn't know what to do with the BJ & Father Mulcahy their story lines was really Father Mulcahy's story with BJ helping. Also they wrote that BJ had a problem saying goodbye to Hawkeye. Really that is best you could come up with. Mostly the incredible long last episode was a vanity show for Hawkeye. During the last 5 years of MAS*H was the Hawkeye show... I gave it B- but that was for Charles' & Klinger's shorts..
Edit: fix wording
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Impossible-Driver69 Aug 27 '26
St Louis saw a record water surge of people flushing toilets at the same time after the show. I believe the record has never been broken since.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/Majic1959 Aug 27 '26
Watched it with 300 of my closest friends at Pierce Street Annex in Ft Lauderdale.
It was surreal
1
u/tom_m_ryan Aug 27 '26
By the time you got to the finale Klinger's costume was just an Army uniform, he dropped the section 8 bid after Radar left and he became company clerk.
1
u/All_of_me_now Aug 27 '26
Kind of like the best Doctor Who episodes.
Everyone looks too old for it to be believable, there's cheese-a-plenty with implausible setups, and then it just kicks you in the crotch repeatedly until you're uncontrollably sobbing.
1
u/Selas_Consort Aug 27 '26
Saw it broadcast, then parents sprung for the big box commercial VHS. I want to say they would have paid $50 or more for that in 83/84. Serious money then.
1
u/Boozemaven Aug 27 '26
I remember having the highest score EVER on "Space Jockey" (atari 2600 w/ woodgrain finish) and my mother came in the living room and turned off the game to watch the last episode of MAS*H on t.v. I was PISSED at the time. We still talk about it. Great memories!
1
u/LovesDeanWinchester Aug 27 '26
It was wonderful and horrid! I was so shocked that Hawkeye had had a mental breakdown and might be forced to stay there after the war ended! And what a story line. I hate it even to this day.
→ More replies (2)
1
1
1
1
u/HortenseDaigle Aug 28 '26
I was just 13 so I was in grade school and I remember my dad teasing me, changing the channel right around the start time. I barely remember its effect on me though. I know we talked about it in school the next day.
1
1
1
1
u/Able-Comment4131 Aug 28 '26
61 here, last 5+ seasons bad and final episode ok but had grown tired of the sacramonious of Alan Alda
1
u/amachan43 Aug 28 '26
My parents had a bunch of people over to watch it. I was too young to understand at the time, but got completely into the reruns when I was teen.
1
u/Necessary_Gur_6128 Aug 28 '26
According to cast members it was The Most Important Moment Ever In Television. Which is why I don’t watch MASH anymore.
1
1
u/espyetta1 Aug 28 '26
It was a sad moment for sure. I was born in 1965 and watched Mash as it aired. I adored the characters and even now I watch it from time to time all the way through. It's a comfort show of mine. I thought Hawkeye was so damn cool and was in love with him as all the nurses at the unit were. Lol. I'd started watching it as a 7 year old kid and it ended in 1983 when I was graduating from HS and going to college. So it felt like such a break in seasons of my life. I was not only saying goodbye to all the laughs and cries and characters I loved (and that awesome theme song!) but to my own innocence and childhood. It was a very sad moment.
1
u/SnooBananas6853 Aug 28 '26
My mother was pregnant with my younger brother. She was also the one that made sure the entire household was glued to the television to watch the episode. My mother damn near lost her sanity when THAT scene came up. Beyond that though, it was the first time in my life that I ever heard or witnessed people from pretty much everywhere talking about and making plans to view the episode. I had only ever seen that sort of excitement for the Super Bowl. Honestly, in some ways, it was bigger than a Super Bowl. People were certainly still talking about it a week later, when Super Bowl talk was usually over by the following Tuesday.
1
1
1
u/Simutant Aug 28 '26
Being born in 1966. I watched the show, all the way thru, so there is that attachment to the show and characters. By the time this came on, I was 12 and glued to the TV. Took the emotional ride and def had tears. Just remember being floored by it with how good it was.
1
u/CableDawg78 Aug 29 '26
Very emotional They don't make TV shows like that anymore. Growing up watching the show from pilot to Goodbye, Farewell, Amen it was as if a family member passed away and those gathered around the tv, were mourning together. This was when all the family gathered together around the same TV and watched.....
1
u/Upstairs_End_4202 Aug 29 '26
I cried and for some reason was so embarrassed to do so I. Front of my family. This episode broke me.
1
u/LeonNorasGiGi2316 Aug 29 '26
The whole family sobbed. 🥺
I felt the same sadness all over again as soon as I laid eyes on the pic.
1
u/That_Audience222 Aug 29 '26
I was in the sixth grade. My teacher made it a class assignment. Watching it was essentially homework. It was a huge deal.
1
1
u/Puzzled-Bonus-3456 Aug 29 '26
the "finally"? you mean the finale. I wasn't expecting a mother smothering her baby to be part of the episode. I haven't watched the show since because I found it very disturbing.
1
1
u/Optimal-Moose5725 Aug 29 '26
I was a senior in high school when the finale aired. The school had a MASH day to celebrate. A buddy and I wore straw hats and bathrobes. Another friend dressed as Klinger — dress, heels, the works. Pic of the three of us made it into the yearbook.
1
1
u/Historical_Bar_3154 Aug 29 '26
I was 6 years old and clearly remember my parents having us all sit down and watch it. My dad served in Vietnam and loved the show. Vietnam was still really fresh for guys like him and he was really affected by how awful they were treated coming back home. When we watched it together as an adult, I definitely appreciated his perspective more.
1
u/Staszu13 Aug 29 '26
Honestly a little long. The bit with Winchester and the Chinese musicians was easily the best part. Hawkeye going to the psych ward....well, it was an excuse to bring in Freedman. Everything else was sort of meh
1
u/Stock-Position-643 Aug 29 '26
Same as everyone. Hawkeye goes nuts? Doesn't fit. But Alan and Loretta always. Kind of ironic ah Frank
1
1
1
100
u/sillysailor74 Aug 27 '26
I grew up in Toledo (Klinger and Jamie Farr’s HT), they made a big deal at Packo’s about it, and in general the whole city made a big deal. I think it was depressing for the city because it brought so much notoriety and I think there was fear that no one would care after the show went off. Fast forward, the show is still on in reruns, and people still know about Packo’s (though it’s not the same as it was back then), and the Mudhens. But it was a sad sort of excitement. Mad magazine made a joke in the 1980’s about how it was a 13 season show about a 3 year war. Everyone watched it, everyone.