AfterMASH

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AfterMASH
AfterMASH title screen
The AfterMASH title screen
Created byContinuation of the M*A*S*H TV series.
StarringHarry Morgan
Jamie Farr
William Christopher
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes30
Production
Running time24-25 minutes (per episode)
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 26, 1983 –
May 31, 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 (actually better than the final year of M*A*S*H) 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 one hour pilot episode "September of '53/Together Again", 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 administrative 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 the goods" on him, from giving him a day to prepare for a civil service exam to rifling his desk. Father Mulcahy, whose hearing was damaged in the final episode of M*A*S*H, is now suffering from depression and drinking heavily. Potter arranges for Mulcahy to receive an operation at another VA Hospital in St. Louis. 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), attractive secretary Bonnie Hornbeck (Wendy Schall) who has an eye for Klinger, and old-timer Bob Scannell (Patrick Crenshaw) who served with Potter in WWI and is now a hospital resident of 35 years thanks to mustard gas. There was also a home scene with the Potters, most notably when they overflow with guests in "Thanksgiving of '53", and Potter tries to keep the phone occupied so Klinger can't call his parents who are on the way over to surprise him. 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 in March with Klinger being arrested for decking a shady real estate agent as pregnant Soon Lee goes into labor. In May CBS announced the show was renewed for a second season.

Season Two opened with Klinger escaping from the county jail to attend the birth of his child and remaining a fugitive until a Judge gets him into the psychiatric unit at General General, where Klinger feigns insanity to avoid prison and the Potters take in Soon Lee and the (as yet unnamed) baby. Mike D'Angelo was transferred to Montana and was replaced by new administrator Wally Wainwright (Peter Michael Goetz). Anne Pitoniak was brought in to replace Barbara Townsend as Mildred Potter. 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. An attractive new psychiatrist, Dr. Lenore Dudziak (Wendy Girard) arrives to begin the daunting task of evaluating Klinger, while Potter is horrified that Wainwright assigns 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 first season 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". Arliss Howard, Timothy Busfield, William Sadler and David Graf all appeared as patients.

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. "Wet Feet", the thirty-first episode (which was not a proper series finale) was never aired.

External links

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