AfterMASH
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 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) |
| Production company(s) |
20th Century Fox Television |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | September 26, 1983 – May 31, 1985 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | M*A*S*H |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
AfterMASH was 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.
[edit] Synopsis
In the one-hour pilot episode "September of '53/Together Again", Colonel Potter returned home from Korea to his wife Mildred (Barbara Townsend) in Hannibal, Missouri. He soon found retirement stifling, and after a friend dropped dead while they play cards, Mildred suggested he return to work. Potter was soon hired 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 had 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 contacted Colonel Potter and soon thereafter was hired as his administrative assistant. Klinger's nemesis at General General was D'Angelo's executive secretary Alma Cox (Brandis Kemp), a mean-spirited woman who was 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, was suffering from depression and drinking heavily. Potter arranged for Mulcahy to receive an operation at another VA Hospital in St. Louis. After his hearing was surgically corrected, he stopped drinking and joined Potter and Klinger at the veteran's hospital as the chaplain. Also on hand was the idealistic and talented young surgeon Gene Pfeffier (Jay O. Sanders), attractive secretary Bonnie Hornbeck (Wendy Schall), who had an eye for Klinger, and old-timer Bob Scannell (Pat Cranshaw) who served with Potter in World War I and was now a hospital resident of 35 years (thanks to his exposure to mustard gas). There was also a home scene with the Potters, most notably when they were deluged with guests in "Thanksgiving of '53", and Potter tried to keep the phone occupied so Klinger couldn't call his parents, who were on the way over to surprise him. Possibly the best episode of the season was the Emmy-nominated "Fall Out", where Potter and Pfeiffer considered leaving General General, but reconsidered when they linked 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 went into labor. In May CBS announced the show was renewed for a second season.
Season Two opened with Klinger escaping from the River Bend County Jail to attend the birth of his child and remaining a fugitive until a Judge got him into the psychiatric unit at General General, where Klinger feigned insanity to avoid prison and the Potters took in Soon Lee and the (as yet unnamed) baby. Mike D'Angelo was transferred to Montana and was replaced by smarmy 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 the first season and replaced by Dr. Boyer (David Ackroyd), had who lost a leg in Korea and whose bitterness was only matched by his excellent surgical skills. An attractive new psychiatrist, Dr. Lenore Dudziak (Wendy Girard) arrived to begin the daunting task of evaluating Klinger, while Potter was horrified that Wainwright assigned 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". Character actors 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 (an aspiration mentioned in the original series). Frank Burns, who was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the original series, became head of surgery in the states after he was discharged from the army The "current" whereabouts of Trapper John McIntyre, Margaret Houlihan, or B. J. Hunnicutt were never mentioned.
[edit] 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.
[edit] External links
- Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website w/info on AfterMASH
- Amazon.com - Listing for AfterMASH, availability pending.
- AfterMASH at the Internet Movie Database
- AfterMASH at TV.com
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