M*A*S*H (TV series)

M*A*S*H is an American television series developed by Larry Gelbart, inspired by the 1968 Richard Hooker (penname for H. Richard Hornberger) novel M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors and its sequels, but primarily by the 1970 film MASH, and influenced by the 1961 novel Catch-22. It is the most well-known version of the M*A*S*H works.

The series was a medical drama/black comedy produced by 20th Television Fox for CBS. The show followed a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Uijeongbu, Korea, during the Korean War. M*A*S*H's title sequence featured an instrumental version of the song “Suicide Is Painless,” which also appears in the original film.

The series premiered on September 17, 1972 and ended February 28, 1983, with the finale becoming the most-watched television episode in U.S. television history. The show is still broadcast in syndication on various television stations (mostly during the late night/early morning hours) and in 2007 began a run on TV Land with the "Major, Major M*A*S*H Marathon". The series spanned 251 episodes and lasted eleven seasons covering a three-year war.

Many of the stories in the early seasons are based on real-life tales told by real MASH surgeons who were interviewed by the production team. Some said the series seemed to be an allegory for the Vietnam War (still in progress when the series began) rather than just about the Korean War, though the show's producers have said it was about war in general.