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That last episode of M*A*S*H must have been a mutha

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by SnoopyBoy, Feb 4, 2008.

  1. SnoopyBoy

    SnoopyBoy Member

    Saw Super Bowl 42 had the second-most viewers in history behind that 1983 MASH finale. I think I read more than 100 million people watched MASH, which was probably half the country's population back then. I've seen MASH on re-runs, but what was the deal with that last episode? It blows me away that 25 years later nothing has been watched more.
     
  2. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    I think the final episode of MASH was two hours.
     
  3. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    The finale of Seinfeld was No. 3 or 4 on the sitcom list for a while.
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Not only that, but it was actually two hours -- instead of the 30 minute weekly show that seemed to last two hours...
     
  5. joe

    joe Active Member

    When it originally ran, it was an hour and a half, not two hours. And 100 million (or whatever) people watched it because cable was not ubiquitous like it is today, and most people had only three to five channels. And it was consistently one of the top 10 shows of its time.
     
  6. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Which today is amazing, because any show after season three is unwatchable unless it has Colonel Flagg in it.
     
  7. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" was one of the great episodes of all time. It deserved that lofty rating.
     
  8. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    When the series started, I loved watching it... by the time it ended, I had long grown tired of Alan Alda's insufferable preening morality play...
     
  9. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    M*A*S*H was bigger than Alan Alda. Could it have gone on without him? Tough to tell ... it survived lots of other cast changes and kept chugging on.
     
  10. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    no. MASH had become the Gospel According to Alan Alda... most plots revolved around him, the shtick tiresome...
     
  11. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    I remember watching it when I was in college. I was so depressed that there would be no more MASH that I took about a five-mile walk after it was over.

    And the thing was, I never watched MASH in its prime-time spot. Only at 10:30 after the news ever night. I'm the same way with Law & Order now. Never really watched it in prime time but have seen them all.
     
  12. Clerk Typist

    Clerk Typist Guest

    "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" ran 2 1/2 hours and had a 60.2 rating and 77 share of audience, reaching 50.15 million households and 105.9 million people on 2/28/1983. It's No. 1 among programs televised since 1961. Neilsen had a different rating system before that. A 1957 CBS telecast of Cinderella is said to have been seen by 107 million people. So take your pick.
     
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