AfterMASH
Encyclopedia
AfterMASH was an American situation comedy
that aired on CBS
from September 26, 1983 to December 11, 1984. A spin-off of the 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. Rosalind Chao
rounded out the starring cast as Soon-Lee Klinger, a Korean refugee whom Klinger met in the last two episodes of M*A*S*H and fell in love with and married at the end of the 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 10th 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 to Tuesday nights at 8:00 EST., opposite NBC
's top ten hit The A-Team
, and launched a marketing campaign featuring illustrations by Sanford Kossin of Max Klinger in a nurse's uniform, shaving off Mr. T
's signature mohawk, theorizing that AfterMASH would take a large portion of The A-Teams audience. The theory, however, was proven wrong. In fact, the exact opposite occurred, as AfterMASH's ratings plummeted to near the bottom of the television rankings and the show was canceled nine episodes into its second season, while The A-Team continued until 1987, with 97 episodes under its belt.
to his wife Mildred (Barbara Townsend) in Hannibal, Missouri
. He soon found retirement stifling, and 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"), located in the fictional River Bend, Missouri.
Max Klinger had found himself in trouble with the law in Toledo. Colonel Potter wrote to him and offered him a job 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 through 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 "General General" as its Catholic chaplain
.
Also on hand was the idealistic, talented, and often hungry young resident surgeon Gene Pfeffier (Jay O. Sanders
), attractive secretary Bonnie Hornbeck (Wendy Schaal
), who had an eye for Klinger, and old-timer Bob Scannell (Patrick 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).
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 fiancée 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
, after his wife left him on his wedding night, and became a police officer
. (The series was never picked up, and the pilot was aired in July 1984 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 1984 Democratic National Convention
.)
The season included home scenes 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 relatives, who were on the way over to surprise him; this episode also marked the only onscreen appearance of Potter's oft-mentioned daughter, Evvy Ennis, and Potter's grandson, Corey. One of the season's standout episodes was the Emmy-nominated "Fall Out", where Potter and Pfeffier considered leaving General General, but reconsidered when they linked the leukemia seen in a patient with exposure to atomic testing; writer-director Larry Gelbart
received a Peabody Award for this episode. 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.
). 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
), who had lost a leg in Korea and whose bitterness was only matched by his excellent surgical skills. (The character was never given a first name in the series, but publicity photos referred to him as "Dr. Mark Boyer.") 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 recurring M*A*S*H character Colonel Flagg (played by Edward Winter) appeared in the second season, now working for an unspecified intelligence agency whose agents are authorised to carry sidearms in their shoes; he is only too eager to testify against Klinger in "Trials". Character actors Arliss Howard
, Timothy Busfield
, William Sadler
, and David Graf
all appeared as patients.
Only three other characters from M*A*S*H were ever mentioned in the sequel series. Hawkeye was referenced in the one-hour opening episode in a voice-over thought by Mulcahy. Frank Burns was mentioned once in the first season (Episode #14: "Chief of Staff") and once in the second season, both times by Sherman Potter. In a second season episode (#26: "Madness To His Method"), Dr. Potter writes a letter to Sidney Freedman, who is mentioned as now working at the University of Chicago, but does not appear in the episode. There is also a touching moment at the end of the "Chief of Staff" episode in which Potter is surprised to see that his hospital office has been redecorated with his desk, paintings, saddle, and other items from the 4077th as "Suicide is Painless
" is played; Potter's portrait of Radar and his group portrait of Hawkeye, BJ, Houlihan, Winchester, Klinger, and Mulcahy (from the 10th season episode "Picture This") continued to be seen in his office through the remainder of the sequel series. In the W*A*L*T*E*R pilot, interviewer Clete Roberts is seen on TV mentioning that he had recently interviewed Hawkeye, and Radar mentions a picture he keeps in his wallet of him with Hawkeye, LT.C Blake, and Major Houlihan.
In the next-to-last filmed episode, "Saturday's Heroes", the Klingers' baby is finally named. This episode (the final broadcast of the series) aired on May 31, 1985. (Several sources incorrectly claim that this episode ran on December 11, 1984, which was the originally intended air date for this episode. However, CBS had put the series "on hiatus" just a few days earlier and abruptly pulled the episode from the scheduled airing of December 11, even though it had been advertised in several newspaper listings and in TV Guide for that date.)
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
that aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from September 26, 1983 to December 11, 1984. A spin-off of the series M*A*S*H (the name is a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
on aftermath), the show took place immediately following the end of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and chronicled the adventures of three characters from the original series: Colonel Potter (played by Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan is an American actor. Morgan is well-known for his roles as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H , Pete Porter on both Pete and Gladys and December Bride , Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet , and Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey...
), Klinger (played by Jamie Farr
Jamie Farr
Jamie Farr is an American television, film, and theater actor. He is best known for having played the role of cross-dressing Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger in the television sitcom M*A*S*H.-Early life:...
) and Father Mulcahy (played by William Christopher
William Christopher
William Christopher is an American actor who is best known for playing Father Mulcahy on the television series M*A*S*H and Private Lester Hummel on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.-Early life:...
). Morgan, Farr, and Christopher had voted in the minority when the cast of M*A*S*H elected not to continue the original series. Rosalind Chao
Rosalind Chao
Rosalind Chao is a Chinese American actress. Chao's most prolific roles have been as a star of CBS' AfterMASH portraying South Korean refugee Soon-Lee Klinger for both seasons, and the recurring character Keiko O'Brien with 27 appearances on the syndicated science fiction series Star Trek: The...
rounded out the starring cast as Soon-Lee Klinger, a Korean refugee whom Klinger met in the last two episodes of M*A*S*H and fell in love with and married at the end of the 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 10th out of all network shows for the 1983-1984 season according to Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
television ratings. For its second season CBS moved the show to Tuesday nights at 8:00 EST., opposite NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's top ten hit The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
, and launched a marketing campaign featuring illustrations by Sanford Kossin of Max Klinger in a nurse's uniform, shaving off Mr. T
Mr. T
Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...
's signature mohawk, theorizing that AfterMASH would take a large portion of The A-Teams audience. The theory, however, was proven wrong. In fact, the exact opposite occurred, as AfterMASH's ratings plummeted to near the bottom of the television rankings and the show was canceled nine episodes into its second season, while The A-Team continued until 1987, with 97 episodes under its belt.
Season one
In the one-hour pilot episode "September of '53/Together Again", Colonel Potter returned home from KoreaKorea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
to his wife Mildred (Barbara Townsend) in Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. Hannibal is located at the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36 and 61, approximately northwest of St. Louis. According to the 2010 U.S. Census the population was 17,606...
. He soon found retirement stifling, and 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"), located in the fictional River Bend, Missouri.
Max Klinger had found himself in trouble with the law in Toledo. Colonel Potter wrote to him and offered him a job 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
Civil service exam
Civil service examinations are examinations implemented in various countries for admission to the civil service. They are intended as a method to achieve an effective, rational public administration on a merit system....
to rifling through his desk.
Father Mulcahy, whose hearing was damaged in the final episode of M*A*S*H, was suffering from depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
and drinking heavily. Potter arranged for Mulcahy to receive an operation at another VA Hospital in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. After his hearing was surgically corrected, he stopped drinking and joined Potter and Klinger at "General General" as its Catholic chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
.
Also on hand was the idealistic, talented, and often hungry young resident surgeon Gene Pfeffier (Jay O. Sanders
Jay O. Sanders
Jay Olcutt Sanders is an American character actor.Sanders was born in Austin, Texas, to Phyllis Rae and James Olcutt Sanders. He is noted for playing Mob lawyer character Steven Kordo in the 1986–88 NBC detective series Crime Story...
), attractive secretary Bonnie Hornbeck (Wendy Schaal
Wendy Schaal
Wendy Schaal is an American actress and voice actress. She is best known as the voice of Francine Smith in the TV series American Dad!.-Personal life:...
), who had an eye for Klinger, and old-timer Bob Scannell (Patrick Cranshaw
Patrick Cranshaw
Joseph Patrick Cranshaw was an American film and television actor known for his distinctive look and deadpan humor. He is best known for one of his last roles, that of Joseph "Blue" Pulaski, a fraternity brother in the 2003 hit comedy Old School...
) who served with Potter in World War I and was now a hospital resident of 35 years (thanks to his exposure to mustard gas).
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 fiancée has cheated on him in "It Had To Be You". The Radar character later appeared in a pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
called W*A*L*T*E*R, in which Radar moved from Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
to St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, after his wife left him on his wedding night, and became a police officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
. (The series was never picked up, and the pilot was aired in July 1984 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 1984 Democratic National Convention
1984 Democratic National Convention
The 1984 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California from July 16 to July 19, 1984, to select a candidate for the 1984 United States presidential election. At the convention Walter Mondale was nominated for President and Geraldine...
.)
The season included home scenes 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 relatives, who were on the way over to surprise him; this episode also marked the only onscreen appearance of Potter's oft-mentioned daughter, Evvy Ennis, and Potter's grandson, Corey. One of the season's standout episodes was the Emmy-nominated "Fall Out", where Potter and Pfeffier considered leaving General General, but reconsidered when they linked the leukemia seen in a patient with exposure to atomic testing; writer-director Larry Gelbart
Larry Gelbart
Larry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
received a Peabody Award for this episode. 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
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 sent him to 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 GoetzPeter Michael Goetz
Peter Michael Goetz is an American actor.Goetz was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Esther L. and Irving A. Goetz, a construction engineer. Goetz studied at the State University of New York at Fredonia, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and the University of Minnesota, from which he...
). Anne Pitoniak
Anne Pitoniak
Anne Pitoniak was an American actress. She was nominated twice for Broadway's Tony Award: as Best Actress in 1983, for night, Mother, and as Best Actress in 1994, for a revival of William Inge's Picnic.-Early life:Pitoniak was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of Sophie and John...
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
David Ackroyd
David Ackroyd is an American actor, who first came to prominence in soap operas such as The Secret Storm and Another World. He was born in Orange, New Jersey, a suburb of Newark.-Career:...
), who had lost a leg in Korea and whose bitterness was only matched by his excellent surgical skills. (The character was never given a first name in the series, but publicity photos referred to him as "Dr. Mark Boyer.") 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 recurring M*A*S*H character Colonel Flagg (played by Edward Winter) appeared in the second season, now working for an unspecified intelligence agency whose agents are authorised to carry sidearms in their shoes; he is only too eager to testify against Klinger in "Trials". Character actors Arliss Howard
Arliss Howard
Arliss Howard is an American actor, writer and film director.-Life and career:Howard was born in Independence, Missouri in 1954, and graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College at Columbia, Missouri. Howard established his career with stand-out roles in Full Metal Jacket and Ruby...
, Timothy Busfield
Timothy Busfield
Timothy "Timmy B" Busfield is an American actor and director best known for his role as Eliot Weston on the television series Thirtysomething and his recurring role as Danny Concannon on the television series The West Wing...
, William Sadler
William Sadler (actor)
William Thomas Sadler is an American actor who works in film and television. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption,...
, and David Graf
David Graf
Paul David Graf was an American actor, best known for his role as Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry in the Police Academy series of films...
all appeared as patients.
Only three other characters from M*A*S*H were ever mentioned in the sequel series. Hawkeye was referenced in the one-hour opening episode in a voice-over thought by Mulcahy. Frank Burns was mentioned once in the first season (Episode #14: "Chief of Staff") and once in the second season, both times by Sherman Potter. In a second season episode (#26: "Madness To His Method"), Dr. Potter writes a letter to Sidney Freedman, who is mentioned as now working at the University of Chicago, but does not appear in the episode. There is also a touching moment at the end of the "Chief of Staff" episode in which Potter is surprised to see that his hospital office has been redecorated with his desk, paintings, saddle, and other items from the 4077th as "Suicide is Painless
Suicide Is Painless
"Suicide Is Painless" is a song written by Johnny Mandel and Mike Altman , which is best known for being featured as the theme song for both the movie and TV series M*A*S*H. The actual title is "Song from M*A*S*H" ". Mike Altman is the son of the original film's director, Robert Altman, and was 14...
" is played; Potter's portrait of Radar and his group portrait of Hawkeye, BJ, Houlihan, Winchester, Klinger, and Mulcahy (from the 10th season episode "Picture This") continued to be seen in his office through the remainder of the sequel series. In the W*A*L*T*E*R pilot, interviewer Clete Roberts is seen on TV mentioning that he had recently interviewed Hawkeye, and Radar mentions a picture he keeps in his wallet of him with Hawkeye, LT.C Blake, and Major Houlihan.
In the next-to-last filmed episode, "Saturday's Heroes", the Klingers' baby is finally named. This episode (the final broadcast of the series) aired on May 31, 1985. (Several sources incorrectly claim that this episode ran on December 11, 1984, which was the originally intended air date for this episode. However, CBS had put the series "on hiatus" just a few days earlier and abruptly pulled the episode from the scheduled airing of December 11, even though it had been advertised in several newspaper listings and in TV Guide for that date.)
Format
AfterMASH made frequent references to M*A*S*H, and likewise featured storylines that highlighted the horrors and suffering of war, from the non-combat perspective of a veteran's hospital. The series was canceled after twenty-nine broadcast episodes. "Wet Feet", the thirtieth episode, was never aired.Season One (1983 - 1984)
| # | Title | DirectorCredits from episode title cards | Writer | Original airdate | Production CodeProduction Code from end credits |
|---|
Season Two (1984)
| # | Title | Director | Writer | Original airdate | Production Code |
|---|
External links
- AfterMASH -- M*A*S*H, Finest Kind - Article about AfterMASH