Philadelphia Inquirer TV Week - 6/20/76

The third and final issue of TV Week sent to me by my pal Rob Tullo, featuring yet another star of M*A*S*H.

That picture may be a tad out of date (what, with Col. Blake still running the 4077th), but what the heck--it certainly makes the point of the article, about Farr being in drag on the show:

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With a new issue to crank out every week, its no surprise TV Week featured three M*A*S*H covers in just four years--heck, there are probably even a lot more, as yet undiscovered.

Like my pal Mark Sauter did with the M*A*S*H Goes To Maine book, Rob saw these and thought of me and the blog. It was very generous of him to send these to me, and I really appreciate it. Plus it gave me an excuse to bring this blog back for a few days. Trust me, it won't be the last time!

Philadelphia Inquirer TV Week - 8/18/74

This is the second issue of TV Week sent to me by my pal Rob Tullo. What a difference two years makes!

The previous issue of TV Week worried whether M*A*S*H could survive. Of course, by 1974, the show was a monster hit, and Alan Alda was not only a big star, but on his way to becoming a huge cultural figure, as this article indicates:

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The article is fairly pro forma, though I love the part where Alda mentions wanting to see Behind the Green Door. As Radar O'Reilly might say, holy smokes!

Philadelphia Inquirer TV Week - 11/12/72

Just a few days ago I got a surprising package in the mail from my friend Rob Tullo--inside it was three issues of The Philadelphia Inquirer's TV Week insert, all of them with M*A*S*H-related cover features!

The earliest example is this issue, published just two months after the show debuted. Loretta Swit gets the cover all to herself, even though there's only a tiny article about her and the show inside:

I'm sure Ms. Swit just loved having her weight revealed in the article. Geez, thanks TV Week!

Hindsight in 20/20 of course, but its funny to read the cover headline, worrying whether M*A*S*H can survive. I'd take that bet!

M*A*S*H Goes To Maine - 1972

In just the last week, two very generous friends of mine sent me M*A*S*H-related items, so I thought I'd restart the blog for a few days to show them off!

First up is this paperback edition of M*A*S*H Goes To Maine, the 1972 sequel to the monster hit M*A*S*H, both by Richard Hooker (aka Richard Hornberger, who really served in a MASH unit during the Korean War).

I've never read the original book, since I knew from the movie that its characters are so different from the ones in the series, the ones I've come to know, love, and obsessively blog about, that it didn't really have much connection the show past the names and general setting.

Those differences are even more stark in this book, where the Swamp Rats (Hawkeye, Trapper, Duke, and Spearchucker) all end up working together in Maine. It felt surreal, almost, to read a story featuring characters with names I know like the back of my hand, yet they bear absolutely no relation to the versions we all know. Here, Hawkeye has a wife and a bunch of kids he tows around, and its Trapper who is the lothario!

Hooker/Hornberger apparently had a ghostwriter on the half-dozen "sequels" to this book, which are characterized as on Wikipedia as "hastily written." He then returned as author for a final book, M*A*S*H Mania, in 1977.

Even though I didn't find M*A*S*H Goes to Maine all that good, I was happy to read it, and I really appreciate my pal Mark Sauter for thinking of me when he saw it for sale and generously sending it to me. I toast you with a dry martini, Mark!