What Went Wrong With AfterMASH, According To The Original Series Creator
Few shows in the history of broadcast television can ever claim they were as successful as "M*A*S*H." Based on Richard Hooker's book "MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors," and the Robert Altman film that previously adapted that same book, the series aired for 11 seasons on CBS from 1972 to 1983 totaling a whopping 256 episodes. Its series finale remains the most-watched finale of any TV series. Unfortunately, the spin-off "AfterMASH" couldn't recapture that same magic — and the show's creator thinks he knows why.
The spin-off series only lasted two seasons, with the second season having its run cut short after the ratings plummeted. It was a short-lived experiment that failed to live up to its predecessor. In "TV's M*A*S*H: The Ultimate Guide Book," author Ed Solomonson spoke with "AfterMASH" co-creator Larry Gelbart, who also developed the original show. When asked about the spin-off, Gelbart first said: "I'll have to look at my old suicide notes" with a laugh, indicating that he took the whole thing pretty hard. Speaking further, and more seriously, Gelbart offered the following regarding the show's failure:
"The series needed a top banana, and we didn't have one. That's not to dismiss the actors who were in the cast. They were basically supporting players and you have to be in support of something, and we didn't have that element. If I had to do it all over again (and thank God I don't have to), I would make it an hour show, more dramatic in nature, with comedy overtones rather than the other way around. There are probably 23 or 24 million veterans in this country. There's an audience out there who recognizes what happens in the VA, but I just took the wrong approach."
'I think there was one tragic flaw'
"AfterMASH" focused on Colonel Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan), Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr), and Father John Mulcahy (William Christopher) with the trio of supporting characters reuniting at a hospital in Missouri following the Korean War. It premiered in September of 1983 just seven months after the "M*A*S*H" series finale. The turnaround time was quick and, while the first season did okay in the ratings department, the second season took a nosedive. It was dead in the water after 31 episodes — one of which never even aired in the U.S.
To Gelbart's point, this show didn't have someone like Alan Alda's Hawkeye or Wayne Rogers' Trapper to lead the way. In the book, Christopher also shared his take on the series and what went wrong. While he didn't seem thrilled to talk about the experience, the actor largely echoed Gelbart's take on the whole thing.
"For the most part, AfterMASH is not worth talking about. I think there was one tragic flaw, it wasn't serious enough. But I was very pleased when I heard they were going to do it. The network wanted a zany comedy, and so the emphasis became trying to make it funny. I thought we should have done an hour show, like St. Elsewhere. A lot of veterans came back with problems, but we were doing wheelchair races in the hospital. Larry Gelbart wrote the show that paralleled the Agent Orange problem in Vietnam. The hospital was sort of a joke hospital, not a real one."
The actor also suggested that there were character issues along the way. "The idea that Mulcahy had a drinking problem just didn't seem to work," he added. "One of the first things we did was get rid of his hearing and his drinking problems." Whatever the case, CBS didn't hit it out of the park like NBC did with its "Cheers" spin-off "Frasier." They can't all be winners and this one simply didn't pan out.