For a quarter century, a most amazing television record has stood unbroken – the most watched show in history. It happened exactly 25 years ago tonight when 105.9 million viewers tuned in to see the 2½-hour finale – “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” – of the CBS sitcom M*A*S*H.
Last month one powerhouse telecast made a run but fell just short. The New York Giants’ stunning 17-14 upset of the New England Patriots clocked in with 97.5 million viewers, making it the most watched Super Bowl of all time – and the second most watched program in TV history.
Yet this pigskin classic’s showing makes M*A*S*H’s feat even that more extraordinary, considering that there are 70 million more people in America today than there were in back in 1983. CBS reportedly charged $450,000 for a 30-second commercial, some $50,000 more than NBC charged that year for Super Bowl ads.
Most TV series spun off from motion pictures have been disasters. Remember Down and Out in Beverly Hills? How about Dirty Dancing? Planet of the Apes, anyone? My Big Fat Greek Life, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Uncle Buck? Dogs, all. Or that comedic classic Animal House spinoff, Delta House? (At least the latter did launch the career of Michelle Pfeiffer.)
Set in the Korean War, M*A*S*H began in the fall of ‘72 and offered tart, topical correlation to the raging Vietnam War. CBS had just ended the 6-year run of Hogan’s Heroes, set in a Nazi POW camp, but that show emphasized traditional broad, bland fun. Injecting life and death reality into the general craziness at a battlefront hospital, M*A*S*H ran for 11 years – nearly four times longer than the conflict it depicted. Co-creator Larry Gelbart called it a labor of love. “It’s nice not to see that love go unrequited,” he said when it won the Emmy for best series in 1973, besting a classy field including All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Odd Couple.
Alan Alda, the only cast member to appear in every episode, won Emmys for acting, writing and directing – the only actor to do so on one series. As Hawkeye Pierce, he once said, “I’ll carry your books, I’ll carry a torch, I’ll carry a tune, I’ll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia. I’ll even hari-kari if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!”
Twenty-five years later and counting, it’s carrying a stupendous record – with no end in sight.
September 8, 1966 Heck of a Trek
“Gallivanting around the cosmos is a game for the young.” – William Shatner in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
A phenomenon today, Paramount's Star Trek was anything but when it debuted on this night on NBC. In its first season it ranked a mediocre #52, and was regularly beaten by competitors like Bewitched and My Three Sons. In successive years the network shifted its date and timeslot but audiences fell even further, and the show was axed at the end of its third season. But diehard trekkies kept the flame alive. Paramount tried an animated series for a couple years until its first feature film in 1979, and overwhelming response triggered a steady stream of movies and syndicated series ever since.
For a quarter century, a most amazing television record has stood unbroken – the most watched show in history. It happened exactly 25 years ago tonight when 105.9 million viewers tuned in to see the 2½-hour finale – “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” – of the CBS sitcom M*A*S*H.
Last month one powerhouse telecast made a run but fell just short. The New York Giants’ stunning…