Tri-Service

Ten Things You Didn't Know About MAS*H

M*A*S*H: 8pm Weeknights from 7th March on Forces TV - Sky Channel 264, Virgin 277 and Freesat 652

The show was inspired by a 1968 book, MASH: A Novel about Three Army Doctors. It was written by H.Richard Hornberger, under the pseudonym Richard Hooker, a surgeon who had served in the US Army during the Korean War.

The novel was first adapted as a film before it became a TV comedy. The movie, released in 1970 and starring Donald Sutherland, won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The lyrics of the MASH theme song, Suicide Is Painless, were written by a 14-year-old boy. Mike Altman was the son of film director Robert Altman - his father earned $70,000 for directing the MASH movie, his son has earned more than $1 million in royalties for co-writing the song.

A black comedy, M*A*S*H the TV show, ran for 256 episodes over 11 years. Three times longer than the conflict it was based on.

Outdoor scenes, supposedly set in South Korea, were actually filmed on a ranch in Malibu, California. Much of the set was destroyed by a forest fire just as the show was coming to an end. The blaze was written into the final episode, caused by 'enemy incendiary bombs'.

The series creators hadn't wanted a laughter track to be added to the shows, in the US CBS executives disagreed. In the end a compromise was reached with operating room scenes devoid of canned laughter if desired.

The final episode of MASH, watched by 125 million Americans, is reported to have caused the highest single water usage in New York City history as around 77% of Big Apple residents all flushed their toilets three minutes after the show had ended.

The list of characters who appeared over the shows 11 seasons was so long that the cast struggled to come up with original names. In season seven the patients were named after the 1978 LA Dodgers baseball team.

A teddy bear, belonging to the character Radar O'Reilly, which appeared in dozens of episodes sold for $11,800 at an auction in 2005. It was then returned to Gary Burghoff, the actor who had played the part.

Oscar winning film director Ron Howard, Matrix star Laurence Fishburne, Airplane's Leslie Neilsen and Dirty Dancing's Patrick Swayze all appeared in episodes of the show.

Now you've got the chance to get reacquainted with possibly the greatest military comedy of all time as Forces TV proudly brings you M*A*S*H.