The Best Episodes of M-A-S-H, According to Data

The premier of season six is notable for the exit of surgeon Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) from the show and the addition of new surgeon Major Charles Winchester (David Ogden Stiers). Burns is distraught after “Hot Lips” Houlihan, the head nurse with whom he’d been having an affair, gets married and departs for her honeymoon. He leaves for R&R but runs into trouble while away.

Replacements are temporarily needed at an aid station closer to the frontline and “Hot Lips,” Hawkeye, and Klinger are sent to help. All three make arrangements in case they are killed on the dangerous mission. They find the aid station barely functioning and in appalling conditions but quickly get to work on wounded soldiers.

Rumors spread throughout the 4077th that the camp will be relocated as the front of the war shifts. A patient with an injured spinal cord arrives at the camp and Hawkeye is hesitant to operate, knowing that the patient won’t be able to move for 24 hours. Colonel Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan) insists they aren’t leaving, or “bugging out,” but shortly after Hawkeye begins surgery the news comes that the camp is being relocated. Hawkeye stays behind with the patient along with Houlihan and company clerk Walter “Radar” O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff).

The morale of the 4077th M*A*S*H is low, and the personnel are constantly bickering with one another. Unit chaplain Father Mulcahy, upon returning from Seoul, informs Col. Potter that he’s brought a movie that Potter requested. Potter makes a big deal out of having a movie night to relieve the tension but things don’t go as planned.

A flu epidemic hits the camp, affecting all the surgeons except Hawkeye. Along with a few nurses, he has to run the camp alone as wounded soldiers continue to arrive. Houlihan takes over some surgical duties as the few healthy nurses scramble to deal with the deluge of wounded men.

Supply lines are cut to the 4077th in the middle of the freezing winter, and staff are forced to survive with limited firewood, food, winter clothing, and blankets. The situation begins to get desperate as critical supplies run low, but wounded soldiers continue to arrive for treatment.

The military sends Colonel Sherman Potter to command the 4077th, replacing Major Frank Burns, who had been briefly put in command. Potter is a veteran of both World Wars and at first the M*A*S*H personnel are worried he is going to be extremely strict and tyrannical. Burns temporarily disappears, distraught over losing his command.

The camp’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson), is put on trial for a range of charges, including treason, after being accused of funneling medical supplies to a medical clinic run by an American nurse behind enemy lines. Blake does not deny the charges but states that he was doing the right thing by providing aid to those in need.

The 4077th is on edge as it prepares for an inspection by Major General Bartford Steele (played by Harry Morgan before he assumed the role of Colonel Sherman Potter in Season 4). The general rips into them but the camp staff quickly realize that mentally he isn’t all there.

Every day at 5 p.m., North Korea’s most incompetent bomber pilot attempts to hit the M*A*S*H camp and a nearby ammo depot, dropping a single bomb that always misses. The occupants of the camp make the daily occurrence into a social event. Everyone finds the attacks laughable, except Burns and Houlihan, who attempt to eliminate the bomber.

Season 8 ends with a strict officer coming to the medical camp for an inspection on April Fool’s Day. Colonel Potter bans all pranks when he learns about the officer’s inspection, but the rest of the camp is not as interested in impressing the officer.

The staff decide to get their families back home in touch with one another and encourage them to have a party. Meanwhile, the team is forced to move the camp due to a potential breakthrough by Chinese forces. A wrench is thrown into the plans when Klinger admits that he hasn’t told his mother that he’s in Korea because she would worry about him every day.

A Christmas truce has been called and the M*A*S*H staff plan to celebrate by throwing a holiday party for a group of local orphans. When the convoy carrying food for the party is hijacked, the staff decide to use food from their care packages from home to create a smorgasbord. Meanwhile, some of the staff are trying to save a critically injured soldier so that he won’t die on Christmas day, forever ruining the occasion for his family.

The unique episode is portrayed entirely from the point of view of a wounded soldier who is admitted to the camp. The episode follows the soldier as he’s treated, showing glimpses of the interactions between the staff, and providing a new perspective to the show.

Real-life journalist Clete Roberts plays himself in a black-and-white episode where he comes to the camp to interview the staff. Each character responds differently during the interviews: Hawkeye mocks the army and discipline, Klinger reminisces about home, Potter talks about being in command, and Burns takes a pro-war, patriotic line.

Visiting staff psychiatrist Major Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus) writes a letter to famed psychologist Sigmund Freud about the conditions and occupants of the camp. He notes that the staff embrace a sort of insanity to defend themselves mentally against the harsh brutality of the war and its carnage.

After eleven days of eating the same meal of fish and liver at the camp mess tent, Hawkeye hatches a plan to have barbecue ribs shipped in from a popular restaurant in Chicago. The surgeon can’t stop thinking about the food and begins to obsess over the farfetched plan.

Season four begins with Burns newly in command of the camp. He struggles to create discipline amongst many of the camp staff who see him more as a peer than a superior. Hawkeye returns from R&R to find that Captain “Trapper John” McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) has been discharged and will soon be replaced by Captain B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell).

“Life Time” is an episode told in real time, starting with a badly wounded soldier arriving in camp. Hawkeye and the rest of the staff have less than 20 minutes to perform an arterial graft to save him from paralysis. A ticking clock is superimposed throughout the episode and shows the intensity and pressure of working in a wartime operating room.

Radar receives a hardship discharge and goes to pack his belongings and depart from the camp. As he prepares to leave, the camp is struggling with electric problems, and he feels torn between leaving and helping the 4077th.

The episode revolves around the camp’s weekly poker game. Radar frantically interrupts the game, saying he hit a local man while driving. Meanwhile, a CID (military police) officer is scheduled to be operated on, but regulation requires another CID officer to be present and the surgeons must choose to break regulations or let the man die.

Burns attempts to apply for the Purple Heart after throwing out his back. Meanwhile, Hawkeye grapples with a tough decision after discovering a wounded soldier is underage. His situation is further complicated when one of his old friends arrives from the frontlines critically wounded.

The airing of the series finale was the most watched series finale in history, with over 100 million viewers. It was the most watched television broadcast in American history until the 2010 Super Bowl surpassed it. It follows the characters in the closing moments of the war as they reflect on the conflict and the ways it has changed them.

Hawkeye and Trapper invent a fictional officer called Captain Tuttle and lead the rest of the camp to believe he is real. Things escalate when General Clayton (Herbert Maurice Voland) tries to give the fictional officer a commendation.

The highest-rated M*A*S*H episode revolves around Colonel Henry Blake getting his discharge orders and leaving the camp. The staff throw him a going-away party where they reminisce about the good and bad times that they shared together.