Welcome to The M*A*S*H Historian

First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Eric White, and I, like I suspect many of you, am a M*A*S*H fan. I was born four years after the series ended, so I am what some may call a “second generation” fan, meaning that I discovered the series because my parents watched and liked the show when they grew up. While I didn’t always like the same things as my parents, M*A*S*H was one thing we could always agree on!

I discovered M*A*S*H in the 1990s when it would air on my local Fox station in the evenings after the local news. We would watch it, and I remember being instantly drawn to the series. Why? I have always had an interest in history. It was, in fact, my major in college and is why this site is called “The M*A*S*H Historian.” But M*A*S*H does portray a moment in time, and does so very well. The Korean War was real. MASH units were real. The series creators pulled many of their storylines from real doctors and nurses that served in the Korean War. All of that made the series more relatable to me.

Then, of course, there are the characters. If you were to ask a M*A*S*H fan which character they relate to most, they will likely answer without hesitation. The characters are multidimensional, and that makes them more human to the viewer. We see them make mistakes. We see them laugh and cry. We feel for them in the situation they were put in. I would argue there is not another show like M*A*S*H, and there will likely never be. And the credit belongs to the producers, writers, and cast for bringing the characters to life each week for eleven years.

At this point, I am sure you are nodding in agreement. But I still haven’t answered a crucial question. What is The M*A*S*H Historian? For the most part, it is a way for me to share items from the M*A*S*H collection I have built over the last fifteen years, and use those items to tell the story of how M*A*S*H was created week in and week out for eleven seasons. If you follow The M*A*S*H Historian on social media (check out Twitter and Instagram), then you probably saw an image similar to the one above. The objects in this photo are all from my collection, and represent what you will see on this site.

The objects will be presented in four categories, and a series of posts each month. Those posts will be:

• Script Spotlight – posts featuring a script from the collection, what it contains, and how it is different from the episode as it aired
• Press Pass – posts highlighting press releases, press kits, and press photos that were sent to publications to promote the series
• From the M*A*S*H Library – posts reviewing books from the collection about the series, by cast and crew members, the original novels, or MASH units in the Korean War
• MishM*A*S*H – post featuring miscellaneous items from the collection that have a connection to M*A*S*H in one way or another

There will be one new post each week, and it will be post each Monday at 8:00AM (CT). Each of the four types of posts will be featured monthly, and for months with five Mondays, there will be a bonus post.

Since this is the first week of the site; however, I want to introduce each category of post. For each day this week, November 1 – 5, there will be a new post. Then, starting next Monday, November 8, the posts will begin their weekly, Monday publishing cycle.

Sounds pretty cool, right? So, in tomorrow’s post we will begin by exploring one of the first items I purchased way back in 2007, a script from the series!