What is it?
Herz, Peggy. TV Time ‘74. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1974.
Why should M*A*S*H fans care?
This is a children’s book that features M*A*S*H very early in its run. The series would have been just over half way through its second season when this book was published through the education market, so it’s a great early impression of M*A*S*H.
As a M*A*S*H fan, what part(s) should I read?
There is a great mix of articles in this book featuring popular television shows in 1974, but M*A*S*H is only featured on ten pages. There is a feature article written about Alan Alda and his life on and off M*A*S*H.
TL;DR Review
Published in January 1974, this is likely one of the first children’s books of this type to feature M*A*S*H. In its second season, M*A*S*H‘s audience had grown, and so the characters, and actors, had gained in popularity. In TV Time ‘74, Peggy Herz features twelve articles about popular shows and the actors that starred in them. For her first feature of this type on M*A*S*H, Herz focused on Alan Alda, and the story paints a rich picture of Alda’s life both on and off M*A*S*H.
Full Review
As I mentioned in last month’s book review, Scholastic has long been a staple of the children’s book market. Through their classroom magazines and book clubs, kids could buy popular titles, and they could read books or magazine articles about news and popular culture that were tailored for young readers. In the 1970s, these books were often authored by Peggy Herz, and this book, TV Time ‘74, featured a variety of articles about both popular and up-and-coming shows in 1973 and 1974. Published in January 1974, M*A*S*H was in the middle of its second season, so this is likely the earliest Scholastic book to feature M*A*S*H.
Herz collected articles about twelve different TV shows that aired in the 1973 – 1974 season. The popular shows featured in this book include The Waltons, Star Trek, Sanford and Son, The Partridge Family, Mannix, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Other shows that were featured included Emergency!, Temperatures Rising, The Brian Keith Show, and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. The stories often focused on more than just the television show and typically highlighted the background of one actor. A great example from TV Time ‘74 is The Girl with Something Extra which features a story about Sally Field. Field was popular at the time because she had starred in the two series, Gidget and The Flying Nun. She was in a new series, but she was also starting to venture more into movies in the early 1970s. At that time, it was unusual for television stars to become movie stars and visa versa. Movies and television were different mediums, and actors rarely did both.
This book includes Herz’s first feature about M*A*S*H. Perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising that it is a brief biography of the show’s star, Alan Alda. In the ten page chapter, Herz describes Alda’s career on broadway, his interest in writing for television, and his time starring as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H. The chapter is written like a magazine article, and it features several quotes from Alda. Despite only being in its second season, M*A*S*H already had established itself as being unafraid of portraying the ugly side of war. Alda admits this as Herz quotes him saying, “We don’t make war funny on M*A*S*H. Sometimes we show the effect of war. People get hurt. In one episode a guy died on the operating table. That’s unusual for a comedy show – or even a medical show. We’re not trying to get gruesome, but we want the show to be more real.” We know that he is talking about the episode “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet” (01×17), which was a turning point for the series. It’s great that in the show’s second season, they already recognized the power of M*A*S*H and showing the realities of war.
There are a lot of people who dismiss children’s literature and children’s books in general. I have never been one of them. Having worked for Scholastic, I saw the effect books had on kids. Encouraging kids to read can be a challenge, and I like that, even in the 1970s, Scholastic offered kids a variety of books that helped meet different interests. Television is a popular medium, and if reading about a favorite television show encourages a kid to pick up a book, then I am fully supportive of that. I also appreciate how the article doesn’t talk down to the audience. Knowing the company, The “Arrow” edition that is mentioned on the cover would have been targeted at upper elementary and middle school students. The inclusion of quotes and themes of war in the M*A*S*H article shows that the authors of the book trusted children and parents to understand. There is one other thing about this book that is encouraging to me. I didn’t include a photo, but written inside the front cover is the name and age of the book’s first owner. Seeing that is a great reminder that this book was purchased, read, and loved by a ten-year-old in 1974. As a former Scholastic employee, and a lifelong advocate of reading and getting books into the hands of children, that warms my heart.
The M*A*S*H Historian 