As most M*A*S*H fans know, during the eleven years the series was on the air an incredibly amount of tie-in material — collectibles, toys, clothing, games, etc. — was released. But it wasn’t until May of 1984 that Fashion House Inc., the 500th licensee, revealed the product it would be selling: denim. It would sell a line of denim clothing both within the United States and in some fifty other countries where M*A*S*H was being syndicated.

Does anyone have some of Fashion House Inc.’s denim clothing? Was it worth the money?

References:

• Shister, Gail. “Williams’ new Series is Put Off.” Philadelphia Inquirer. 16 May 1984: C.12.

I haven’t updated M*A*S*H on TV since September of 2008. People used to e-mail with the days and times M*A*S*H was shown in their locations but it’s been a while since I got one of those e-mails. I checked the websites for many of the stations I have listed and I didn’t find M*A*S*H being aired anywhere.

It’s possible that ION now holds the exclusive broadcast rights to M*A*S*H*, meaning local stations can no longer air it. Or, with the show out on DVD and airing on two cable channels in addition to ION, maybe local stations simply don’t see it as a worthy investment. I know it has been years since it was shown in my area. But is it currently being shown on any local stations, anywhere in the country? Let me know.

Here is a commercial for Connecticut’s Community Health Care Plan featuring McLean Stevenson. CHCP was an HMO created in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The commercial was aired on WTXX, a Connecticut television station, in November of 1986. Unfortunately, it was cut off and I only have the first six seconds.

Notice that McLean is wearing a sweater with CHCP written on it, much like the University of Illinois sweaters his character, Colonel Blake, wore on M*A*S*H. The same can be said about the hat he’s wearing, although it doesn’t have any fishing lures in it. It seems fairly obvious the commercial was using McLean’s most famous role in an attempt to connect with viewers. Or maybe that’s just how McLean dressed regularly.

I’ve added another ten of your stories/entries to My First M*A*S*H. Here’s one from someone born in 1954:

“Yankee Doodle Doctor”, from the sixth week in 1972 was the first M*A*S*H episode I ever saw. I was in college, but worked nights. On a rare night off I turned on the TV to M*A*S*H, because my friends had told me about the show. In school I hung out with a group of Marx Brothers fanatics (they were undergoing a revival/re-discovery at that time). When I saw Alan (Hawkeye) playing “Groucho”, I was immediately hooked. And have been ever since. I never again missed an episode all the way to “Goodbye. Farewell. And Amen.”

Be sure to contribute your own first experience with M*A*S*H.

I’ve add another reference — this one on ABC’s Pushing Daisies — to M*A*S*H References on Television:

During the October 15th, 2008 episode (“Bad Habits”) two characters go undercover at a Catholic nunnery. Chi McBride’s character, Emerson Cod, pretends to be a priest named Father Mulcahy. Later on, one of the real nuns sees through the ruse, saying “Perhaps your associate, M*A*S*H’s Father Mulcahy, would like to help.”

In the tag scene to “Your Retention Please,” after signing up for another six years in the military while depressed, Klinger attempts something drastic to convince Colonel Potter he’s nuts. While the whole camp is assembled he does his best Lady Godiva impression, arriving on Sophie wearing nothing but a white cloth:

Charles: “Good grief? What is this disgusting spectacle?”
Father Mulcahy: “It’s Klinger on Sophie. And they’re both naked.”

But Klinger (and thus Jamie Farr as well ) wasn’t naked, as this image proves:

This is the last instance I’m aware of where a character was supposedly naked but for obvious and understandable reasons the actor in question wasn’t entirely nude.