On Sept. 17, 1972, the TV series “M.A.S.H.” premiered, and it’s not much of a stretch to assert that it changed the course of television.
Yes, there had been a very good movie of the same name two years earlier, but many more people saw the TV series “M.A.S.H.”
Mixing comedy with drama, the show told the stories of men and women serving during the Korean War, providing a way to process the trauma and toll that the Vietnam War, which was still being fought when the show premiered, had on the country. Often aiming to counter bigotry and promote equality in its storylines, the show does have occasions where it used what would be seen today as racist or sexist stereotypes and language.
