How MASH’s 1970 Movie Success Almost Killed The TV Show

M*A*S*H is one of the most popular and acclaimed sitcoms ever made, but the success of the movie it was based on threatened to kill the TV show before it even got started. With its pitch-black humor and rebellious, anti-establishment tone, Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H became one of the defining movies of the New Hollywood movement – and one of the biggest box office hits of the 1970s. It takes place during the Korean War, but its storytelling and social commentary captured contemporary attitudes towards the then-ongoing Vietnam War, which resonated with American audiences at the time.