WEBVTT - M*A*S*H: The Story of the 4077th 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:02.920 Montreal, Bon soirs. 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:04.640 It is Josh and Chuck. 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:06.680 And we are coming to your french Ish town. 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.160 Yeah. And not just Montreal, We're also coming to Ottawa, 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:15.480 the capital of Canada itself, and Toronto, one of our 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:17.120 favorite cities in the entire world. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:18.759 That's right. We're gonna be in those cities on June 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:21.600 twenty fifth, twenty sixth, and twenty seventh, and there are 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.640 still plenty of great tickets available. We love going to 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:25.919 Canada and we can't wait to go to some of 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.320 these towns we've never been to. And you can get tickets. Well, 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.080 you can go to the websites of the venues. You 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:34.000 can go to stuff youshould Know dot com and click 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:36.040 on the on tour button and click on the tickets 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:37.559 link there. There are all kinds of ways to find 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:38.400 these tickets. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:40.680 Yeah, and we'll see you guys next week. 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:55.760 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.800 Hanging. Welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.080 and Jerry's here too. And this is Stuff you Should Know, 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.600 part of our ongoing TV edition because we were raised 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.160 on TV, so it's familiar to us and we. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.960 Love it well. One of us love this. You might 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:15.240 as well go ahead and get that out of the way. 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:20.120 What do you mean, Mash? Yeah, I love Mash. You 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:21.039 hated Mash. 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:25.440 I don't know what you're talking about. Come on, I 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.360 don't I don't hate Mash. It's mostly a put on 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.840 just to annoy you. I yeah, I don't hate it, 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:33.920 hate it, you know what I mean? 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.319 Well, tell me your history. Did you watch it at all? 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:39.440 Yeah? I watched it with my dad. 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:40.080 Okay. 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:42.240 My dad would laugh out loud, throw his head back 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.600 and clap sometimes. Yeah, And it was fun just to 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.240 see my dad do that. Of course, he had, you know, 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.880 consumed two old Milwaukee tall boys by this time, but sure, 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.360 you know, I would guess that he probably would have 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.760 laughed regardless. And that was it. I mean, that's how 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.560 I know Mash essentially, and I've seen probably a decent 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.920 amount of the episodes, but I don't know. It was 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.920 never like I love Mash, you know, like Head of 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.799 the Class. I never loved Mash like I loved Head 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:16.639 of the Class or Perfect Strangers. 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:19.480 Right, Well, this is when I remember that you are 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.320 younger than me, so it's not like you were like 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:26.080 me nine years old and loving a show about alcoholic 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:27.359 surgeons in the Korean War. 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.400 No, but I don't feel like a lot of it 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:31.760 was lost on me. I think I got a lot 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:33.600 of it. It's just I don't think I was old 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:34.639 enough for the comedy. 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.240 Yeah. Well I have talked about it before, but it 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.680 was definitely weird that a nine year old was into 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:47.799 a comedy sometimes serious about alcoholic surgeons during the Korean War, right, 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.160 But I was into it. And you know, at one point, 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.560 Mash was on reruns in the evening and then late 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.720 night and while it was still airing so on Thursdays. 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.560 I believe it aired on Thursdays in primetime, at least 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.919 it did when I from my recollection. At one point 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.880 I was watching five episodes of Mash on Thursday and 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.280 four episodes of Mash every other day of the week. 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.959 Wow, there's not that many shows you can do that with. 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:17.680 No, it's like five and five thirty and then something 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.840 like ten then ten thirty or something like that. 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:23.200 I can do that with Law and Order. I can 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:26.440 just watch Law and Order indefinitely, the original series. 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:28.880 But it was I was into it. It was a 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:30.400 formative show for me. It was you know, it was 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:31.800 a top five show as a kid, So. 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.800 Wow, And is it still one of your top shows? 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:37.760 Yeah, I mean it's not when I go back to 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.800 and it certainly has a place in my heart. But 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.360 it's hard to definitively rank today's TV against TV back then. 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.160 You know, it's different, very definitely different. There are no 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.160 short shows about alcoholic surgeons in the Korean War. 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.440 Now there are no short shows. They're all six or 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.200 eight hours long at least. 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:00.480 Yeah, the thirty minutes sitcom is on its legs. It 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.160 feels like, huh, are there any out there? 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:03.840 Oh? Yes, there's a few. 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.880 I mean main you know, the main network still have 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:08.600 their shows. I just don't watch any of them. 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.760 The last mainstream network show that I saw that I 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.080 really liked was a ted dancing show called Mister Mayor 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.360 and it's it was funny. I don't know why I 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.080 got canceled. A great cast. It wasn't dumb, it was 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.160 as smart, but it was also hilarious, had a real 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.479 kind of like a slightly different thirty rock vibe to 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:30.279 like the writing. 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.640 Yeah, you know what, man, I'd have to really dig 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:38.240 to see what the last major network half hour sitcom was. 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.799 I watched because I feel like it was like arrested development. 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:42.599 But maybe there's been one since then. 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.680 Yeah, yeah, I would say probably before, mister Mayor. That's 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:47.360 as far as it would go back for me too. 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:49.760 And you watched The Good Place too, didn't you? 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.000 I did. I didn't watch it. I watched it big 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.400 wise on I guess Netflix or whatever. I never watched 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:57.080 it when it was on. 0:04:57.839 --> 0:04:59.080 Yeah. 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:04.839 Yeah, So obviously all this is barreling us toward MASH, 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.960 which is an acronym. Did you know that, mister Smarty? 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.520 I did. Yeah, Well, why don't you since this is 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:14.520 your favorite show, why don't you tell everybody what it 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:15.000 stands for? 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:21.040 It stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. And as everyone, 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.920 even Jerry knows that there's an asterisk in between the letters. 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:30.080 Three asterisks. Our friend Dave helped us with this, and he. 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:31.000 He also hates MASH. 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:37.040 Yeah. He looked high and low and was like, there's 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.640 no reason for the asterisks. He thinks that it was 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.040 just a design thing, and I couldn't find anything that 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:42.839 contradicted that. 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.839 Well, my feeling is that I think it clearly was 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.640 meant to show that it is an acronym, even though 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.440 that's not how the military necessarily distinguished it because people 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.320 would just say, what in the world is MASH mean? 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.200 But oh wait, it must stand for something, would be 0:05:58.200 --> 0:05:58.920 my guess. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.200 Right, But they didn't use periods after each letter like 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:03.360 the military would of. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:09.320 Oh yeah, sure, I get you. I'm yeah. An acronym 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.359 is typically a period, right, oh gotcha? Yeah yeah. But 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:13.320 it looks good though, You're. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:13.840 Right, it does. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.080 It looks fantastic, very signature. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.880 So mobile Army Surgical Hospital and obviously, if you've ever 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.039 seen MASH, it's where the whole thing is set, set 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.920 during the Korean War in a mobile surgical hospital, hence 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.080 the name, and those were actually a real thing. Did 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.440 you know that, mister smart guy who loves MASH so much? 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.640 Oh boy, this is what we're in for. I did 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.000 know that, because you know, at some point the show 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:44.000 spells that out, So yeah, I knew that was the thing. 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.240 What I was curious, And you know, my Mash recollection 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.440 this is from a long time ago. I don't remember 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.000 them ever moving at all, so I feel like they 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.560 kind of stayed there, unless that was an episode that 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:57.520 I missed where they were like, yeah, we're gonna move 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.440 to this other part of Malibu, which which is where 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.640 it was filmed, the Fox Ranch which is now Malibu 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.120 Creek State Park, which is why and all the scenes 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.560 of helicopters flying around Korea. Who knows if that's what 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:13.080 Korea looks like, but it looks like the mountains of 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:13.920 southern California. 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.480 You don't know, that's where the Manson family lived for 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:16.920 a while. 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:22.560 Oh really, no, No, they lived on Spawn Ring, right, Okay. 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.200 Anytime I hear ranch in California, I just immediately think 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:26.200 of the Manson family. 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:28.680 Yeah, and I know I've told the story about shooting 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:30.400 out there, but it was a big treat for me 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.640 as a PA to shoot a commercial and see like 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:37.200 a rusted out army oh yeah, ambulance, and I think, 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:38.920 I mean, who knows what's there now, but there were 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:40.640 still a few remnants back then, right. 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.400 Yeah. I remember my mind being blown when I found 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.200 out that that was like California in the back. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:47.640 He didn't go to Korea. 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.160 Yeah. I think that's kind of when I started to 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.880 get that people cut corners for money. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:53.880 Yeah, totally. 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:54.960 So. 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.680 Yeah, so a mash thing. A mash was actually a thing, 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.960 and I think it was actually first try it out 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.440 in the Korean War, which I think was a three 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:08.520 year war. But something interesting that I noticed about Mashes 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.680 that it ran for eleven seasons, so it was almost 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.720 four times longer than the actual war that was the 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.360 setting for this TV show. But in reality, like I 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.720 was saying, a MASH hospital was tried out in the 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:23.880 Korean War in real life. 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:26.800 Yeah, for sure. And the idea is that they put 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.080 the surgeons close to the front lines so they could 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.240 save more lives. And it was, you know, they're all 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.120 kind of temporary, like they slept on you know, cot 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.360 like beds, and they lived in tents, and it was 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:39.880 on the TV show there's a lot to talk about 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.360 the front and how close they were, but the real 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.680 life MASH units apparently had a ninety seven percent survival rate. 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:48.839 If you got there, your chances are you lived. 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:53.640 Yeah, so it was a really good idea that panned out. Yeah, 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.199 And in the show, you can hear bombs going off 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:01.200 sometimes occasionally the overhead lights will flicker and sway because 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.200 they are so close to the front. And I was 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.560 thinking about the same thing that you mentioned too, that 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:12.520 they never seemed to change or move their unit. And 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:14.480 if it's supposed to be four to five miles behind 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.120 front lines. Then that would have to be a completely 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.000 static front line for all those years to never move. 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.000 But it made me wonder about like the real life 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.559 mash surgeons, like how often did you have to break 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.040 down your mash unit and then move it, you know, 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.360 and set it up again, which apparently you could do 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.800 very quickly. Supposedly you could set one up in twenty 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.480 four hours. But that also just kind of goes to 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.440 explain like these were not like state of the art 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.280 surgical wards. They were like blood and guts, get your 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:45.920 hands dirty, you're lucky if you have more than one scalpel, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:47.600 kind of like surgical outfit. 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.719 Yeah, for sure, And that was conveyed very well in 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.280 the show. The doctors on the show, you know, just 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:58.840 like in real life, the doctors were generally civilians that 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.760 were drafted into the war to be army surgeons. After 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.079 I think World War Two, they had a tougher time 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:08.319 getting surgeons going, and when Korea came around, they passed 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.600 the Doctor's Draft Act. If you had already served in 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.280 World War two as a doctor or surgeon or nurse 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.320 or whatever, you didn't, you could get waived. You could 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.440 still serve if you wanted to. But the long and 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.800 short of that is the recruits were younger, they didn't 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.280 have as much experience. They definitely were not looking to 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.800 join the army. Which was a big, big part of 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.600 that show is that none of you know, none of them, 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.200 but the main characters that we're going to talk about, 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.040 like the protagonist, not the foils. The Foils kind of 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:40.120 liked the army, but the other guys generally did not 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:44.120 like being there or being in the army culture. And 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:46.840 Alan Alda was thirty six when they started making this. 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.240 It was kind of curious about his starting age. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:50.840 thirty six. 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.920 So yeah, I think that's almost one of the cornerstones 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:59.040 of this show is that these are civilian doctors who 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.080 were drafted in the Middle Military, and they're kind of 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.160 bristling against this the regimentedness that's required of them just 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.560 from being in the military. They're like, just get out 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.160 of our hair. We're here to save lives, you know. 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.800 Take that whole like revelly stuff and shove it. 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.040 Yeah, that's right. It was actually a book and this 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:21.840 smart guy I did not know no. 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.920 Way I was going to ask you that facetiously and 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:25.600 I didn't. 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.319 I'm sorry, I did not know this. Of course I 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:29.680 knew it was a movie, and we'll talk about then 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.760 a second. But the movie was optioned from a book 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.520 written in nineteen sixty eight called Mash Colon, a novel 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:40.440 about three army doctors by a Mash veteran doctor named 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:44.280 doctor Richard H. Hornberger under a pseudonym Richard Hooker. I 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.920 think he added a co writer named W. C. Hines 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.680 when it came pretty clear that his book was a 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.120 bit of a mess, because it sounds like it was 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.520 just sort of a group of stories about his experience 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.040 in the eight oh five to five. The eighty fifty 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.680 fifth Mash Unit was the real life unit that it 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.400 was based on, and it sounds like it was, you know, 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:05.200 like what we see on TV and in the movies, 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.320 Like they partied a lot, they drank a lot, did 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.280 a lot of pranks, and on the side did some surgery. 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:12.679 Yeah. Well, like you said, it was kind of loosely 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:17.560 put together, like each chapter started with hey, get this right, 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.120 and they were basically like yeah, they were anecdotes, and 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:24.079 then apparently he also peppered in some like gory stuff 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:28.280 just to basically get across the Horrors of War and 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.880 he was actually a surgeon in Maine and when he 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.840 put this whole book together, and they brought in W. C. Hines, 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.640 a sportswriter, to kind of help him with it. If 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.720 you've seen the TV show and you've never read the book, 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.600 maybe even haven't seen the movie, you have a totally 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.480 different conception of Mash than what Hornberger created and what 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.040 the movie kind of portrayed, which is like, this wasn't 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.600 a he didn't have any liberal agenda. In fact, he 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.280 was kind of conservative, and he didn't really like the 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.000 tone of the TV show, but it was still it 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.559 still had like a kind of anti war bent through it, 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:11.000 or at least just questioning that the morality of war, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.880 just how stupid and wasteful it is. But it wasn't 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.440 you know, it was not a liberal book or written 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:19.680 by a liberal person. 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.840 But you know it's Hollywood gets a whold of something. Yeah, 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:25.840 they're going to liberalize it. And that's basically, you know, 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:27.640 like you said, what the movie and TV show ended 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.640 up being. It's like a statement, like an anti war statement. 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.080 Hornberger after not after Mash, because we'll talk about that later. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:40.520 The weird spinoff, but Postmash, he wrote more mash books. 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.880 After you Know the movie was a hit. He wrote 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.520 fourteen mash novels. The first one was called Mash and Maine, 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.679 which published the same year the TV show ended up premiering. 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.920 Yeah, fourteen novels, a movie and a TV show off 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:56.640 of a book that he had to bring a sports 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.120 writer into help, you know, whip into shape. 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:01.640 Yeah, can you cash in exactly? 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.439 So? Yeah, And he was just basically trying to get 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:09.520 his anecdotes across, which were mostly like drunken prank stuff 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.680 like you said, like you see on the TV show, 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.920 like that was based on this guy's book. So, like 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:16.760 I said, it was turned into a movie. I think 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:18.920 it was option maybe even the year it was published 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.600 in nineteen sixty eight, because the movie came out in 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.880 nineteen seventy and I imagine it took a little while 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:28.280 to make because it's a mess and it was directed 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:29.320 by Robert Altman. 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:31.040 So you didn't like the movie. 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.120 I've only seen it once. I'm not entirely certain I 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.240 saw the whole thing. I don't remember if I saw 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:41.080 the whole thing. I was reading about people debating on 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:43.840 whether the movie is any good or not, And it 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.920 seemed like the consensus was that somebody say it's a 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.200 masterpiece of twentieth century comedy. Yeah. 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.520 See, that's where I veer off, Like I love, love, 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.520 love the TV show. I liked the movie okay, like 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.680 I'm a big Robert Almond guy. It critically did very 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:02.960 I mean, it was a big hit. It won the 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.200 Golden Palm at the Cans Film Festival in nineteen seventy, 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.160 nominated for Best Picture and four other oscars. I think 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.440 it won Best Screenplay. So it was a huge hit. 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:17.880 But it's like, I think maybe I was too young 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:19.520 the first time I saw it, and I loved the 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:21.280 TV show so much, I was like, I gotta go 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.600 see the movie version, and the movie version's a lot different, 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.120 and it just didn't. I don't know. I don't think 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:29.520 it's among Altman's best work, but certainly a lot of 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:30.520 people disagree with me. 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.840 Sure a lot of people like it, but it's almost 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.480 one of those things you get the impression that people 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.600 like it because it's, you know, supposedly this amazing thing, 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:42.880 not because they'd like it like it, you know what 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.400 I mean. Maybe maybe that's just kind of the tone 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.840 that I got But anyway, the movie was a little 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:55.040 closer to the book, and in that it's like it 0:15:55.120 --> 0:16:01.200 portrays everything that the younger generations did, like about the 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:10.440 oldest generation right now explain sexism, racism, Oh sure, she's 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:16.960 just completely completely ignoring like the consequences of harming other people. 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.240 Yeah yeah, yeah, like essentially everything, Like those are the 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:25.160 main themes throughout this movie, right although again the subtext 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.120 is that this is an anti war movie at the 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.680 very least again questioning the morality of war. And it 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.880 was released right at you know, the peak of when 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:38.080 anti war sentiment was really aroused in America because of 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:38.960 the Vietnam War. 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:41.680 Yeah, for sure. And I didn't know where you're going, 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:43.960 but you totally nailed it. Like in this movie, it's 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.960 like it's supposed to be funny that hot lips Hula Han, 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:50.160 the head nurse is the shower curtain has ripped open 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.320 and she has fully frontally exposed naked to the rest 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.720 of the camp. Yeah, like this played for laugh So 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.440 obviously it's a movie of its time. It was by 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.800 Ring Lardner junior, obviously son of a great short story writer, 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.840 Ring Lardner, and he I think they called him. Pinky 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:09.760 Ring was his nickname. 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.320 No, oh, you got me. That's a good one. 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:15.800 Oh. Thanks, that'd be a pretty good nickname for a 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:21.640 Ring Junior. Yeah, or maybe toe ring. No pinky pinky ring. 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:21.960 Okay. 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.360 Uh so Altman, you know, does his Altman thing, which 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.400 is a lot of improvisation, a lot of overlapping dialogue. 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.080 It's his hallmark as a filmmaker. Ring Lardner Junior did 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:36.000 not care for that, evidently, and said, like, you ruined 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.480 what I wrote. And I don't know if he took 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.520 that back after he won the Oscar for screenplay or not, 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:42.520 but yeah, it's kind of interesting. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:44.119 Yeah. I saw he tried to get his name taken 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:45.800 off of it and then he won the Oscar. Wow, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:48.000 I guess I'll stick with this. 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:49.359 That's really funny. 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:51.760 One other thing about ring Lardner Junior I saw is 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:53.800 that he was one of the Hollywood ten who was 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.040 blacklisted by the McCarthy hearings. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:57.320 Oh yeah, so sure. 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.840 It was like almost a slightly sub of act in 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.920 and of itself to hire him in the late sixties 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.000 after you know, they were bringing him back. 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.359 I guess, well, Altmund's he was an old pothead. He 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.280 was a medium age pothead at that point. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.960 So let's talk about the theme song, which I'm sure 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:17.840 a lot of people know the title of it, but 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.359 many people might not actually because they played it. If 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.680 you're a fan of the TV show, it was always instrumental. 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.200 Yeah, they changed it from the movie. In the movie, 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:30.520 it had words. The name of the song is suicide 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.840 is Painless, and the story behind it I did not know. 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.080 In the mash movie there was a character I did 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:43.280 know this stuff, Captain Walt Waldowski, who says he wants 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.440 to take his own life because he's gay and he's 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.159 in the army and he can't bear it. And so 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.040 they do a fake sort of a fake funeral, a 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.760 living funeral, and give him a placebo pill, telling him 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.240 it's a big sedative that's gonna, you know, take his life, right. 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:03.080 And so Altman's like, I need a song that he 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:05.640 pitched it as I needed to be the stupidest song ever. 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.400 So we hired a guy, a real musician named Johnny Mandel. 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.480 Any relation to the Men that's Mandrill, Sorry. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.919 Close, he's a distant, distant relation. 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.520 Yeah, that's right. He dropped the arm and he was like, 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:20.040 we need a song for this funeral, I want to 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.440 be the dumbest song ever. And Altman tried to write 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.440 it but couldn't come up with anything that he liked. So, 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.280 as the story goes, he hired his fifteen year old 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:33.520 son Michael to co write this thing with this pro musician, 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:35.159 and that's what they came up with. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:40.560 Yeah, and like that explains like it was a purposefully 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.919 stupid song, which explains just the only lyrics I know, 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.560 which is suicide is painless. It brings on many changes, 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.600 and I've always been like that seems a little tongue 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:53.240 in cheek, like what's the right? 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:54.119 Like I don't get that. 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.560 No, I do maybe want to go back and read 0:19:57.600 --> 0:19:59.920 the rest of the lyrics because I'm sure they're hilario. 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:03.320 I actually meant to do that too, and I did not. 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:06.760 I thought, you know, I know Emily worked with two 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.399