M*A*S*H had followed the doctors and nurses of a mobile army surgical hospital in the Korean War since September 1972, running more than three times as long as the war itself. For its farewell, CBS sold 30-second advertisements for $450,000 each, more than NBC had charged during that year's Super Bowl. The finale drew 105.97 million viewers, a record for a single broadcast in the United States that stood until the Super Bowl of February 2010.
The finale begins with Hawkeye Pierce, the unit's wisecracking chief surgeon, in a psychiatric hospital after a breakdown in the operating room. Through sessions with the psychiatrist Sidney Freedman, he slowly faces the memory he has been suppressing: on a bus hiding from an enemy patrol, he told a refugee woman to keep a crying "chicken" quiet, and she smothered it. The chicken, he finally admits, was her baby.
Around that story, the episode brings the Korean War to an end. Alan Alda, the show's star, co-wrote and directed it. A ceasefire is announced, the 4077th throws a last party and takes down the camp, and the characters leave one by one, including Charles Winchester, who has been teaching classical music to a group of Chinese musician prisoners.
The night had a few surprises of its own. Stormy winter weather knocked out power across parts of California, especially the San Francisco Bay Area, leaving many viewers in the dark. A spin-off, AfterMASH, followed some of the characters home, but CBS cancelled it after two seasons.
Key people: Alan Alda