Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen (M*A*S*H episode)
Encyclopedia
Goodbye, Farewell and Amen is a television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

 that served as the 251st and final episode of the M*A*S*H television series. Closing out the series' eleventh season, the 2½-hour episode first aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 on February 28, 1983. Written by a large number of collaborators, including series star Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...

, who also directed, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" surpassed the single-episode ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

 record that had been set by the Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...

episode that resolved the "Who Shot J.R.?" cliffhanger
Who Done It (Dallas episode)
"Who Done It" is the third episode in the fourth season of the television series Dallas.-Overview:'"Who Done It'" resolved the "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger from the previous season. It gained the highest rating of any television episode in US history, a record it held until February 1983 when the...

. From 1983 until 2010, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" remained the most watched television broadcast in American history, passed in total viewership (but not in Ratings or Share) in February 2010 by Super Bowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference champion New Orleans Saints to decide the National Football League champion for the 2009 season. The Saints defeated the Colts by a score of...

.

The episode's plot chronicles the final days of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

 at the 4077th MASH and features several storylines intended to show the war's effects on the individual personnel of the unit, and to bring closure to the series. After the cease-fire goes into effect, the members of the 4077th throw a closing party before taking down the camp for the last time. After tear-filled goodbyes, the main characters go their separate ways, leading up to the iconic final scene of the series. The episode drew 121.6 million American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 viewers, more than both that year's Super Bowl
Super Bowl XVII
Super Bowl XVII was an American football game played on January 30, 1983 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the strike-shortened 1982 regular season...

 and the famed Roots
Roots (TV miniseries)
Roots is a 1977 American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's fictional novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations, winning nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still...

miniseries. It still stands as the most watched finale of any television series. While the M*A*S*H series ended with this episode, three of the series' main characters (Sherman Potter, Maxwell Klinger, and Father Mulcahy) would later meet again in 1983–1985 spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...

 series AfterMASH
AfterMASH
AfterMASH was an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from September 26, 1983 to December 11, 1984. A spin-off of the series M*A*S*H , the show took place immediately following the end of the Korean War and chronicled the adventures of three characters from the original series: Colonel...

.

The episode was added to the syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 package for the series in 1993.

Plot

During the final days of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

, Capt. Hawkeye Pierce has been sent to a mental hospital
Mental Hospital
Mental hospital may refer to:*Psychiatric hospital*hospital in Nepal named Mental Hospital...

 for treatment by Dr. Sidney Freedman. Pierce's memories of what led to his breakdown have become repressed, and as he and Freedman draw them forth, Pierce at first remembers the details inaccurately. In Pierce’s first recollection, he was on a bus returning to the 4077th after a day of drinking at the beaches of Incheon
Incheon
The Incheon Metropolitan City is located in northwestern South Korea. The city was home to just 4,700 people when Jemulpo port was built in 1883. Today 2.76 million people live in the city, making it Korea’s third most populous city after Seoul and Busan Metropolitan City...

. He called for a bottle of whiskey to be passed back to someone who “can’t wait”; later, he is able to more accurately recall this person was a wounded soldier, and that the bottle was filled with not whiskey, but plasma
Blood plasma
Blood plasma is the straw-colored liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid...

. The bus then picked up some South Korean refugees, followed by some wounded soldiers who brought news of an enemy patrol in the area. The bus later pulls off the road and everyone is told to stay quiet so they would not be discovered by the enemy. One woman carried a live chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

 that would not stop squawking, prompting Pierce to angrily admonish her to “keep that damn chicken quiet!”, after which the noise suddenly stopped.

This last detail causes Pierce to break down sobbing as he finally reveals the true ending of the story. When Hawkeye snapped at the woman, he had told her to keep not a chicken quiet, but rather her baby. Unable to keep the baby from crying, the woman made the decision to smother her own child to silence it and protect the lives of the people on the bus. Upon seeing what had happened, Pierce was so traumatized that he repressed the memory of what occurred. Once back at camp, he attempted to operate on a patient without anesthesia, while accusing the anesthesiologist
Anesthesiologist
An anesthesiologist or anaesthetist is a physician trained in anesthesia and peri-operative medicine....

 of trying to smother the patient. But it was a later incident, driving a jeep through the wall of the Officers' Club and ordering a double bourbon (which Pierce never drank), that caused Pierce to be committed to the mental hospital.

With the true memory of the events on the bus now restored to him, Pierce can acknowledge the fact that he suffered a nervous breakdown, and was in the process of writing his father that he might be coming home soon as he doubted the Army would let a surgeon operate "whose cheese has slipped off his cracker". But Freedman, deciding that Pierce is ready to be released, sends him back to the 4077th promising to check up on him periodically.

Back at the 4077th, an out-of-control tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...

 runs over the camp latrine
Latrine
A latrine is a communal facility containing one or more commonly many toilets which may be simple pit toilets or in the case of the United States Armed Forces any toilet including modern flush toilets...

s, forcing Maj. Charles Winchester to go to a temporary facility down the road to relieve himself. Encountering a raggedy group of five Chinese soldiers on a motorcycle, he is greatly surprised when they “surrender” and follow him back to camp, playing musical instruments. Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt takes possession of the motorcycle and later annoys Winchester by painting it yellow.

Winchester, irritated that he is about to miss his chance to win a coveted position at a hospital in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, consoles himself by conducting the Chinese musicians in rehearsals of one of his favorite Mozart works (the first movement of the Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581
Clarinet Quintet (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, was written in 1789 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. A clarinet quintet is a work for one clarinet and a string quartet . Although originally written for basset clarinet, it is almost always played on a clarinet in A or B-flat...

). On the surface, he is irritated with them over their inability to play the piece correctly, but he is actually bonding with and growing quite fond of them. Maj. Margaret Houlihan learns of his situation and puts in a good word with the Boston hospital’s board, but her efforts earn his ire when he finds out about them.

With the crashed tank still in the camp and Col. Sherman Potter under orders not to have it moved for the time being, enemy forces begin a mortar
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

 assault against the 4077th. Several POWs, locked in a makeshift pen in the compound, are unable to get to safety until Father Francis Mulcahy lets them out. In the process, a mortar round explodes, knocking him out and leaving him with severe hearing loss (later revealed to be caused by tinnitus
Tinnitus
Tinnitus |ringing]]") is the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound.Tinnitus is not a disease, but a symptom that can result from a wide range of underlying causes: abnormally loud sounds in the ear canal for even the briefest period , ear...

). Only Hunnicutt knows about Mulcahy’s condition, and Mulcahy begs him not to tell anyone else, as it could result in his being sent home, unable to help the local orphans.

Shortly before Pierce returns from the mental hospital, Hunnicutt receives his discharge papers and leaves for home. Just as he is boarding a chopper, Sgt. Max Klinger shows Potter a just-arrived set of orders that rescinds the discharge, but Potter cannot (by choice) hear Klinger over the chopper. The shorthanded operating-room staff is soon swamped with patients, and Potter calls headquarters to get another surgeon to replace Hunnicutt. Pierce, arriving after Hunnicutt's departure, is upset that his roommate left without saying goodbye, much as his old friend Trapper John McIntyre had. Shortly afterward, during another barrage of enemy shelling, Pierce drives the crashed tank through the newly built latrine and into the camp’s garbage dump to draw the shelling away from the camp. This impulsive action by Pierce, coming on the heels of his breakdown, prompts Potter to call Freedman in for another talk with Pierce.

In the meantime, a Korean refugee from a previous episode, Soon-Lee Han, is still on the base and trying to find her parents. Klinger becomes worried when he learns that she has left to find them, and the two realize that they have feelings for one another. They decide to get married, but much to Klinger's frustration Soon-Lee insists that she cannot leave Korea until she finds her family.

A North Korean incendiary bomb attack causes wildfires in the adjacent forest, and Potter orders the 4077th to "bug out." (a well-rehearsed evacuation order). As soon as the camp is up and running again in its new location, Potter gets the replacement surgeon he asked for—Hunnicutt, whose travel plans were delayed just long enough for him to find out about his rescinded discharge. Meeting up with Pierce, Hunnicutt says that he had meant to leave a note for him, but had no time to do so. The 4077th throws a party for Hunnicutt, who had intended to be home in time for his daughter’s second birthday, and for a local orphan girl who is about that age.

Seeing many children at the party, Pierce becomes withdrawn and tries to slip away, but Freedman, who shows up during the festivities, reassures him. He considers Pierce's commandeering of the tank to be a sensible action that took his fellow soldiers out of danger. Pierce’s feelings about the thought of a patient under his care not surviving, Freedman says, may make him an even better doctor than he already is.

Winchester eventually has to say goodbye to the Chinese musicians, who are to be part of a POW exchange. As they are driven away, they finally play the Mozart piece correctly for him. A public-address announcement then broadcasts the news that a truce has been signed; a cease-fire will go into effect at 10:00 that night, officially ending the hostilities. But the celebration is short-lived, as Potter orders the camp moved back to its original site so the remaining wounded can be treated. Among the wounded is one of the musicians, barely alive after the truck carrying the POWs was shelled. None of the other four survived, and this one soon dies as well. A shaken Winchester retires to his tent, where he plays a record of the Mozart piece they were rehearsing, then angrily yanks it from the turntable and smashes it.

In the operating room, Hawkeye finds himself about to operate on a child and hesitates at first. When Potter offers to switch patients with him, he declines and goes to work, indicating that his recovery is complete. Freedman, his work now completed, leaves the 4077 with the same parting line he used during one of his first visits: “Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice. Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.” The staff continues operating throughout the night, stopping only briefly to take note when 10:00 PM comes and the guns fall silent as heard in a radio broadcast over the loudspeaker.

Once all the wounded have been cared for, the staff throws a final party in the mess tent, with many characters commenting on their future plans. Among the main cast, Potter looks forward to rejoining his wife in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 and becoming a “semi-retired country doctor”; Houlihan has rejected several overseas postings in favor of working at a big-city hospital in the United States; Mulcahy decides to begin ministering to the deaf; Pierce wants to take some time off, then go back to work where he can get to know his patients; and Hunnicutt jokes about running off with a girl he met during his travel delay, then says he will return home to his family in San Francisco. Winchester has won the position he wanted at the Boston hospital and agrees to accept it, despite Houlihan's "meddling," but remarks that the music that he had loved and used as a refuge from the experience will now serve as a reminder of the deaths of the Chinese musicians and the war itself.

The big surprise of the evening comes from Klinger, who announces his intent to marry Soon-Lee and stay in Korea to help find her family. The wedding takes place the next morning, with Mulcahy officiating, Potter as best man, and Houlihan as matron of honor. After the ceremony, the staff begins tearing down the camp and prepares to move out by various means. The mileage signs to everyone’s hometowns are pulled off the long-standing signpost (except for Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 and Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

) and taken home by their respective owners, and the officers say their goodbyes as the last pieces of the camp are dismantled.

Mulcahy and Houlihan travel to the 8063rd MASH, a stopover on the way back to the States. Winchester cannot find room in Houlihan’s jeep, so he sends Sgt. Rizzo to get him another ride; he then makes peace with her and allows her to keep a treasured book she borrowed from him. Just before leaving the camp, Houlihan receives hugs from various members of the unit and also engages in a long, passionate goodbye kiss with Pierce. The last available vehicle is a garbage truck, which Winchester boards after saying goodbye. Before Potter rides away to the local orphanage on his beloved horse, Sophie, planning to leave her there and take a jeep, Pierce and Hunnicutt offer him a small token of gratitude: a salute
Salute
A salute is a gesture or other action used to display respect. Salutes are primarily associated with armed forces, but other organizations and civil people also use salutes.-Military salutes:...

, which they seldom performed for anyone. The Colonel emotionally returns the salute and rides off.

Pierce and Hunnicutt, the last to leave, find it difficult to part. As they reminisce over their shared time, Pierce laments that they will probably never see each other again, though Hunnicutt insists that someday they will. The latter rides off on his motorcycle, shouting that he left a note this time. Only after Pierce’s helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

 has lifted off does he see this note: the word GOODBYE spelled out in stones on the ground. Pierce smiles as he flies away from the former site of the 4077th.

Cast Notes

The CBS News correspondent Robert Pierpoint
Robert Pierpoint
Robert Pierpoint was a American broadcast journalist who worked for CBS News.Born in Redondo Beach, California, Pierpoint served in the United States Navy during World War II. In 1948, he graduated from University of Redlands...

 provided the radio voiceover for the episode.

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen on home video

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen was the first TV program to be released on home video by the CBS/Fox Video
CBS/Fox Video
CBS/Fox Video was a home video company formed and established in 1982, as a merger between 20th Century Fox Video, formerly Magnetic Video Corporation, and CBS Video Enterprises....

 label (in VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

, Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...

, and the RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

 Selectavision
SelectaVision
The Capacitance Electronic Disc was an analog video video disc playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using a special needle and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records....

 video disc formats), and was released to rental outlets. In the 1990s, Columbia House
Columbia House
The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by the Columbia Records division of CBS, Inc. as an umbrella for its mail-order music clubs, the primary incarnation of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. It had a significant market presence in the 1980s and early...

 released selected episodes of M*A*S*H on VHS, including the finale.

The episode has been released in three DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 packages. The "Martinis and Medicine Collection" complete series set and the Season 11 set of M*A*S*H were both released on November 7, 2006, and include the series finale. On May 15, 2007, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20th Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and later as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and FoxVideo, Inc....

 re-released the "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" episode as a stand-alone three-DVD set. This DVD set also includes the two "special features" DVDs that were originally included in the complete series "Martinis and Medicine Collection" DVD set but not in the Season 11 set. There are differences in the labeling and packaging of the various releases. The first circulation of the three-disc set of the finale had the Season 11 art on the first disc.

"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" is now available on DVD in Region 2 as part of the "Martinis and Medicine" complete collection, released in 2006.

Currently, there is no report of M*A*S*H being released on Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...

, though the series has been re-released in slimmer casings (similar to the 2007 three-disc set of the series finale) in order to make the sets more affordable to consumers.

Pre-broadcast buildup

The anticipation and buildup before the airing of "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" was almost unprecedented, especially for a regular television series (in contrast to awards shows, sporting events, or special events). Interest from advertisers prompted CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

, the network broadcasting M*A*S*H, to sell 30-second commercial blocks for $450,000 (over $988,000 in 2010 dollars) each—costlier than even for the Super Bowl of that year
Super Bowl XVII
Super Bowl XVII was an American football game played on January 30, 1983 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the strike-shortened 1982 regular season...

.

On the night the episode aired, large areas of California (particularly the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

) suffered power outages due to unusually strong winter weather, which prevented many viewers from watching the series finale. Three weeks later, on March 21, KPIX
KPIX-TV
KPIX-TV is the CBS owned and operated television station in San Francisco, California. Through its parent company CBS Corporation, KPIX is co-owned with The CW affiliate KBCW-TV ....

, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco, re-aired the episode.

Post show reaction

M*A*S*H was one of the most successful shows in TV history. So as not to completely lose the franchise, CBS quickly created a new series, AfterMASH
AfterMASH
AfterMASH was an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from September 26, 1983 to December 11, 1984. A spin-off of the series M*A*S*H , the show took place immediately following the end of the Korean War and chronicled the adventures of three characters from the original series: Colonel...

, that followed the post-war adventures of Colonel Potter, Max Klinger and Father Mulcahy in a Stateside hospital. Initially popular, script problems and constant character changes led to a sharp decline in viewers, and the show lasted only two seasons.

M*A*S*H concluded its 11-season run with a repeat of "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" on September 19, 1983. It was rerun in summer 1984.

In 2011, the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales, ranked this finale as the best.

See also

  • List of most watched television broadcasts
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