February 28, 1983: The "M*A*S*H" Finale

February 28, 1983, 40 years ago: The final episode of M*A*S*H airs on CBS, after 11 seasons, even though the Korean War, which it depicted, lasted 3 years.

The episode is titled "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen." It was directed by Alan Alda, who played Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce, M.D., U.S. Army Reserve, a.k.a. Hawkeye. He also wrote it, with, among others, longtime series producer Burt Metcalfe.

In its 1st season, 1972-73, M*A*S*H aired on Sundays at 8:00; 2nd season, Saturdays at 8:30; 3rd, Tuesdays at 8:30; 4th, 5th and 6th, Tuesday at 9:00; and then, late in the 6th season, 1978, to the end, Mondays at 9:00. The finale aired a little earlier, at 8:30 PM on a Monday night, and ran for two and a half hours.

The episode got 106 million viewers, making it the most-watched TV show in American history, breaking the record set a little over 2 years earlier, when Dallas revealed "Who shot J.R.?" Since then, a few Super Bowl broadcasts have surpassed it, but no regular TV series episode has.

Synopsis: The war finally comes to an end, but not before Hawkeye, who so often had walked a fine line between genius and madness, finally cracks, and needs treatment from Army psychiatrist Major Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus). Another surgeon, Major Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers), sees his love of music shattered upon seeing the deaths of North Korean prisoners of war, who happened to be musicians.

The camp's chaplain, Captain Francis Mulcahy (William Christopher), loses his hearing after an explosion. And the formerly cross-dressing, formerly psychiatric-discharge-seeking company clerk, Sergeant Max Klinger (Jamie Farr), falls in love with a Korean woman named Soon-Lee (Rosalind Chao), marries her -- with Mulcahy barely able to conduct the ceremony -- and decides to help her look for her family among the refugees: "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm staying in Korea!"

The final scene shows a (mostly?) recovered Hawkeye taking off in the last helicopter to leave the now-packed-up 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, while his bunkmate and fellow surgeon, Captain B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell), gets ready to leave on a motorcycle he'd recovered. He yells, "I left you a note!" Hawkeye gets the last word, the last word spoken in the series: He yells, "What?" As the chopper takes off, he sees that B.J. has spelled out "GOODBYE" in the rocks that had helped weigh down the tents.