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Larry Gelbart said that M*A*S*H finally found its footing in this season one episode
"It was the first indication that a mixture of laughter and tragedy might be possible," wrote Gelbart.
Finding your footing is difficult in any new situation, but when you’re the showrunner of a brand new series, the pressure is certainly compounded.
Larry Gelbart seemed to be feeling the heat when production for M*A*S*H began. As the show’s executive producer, Gelbart had found inspiration in the film adaptation of the popular Richard Hooker novel. His enthusiasm spurred him into developing a television adaptation, which was approved by network CBS.
However, production of the first few episodes wasn’t smooth sailing, according to Gelbart’s memoir, Laughing Matters. In it, Gelbart recalled that cast and crew struggled to find stable footing when shooting an episode that was meant to be both heartfelt and humorous. Gelbart recalled that finally, when shooting the season one episode, “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet,” he was able to stretch out of his comfort zone and onto the road to success.
“Hawkeye operates, unsuccessfully, on a former friend of his who has been wounded on the battlefield, which he insisted on visiting as research for a book on the war,” wrote Gelbart. “Having taken the time to establish this character and his relationship to Hawkeye, we felt the audience would be able to share Hawkeye’s keen sense of loss - and understand when he cried at his friend’s senseless death. (Tears on a half-hour show!).”
The despair, mixed in with a few choice moments for laughter, set M*A*S*H to the perfect temperature
“It was the first indication that a mixture of laughter and tragedy might be possible, without any heavy-handed manipulation of the audience’s emotions,” wrote Gelbart. “After this episode, there was a new confidence in our work. God knows we needed it, because the work never ended.”
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