Beloved veteran actor Alan Alda has commemorated the 40-year anniversary of the anti-war sitcom MASH’s final episode with a simple tweet.
Starting off as a commentary and an open critique of the Vietnam war, the sitcom brought humour to overcoming hardships and put a spotlight on the importance of camaraderie.
The show’s two-and-a-half-hour final episode, titled Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, still holds the record for television’s most-watched finale, with 125 million tuning in to say goodbye to their favourite group of misfits.
Taking to Twitter, Alda didn’t even have to name the show and fans knew exactly what he was referring to.
Fans flooded social media with memories of the heartbreaking finale, thanking Alda for delighting them with years of entertainment.
The 1972 sitcom is based on the medical personnel of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital stationed in Korea during the 1950s Korean war and was so well-loved that it ran for a full 11 years, eight years longer than the war itself.
To celebrate the show’s 50-year anniversary, Alan Alda and another prominent cast member, Mike Farrell, reunited to toast the show’s milestone anniversary.
The pair played witty but loveable surgeons and bunkmates – Alda as Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce and Farrell as BJ Hunnicutt.
MASH’s popularity has remained strong through the years, the show continues to be an audience favourite through re-runs.