War time tv & movies in the 60s and 70s seem to frequently use the 2000s joke that war was like Vegas, what happened there stayed there. Not only was McIntyre married with children but so was Henry Blake. Both had affairs. One episode did revolve around Henry’s wife writing him a letter and telling him she would forgive him if something did happen in the war zone. And I remember Henry freaked out wondering if the permission came because his wife had slipped up. I can’t remember if they stopped having Henry play around as much after that. Franks affairs with Margaret was used as blackmail in one episode concerning Frank’s wife. In reality (which wasn’t mentioned) I believe the reason Margaret became so concerned on that one was the military does have a rule about affairs with married individuals and she could have been disciplined or booted out of the service for it. Margaret really should have been smart enough to have never started up with a married man, but part of comedy shows is having very flawed characters as your antagonistic. Nothing really wrong with Hawkeye running around since he was single, but at least they did show several times nurses rejecting Hawkeye due to his childish antics. One of my favorite episodes is the one with Nurse Kellye yelling at Hawkeye for not respecting her as a woman just because she wasn’t tall and skinny, and then Hawkeye finding she had a date when he did finally come calling.

Anyways people fooling around was always a big TV and movie trope in the 60s through 80s. Maybe it goes back farther. Not sure why. Maybe because most writers were men back then and they thought it funny? Idk. I do remember other TV shows that thought nothing of married men dating women. Sergeant Schultz of Hogans Heroes also comes to mind. I think Dan from Night Court chased after married women too. By the mid or late 90s showing married individuals casually having multiple affairs for a laugh did fall out of favor.

Beth,
You want to know one of the reasons guys didn't come back from wars and share with their
families their time in service? Because war and sex and boozing went hand in hand.
These were young men, they could get killed, and sleeping with the local women or anybody
who was at hand, in this case nurses, was a given. They felt themselves in all ways to be in
a different place than normal, that's why they refer to home as "back in the world."
It was ever thus in wartime.
They justify to themselves it has nothing to do with the spouse back home, and it doesn't.
That's the truth. They have to blow off steam due to the ever present chance of death,
the army recognizes that since forever.
A certain portion of the troops do never stray from their wedding vows. But the number of illegitimate kids our troops have sired around the world since WW 1 must number in the millions.
In sum, soldiers fooling around is not a trope from the 60's or any other time.
It's a stone reality that your hubby, son, dad, uncles or grandfather are never going to
share with you.
Unless you hie down to the VFW or The American Legion hall, buy drinks for the house
and then ask the guys for their best ----- stories from when they were young.
You will hear plenty, anybody who says different is lying to you.

You seem to have misunderstood my comment. I wasn’t referring to soldiers and military members fooling around in real life, I was referring to the fact that writers seemed to have absolutely no issue with characters of married men fooling around on TV in the 60s & 70s as part of the comedic plot. Tv, not real life.

Like I said before the writers had Henry, Frank and Trapper fooling around basically all the time as part of the jokes. They were throwing a little bit of realism in on the show because it happened in real life you say? Ok, I’ll buy that. But whyputaname’s comment was about how they thought the first couple of seasons were a bit sexist because all the married guys were running around like dogs in heat for a joke. If you want realism then the married women in the M*A*S*H units probably fooled around just as much as the men in real life. Why not show the married nurses screwing around just as much as the married guys? Because for some reason married women messing around isn’t as funny as married guys? Why? Because most or all the writers were guys? Maybe. I believe they only touched on married women having extramarital sexual relations maybe 3 or 4 times in 251 episodes. But that’s what my comment was about. A comedic trope on a TV show, not about real life.

They did the same thing with the character of Sergeant Schultz on Hogans Heroes. His wife and children lived in their house less than an hours’ drive from the prison camp. A place where we are reminded several times during the series as one of the safest places in Germany never to be bombed by the enemy but they also had him chasing every pretty girl he saw to further the comedic plot. And even though he’s not married there’s also Frank Sutton’s character of sergeant Vince Carter who was safe in the US as a drill sergeant and was willing to step out on his longtime girlfriend Bunny any time he saw a pretty girl. British TV did the same. Films also. For whatever reason it’s only funny when the guys are the “serial cheaters”. My comment was just an observation on what used to be a popular comedian trope. I understand about real life in war zones.

Agreed. I didn't like the finale. I thought the writing was terrible, just like the last 3,4,5 seasons. The writers turned Margaret into a whiny bit-- and Hawkeye into Saint Hawkeye ( do no wrong , say no wrong) The last straw was when they put a Superman costume on him in the Halloween episode. Give me a break

My recollection is that the rerun from September of 1983 landed in the top 10 shows for that week. (Maybe #3? Or #10?) And the following week, the first episode of "AfterMASH" was actually the most watched program for the whole week. CBS reran the "M*A*S*H" finale a 3rd time about a year later, and that one actually did have a pretty low ranking -- ranking (as best as I can recall) as around something like in the 50s or 60s among the most watched programs for that week.

I missed 5...on every miss,I felt silly;I borrowed the complete DVD series from our Seattle ☔Library,and,after watchin'👀all that,I shouldn't miss any questions,right?😉

🤣

😀Same for me!😉We shouldn't have missed any,dammit!😉