All 11 Seasons of MAS*H, Ranked (original) (raw)
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Published May 17, 2024, 7:00 PM EDT
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One of the best sitcoms not just of its time, but of all time, it also feels a little like under-selling M*A*S*H to call it merely a sitcom. Running for more than a decade and over 250 episodes, it was an adaptation of the 1970 movie of the same name, which was based on a novel from 1968, and though it started out being mostly comedic, it became more dramatic as it went along, a move that was (mostly) for the best.
M*A*S*H follows the doctors and staff of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, with the show’s 11 years on the air running almost four times longer than the war depicted. It’s a classic show, and all the seasons have value, though some are a little stronger than others. While ranking the seasons and ultimately picking a favorite isn’t easy, that’s what the following intends to do, starting with the pretty good seasons of the show and ending with those seasons that represent M*A*S*H at its very best.
Release Date
September 17, 1972
Seasons
11
11 Season 10
Number of Episodes: 22
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It’s hopefully not too controversial to list M*A*S*H’s penultimate season as its weakest, given that as the show stretched into the 1980s, there was a sense of repetition and fatigue setting in. It was never enough to make things unwatchable, but crossing the 200-episode mark and staying fresh is perhaps impossible for a sitcom/dramedy show to achieve.
It was wise for the season following this one to be the final one, and with a reduced episode count, too. Looking over season 10, it’s strange how it seems to lack standout episodes or much by way of classics. “Where There's a Will, There's a War” is probably as close to a classic episode as viewers get for the 10th season, with this episode centering on Hawkeye fearing death (he thankfully gets better) and proceeding to write his will, granting possessions to those he’s grown close to throughout the war.
10 Season 1
Number of Episodes: 24
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In contrast to season 10, it should be noted right out of the gate that season 1 does have its share of iconic episodes; indeed, some viewers might consider all-timers within M*A*S*H’s lengthy run. It’s easy to point to “Tuttle” (episode 15) and "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet" (episode 17) as classic early M*A*S*H episodes, the former being very funny and tightly written, and the latter being the first truly dramatic/heavy-going episode of the show (and far from the last).
But elsewhere, season 1 of M*A*S*H can be kind of rough. Some actors took a little while to settle into their characters, some minor characters are introduced and vanish after season 1’s over, and the humor is a little more crass than it generally is in later seasons. M*A*S*H’s first season is somewhere between the rougher and more cynical M*A*S*H movie and the more endearing later seasons of the show, with this no man’s land making season 1 a touch shaky at times.
9 Season 2
Number of Episodes: 24
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Second verse, same as the first? Almost. Season 2 of M*A*S*H is a little difficult to distinguish from the first season, especially if one’s not a religious consumer of all things M*A*S*H and it’s been a few years since the last binge. It suffers from some of the same flaws that plagued season 1, but things are sort of on the right track, in some ways.
The main cast members are all a little more confident in all their roles, iconic recurring characters like Sidney Freedman and Sam Flagg show up for the first time, and the humor is ever so slightly more refined (though not without some crassness remaining from the first season). Like season 1, season 2 also has its share of memorable highlights, like the eighth episode of the season, "The Trial of Henry Blake,” and the 13th episode, “Deal Me Out.”
8 Season 9
Number of Episodes: 20
Image via 20th Century Fox Television
Just as season 2 can be compared in a fair few ways to season 1 of M*A*S*H, so too does season 9 have some of the weaknesses found in season 10… just not quite as many. There was a little fatigue setting in as M*A*S*H entered its ninth season and aired only a handful of episodes fewer than was the norm, but not quite as much as season 10; the idea that M*A*S*H had to be wrapped up sooner rather than later wasn’t as in your face.
It's mostly decent, without too many episodes that can be considered bad, but not too much by way of all-timers. That is, except for the fifth episode, “Death Takes a Holiday,” which ranks among the top 10 M*A*S*H episodes according to IMDb, and is a memorably somber half-hour.
7 Season 7
Number of Episodes: 26
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Season 7 of M*A*S*H peaks with its 11th episode, "Point of View," which finds an inventive way to effectively portray the hardships, struggles, and personal toll of being injured at war. The entire episode is shown from the point of view of one of the patients the doctors treat, and for close to half an hour, this style is stuck to surprisingly rigidly, and the experiment paid off.
“Point of View” is one of M*A*S*H’s best and most novel episodes, but the rest of season 7 is no slouch, either. It’s the last season to wholly feature a beloved side character who leaves near the start of season 8, and also includes some other strong episodes besides “Point of View,” including the season finale, “The Party.”
6 Season 5
Number of Episodes: 25
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M*A*S*H’s fifth season glides along in a remarkably smooth way, and though it might lack dramatic highs when it comes to individual episodes, it’s a season that largely holds up well, and shows M*A*S*H at its most consistent. The status quo is the name of the game here, around the middle of the show’s run. There’s nothing here as surprising as the season 3 finale or the series finale in season 11, for example.
But beyond consistency and the admirable way characters introduced in season 4 – namely, B.J. Hunnicut and Sherman T. Potter – continue to gel with prior cast members, season 5 does have a couple of highlights worth… well, highlighting. These include the introspective eighth episode of the season, "Dear Sigmund," as well as the more light-hearted 21st episode, “Movie Tonight.”
5 Season 6
Number of Episodes: 25
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Seasons 4 and 5 worked in tandem to create a great rhythm for M*A*S*H going into the second half of its run, and functioned in a way that helped carry the show over many more years while achieving further greatness. Season 6 continues to build upon the groundwork laid by the earlier two seasons and, indeed, by the less consistent (though sometimes amazing) first three seasons of the show.
That’s all to say that season 6 is another standard season of M*A*S*H, but M*A*S*H at its most “average” is still better than the vast majority of other sitcoms of its time, and perhaps even of any time. There are almost no duds in M*A*S*H’s sixth season, when looking at individual episodes, and some definite standout episodes, too, including the opening two-parter, "Fade Out, Fade In." With cast departures throughout seasons 3 to 5, M*A*S*H could've crashed and burned, but it adjusted remarkably well, and the new characters added in to replace the old ones were surprisingly great.
4 Season 8
Number of Episodes: 25
Image via 20th Century Fox Television
Honestly, season 8 delivers the goods in a surprising way, showing that M*A*S*H had what it took to stay interesting, funny, and moving into year 8 of its run. It’s perhaps the last season of the show before fatigue set in and there was a sense that things had to finish, and the only thing that keeps it from ranking behind the final season is the fact that the final season has that iconic series finale (more on that in a bit).
As far as particularly great episodes go, the two-parter that is "Good Bye, Radar” hits hard, "Life Time" experiments by having an episode play out in real-time and really makes it work, and "April Fools," the hilarious season finale, is also great. Even season 8’s more divisive experimental episodes are still fascinating, like the dream sequence-heavy “Dreams,” which gets surreal and psychological in a way that could well have influenced groundbreaking dramas like Twin Peaks and The Sopranos years later.
3 Season 3
Number of Episodes: 24
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To address it right away, yes, the season 3 finale, "Abyssinia, Henry,” is the primary reason the third season of M*A*S*H ranks as highly as it does. It was an episode that was controversial and shocking when it first aired, but it’s since gone down as an important one not just for M*A*S*H, but for television as a whole, using a main character's death in a meaningful way that also happened to shock, done to drive home the violence of war and demonstrate how no one’s really safe.
It's not an easy episode to watch, and does impact the show going forward. Things feel darker after the end of season 3, and the war feels more real than ever before. But it’s not all doom and gloom, because the third season of M*A*S*H is also very funny; probably more so than the first two seasons. It’s just that the finale understandably casts a shadow over the rest of the season, and ultimately in a way that made the entire series stronger going forward.
2 Season 11
Number of Episodes: 16
The M*A*S*H crew hugging and saying goodbye in the final episode, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen"
Image via CBS
Just as season 3 is boosted to an incredible extent for its finale, so too is season 11 improved, perhaps even more significantly, because it contains M*A*S*H’s iconic finale: "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.” This is M*A*S*H at its best, but it almost feels unfair to compare it to the other episodes, given it’s the length of about five or six put together, and is effectively a TV movie rather than an episode of television.
It's a finale that just gets everything right, but elsewhere, season 11 is also noteworthy for being an improvement on seasons 9 and 10. The reduced episode count (it’s the only season to have less than 20 episodes) helped, as did a couple of memorable pre-finale episodes, including "The Joker is Wild" and the show’s penultimate episode, "As Time Goes By."