On February 28, 1983, 106 million Americans sat down to watch the final episode of M*A*S*H. "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" remains to this day the most-watched single television episode in American history — a record that has stood for more than forty years and is unlikely to ever be broken in the age of streaming and fragmented viewing. The show that began in 1972 as a dark comedy about the Korean War had become something else entirely by the time it ended — a meditation on loss, friendship, and the cost of violence. Here's where the doctors and nurses of the 4077th ended up.
Alan Alda (Hawkeye Pierce)
If M*A*S*H has a defining presence, it's Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce — the gifted, irreverent, sometimes insufferable surgeon from Crabapple Cove, Maine, who used laughter as armor against horrors he could not otherwise process. Alda won multiple Emmy Awards for acting, writing, and directing the series, making him one of the few people in television history to win in all three categories for the same show.
After M*A*S*H, Alda built a remarkably varied career. He was nominated for Academy Awards for his performances in The Aviator (2004) and Marriage Story (2019), appeared in The West Wing as Senator Arnold Vinick, and has been a prominent advocate for science communication, hosting the radio and podcast series Clear + Vivid. In 2018, he publicly disclosed a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. He continues to work and advocate for science literacy.
Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicutt)
B.J. Hunnicutt replaced Trapper John after Wayne Rogers left the series after Season 3, and Mike Farrell made the role entirely his own — creating a character whose fundamental decency and aching homesickness provided a different kind of moral center than Hawkeye's manic idealism. After M*A*S*H, Farrell became deeply involved in human rights work, advocating against capital punishment and serving on the board of Death Penalty Focus. He has continued to act in film and television, and has written about his activism extensively.
Harry Morgan (Colonel Sherman T. Potter)
The beloved colonel who replaced Henry Blake in Season 4 brought a different kind of authority to the 4077th — the wisdom of a career soldier who had seen enough wars to know what they cost. Harry Morgan won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the role. He continued acting until very late in his life, appearing in Dragnet, After MASH, and numerous other projects. He passed away in December 2011 at age 96.
Loretta Swit (Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan)
Margaret Houlihan began the series as a target for the surgeons' mockery and evolved, over eleven seasons, into one of the most complex and sympathetic characters on the show — a deeply professional officer trying to maintain dignity and competence in a chaotic environment. Loretta Swit won two Emmy Awards for the role. After M*A*S*H, she became extensively involved in animal welfare activism, particularly focused on the fur industry. She has written children's books and continued to act in various projects.
David Ogden Stiers (Major Charles Emerson Winchester III)
The magnificent, insufferable Boston Brahmin who replaced Frank Burns brought a different kind of comedy to M*A*S*H's later seasons — a man who was genuinely superior in many respects and knew it, but who contained unexpected reservoirs of humanity. Stiers went on to a distinguished career in both acting and conducting, serving as a guest conductor with orchestras around the world. He was open about his homosexuality in later years. He passed away in March 2018 at age 75.
William Christopher (Father Francis Mulcahy)
The gentle chaplain of the 4077th was a consistent moral voice throughout the series — questioning, compassionate, occasionally pushed beyond his patient limits by the war's senselessness. William Christopher remained one of the cast's most socially engaged members after the show, advocating for autism awareness (his son Ned was autistic). He passed away in December 2016 at age 84.
Jamie Farr (Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger)
The Toledo native who spent most of the series trying to get discharged by wearing dresses became, somehow, one of the show's most beloved characters — and then, in later seasons, one of its genuine emotional anchors after he stopped cross-dressing and became the company clerk. Jamie Farr continued working in entertainment after M*A*S*H, hosting game shows, doing theater, and maintaining strong ties to his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, where he is still actively involved in charitable work.
"The show was about survival. About how you maintain your humanity when everything around you is trying to take it away. That's not just about war. That's about life." — Alan Alda
The last shot of M*A*S*H — Hawkeye in the helicopter, looking down at the word "GOODBYE" spelled out in stones on the hillside — is one of the most famous images in television history. Forty years later, the people who made that moment are spread across the country, older and changed by time as all of us are, carrying with them the memory of something that mattered to more than a hundred million Americans on one February night in 1983.