M*A*S*H in the trailer it was rendered as "M*A*S*H". "M*A*S*H", a spin-off of the film, ran from 1972 to 1983, more than three times as long as the war it chronicled. It starred Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce and Wayne Rogers as Trapper John McIntyre. After the third season, Rogers left the show and was replaced by Mike Farrell as B. J. Hunnicutt. Another change was the addition of Harry Morgan as Colonel Sherman T. Potter, a veteran character actor and former Universal contract player, who replaced McLean Stevenson the same year. This series is the most popular and best-known version
M*A*S*H (TV series) Larry Linville, Wayne Rogers and Gary Burghoff. Series co-creator and joke writer Larry Gelbart departed after Season 4, the first featuring Mike Farrell and Harry Morgan. This resulted in Farrell and Morgan having only a single season reading scripts featuring Gelbart's masterful comic timing, which defined the feel and rhythm of Seasons 1–4 featuring predecessors Rogers and Stevenson, respectively. Larry Linville (the show's comic foil) and Executive Producer Gene Reynolds both departed at the conclusion of Season 5 in 1977, resulting in "M*A*S*H" being fully stripped of its original tight comedic foundation by the beginning of Season 6 — the