A series of books based on the franchise were published in between "M*A*S*H Goes to Maine" and "M*A*S*H Mania". They were credited to "Richard Hooker and William E. Butterworth", although they were written entirely by Butterworth. The characters travel to Moscow, New Orleans, San Francisco, Paris, etc. These were hastily written to capitalize on the TV show's popularity and were of dubious literary merit. The action was transposed to the 1970s so that people such as Henry Kissinger could be lampooned, but this would have made some of the characters quite old, if the descriptions in the first book were to be believed. For instance, Hot Lips would have been in her 60s, having been described as "fortyish" in the first novel.