M*A*S*H
By 
Briefly taking over the pop culture beat at 1945, so I decided to write a bit about the 50th anniversary of the first episode of M*A*S*H:
MASH premiered four months before the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War. The audience that greeted M*A*S*H in 1972 (most of which would have been familiar with the Robert Altman film of the same name) has a much different background than the television audiences of today. Consistently one of the most popular shows on television, M*A*S*H was watched by at least three generations of American soldiers. Sixteen million Americans served in World War II; over five million served in Korea, and nearly nine million in Vietnam. Most of the people who watched M*A*S*H were veterans or had close relatives who were veterans, in large part because during the period of its first run Americans had an unusually familiar relationship with the military.