Would you put MASH on your resume?

I’m always so heartened that my MASH posts are so well received.

A few years ago 60 MINUTES did a segment on writers facing ageism (ironic since the 60 MINUTES correspondents range in age from 65-211). One industry idiot suggested that if a writer had a MASH credit he should leave it off his resume because it made him appear too old. To me that’s insane. I could not be more proud of my association with MASH and the day I take it off my resume is the day I start selling Marie Osmond dolls on QVC. (But for the record, I was 9 when I started on that show).

How many television series have books and scholarly papers written about them? Although I must admit, I’ve read these and they’re a joke. They talk about the brilliant symbolism, our deeper philosophical and empirical meanings, the clever use of the Anti-Christ, affectionate homage’s to classic literature – none of that is true. We were just looking to come up with a joke so we could go to lunch or a story beat for Radar so he’d leave us alone.

But we knew this: we had the best job in Hollywood, worked with the finest people, and it’s nice to know that 30 years later the shows are still being seen and a whole new generation is discovering them.

My guess is a lot of today’s shows will also be around in 30 years. We may be watching them on chips implanted in our heads but they’ll be there. And the writers of those shows deserve the same security and compensation that we MASH writers have enjoyed.

Keep up the fight. It’s worth it.

Another thing I’ll never take off my resume: I’m a union man.




Thanks to Tom Straw and Alexis Fancher for the strike photos.