Toledo Mud Hens, Tony Packo's and M*A*S*H | WTOL 11 Vault - Feb. 28, 1983

In recognition of Jamie Farr’s 90th birthday earlier this week, let’s look back to 1983 when the popular television series M*A*S*H ended its eleven-year run on CBS. At 6:00 PM on Monday, February 28, 1983, Toledo Eleven’s Dick Berry showed us the impact the television show had on the City of Toledo. The groundbreaking television series M*A*S*H followed the experiences of doctors, nurses, staff, and some patients of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital located in Korea and set during the Korean War. The series premiered on September 17, 1972, beginning its impressive 11-year run on CBS. The ensemble cast, featuring many memorable actors such as Alan Alda, Loretta Swit, McLean Stevenson, and Harry Morgan… also included Toledo’s own Jamie Farr! Originally chosen to appear in just one episode in the fall of 1972, Farr was invited back for several more episodes. Farr’s portrayal of Corporal Maxwell Klinger, a Lebanese-American soldier from Toledo, Ohio, became such a hit with fans that Jamie Farr became a series regular during the show’s fourth season. Corporal Maxwell Klinger, who was determined to be found unfit for military service and discharged from the Army, often reminisced about his boyhood in Toledo… fondly recalling the hotdogs at Tony Packo’s Cafe and watching his favorite baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens. Remarkably, Jamie Farr served in the Army and was stationed in Korea during the war. The dog tags that Farr’s character Corporal Klinger wears in the M*A*S*H television series were Jamie Farr’s actual Korean War-issued dog tags. When the time finally came to end production of the wildly successful television program, fans were not ready to say goodbye. The final episode, titled “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen,” aired on Monday, February 28, 1983. That broadcast received record-setting ratings and was viewed by more than 125 million people!