Despite our generation’s professed concern for world affairs, movies about current events like war make little profit, which discourages their production.

This was not always so. The single most watched television show of all time is still M*A*S*H, and its satire about Army surgeons during the Korean War – a thinly veiled parody of Vietnam while the war was still going on.

The show’s writer Larry Gelbart passed away recently. One of its stars, Mike Farrell, who played Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt, does not expect television to tackle more substantive topics since few writers with Gelbart’s skill have the support of networks or movie studios.

“Larry had this frantic capacity to turn words in a way that allowed emotions to be there,” Farrell told Scoop Daily. “When I was doing M*A*S*H, people were keenly aware that while we were talking about Korea we were analogizing the situation in Vietnam, so that stimulated a lot of interesting discussions. You’re not going to see something like that on TV anytime soon since it has become so corrupted and compromised. “

During the height of the Vietnam War in 1970, the movie “M*A*S*H” turned the Korean War into “Animal House,” before the invention of the college humor movie. Incidentally, Donald Southerland was a star in both movies. “M*A*S*H” became a hit, featuring a raunchy camp of Army surgeons drinking, screwing, joking and golfing until helicopters brought in the wounded- an unmistakable reference to the helicopter visuals of Vietnam.

Picking up the popularity of the movie, a new writer (Gelbart) was commissioned in 1972 to write a TV series with a new cast, including Alan Alda taking Southerland’s star role of Capt. “Hawkeye” Pierce. Farrell became the yin to Alda’s yang in the third season as the lead comedic duo of soldiers survived the madness of war by rebelling against backwards officers, staging pranks and slicing golf balls into mine fields.

More than 106 million people tuned in for the final episode in 1983 – a sitcom record still held today.

Believing that network television has increasingly found easy money in reality television and celebrity news, Farrell also thinks American media is reeling from the status quo safe topic matter of the Bush years.

“I think the Bush administration and its bully pulpit about 9/11 turned people away from being critical analysts they should have been after Vietnam,” said Farrell. “The only overtly political show I can think of that is successful is Fox’s ‘24’. I understand that the guy they gave the show to is a big proponent of torture. [Kiefer Southerland’s] politics are very good but he’s making himself rich trying to convince himself his character is pretend and it isn’t fascist propaganda.”

While movies offer more chances for diverse topics, movies about the Iraq War have not done well. Most recently, George Clooney produced and Jeff Bridges starred in “The Men Who Stare At Goats,” which parodies the war in Iraq and the Army officer corps. The film grossed approximately $31 million worldwide and was soon pulled from theaters to make way for holiday films. This is a small profit given the movie cost $25 million to make, according to www.boxofficemojo.com.

“God bless Jeff and George Clooney, because if those movies aren’t financially successful then it hurts their careers and the likelihood of making another war movie,” said Farrell. “Television especially is run by suits with no conscience, since they’re interesting in selling soap without controversy and they hope Tiger Woods will get them attention. The area of indie films is where we’re going to see the most innovation.
For instance, I thought the ‘The Hurt Locker’ was a shocking portrayal of war’s brutality.”

While “The Hurt Locker” won the Best Film Award at the 2009 Venice Film Festival among numerous other awards, it earned only $13 million. It might earn more money when the DVD is released on Jan. 12, 2010. The top box office smash of the 2009 was “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen,” starring Megan Fox, at approximately $402 million.

According to www.Hollywood.com, box office sales increased 4.5 percent from last year’s attendance, so rather than blaming disinterest on high ticket costs, recent war movies may have done poorly because people feel little attachment on the topics in their everyday lives. Joe Davis, spokesman for the advocacy group Veterans of Foreign Wars, remembers how M*A*S*H resonated with Americans but thinks that kind of satire can’t capture the same audience it used to.

“M*A*S*H accurately portrayed camp life and the lunacy that sometimes occurs from higher command,” said Davis. “But the size of the U.S. population today (300 million) compared to World War II (133 million), and the size of the military today (2.2 million) compared to WWII (16 million), creates a huge disconnect between the military and the general public. The public can’t relate because they never served. A TV show has to connect with its audience to be successful.”

As a long-time activist, Farrell marched with the civil rights movement in the ‘60s, campaigned for George McGovern in hopes of ending the Vietnam War in 1972, and recently supported Barack Obama in 2008. He believes if American culture portrayed the realities of war more often then people would more opposed to Obama’s recent decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

“I’m shocked by how Obama is unwilling to act on the promises he made for the war,” Farrell told Scoop Daily. “I’m hesitant to speak out vociferously against him since he seems a significant turn as to how this country is run. But the changes I had hoped would go on in this new Administration have not been delivered.”

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