"Gene Reynolds and I—and Burt Metcalfe, who started as associate producer and wound up eventually as executive producer of the series—we talked to countless surgeons, nurses, chopper pilots, patients, orderlies involved either in [the Korean War or the Vietnam War] …. [We] combined big, thick loose-leaf binders filled with their memories, their observations, their experiences of the … wars. And that served us in very good stead; we used an awful lot of stuff. … Gene and I, after the second season, went to Korea, visited what had been the real-life counterpart of the fictional 4077th, and spent a couple of weeks with the people there, and brought back some 22 hours of audiotape—again with those impressions that were invaluable to us.They shut down the actual MASH unit in June of 1997. I was invited to go over, my wife was invited to go over, with Larry Linville and David Ogden Stiers, and we watched them case the flag. And it was quite touching to sit on this little parade ground and hear a little Army band—it was not like the movies at all—play the unit's song, and then play "Suicide Is Painless". That was not a show business event. They were not there to celebrate the series, they were there to honor the unit that had served so long and so well; but, they couldn't help acknowledge how proud they were. It's not every Army unit that has a series dedicated to them."