![]() “In the past, a lot of people have been disappointed to come out to see the set and find out there was nothing much to see,” said Al Pepito, Malibu area supervisor for the state parks department. Interpretive signs will be built at the set, along with a special photographic “viewing window” that will depict how the show’s tents looked when they were set up. Videos of the old “MASH” show might be projected on a bedsheet for campers, he said. Using original blueprints provided by 20th Century Fox, the actual locations of the set’s tents and structures are outlined in rope around the signpost, Rooney said.Įventually, special overnight camping at the site is being considered. ![]() Rooney helped state parks officials plan a ceremony Saturday at the set that marked the 25th anniversary of the show’s series finale. The helicopter pad was on top of that hill,” said the 44-year-old West Los Angeles resident who has written a history of the Santa Monica Mountains that includes both the state park and the nearby Paramount Ranch National Park. The mess tent was over by the picnic table there. Rooney stepped back and surveyed the surroundings near the sign. Then Rooney carefully lowered the signpost into the ground. He searched under some twigs and found a hole he had dug previously for the post. He constructed the directional signs in his Agoura Hills workshop from pine and cedar based on photographs of the original “MASH” signpost. 28, 1983, it became the most-watched TV show ever. The fire was written into the finale, which was titled “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.” When it aired Feb. 9, 1982, brush fire that destroyed the set as the show’s final episode was being filmed. All that was left were the rusted hulks of a military jeep and an old Army ambulance.īoth were burned in an Oct. It was a special film for me - an emotional thing,” Kyriacou said.Īfter toting the signpost about a half-mile, Rooney and Rackow reached the set. “It was one of the first films that touched me. The directional arrows drew appreciative looks from other hikers on the rutted fire road.ĭave Tillett, 49, a retired chemical engineer from Thousand Oaks, acknowledged he was a fan of the 11-year show.Īndreas Kyriacou, 52, a retired chemical engineer who lives in Newbury Park, loved the 1970 movie. Rooney and Rackow maneuvered a four-wheel-drive truck carrying the replica of the “MASH” signpost as close as they could before mud forced them to finish on foot. As proof, Hoffman good-naturedly rattles off some facts and figures about the Blandings House - like how it was built at seven-eighths scale so Cary Grant would look taller, and with movable interior walls so cameras could get the most flattering shots of co-star Myrna Loy. These days, park rangers and docents have been trained to answer questions about the shows and films shot there. “But people come up every day and ask about ‘MASH.’ Last year, when two experts, Harry Medved and Mike Malone, led a hike to the set, 250 people showed up in the rain to go with them.” Go to Universal Studios if you want to know about films,'” Hoffman said. “At first I’d tell them, ‘Ask me about birds and I can tell you. Blandings Builds His Dream House” was filmed. “When I first came here in 1988, people were always asking ‘MASH’ this or ‘MASH’ that,” state parks Ranger Tony Hoffman said as he stood in the doorway of the Blandings House, where the 1948 comedy “Mr. The park’s 6,000-plus acres have been the backdrop for thousands of movie and TV scenes since 1927, when it became the Scottish Highlands for a silent movie called “Annie Laurie” that starred Lillian Gish. Soon, it will be the centerpiece of a partially restored set that state officials plan to use to pay tribute to Malibu Creek State Park’s cinematic past. The iconic signpost was being returned for the first time in 25 years to the “MASH” filming location. Its familiar-looking, hand-lettered arrows pointed the way to Boston, Seoul, Coney Island, San Francisco, Tokyo, Burbank, Death Valley, Toledo and Decatur - just like the ones that for 251 episodes stood in the center of the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital compound. CALABASAS - You could almost hear the distinctive thump-thump-thump of medevac choppers swooping in over the old “MASH” television series set in Calabasas.īut the only real noise here Thursday was the heavy breathing of Brian Rooney and Mark Rackow as they lugged a 10-foot signpost down a muddy canyon fire road on the western side of Malibu Creek State Park.
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