'M*A*S*H' star Mike Farrell says executive thought show would be pulled off the air, but ‘it struck a chord’

Mike Farrell starred on the beloved TV series "M*A*S*H," and ahead of the special on the show airing on Fox on Jan. 1, the actor spoke to Fox News Digital about his time on the hit series.

Speaking about the show's ability to maneuver between comedy and drama, he said, "You know, we now hear about things like ‘dramedy’ rather than comedy… I remember a studio executive, or maybe a network executive, contacting us after a couple of the things we did, saying, 'You're going to knock yourselves off television with these things, people are expecting laughs.'" Emily Trainham is an entertainment editor for Fox News Digital.

He continued, "And we tried to provide the laughs, but we also wanted to provide a realistic situation. So I can't tell you exactly what happened that made it happen. But I remember coming to the understanding later that the show had become a social phenomenon, and not because it was a comedy and not because it was a drama, but because it was a situation that people understood. I think not everybody goes to war, not everybody signs up for the military, but everybody understands having to leave home for some reason, and sometimes for a good reason, and leave their loved ones behind. And it struck a chord."