When you think of the default mode of many of modern televisions, mixing tragedy with offhand, broad comedy with pinpoint sentiment, you end up with a mix of style, emotion and texture first alchemized by “M*A*S*H.” I’m thinking of a precise mix.”
Created by Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds, “M*A*S*H” aired on CBS from 1972 to 1983. Hulu.) During its 11-year run, it blended comedy and drama in ways rarely seen on television, with graphic surgical sequences and depictions of grief alongside alcohol-fueled hijinks and other antics. featured. Set between doctors and nurses in a mobile surgical unit of the Korean War, “M*A*S*H” drew on a mockumentary episode decades before “The Office” attempted to It featured a bloody storyline long before The Sopranos. ’ and killed a beloved character without warning, well before ‘Game of Thrones.
The “M*A*S*H” series finale, “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen,” is the highest rated non-Super Bowl show ever broadcast on American television. At the heart of the series was Alan Alda. He played Hawkeye Pierce, the acerbic and dedicated surgeon throughout his over 250 episodes of the show, writing and directing dozens of episodes.
The actor revisited “M*A*S*H” in a video interview ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary on Sept. 17. His 86-year-old Alda, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015, famously spoke out about Sheen, the series’ battle with CBS. (“They didn’t even want to show blood first.”) And why he thinks audiences are deeply connected to “M*A*S*H.” Excerpt.
how are you feeling?
good, thank you Parkinson’s or Covid or what?
I think all of the above.
I have Parkinson’s disease. And I’m still Covid-free.
What does it mean to you that people are still interested in “M*A*S*H” after 50 years?
I had a script submitted to me when I was making a movie in Utah State Penitentiary. And it was the best script I’ve seen since I was in prison, I called her wife and said, Because we live in New Jersey and need to shoot in Los Angeles. May operate all year round. It’s amazing that 50 years later, it’s still not only getting attention, it’s getting an audience.
What kind of conversation did you have with Larry Gelbart before the show started?
I think “All in the Family” opened the door for us to make stories about what really matters. So when I got out of prison and went to Los Angeles to talk to them, the night before we started rehearsing for the pilot, I wanted everyone to agree. To take seriously what these people were going through. Wounded, dead. You can’t say that everything is a party. And we talked until about 1:00 a.m. at a coffee shop in Beverly Hills.
Do you think there was a shift away from the booze-fueled humor of the early episodes in the first season?
Yes there was. Partly because the people who were submitting story lines thought it was what they wanted. Larry Gelbart rewrote most of the show for the first season. Halfway through the first season, we had a show called “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet,” and that was the real turning point.In that show, Hawkeye’s friend appeared among the wounded and he died on the operating table. [as Lt. Col. Henry Blake] “There are two rules in war. Young men die. Rule two is you can’t do anything about it.” ” [The exact quote: “There are certain rules about a war. And rule No. 1 is young men die. And rule No. 2 is, doctors can’t change rule No. 1.”]
The internet was outraged by this. One programming person said, “What is this, the tragedy of the situation?” Soon after, we became more popular. And the more popular, the less dissatisfied.
Was CBS also concerned about the language used to tell these stories?
The most striking example for me was early in the series.radar [Gary Burghoff] You are explaining to someone that you are not familiar with something. And he said, “I’m a virgin at that, sir.” No sexual context. It was just that he had never done anything before. And a CBS censor said: it is forbidden. ’ So the next week, Gelbart wrote a little scene that had nothing to do with it. The patient is being carried on a stretcher. And I say, “Where are you from?” And he says, “The Virgin Islands.”
Early in the show, Gelbart and Reynolds traveled to South Korea, where they recorded 22 hours of interviews with doctors, nurses, pilots, and nurses. How did those interviews inform the show’s story?
There was a large amount of transcripts of those conversations. I looked them up looking for story ideas. Circles appear around sentences and words, so I know other writers do the same. A small phrase can capture the imagination of one of us and that phrase can become a story.
Larry and Jean went to South Korea at the end of Season 2 and got a lot of good stuff. But they also realized that by paying attention to their lives, we were making up stories that were very similar to what actually happened.
People may not remember that I directed 32 episodes and wrote 19 episodes of “M*A*S*H.” When did you first become interested in writing and directing?
At the end of the first season, I wrote a show called “The Longjohn Flap.” I borrowed the idea for “La Ronde”, but it reflected what life was like for them in the cold, so I went with the long John instead. I’ve been trying to learn to write ever since. Before I became an actor, I wanted to be a writer.
As a writer and director, were there any story lines you thought “M*A*S*H” hadn’t tackled yet that you wanted to bring into the world of the show?
When I wrote it, I tried to find out a little more about each character. [Jamie Farr] For real? What’s under it — what’s under the dress, I almost said. [Laughs.] what was under the dress?What is Margaret [Loretta Swit]?
I see on the internet that people think that because I was politically active and trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed, I was also trying to make a political statement in my writing. And I wasn’t. I really don’t like writing things that are propaganda and pass as entertainment. I want to hear human stories.
The unexpected death of Colonel Blake (McLean Stevenson) in the season 3 finale, “Henry, Abyssinia,” is one of the biggest surprises in television history. What was it like shooting that sequence?
Gelbart showed me that scene.I think [it was] morning of the shoot. I knew, but no one else did. He wanted to get everyone’s first reaction. And that really inspired Gary Berghoff on camera. It was a shock and I think everyone was grateful.
It also shocked the audience. I received a letter from a man complaining that he had to comfort his crying 10-year-old son. But it was one of the ways the adults in the audience understood that another aspect of war is that unexpected things happen.
Did you ever get tired of fighting the Korean War on TV? An old joke is that the show lasted almost four times longer than the actual war.
About a year before it finally ended, I felt I was nearing the end of my ability to stay fresh each week. First of all, we were too old to play these people. And after telling a story about a group of people 250 times, it’s hard to stop repeating the same thing or saying things that are thought to be funny but aren’t.
What did it mean to you that Hawkeye left Korea in the final episode because of the death of his child?
You explained exactly what I wanted to do with every character in the show. I was looking for. Everyone had something taken from them. Hawkeye was just one of them.
Early in your career, you were on another great military comedy, The Phil Silvers Show, aka Sergeant Bilko. What did you learn about acting from your TV work before ‘M*A*S*H’?
The first thing I learned on the “Bilko” show was that I needed to know the lines before I got to work for the day. I come from a stage where I learn my lines during rehearsals. The first thing they did was say, “OK, I’m ready for a phone conversation.” This is a conversation page. It was an eye-opening experience. [Laughs.] I staggered over it.
Why do you think the audience resonated with ‘M*A*S*H’ so deeply?
Aside from good writing, good acting, and good directing, just as some stories are frivolous, the element that penetrates the audience deeply is the realization that real people lived through these experiences. Yes, we tried. Respect what they have gone through. I think that is ingrained in the unconsciousness of the audience.
They didn’t even want us to see blood first. When we picked it up it was thrown away.
And get a feel for what real people had to go through. It was a way of disconnecting yourself from the nasty things for a moment.
It can’t be as tough as it really is.