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Alan Alda Reunites with M*A*S*H Costar Mike Farrell for Show's 50th Anniversary: 'Changed Our Lives'
"MASH was a great gift to us," Alan Alda wrote on Twitter as he reunited with former costar Mike Farrell to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary
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Alan Alda Reunites with 'M*A*S*H' Costar for Show's 50th Anniversary
- Thread starter Mikey Radio
- Start date
M*A*S*H was an excellent show. The writing was razor sharp. I prefer the early Alan Alda, McLean Stevenson, Wayne Rogers era of the show. It was great comedy with moments of bleak drama. The later seasons got a bit too preachy. Larry Linville had a tough job playing Frank Burns, but he did it brilliantly. When Stevenson decided to leave the show, they made the gutsy call to kill off his Blake character. I loved it and hated it. It was brilliant and sadly realistic. All time great series...
Loved the movie. Hated the TV version.
As characters left, the replacements had more depth, giving the show some real heart. Winchester was a pompous jackass, but they wrote him in ways they couldn’t for the Burns character.
The movie was great. Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould were superb. Not sure why you would hate the TV show.
Winchester was given more depth as a character, but Burns had the comedic chemistry with Hawkeye and Trapper. The show was forced to change as actors moved on. I just feel that the first 5 seasons were its peak. The show lasted much longer than the Korean War, so perhaps that's why the latter seasons seemed repetitive and played out...
Two very different things. I loved them both. First, I'm a Robert Altman fan, so anything he does gets my attention. But the TV show was written & produced very well. Because the film was such a success, the TV team knew they had to keep quality high. And the TV show kept reinventing itself, which made it more interesting, and extended its life. But Alan Alda could never be as crazy as Donald Sutherland. The Sutherland & Gould characters were just so great. BTW they're both alive. Sutherland is 87 and Gould is 84.
why no Jamie Farr?
No Gary Burghoff?
Jane Swit?
No Gary Burghoff?
Jane Swit?
There have been a number of MASH 50th anniversary projects this year. This site has several, including a TV special on Reelz
Reelz to Air 50th Anniversary M*A*S*H Special on September 13 - MASH4077TV.com
Cable channel Reelz will air a new 50th anniversary M*A*S*H special titled "M*A*S*H: When Television Changed Forever" on Tuesday, September 13 at 9PM ET.
www.mash4077tv.com
I always liked the TV show better than the movie, probably because that's what I saw first.
I wanted to see the Reelz special but missed it since it's not on my cable package.
Here's a really good podcast from MASH Matters, which is run by Ryan Patrick and Jeff Maxwell, who played Igor on the show with a list of the Top 50 MASH episodes according to a viewer poll they did:
I wanted to see the Reelz special but missed it since it's not on my cable package.
Here's a really good podcast from MASH Matters, which is run by Ryan Patrick and Jeff Maxwell, who played Igor on the show with a list of the Top 50 MASH episodes according to a viewer poll they did:
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It's Loretta, and no idea where they weren't in the same place at the same time.
Here's one question I've never really found an answer to: On the TV show, Loretta Swit's character ("Hot Lips" Houlihan) was always seemingly such a cranky shrew. As a result, she was always one of my least favorites, though she did show some moments of warmth and heart here and there. Does anyone know if Swit was really that much of a witch in real life, or was she that good of an actress that she was able to make me dislike her character? I know she and Harry Morgan were quite close and spent a lot of time together when the cameras weren't rolling, and I saw her work with/for animals after the show's run was over, but not much else about her.
The character mellowed and matured in later years, after Frank. In her 80s she's still doing some local acting.
Here are a few facts I remember about the show (I haven't seen an episode in decades, but our family watched often during its first run, and I remember reading a few books about the series that were written in the later 80s):
- M*A*S*H had 3 spinoffs from the original series: - AfterMASH which lasted 2 seasons, W*A*L*T*E*R which was about Radar O'Reilly and lasted 1 single episode, and of course, what became a popular show in itself and some people don't directly associate with M*A*S*H, Trapper John MD, which ran for 7 seasons. There, Pernell Roberts plays the character supposedly played by Elliot Gould in the movie and Wayne Rogers in the series.
- Wayne Rogers (Trapper John McIntyre) left the series after 3 seasons as he and Alan Alda were supposedly going to have equal billing, but Alda proved more popular and became more central to the show. A contract dispute ensued, and Rogers left.
- McLean Stevenson wasn't thrilled with being part of an ensemble cast and wanted to try for something else where he personally might get more notoriety. With the way they decided to kill off his character of Col. Henry Blake, which wasn't part of the original script and was only made known to the cast just before the OR scene where his death was announced so their shock and emotional reactions would be genuine, that eliminated the possibility of him returning in any capacity.
- Harry Morgan had appeared on the series as another character before later being cast as Col. Potter.
- Characters played by Alda and Rogers regularly called Col. Blake "Henry", showing perhaps low respect. In contrast, Alda and Mike Farrell's characters normally always called Harry Morgan's character "Col. Potter" and only on 1 or maybe 2 occasions did Hawkeye Pierce call him "Sherman". which occurred at a deeply personal moment.
- Despite Larry Linville playing the often disliked character of Frank Burns, he supposedly had good report and relations with others in the cast once the cameras stopped rolling. On the other hand, Gary Burghoff who played Radar O' Reilly, was supposedly obnoxious and somewhat demanding at times when not actively filming.
- William Christopher who played Fr. Mulcahy was said to be much like the character he played, in his real life.
- Harry Morgan and Loretta Swit were supposedly very close friends and often sat chatting for hours when not filming.
- David Ogden Stiers who played Winchester was a classical music lover in real life. Though not classically trained, he guest conducted several symphony orchestras and founded a symphony orchestra in his home town. He came out as gay in 2009.
- The final episode of M*A*S*H (Goodbye, Farewell and Amen) remains the most watch finale of any TV series in history, and spots shown during the final episode fetched higher $$ rates than were charged for that year's Super Bowl. It remained the most watched TV broadcast in history from its airing in 1983 until 2010.
- M*A*S*H had 3 spinoffs from the original series: - AfterMASH which lasted 2 seasons, W*A*L*T*E*R which was about Radar O'Reilly and lasted 1 single episode, and of course, what became a popular show in itself and some people don't directly associate with M*A*S*H, Trapper John MD, which ran for 7 seasons. There, Pernell Roberts plays the character supposedly played by Elliot Gould in the movie and Wayne Rogers in the series.
- Wayne Rogers (Trapper John McIntyre) left the series after 3 seasons as he and Alan Alda were supposedly going to have equal billing, but Alda proved more popular and became more central to the show. A contract dispute ensued, and Rogers left.
- McLean Stevenson wasn't thrilled with being part of an ensemble cast and wanted to try for something else where he personally might get more notoriety. With the way they decided to kill off his character of Col. Henry Blake, which wasn't part of the original script and was only made known to the cast just before the OR scene where his death was announced so their shock and emotional reactions would be genuine, that eliminated the possibility of him returning in any capacity.
- Harry Morgan had appeared on the series as another character before later being cast as Col. Potter.
- Characters played by Alda and Rogers regularly called Col. Blake "Henry", showing perhaps low respect. In contrast, Alda and Mike Farrell's characters normally always called Harry Morgan's character "Col. Potter" and only on 1 or maybe 2 occasions did Hawkeye Pierce call him "Sherman". which occurred at a deeply personal moment.
- Despite Larry Linville playing the often disliked character of Frank Burns, he supposedly had good report and relations with others in the cast once the cameras stopped rolling. On the other hand, Gary Burghoff who played Radar O' Reilly, was supposedly obnoxious and somewhat demanding at times when not actively filming.
- William Christopher who played Fr. Mulcahy was said to be much like the character he played, in his real life.
- Harry Morgan and Loretta Swit were supposedly very close friends and often sat chatting for hours when not filming.
- David Ogden Stiers who played Winchester was a classical music lover in real life. Though not classically trained, he guest conducted several symphony orchestras and founded a symphony orchestra in his home town. He came out as gay in 2009.
- The final episode of M*A*S*H (Goodbye, Farewell and Amen) remains the most watch finale of any TV series in history, and spots shown during the final episode fetched higher $$ rates than were charged for that year's Super Bowl. It remained the most watched TV broadcast in history from its airing in 1983 until 2010.
Yes, Harry Morgan played the lunatic General Steele in season 3. That was a Classic episode. McLean Stevenson and Morgan were together in most scenes of the hilarious episode. Morgan landed the Potter role when Stevenson decided to leave the show. Stevenson later admitted that leaving M*A*S*H* was a stupid decision...
It's still the highest rated scripted show in history, and has only been topped by Super Bowls.
Once they developed her character away from just being half of the Burns/Hot Lips pairing, Margaret was given more depth and sensitivity. Always a hard edge, but they explored that a bit and did much more with her than in the early years. But some of that was the growing depth of the ensemble. Potter was given much more substance than Blake. Hunnicutt was far different from Trapper in key ways. Winchester and Margaret had a good rapport and she was free from the Burns dynamic.
Clearly she was acting, because she tackled all the things they gave her character to do her those years.
On correction: "AfterMASH" just lasted for one season. It started out with great ratings and sank as the season went on to the point where it didn't get renewed.
AfterMASH had a second season but it was only 10 episodes and was canceled early: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AfterMASH#Episodes
40 years ago tonight was when the final episode aired, and the MASH Matters podcast is doing a live stream starting at 8 PM ET:
I'm surprised that the final episode isn't being shown on TV Land or Me TV.
I'm surprised that the final episode isn't being shown on TV Land or Me TV.
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