Alan Alda: Talks M*A*S*H and Life Achievements | Actor-to-Actor Interview 

In my home, in East Tennessee, we still enjoy the film and series.

As a 27 year old in California, I love this show. It's timeless and expresses such joy but also existential sobriety. It's a lovely show that holds up!

Whoever thinks Frank Burns is over the top doesn't follow politics. 🙄

See my channel!

Idk

I'm here I need answers to my life

@@imgonnastopyourightthere5924 just get stoned and watch MASH and forget about life dawg

young people might not know who it is

@@anthonyscully2998 facts

It's from actor to actor it's about both

Perhaps you do not understand how a conversation works.

Never ended. Men who assault women must be held accountable.

I don't know if you will read this but i too would sit with my dad every Sunday night and watch mash together. Dad is still alive and i am now 52 and although dad was not a Vet considering how much he hates TV Mash was always a show he would make the exception for. Every time i watch mash now or even just hear the theme song it puts me back on the floor in the lounge room of Dads in front of the telly eating me Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner watching the show. I never thought i would ever be able to accept Mr Alda in any other role but then along came the West Wing and what a performance! The debate was just absolute genius Thankyou Mr Alda from Perth WA

Aaa scan CD a sa. A🙏🏻

😆 I'm not sure that part about sleeping through it comes across as sounding too flattering, 😆 but I know about it being so familiar as to be a comfort. It's my favorite show of all time, no question. 🥰

That and constantly cutting him off and interjecting when he's answering a question...most annoying.

@@frankfeather8548 yup!!!!!

Mean? Retarded comment. You obviously never watched the show.

I'll try to bridge a possible gap by stating that I wasn't the biggest fan of the later focus of Hawkeye/Alda. The show even went so far to have an entire episode simply be Hawkeye wandering about with a concussion and doing a monologue. I assumed Alan really enjoyed his stardom and center stage and was pretty much the same egocentrical person as Hawkeye often is. It's only through interviews like these, and learning about Alda's efforts in improving science communication, that I realised how much deeper of a personality he is. I've read many comments on MASH that echo this view. There seem to be two camps. The first camp loved the early seasons for being entertaining and fun, and hate the later seasons for being too political, and the second camp prefers the later seasons and criticising the earlier ones for being too frivolous. Personally, I don't have a particular preference. Sometimes I'm in the mood for the comedic flat stereotypes of Trapper and Hawkeye vs Frank and Houlihan. Usually I prefer the later seasons with a little bit more high-brow humor, as opposed to slapstick-ish. Although I ALWAYS watch the show with the canned laughter OFF. That probably says a lot about what I think of the balance of humor vs seriousness on the show as well. I find it interesting that you condemn Alda, while commend Hawkeye for keeping it real. If, as you imply, Alda's ideology took over Hawkeye, isn't that a non-distinction? At the same time you criticise the audience as being too dumb to understand, but seem to advocate catering to that stupidity rather than trying to educate them with shows that aren't JUST for entertainment. In the end, many shows evolve, to find their own style. While people can fall out of love because of that, I don't think it's right to suggest that a show has been ruined by changes. Ideally, the people involved steer a show more and more towards what they really wanted to make. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Star Trek, but The Next Generation had a similar build up, where the first few seasons were seen by most fans as too goofy, and needing to mature. If anything, I believe the later seasons of succesful shows are MORE true to the vision of the creators. In the case of MASH, certainly the larger part of the audience agreed, because it keep being succesful. The crew must have agreed as well, otherwise they would have left en masse. One of two exceptions did exist of course. Most notably Wayne Rogers, who agreed with you, that Alda became too much center stage for what Rogers preferred the show to be. Though I don't think he left so much on account of disliking the ideology, but disliked the focus of the show being Hawkeye, rather than the ensemble cast.

Hmm.... let's see. Alan Alda DID go to college, so he's not uneducated. Jamie Farr (Klinger) wore his REAL dogtags during the filming because he actually was a soldier during the Korean War. I could continue on with the fact that they truly made a serious effort to portray the life of a soldier accurately. This is a perspective that most American citizens don't have. There is value in that. When you talk about uneducated, you mean yourself.

I was just turning nine years old when "M*A*S*H" debuted and I've been a fan of the show and the cast ever since. In my junior year of high school, I played Hawkeye in our school production of "M*A*S*H". I didn't pursue the theatre after graduation, but I've been an avid supporter of the arts ever since. I've heard the constant criticism about the show becoming too much Alan Alda and about the downturn of the show due to his ego. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. This opinion is one I do not share, and here's why. I remember watching an interview he did with Barbara Walters, which, in and of itself, was a rare interview, because he didn't like doing them. The reason he cited was because he recognizes the interview serves a purpose, but you never get to know the actual person. There is the person you see when they're playing their character, and the person you see in the interview, but those people are not the person. You only get to know the person if you actually know the person in real life and not via some sort of transmission. I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of actors (some well-known, most not) in person. In a few cases, I've been pleasantly surprised or wholly disappointed. In most cases, the experience was mentionable, but not that memorable. Alan Alda was the face of "M*A*S*H", but he wasn't "M*A*S*H". There were a lot of people who contributed to that project over its 11-year run. Some we saw, most we didn't see. Decisions were made, directions were chosen, and, more often than not, the show made money as a result of those decisions. I guess what I'm saying is I liked the show because I like the show, the characters, the writing, the laughs...all of it. Larry Linville studied aeronautical engineering--a rather significant contrast to his role as the mediocre doctor he played. Jamie Farr didn't make a habit of wearing dresses in his personal life (so he says). The studio heads, producers, and the people writing the checks dictated (as they always do) what is in-bounds and what is out-of-bounds. Your suggestion that "he ruined the last 8 years" of "M*A*S*H" is an interesting one, given very few series even last eight years. But, as I said earlier, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

What do you hate most about "his ideology"? The idea that people of different races are equal? That women deserve rights? Supporting working people?