m-a-s-h-tv-series

"I'm always astounded by the number of cameras that point at us when we talk about this show, and by the amount of interest. And I'm astounded by the breadth and depth of the [reach] that television is capable of, evidenced by the telegrams that were read at the beginning of this conference, [from] Secretary Kissinger and President Ford and President Reagan. It moves me to the realization that television is a great medium for bringing people together, because that's probably the [only] time I will ever agree with any of the three of them."

"We really haven't slept much in eleven years. Larry [Gelbart] used to stay up all night writing us scripts the night before we began shooting; I've done it a number of times. … M*A*S*H has changed my life. It's given me the chance to develop as a writer and a director—and as an actor. … I've learned to work with people in … a creative way that I really never knew before and didn't know was possible. We've all learned that; we've all grown as people and as professionals, as artists. … We're stopping because … we feel that if we went further we would risk squeezing it dry, not being able to give it our best …. [F]rom the beginning, Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart encouraged the actors each week to comment on the script, and we'd go through it take by take …. [W]e worked all night to get it as good as we could."

"I don't know [if M*A*S*H has made me a better actor], but I know it's made me a better human being. … I think there's a nobility about … what [the show] attempts to do, and there's a nobility about the people who are playing these parts. And the longer we've been together, the more familiar we are with one another, the deeper we've gone … into ourselves, so that when we're playing scenes with one another, it's … the two characters plus the two people who are wearing the clothes … of those characters."

"I'm feeling like I have another couple of years to become most fully and most honestly myself with this group of people, because I'm not an actual joiner; I'm essentially a private person. And now … I'm beginning to see the power and the potential in committing yourself to a group, and that it doesn't threaten your individuality, it teaches you about it."

"I do get letters from the clergy, and [I've received] some very nice comments … from spiritual leaders saying that M*A*S*H seems to have made a contribution [to changing Americans' attitudes toward war]. And I like to think that's true."

"The heroes [in M*A*S*H] have not been—for the most part—your career Army people. Only Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) has the career …. The others tend to attain their heroism … through an anti-military point of view. … We've tried to be fair about [our depictions of officers and of the United States Armed Forces]. … [W]hile we were depicting [the Korean War], … many of [our viewers] identified with [the show because of the Vietnam War]."

"Gene Reynolds and I—and Burt Metcalfe, who started as associate producer and wound up eventually as executive producer of the series—we talked to countless surgeons, nurses, chopper pilots, patients, orderlies involved either in [the Korean War or the Vietnam War] …. [We] combined big, thick loose-leaf binders filled with their memories, their observations, their experiences of the … wars. And that served us in very good stead; we used an awful lot of stuff. … Gene and I, after the second season, went to Korea, visited what had been the real-life counterpart of the fictional 4077th, and spent a couple of weeks with the people there, and brought back some 22 hours of audiotape—again with those impressions that were invaluable to us.They shut down the actual MASH unit in June of 1997. I was invited to go over, my wife was invited to go over, with Larry Linville and David Ogden Stiers, and we watched them case the flag. And it was quite touching to sit on this little parade ground and hear a little Army band—it was not like the movies at all—play the unit's song, and then play "Suicide Is Painless". That was not a show business event. They were not there to celebrate the series, they were there to honor the unit that had served so long and so well; but, they couldn't help acknowledge how proud they were. It's not every Army unit that has a series dedicated to them."

"Alan Alda as Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce (seasons 1–11)"

"Loretta Swit as Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (seasons 1–11)"

"Jamie Farr as Maxwell Q. Klinger (seasons 1–11)"

"George Morgan as John Patrick Francis Mulcahy (pilot episode)"

"William Christopher as John Patrick Francis Mulcahy (seasons 1–11)"

"Wayne Rogers as John Francis Xavier "Trapper John" McIntyre (seasons 1–3)"

"McLean Stevenson as Henry Braymore Blake (seasons 1–3)"

"Larry Linville as Franklin Marion "Frank" Burns (seasons 1–5)"

"Gary Burghoff as Walter Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly (seasons 1–8)"

"Mike Farrell as B. J. Hunnicutt (replaced Trapper; seasons 4–11)"

"Harry Morgan as Sherman Tecumseh Potter (seasons 4–11)"

"David Ogden Stiers as Charles Emerson Winchester III (seasons 6–11)"