"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."