MASH in my words
Trevor Song
hi everybody (Larry, Igor, and fellow 4077 fans)!
I rarely post in this group so i would like to tell a little bit about
myself and MASH. If you don't know, I am a 15 year old (born April 30,
1982) and I amazingly got into MASH back in 1994-96. My involvement
since last year has perished... because I just saw every bloody epsiode
there was and got a little burned out from it all. I sort of have my
good memories of MASH by writing to the actors expressing my views about
the show and drawing a picture of them. It was great getting their
autograph because it gave me the pride of believing "Yes, you are a true
MASH fan." It's a shame that some of them don't bother to write back
after you done all of the hard work to earn their attention but as they
say in the real world, "that's life."
Anyhow, I got my own little questions that has been bothering me for
the past years and these:
Was there any epsiodes were taken out of syndication?
Did Jackie Cooper quit because he hated Alan Alda?
What was the real reason why Larry Linville left?
Hearing about McLean's death sort of tore me apart from watching. But
overall, when I think about the classy jokes, the theme, and the
people... it is great to know we had a great show like this. I thank you
all for listening to me and I wish you all luck.
Elsig
All episodes have appeared in syndication - although I'm not sure about
the last one.
Jackie Cooper did not quite because of Alan Alda. He was not a contract
director. He did the ones he was hired to do - and then did no more.
Larry Linville wanted to do other roles in other places. Most
understanable, since he had 5 years on the series.
Larry
MrQuixote
Trevor Song asks:
Why did Larry Linville leave M*A*S*H?
Did Jackie Cooper quit because he hated Alan Alda?
Interviewed for the PBS documentary "Making M*A*S*H", Larry Linville said
that he had to decide whether he wanted to be "an actor or a banker." The
man was trained at a fine acting company in England. He recognized that
the role of Frank Burns had nowhere to go; if Frank's character "grew", he
would be useless as a foil for Hawkeye et al.
In that same documentary, Gene Reynolds said that Larry Linville had the
most difficult acting job of all the cast.
And I think most of us would agree that he did it wonderfully.
With regard to Jackie Cooper, I tend to believe that the reason he didn't
get invited back to do a lot more M*A*S*H episodes was that his style of
running the set wasn't the M*A*S*H style. He wasn't accustomed to actors
actually believing that what they had to say was worth listening to. He
certainly didn't get along with Gary Burghoff--he trashes him in his
(Cooper's) book. And if I remember correctly, McLean Stevenson wasn't
overly fond of Cooper's bedside manner either.
When you consider that early on, Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart created a
situation where they could go into a closed room with the cast and anyone
could say anything about how they felt--it's reasonable to assume that one
or more of the cast had some unflattering comments to make about Cooper.
And I would guess that being the kind of producers they are, Gene and
Larry would not dismiss those kinds of comments. This has nothing to do
with the quality of Cooper's directing--that is, what he put on film. (He
won the Emmy for comedy directing in season 2 for "Carry on, Hawkeye.)
Cooper did 13 episodes in the first and second season. Then, no more.
By year three, a trend had begun to use show insiders to direct more of
the episodes (Alda, Gelbart, Reynolds, Burt Metcalfe, Director of
Photography Bill Jurgenson (BJ), and it appears there were fewer slots
open for outsiders than there had been. Hy Averback, whose work with
Gelbart goes back to their Army days in the mid forties, did a bunch. In
the post-Reynolds years, the name that crops up most often as an outside
director is Charlie Dubin. He was especially loved and respected by the
cast. How far back does he go? If you happened to catch "Rodgers and
Hammerstein's Cinderella" on the Disney Channel recently, Charles S. Dubin
was the producer and director.
MH
george hiebert
mrqu...@aol.com (MrQuixote) wrote:
>
>Trevor Song asks:
>
>With regard to Jackie Cooper, I tend to believe that the reason he didn't
>get invited back to do a lot more M*A*S*H episodes was that his style of
>running the set wasn't the M*A*S*H style.
Despite all the conflicts I've heard about,the Cooper episodes are among
my favorites.
PAUL GADZIKOWSKI
Trevor Song (SHar...@usa.net) wrote:
: Was there any epsiodes were taken out of syndication?
As mentioned on another thread, there are individual stations who don't
air them all.
: Did Jackie Cooper quit because he hated Alan Alda?
I never heard any reason why he quit. I can't tell you you're wrong.
: What was the real reason why Larry Linville left?
He hoped (unsuccessfully, I suspect) to escape the stigma of being
identified as Frank Burns for the rest of his life.
Paul Gadzikowski, scar...@iglou.com
http://members.iglou.com/scarfman
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Thou art God.
Robert Sulo
Mark Blake wrote:
>
> nospam...@hbo3.com (Howard Owens) wrote:
> --
> >Howard Owens // howard&hbo3.com
> >NOTE TO RETURN MAILERS: REPLY-TO HAS BEEN ALTERED
> >The changes should be obvious.
> >
> >The Abridged Rules of Golf:
> >Play the ball as it lies.
> >Play the course as you find it.
> >When neither is possible, do what is fair.
>
> Q. What do Mash Fans & Golfers have in common?
>
> A. Dunno, but some of them post to both Newsgroups! :-)
>
> Mark Blake
>
> My first born son, shall of course be named Henry
A real Henry Blake. Interesting.