The excerpts from Jacki Cooper's book
Hogne B. Pettersen
I just read the excerpts from Jackie Cooper's book where he tells about his
time with M*A*S*H. In the book he says that Alan Alda is a contradictory
personality. I quote:
"He projects warmth and wit and wisdom, intelligence and stability. Actually
in my opinion he is conecealing a lot of hostility beneath the surface. He
speaks out in public on many topics, with his pet apparently equal rights for
women and the Equal Rights Amendmen. Yet he has, for almost nine years, played
a character on M*A*S*H who looks on women almost entirely as sex objects. By
playing a fanny-pinching, lecherous, boozing man he perpetuates the very
stereotypes he publicly claims to despise. The man must be torn inside. Maybe
that produces the hostitily I discovered."
He also says that on a television series the star's personality is very
important to the company's morale. That everything flows downward from him or
her. "Alan Alda was determinedly uninvolved. He never ventured an opinion on
things that did not directly concern him. If I had an argument with one of the
other actors, Alan would deliberately turn and walk away. If any prolem arose, he'd stalk off to his dressing room and sit there until the clouds had blown
over.
I was disappointed in that aspect of his behavior, but I was still in awe of
him as an actor. He was also a joy to direct."
He then tells about the incident with the episode "The Sniper." He says that
both he and L. Gelbart was surprised that Alda had been holding a gun in a tv
movie where Alda was playing a sheriff. The movie was shown on tv shortly
before they started production on "The Sniper."
"He [Alda] simply refused to do that script as written. Gelbart and Reynolds
huddled with us all, and a compromise was reached. Alan agreed to do the
script, with some changes - the Army was made the heavy, and so the helicopter
wasn't just any helicopter, it was an Army gunship, wich is a very heavily
armed helicopter. I felt that the whole thing was now totally unrealistic.
Those Army gunships had so muc firepower that if they had fired at that sniper
there would have been nothing left of him for Hawkeye to go out and treat."
After this argument, Cooper felt it necessarily to patch things up a bit, so
he did a pep talk at the end of the day. "I said, 'If the producers had only
wanted a funny person they would have hired a Carl Reiner. But they wanted
good actors, so they hired you. On the last afternoon, as we finshed our
last scene, Alda said, 'I want to see you.' He led me around behind the
cyclorarma that surrounds the M*A*S*H camp built on Stage 9 at the 20th
Century-Fox studio.
We were alone, behind the cyclorama, far away from the others. 'I want to
tell you something,' he bang. 'You have no idea what kind of people we are.
How dare you say the producers should have gotten a funny man like Carl Reiner
in the show?'
I tried to tell him he obviously hadn't been listening to what I said, but
he just waved away my interruption and raced on.
'Nobody here appreciates your sense of humor."
'Then why does the crew laugh?'
'Because they're kissing your ass. And furthermoe, I want you to understand
on thing - you're not the star of this show.'
And on he went. I can't remember the rest of the words. I just stood there,
tyring desperately not to cry. When he finally finshed he just walked away.
Thinking about it, as I drove home that evening, I figured that there could
be only two rational explanations for his outburs, both obviously triggered by
jealousy. He was jealous (a) because the crew was min and not his, and (b)
because the press, when writing of M*A*S*H, frequently publicized me. I still
had a name the press felt the public might care to read about.
We hardly spoke after that. I wanted to quit the next day, when I told
Reynolds and Gelbart what had happened."
Gelbart and Reynolds obviously convinced him to stay. Here's another quote:
"At one point during that period my Navy superiors asked me to get some stars
to do the usual Christmas season promos for Navy stations. They liked having
stars saying Merry Christmas to the sailors on all the ships, things like that.
Wayne Rogers did one, and even Mac Stevenson, but none of the others would.
I asked Alda to do one.
'I wouldn't encourage those kids to prolong the war,' he said, and walked
away. But I wasn't about to let the well enough alon.
'You mean some eighteen year-old kid in a gun turret is encouraging the war?'
He kept on walking but over his shoulder he yelled back, 'Yes, and I won't
encourage it."
I replied with one last remark: 'Well, okay, then, maybe you'd like to send
a little message to the enemy.'
He didn't respond."
I'll finish with this quote:
"Ordinarily he is all charm - distant but charming. Mike Farrel who is on the
show with him now, says he's still that way, but he says he adores Alan. I
guarantee him that one day he'll learn the truth."
I've made my own thoughts about what Cooper wrote in his book, but first I
wanted to hear what people on this group think. Commence le debate.
--
-Elf-
Mail: e...@elf.tc URL: http://www.mo.himolde.no/~elf/ IRC: Elf/Alv
"COBOL programs are an exercise in Artificial Inelegance."
ohj...@nospamvisto.com
Well, I don't see what you felt disappointed about with AA not getting involved in the disputes and such on the set that didn't concern him. To me, that
behavior contradicts what Cooper said about AA's jealousy. If AA was jealous of Cooper, then I'd think AA would have gotten more involved in those kinds of
things to win the cast and crew away from Cooper. To me, if this is how it happened, AA stayed out of what wasn't his territory. I've been on tv sets where
the cast felt they had say and would override what the producers or directors said and it caused a lot of problems. I've seen it from members of the cast to
the parents of some child actors. Did Cooper say whether or not AA refused to get involved in these kinds of situations when directly asked or was it just
that he was near-by and Cooper expected him to get involved? I don't think AA should have gotten involved when it didn't directly concern him.
As for the conflict Cooper says AA has within himself ... who of us is not a complex person? Who of us does not believe in things deeply but find ourselves
in a situation that goes against those beliefs in one way or another? The way I see it, AA probably felt his playing Hawkeye wasn't the same as *being* a
Hawkeye. Perhaps, to AA, there is a huge difference. I can see how many feel that way. And I doubt that Hawkeye caused much (if any) increase in the *woman
chasing playboy* that the character portrayed. I've heard of guys saying things like "Vinny Barbarino was my hero as a kid." "Fonze was my idol." ect. But
I've yet to meet any guy who *looked up to Hawkeye* for his womanizing abilities. There must be some out there ... but not like other figures from tv (like
Fonze and Vinny B).
I kind of see this, too, where the Christmas special was concerned. It seems AA viewed *playing* war quite differently from participating where the *real*
war was concerned. Did Cooper get upset that no one else wanted to do this? Seems he just focused on AA. Why wasn't he upset that others didn't want to do
it? Why just AA? That seems unbalanced to me.
It's obvious that Mr. Cooper didn't get along with AA and maybe it was mutual. But if there's one thing I've learned in my years, it's that there are usually
more than 2 sides to every story.
Does anyone know what AA says about Cooper?
Thanks for posting those quotes!
JD
Hogne B. Pettersen
|
| Well, I don't see what you felt disappointed about with AA not getting
| involved in the disputes and such on the set that didn't concern him.
|
I wasn't disappointed about that fact. Cooper was.
|
| To me, that behavior contradicts what Cooper said about AA's jealousy. If
| AA was jealous of Cooper, then I'd think AA would have gotten more involved
| in those kinds of things to win the cast and crew away from Cooper.
|
My thoughts excactly.
|
| To me, if this is how it happened, AA stayed out of what wasn't his
| territory. I've been on tv sets where the cast felt they had say and
| would override what the producers or directors said and it caused a lot of
| problems. I've seen it from members of the cast to
| the parents of some child actors.
|
This thought struck me as well. Especially since it seems that this was the way
M*A*S*H was run during the later seasons. Everybody would have a say about
their character and so on.
|
| Did Cooper say whether or not AA refused to get involved in these kinds of
| situations when directly asked or was it just that he was near-by and Cooper
| expected him to get involved?
|
It was both. He mentions the problems he had wich MacLean Stevenson (about him
only wanting to do one take and being impossible to direct) and he asked AA to
talk to Mac about it. Alda just turned around and walked in to his dressing
room.
|
| I don't think AA should have gotten involved when it didn't directly
|concern him.
|
What struck me as odd is that Cooper complained about AA not doing what a lot
of late season haters accuse Alda of :)
|
| I kind of see this, too, where the Christmas special was concerned. It
| seems AA viewed *playing* war quite differently from participating where
| the *real* war was concerned. Did Cooper get upset that no one else wanted
| to do this? Seems he just focused on AA. Why wasn't he upset that others
| didn't want to do it? Why just AA? That seems unbalanced to me.
|
He mentions that the only ones who wanted to do it was Wayne Rogers and Mac.
He specifically mentions Swit's refusal to particiapte in it. Personally I
think Cooper made a seriuous error here. How the hell could he expect the cast
of an anti-war and anti military show like M*A*S*H was to participate in
something like that. Did he really expect Alda to sit there and send his
greetings to soldiers, telling them that their country really appreciated what
they were doing? If he said anything anti-war to them, the army would sure as
hell edit it out, so what was the point?
The chapter focus a lot on AA, but he also mentions his problems with Mac
(refusing to do more than one take, wanting to do his scenes sitting down),
Gary Burghoff (giving Cooper acting lessons) and Swit (refusing to do things
that she felt her character wouldn't do). He was on good terms with Linville
and Rogers, but come on. He was at odds with more than half of the main cast.
No smoke without fire, I say. Besides, refusing to do things you felt your
character wouldn't do was done all the time during M*A*S*H later seasons.
|
| It's obvious that Mr. Cooper didn't get along with AA and maybe it was
| mutual. But if there's one thing I've learned in my years, it's that there
| are usually more than 2 sides to every story.
|
Yes, and the book was released at a time when Cooper's name wasn't the biggest
one around and Alda's was. You get a lot of press by giving famous people
flak....
|
| Does anyone know what AA says about Cooper?
|
According to Cooper they didn't even say hello to one another. They were seated
together during the Emmys after the second season, and that ruined the evening
for both of them. But I've never read or heard any quotes from Alda about it.
I must say that the impression Cooper gives of Alda is consistent with what
I've heard from variuos sources. I guess he's one of those people that feels
you're either with him or against him.
|
| Thanks for posting those quotes!
|
No prob.
Chadd VanZanten
>Commence le debate.
Well, I don't think we can really debate this all that much. Even with
the book quotes there's too little information to know if Cooper is just
venting his spleen or if Alda is really a jerk or what. It's just
he-said, he-said.
That said, I would tend to side with Cooper. Jealous? Hostile?
Conflicted personality? I dunno. But it seems very consistent from what
I have seen of Alda to be aloof, self-absorbed, a little insincere, etc.
Again though, with the one-sidedness of this sort of writing, who knows?
I've never been clear as to why these show-biz people feel it's
necessary to write tattle-tale stuff like that.
Okay then,
Chadd
Chadd VanZanten
> "Let the Debate Begin!" ;-)
>
>Well, I don't see what you felt disappointed about with AA not getting
>involved in the disputes and such on the set that didn't concern him.
>To me, that behavior contradicts what Cooper said about AA's jealousy.
I think Cooper's point is that on a TV show or on a movie, the leading
actors have an unwritten or implied role of leadership. Heck, I've seen
this in high-school drama and local theater -- as the leading man or
woman goes, so go the others. It sounds like Cooper was saying that Alda
didn't come alive unless something directly affected him, and so Alda
was shirking his (albeit unwritten) duty to be a leader. So, if there
was a dispute among "the little people," then Alda just walked away
instead of trying to help. He didn't dirty his hands or waste his time
with that kind of thing -- let the worker ants deal with that. It seems
that Cooper thought it might have helped morale if Alda had taken a more
"roll up your sleeves and help out" approach.
I don't think Cooper was saying that Alda was jealous of Cooper's
leadership in the production of MASH, it sounded like Cooper was saying
that Alda was jealous of Cooper's celebrity outside the show. The press
covered him as though he were a star of the show, and, perhaps (my
opinion now) Cooper thought of himself as (and acted like) a celebrity
equal to Alda and the others. Maybe it wasn't so much a matter of Alda
being jealous of Cooper as it was two big stormcloud egos colliding and
causing lots of lightening and thunder. In any case, Alda (says Cooper)
wanted Cooper to know his place as just a behind-the-scenes worker, not
a star. This is consistent with everything I've heard about Alda.
>The way I see it, AA probably felt his playing Hawkeye wasn't the same as *being* a
>Hawkeye. Perhaps, to AA, there is a huge difference.
Well, that may be the case, but it's still a good point. Was Alda always
a proponent of womens' rights? Or was it something he took up as a pet
issue, as so many celebs do? Was this some sort of public facade or
compensation for how he really felt about women? Who knows, but it's an
interesting question and good observation. Further, the story hadn't
been fully played out when Cooper wrote his book. Unless I'm mistaken,
Cooper was writing shortly after he left MASH, leaving the show to run
for at least a couple more years. During that time Alda remade his
character into something VERY unlike the original TV Pierce. While the
bachelorhood of Pierce was pre-programmed, Alda stripped away nearly all
the politically incorrect aspects of Pierce in those final seasons. This
went for all the characters, of course...
Okay then,
Chadd
Elsig
necessary to write tattle-tale stuff like that.
>
Bile sells better.
LG
The Avocado Avenger
>Bile sells better.
The segments quoted from Cooper's bookreminded me of interviews I'd seen
of Cooper talking about being a child star. His comments about Wallace
Beery, as deserved as they probably are, are still bitter today. He
starred with Beery in a movie (or movies?) nearly 70 years ago. That is a
long, long time to hold a grudge.
Also, who hasn't worked somewhere where people don't always get along?
That's what work's about, and with something stressful like a tv show,
where millions of dollars and reputations and careers are at stake, yeah,
there's going to be tension.
Stacia * The Avocado Avenger * Life is a tale told by an idiot;
http://world.std.com/~stacia/ * Full of sound and fury,
There is no guacamole anywhere. * Signifying nothing.
ohj...@nospamvisto.com
"Hogne B. Pettersen" wrote:
> ohj...@nospamvisto.com writes:
>
> |
> | Well, I don't see what you felt disappointed about with AA not getting
> | involved in the disputes and such on the set that didn't concern him.
> |
>
> I wasn't disappointed about that fact. Cooper was.
:::Oh, I misread it. I thought it was you that was disappointed ... sorry. :-)
JD
Blitzen
autobiography (he was her first husband). He does sound like a pretty nasty
peice of work.
Jacy
The Avocado Avenger <sta...@world.std.com> wrote in message
news:GE4p...@world.std.com...
Genna Reeney
news:sd7kz01...@yme.mo.himolde.no...
>
>
> I've made my own thoughts about what Cooper wrote in his book, but first I
> wanted to hear what people on this group think. Commence le debate.
Hi elf -
blah...
None of us here, except for a few notable exceptions, know either one of
these people or have first-hand knowledge upon which to construct any valid
argument.
This is interesting on an anecdotal level, but is yet to be shown to be
factual.
I'll pass....
--
Cheers,
Genna
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