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Post by CharliePost by Mackenzie"If I wanted a sermon I'd go to church. He just wouldn't quit. He just
kept adding more speeches and more moralistic stuff. After he got
famous, he got really pompous. He started thinking he was speaking
God's words - not the lines in the script, not his own personal
thoughts. He thought he was speaking the words of God. I think he
thought and believed that God was speaking through him. A person like
that is not easy to be around. "
Probably why Wayne Rogers left and most likely why Alda begged for
Mike Farrell, another half wit with delusions of grandeur. I bet Gary
Burghoff and Larry Linville left for the same reasons. Just a wild
guess but I bet I'm partially correct with my opinion. I stopped
watching MASH after Rogers and McLean Stevenson left, the show turned
into a moralistic nightmare and the tone changed dramatically at least
for me. Still I have to say one of the best shows ever made
considering the moral tone that Alda beat onto episode after episode.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Alda did NOT have any production
control or writing credits (for the most part) in seasons 1-3, when
Rogers and Stevenson acted.
Alda had more control than you're aware of.
Post by ADitto for through the 5th season when Linville left.
And even more by the end of the 5th season. Less Flagg - more Sidney.
Post by AWas it not only *after* the 8th season (i.e., 9th-11th) when Alda
had that control over the tone and "moralistic" browbeating over the
scripts?
Alda's "moralizing" was evident early on, especially in The Sniper.
I must have missed his "moralizing" in that famous episode I've
seen dozens of times.
Unless you mean his hatred of war.
Hawkeye: "You risked your life for a...bread and ketchup sandwich?"
Radar: "With butter and lettuce!"
The chopper that wounded the sniper was originally supposed to kill him.
After all, it's a war and the guy was trying to shoot everyone. Alda had
that scene rewritten to only wound him and then have Hawkeye treat him.
Alda had more control that you're aware of early on.
Even if he did have more control over content or scripts, how did
that instance you cite have *anything* to do with "moralizing."
I don't see it there.
Wounding or killing him, how does the difference get equated to
some "moralizing" negative adjective against Alda you say he did in that
episode?
'Splain! ['Ricky Ricardo' to 'Lucy']
Okay. I'll splain. The scene originally called for a chopper with a
marksman to kill a sniper trying to shoot anyone who moves in a war zone
which make total sense, at least to me. Evidently, and after trying to
convince Alda that this guy is trying to kill Hawkeye and Co., Alda's
morality would not do the scene unless a rewrite was done to only wound
him, and then have Hawkeye go and treat him. I think this rewrite was an
all-nighter too boot. Although these guys are doctors and have sworn never
to harm, they were not the ones who were doing the harming and it seems
only Alda had a problem with the original scene.
Even before I knew of this, it never made sense to me.
Also what I never understood is this: A chopper arrives with a marksman
and hovers above a stationary target to shoot this sniper. Even though the
targer is shooting at the chopper, he's shooting one round at a time as
opposed to the marksman firing his automatic rifle, repeatedly. How is it
they only wounded him? Alda.
Alda was also reminded that he was seen in a television movie as a sheriff
and had a gun, but on MASH, "I will NOT carry a gun."
It was clear that Alda was the star of the show and had control early on.
After LG left, he had some more and after Reynolds left, it was in cement.
If you read the book Mark O'Neill and I wrote when it comes out, you will
discover at least two cast members who acknowledge the direction the show
took was largely due to Alda.
So he had more control earlier than I thought. So what?
I *still* don't get your "moralizing" adjective in his change of the
script where he didn't want the sniper to die.
He was anti-war and didn't want *anyone* to die.
How was that "moralizing???????"
The adjective is used as a buzzword to mean something it doesn't in
this context of the show ALWAYS, ALWAYS was obviously well-known to be
anti-war and anti-killing throughout its 11-year run.
Throw out the buzzword, and obvious, pejorative adjective "moralizing"
and I might agree with you on Alda having more control earlier. But so
what, anyway?
I don't have ANY problem with Alda's repetitive anti-war message.
Too bad more people don't have his perspective so we won't have so many
dumb wars (NOT for our own, actual self-defense) that only kill innocent
foreign people who live and breathe, and want a better life for themselves
and their children--just like people in the U.S. or in the UK do.