Alan Alda Reveals MAS*H Secrets From Set

Published: September 16, 2025

By India McCarty

Alan Alda reflected on his time on the hit show M*A*S*H, from what it taught him about television to how it encouraged him to try his hand at writing and directing.

“What looks like improvisation sometimes is very well-rehearsed spontaneity,” Alda, who played Hawkeye Pierce, said of the show’s well-timed comedic scenes. “People say, ‘It looks like you guys are making it up.’ That’s what you hope for.”

In fact, M*A*S*H was so scripted, Alda revealed that he once delivered a line wrong during filming because of a typo in the script he received.

“Larry [Gelbart, the showrunner] turned to me hurt and said, ‘Why did you say that?’” he recalled. “I said, ‘That’s what you wrote.’ He said, ‘No, that was a typo.’ But we so much didn’t want to veer from what he had written that I even said typos.”

Alda even directed a few episodes of M*A*S*H. After helming his first episode, “Mail Call,” Alda said he was “skipping down the street at the airport saying to myself, ‘I can do it. I can do it.’ It was a thrill.”

He also wrote some episodes, winning an Emmy for his work on episode “Inga.”

“I loved that writing. So it made me very happy that I got an Emmy for it,” Alda said. “That was the time when I did a handspring on the way to the stage to pick up my Emmy because I was so really, really happy.”

He joked, “If you get an award for writing, the chances are much higher it’s because you did good work.”

Mike Farrell and I today toasting the 50th anniversary of the show that changed our lives – and our brilliant pals who made it what it was. MASH was a great gift to us. pic.twitter.com/FGd8ZwBgIq

— Alan Alda (@alanalda) September 17, 2022

Speaking to Vanity Fair about his work on M*A*S*H, Alda said he doesn’t “get ‘proud’ about things. I get ‘glad I’m able to do things.’”

“I got better at everything I did on M*A*S*H,” he continued. “I got better as an actor, I got better as a director and writer. But I think the thing that I came away with that was the most valuable to me for the rest of my life was what we did between scenes — sitting around waiting an hour for them to light the next shot. We would kid one another and play. Sometimes we would rehearse a scene, but mostly we would just connect.”

Alda is still a working actor — his most recent role was in Netflix’s THE FOUR SEASONS — but these days, he also juggles his diagnosis of Parkinson’s. However, the actor continues to look on the bright side.

“It keeps me always looking for the funny side,” he told PEOPLE. “Almost every day I’m finding a new way to do something. It’s a little like a game. I’ve found whatever the little problem is, if I keep at it, I can eventually solve it, and then I feel like a million bucks. It’s a way to have a good time under poor circumstances.”

M*A*S*H was a career-defining role for Alda, from making him a household name as an actor to helping him grow in his career as a writer and director.

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