M*A*S*H – What Even Die Hard Fans Don’t Know!

The Two-Day Pilot

This was briefly mentioned earlier, but it is time to go in deeper on it. The pilot of the show was only written in two days by Larry Gelbart. After writing it, Gelbart was paid $25,000 big ones. That’s a lot for two days of work! However, the writer of the book and the filmmaker of the movie that the series was based on were not particularly a fan of the show.

Robert Altman said the show, “softened the anti-war and anti-authoritarian spirit of the movie.” That is a harsh take to dish out but since he made the film he is probably entitled to that kind of opinion.

Alda Was the Man

Alan Alda has been discussed this slide a bit, but let’s discuss his importance again. If you had to guess how many episodes Alda wrote, what would you say? The correct answer is 13 for that one. And when it comes to directing the episodes he wrote, the tally rises all the way up to 31.

He was the first person to win an Emmy for the triple threat of writing, directing, and acting on the same show. We can all assume that it was not easy, but Alda sure made it look like a walk in the park. And that is what you can consider him as real Hollywood talent.