GARY BURGHOFF RECALLS THE LEGENDARY CLIPBOARD PRANK THAT RUINED A SCENE
I was sitting on a wooden stool at a fan convention in New Jersey a few years back. The room was packed with people wearing olive drab, and…
THE WORLD SAW A TOUGH MAJOR… JAMIE FARR SAW THE TRUTH.
Loretta Swit sits across from Jamie Farr, the steam from two coffee cups rising between them like the morning mist over the Malibu hills. It has been decades…
THE HILARIOUS TRUTH HIDDEN UNDER THE OPERATING TABLE
Mike Farrell sat comfortably in the leather chair, adjusting his microphone as the young documentary filmmaker checked the lighting. They were filming a retrospective interview about the golden…
THE STICKY TRUTH BEHIND THE MOST SERIOUS SURGERY AT THE 4077TH
The auditorium was packed, the kind of crowd that only a show like MAS*H can draw decades after the final helicopter took flight. Alan Alda sat center stage,…
HE SAT IN THE JEEP ONE LAST TIME AND FINALLY UNDERSTOOD.
The dust in Malibu Creek State Park has a very specific way of clinging to your skin. It is a fine, reddish powder that tastes like salt and…
TV’S ARISTOCRATIC INTELLECTUAL… BUT HE LIVED A QUIET TRUTH FOR DECADES
The rain in Newport, Oregon, has a specific way of settling into the bones of the coastline. It is persistent, gray, and deeply private. For years, this was…
GARY BURGHOFF STEPPED BACK INTO THE TENT AND LOST HIS BREATH.
The air in the hills of Malibu still carries that particular scent of sage and dry earth. Loretta Swit stood at the edge of the old ranch, her…
THE ARISTOCRATIC MAJOR… BUT HIS GREATEST TRUTH WAS KEPT IN SHADOWS
The set of MAS*H was a place of high energy and sharp wit, but David Ogden Stiers often seemed to exist in a slightly different orbit. While his…
THE CAMERAS STOPPED ROLLING BUT LORETTA SWIT COULDN’T STOP CRYING.
The restaurant in Los Angeles was too quiet for a Friday afternoon. Gary sat across from Loretta, his hands wrapped around a coffee cup that seemed too big…
MCLEAN STEVENSON AND THE GREAT YELLOW TACO INCIDENT ON SET
It was during the 20th-anniversary reunion special in the early nineties, just a few years before McLean Stevenson passed away. He was sitting there with that classic, crooked…