THE NIGHT COLONEL POTTER FINALLY CRACKED ON THE MASH SET
It was a quiet afternoon in a sun-drenched studio in Los Angeles, decades after the final helicopters had flown out of the 4077th. I was sitting in a…
THE HELICOPTERS STOPPED FLYING DECADES AGO BUT LORETTA SWIT STILL HEARS THEM.
The sun over the Malibu hills has a specific way of burning. It isn’t the kind of heat that invites a tan. It is the kind of dry,…
THE WORLD’S COMPASSIONATE PRIEST… BUT HIS HARDEST PRAYER REMAINED UNANSWERED
William Christopher was the moral compass of the 4077th. While the other characters on the set of MAS*H were drinking homemade gin, chasing nurses, or trying to scheme…
LORETTA SWIT AND MIKE FARRELL REMEMBER THE MESSAGE IN THE STONES.
The sun was beginning to dip behind the Santa Monica Mountains, casting the kind of long, amber shadows that always seem to invite the past back into…
THE JEEP WASN’T JUST A PROP… IT WAS THEIR TIME MACHINE.
The Malibu sun was different back then, sharper somehow, cutting through the morning fog that clung to the canyons like a heavy wet blanket. It was a light…
ALAN ALDA RECALLS THE INFAMOUS OPERATING ROOM GIGGLE FIT INCIDENT
I was sitting across from a young actor during a press junket recently, and he asked me something that I get quite a bit. He wanted to know…
THE SOUND THAT STOPPED TIME FOR TWO OLD FRIENDS.
Jamie Farr stopped walking the second he heard the first cough of the engine. It wasn’t a loud noise, not yet. Just a metallic clearing of a throat…
THE DAY CORPORAL KLINGER BROKE THE TOUGHEST COLONEL IN THE ARMY
I was sitting on a stage in a drafty convention center a few years ago, looking out at a sea of camouflage hats and MAS*H t-shirts. The lighting…
THE FINAL SCENE WAS SHOT IN TOTAL SILENCE
The studio garden was quiet, a far cry from the chaotic energy of the Fox Ranch decades ago. Loretta Swit looked at the silver dog tag resting on…
THE WEDDING DRESS WAS WHITE BUT THE TEARS WERE REAL
“You know,” G.W. said, leaning back as the coffee steam hit his face, “I still can’t watch the ending.” Rosalind looked at him across the small table, her…