Alan Alda discusses the final episode of MASH - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG

the last episode that aired two-hour movie was not the last thing we shot it was it was the only reason I wanted to do the last season to be able to do this this long piece and and and it was we had that we had a lot of setbacks on while we were shooting it the set burned down and the mountains in Malibu the exterior locations but all these buildings you know all those metal buildings all that was left was little puddles of aluminum on the ground it was just amazing this fire swept through a brush fire swept through and it ghosts it was intense heat that comes very fast we had to be evacuated from there once because of a fire that didn't that time if the set but we had to get out because they said if you don't get out now when it comes through its going to come through at 40 miles an hour and you can't get down the road that fast you know even in trucks because there's winding country roads that that was fun and hard to work on I wrote it to all the people who were writing on the show at the time wanted to take part in it and we we worked out a system where I wrote head-to-head with each of them on a on a on a segment of it and then then everybody had so so I collaborated with each of them separately and then and then took it so you know it was a long piece and took a while to edit and put together but the last show that we shot was the show that was shown right before that I think it was it was a show having to do with burying a chest of memorabilia and the last scene of that show that we shot was as we buried the chest and and and with and that since that was the last week we had the idea let's bury a real chest ourselves and we'll put stuff in it and we'll leave a note for whoever finds it and we thought maybe 50 years later somebody would find it we didn't realize the twentieth century-fox in its incredible greed was selling off everything that they had and they sold off half of their commissary the head this kind of historic commissary where Shirley Temple used to eat lunch and her picture was on the wall they cut it right in half and they sold told that offer a building to you know build a an office building and they started digging within a few months after we buried our capsule and and some construction worker called me up and said I got this thing you want it I said no I don't want it it's for whoever found he says oh well what'll I do with it then it's probably being sold on eBay right now for a fortune but we could we I know I thought it would be fun for somebody it wasn't even fun for this guy he said well what'll I do with this he said I thought it's yours so but that no that was oh the thing shooting that last scene where we were the last scene that we shot which was burying that time capsule was on a soundstage was stage 10 where we shot all our shows and it was a really unnerving experience because there were about 300 people from the press was shot this we didn't know there was going to be this much interest in us I mean like I had gotta cook well I know we were popular but I didn't know there would be that many people who are watching a shoot the last shot and and there were you know 60 minutes had said maybe they might want to do an interview and I thought well that would be nice 60 minutes is a great show that would be a real honor turned out they didn't do it and then said there were these 300 people television crews prynt people radio people and they were all standing there watching us act while we were what are you trying to do the last scene which was very emotional for us anyway because we knew it was the last scene and it was like but to have all these people off on the side while you're playing a scene for the camera was like having the whole audience in the wings and you know while you're playing the flame the show for one critic or something I mean it was was disorienting you didn't know you know where you were and and then we got the last shot and then people closed in on us and it was it was a very weird experience we were hugging and and saying goodbye and and then there were tears and stuff and and there's all these people what's it feel like how I saw what are you going to do next and what's it like how about tell me about this anyway and then we had to do press conferences and they were you know is an honor of course but we didn't have the private moment that we had all been looking forward to we all it was it was really kind of an image of one of the things that made the show good which was that to us it was a personal experience we weren't getting up to be I mean this sounds self-aggrandizing to say this but we weren't getting up to be self aggrandizing we were we weren't doing this we were making an appearance in this big show we were going in everyday trying to be those people who had lived 25 years earlier in these terrifying situations in Korea and and we were trying to do our work and it truly came as a surprise to us that there were so many people there on the last day and before that had come as a surprise to us how many people were stopping us in airports and that kind of a thing and it was almost as if we were part of some conspiracy that would they would come up and they'd say good work you know and and and we really were aware of of just doing the work of the connection we had among ourselves you

Channel: FoundationINTERVIEWS

Views: 763,924

Rating: 4.8928251 out of 5

Keywords: Television history, Interviews, Emmy TV Legends, tv, academy, MASH final episode, M*A*S*H (TV Program), Alan Alda

Id: YBsrSBH6Pvo

Length: 6min 41sec (401 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 18 2014