Wayne Rogers talks MASH, House Calls, I Dream of Jeannie and more - Part 1 of 5

Wow hey radar you know I knocked your glasses you could almost pass for offensive hey why don't you leave the little fellow alone it's okay I can take a joke Masha's Trapper John the late Wayne Rogers today I'm pop goes the culture I am David Levin and welcome to pop goes the culture we lost another great pop-culture icon on the last day of 2015 Wayne Rogers was best known for playing Trapper John during the first three seasons of mash now I hate it when a beloved star of my childhood passes away I hate it because it means a little bit more of our pop culture history is gone and in this case it also means a talented actor producer and very nice guy is gone too luckily we still have his work and this conversation which we had a while back to remember him by in this first of five parts Wayne Rogers tells some of his favorite stories how he landed the part on mash he wasn't originally up for the part of trapper what it was like working with Alan Alda and the great writer Larry Gelbart as the cameras were starting to roll we were just chatting and that led to a fascinating discussion you've done so goddamn many that you can't remember what you were in my wife looked at this picture and said Jesus you used to look like this Wow okay said what no more no no you know as part of my doing this show a lot of research oh I'm sure DVDs I'm listening to the comment oh I'm sure I'm the Dick Van Dyke Show so it's an episode Brady I was gonna say Carl Reiner is watching himself and I'm what's left of that that's cute I'm with the heme of that George Hamilton once said to me and we were talking got in a conversation about George's funny you know we got a conversation about plastic surgery and he knows everything about plastic he knows who's the best for is the best for knows the best for eyes this nice rattling on there were four or five people and I said George you take this seriously he said I have to I'm an 8 by 10 copy of myself thank you the line well let's go back to when to when we when we were all copies of ourselves let's look we'll go a little linear a little nonlinear and see where see where it and see where it takes us bring me up to mash start early and bring us all the way up what what do you mean where you want to tell me I want to know everything that you did before you go oh Jesus I have no idea they're my probably three or four hundred television shows and plays and things I could I couldn't have possibly we'd be here a couple of weeks and I can't remember half of them I know but I can't remember them anymore I don't know I just told you about that thing with Joan Fontaine I have no idea what I can't remember what that was what how did you having mash skirt well I I had done I don't know I did a lot of television and a lot of plays in New York you know and I'd gone out on the road in place and things like that and so I guess I don't know they I done a couple of I don't know maybe five or six movies prior to that and I I don't know how you know it came you know television and in general there's a lot of just blind luck into that I for example died people always remark about the chemistry between Alan Alda and myself and how it seemed to transcend the material it would percolate under the the the script that we seem to have some sort of a unique relationship with something like that now Alan and I did not know each other the network had no idea in the world whether that would work or not the people didn't know they just you know and that was just fortuitous that was luck blind luck that you got two guys who really had similar value system and cared about the material and cared about the work and and got along and understood what a joke was you know and as you said earlier we were also very fortuitous to have a writer like Larry Gelbart who was a genius of sorts and and Larry initially you know Larry was a wonderful writer of sketch material primarily and not really anything dramatic but he developed a lot of that you know he understood that and so prior to getting there how they found me I did a test that was one thing I they and they but I was doing tests for a lot of things I mean you know they say oh you'd get a call SOTA so and so they want to test you for that side well I let me read the script so I read the script might say yeah okay I'll do the test whatever it is and you go and do a test and either you got called and they cast you or you didn't but I think that point on you know it's it's not as bad as the theater where you going there's a cattle call and it's 500 people well we look at mash now as this sort of long-running iconic television show but how unlikely was it that you know the movie mash came out and it was a hit but it was certainly sort of on a certain level how unlikely was it in 1971-72 for a show to be based on mash and when we win it for that for you for your audition what were your thoughts well I I don't think it was that you've got to remember all in the family came before mesh and that was the first really iconoclastic look at that people didn't form fall into the formula that they went against it and I credit Norman Lear a lot with that you know he was certainly the vanguard of that kind of television and I mean you look at what goes on today almost anything goes so it wouldn't really matter but I mean for God's sake here we are yes yes what kind of show is that I mean they're actually talking and having an interview you know that Larry Gelbart also understood that you know he'd been in England for a while so so those shows it all in the family was originally I don't know whether you know that and that you know came from England and today a lot of what we do comes from over there because it's I think less expensive to get it try it out over there before they try it out here and so I managed was not really the you know so I don't think it was that highly unlikely that mash would have been done mish I think if it were done today are ten years ago or 50 years ago would have been a hit I think it had some universal universality to it that transcended all of those other things and I think part of that was based on the the if I can intellectualize this for a moment on the premise that if you're going to say lives you can do anything in other words the most outrageous thing if I told you I was gonna jump out of the Empire State Building in a fuchsia jockstrap in a pink you know parachute but I was gonna save some guy's life you would say wow that's okay you know so I think you could do that I think you could do something wildly absurd and and people will accept that and given the fact that it was set in a if you will a wartime situation people accepted the absurdity of that and on another level they talked about the absurdity of war you know and so you could tell a a serious story if you will and turn that coin over and do it with Lance when you came in for your yes yeah they tested in the Hawkeye part and I said to Jean Reynolds who was the producer I said I don't think I'm played that part yeah he said well you're doing very well I said no no I mean I don't think I'm I'm I think that other part the part of I'm better attune to I'm not good with sardonic humor and thank God he listened to me because Alan I think was a wonderful haka he was terrific he was he was you as good a Hawkeye as you could have you know and in spite of what Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland I think you know well you know you were you were Trapper John second in a series collect them all you know there was a third person who followed you yes yes a different character a different character yes supposedly based on was he was he was he based on you or was he based on no I don't think he was based on anyone I think they would just stuck and they needed to you know find some way to make this work you know they needed Alan and I'd had this wonderful relationship and still do by the way and they had to find some foil that would work for that you know there was another thing that worked in that show that I learned a lesson about and that in makes it made it a lot easier to write for the writers and that is that you had a standard running heavy Larry Linville and later who was replaced by kind of a different you know sort of so that you could you had something to dramatically write against you had someone that you could and then that made a big difference well part said that when bill relished that role yes and he did it very well he relished it and he did it well he was he Frank Burns he was really he once again he was he was the Frank Burns if you think about it you know he was the definitive Frank Burns and he did it well I hear Larry had a quality about him that fit that you know and I I once again I think it's it's all somewhat fortuitous that because networks don't know they haven't the vaguest idea if they did they would produce a hit every time they wouldn't you know come to pilot season and have 500 scripts of which they select 25 of which can get made of which three go on the air of which one survives you know the odds are so enormous so they don't have any idea and by the way there's a wonderful book Bill Goldman's book I don't know where you know nobody knows anything and it's just terrific and he's absolutely right you know in Hollywood nobody really knows sound like the 100-yard dash we if you run the - you've there's a clock you did it in a certain time there's other people in the race and you either cross the line before them or not this is all left up to judgment so nobody knows you wouldn't know whether I would be a star you would be a star nobody knows so when did you know about mesh I don't think they knew I'm will say this Freddy Silverman Larry disputes this but you know Gilbert does that thing but Freddy Silverman knew something I mean I don't know what he knew but Freddy Silverman was something because he ran two networks and very successful he went through ABC yeah the third time I met the third time was unsuccessful he shouldn't have tried that yeah GZ you got pretty lucky you know I mean even if you run one network and you're good you know that's I mean you know look at Baba I got poor guy ran ABC sideways at whatever and before him Thermopolis and then they finally you know he gets promoted up to Disney or whatever happens to him but Freddy Salman ran CBS and was good at programming and he turn around went over to NBC did the same thing and I don't blame ABC the help well he's done it twice before let him do it again well he didn't make it the third time but he gave it a hell of a try anyway Freddy Silverman I think had the courage if you will to say even though in the first year we were not in the top 30 and he said I'm gonna I'm gonna figure it find a place for this show now once he found a place and it became a hit then he used it to produce other things so but he hiked reddit him to a certain extent with that that ability to him he could have said you know in this day and age you do six and you're gone I mean he stuck through 22 shows and put it back on the air the next year moved it to a place and I don't think we knew it was a hit until probably the second year some way maybe and there he knew he could see there Nielsen ratings and make something out of that you know response did you get from the public gee what kind of a response did we get from them I don't know I mean in what way do you mean that well I mean did you get did you get letters did you when you went out and people started to recognize you as trapper this sounds funny but I don't remember going out in the public that much I just I don't think I'm trying to think yeah I guess somewhere in there they yeah somewhere in there they began to go but I don't recall that being very I could think of some funny instances we mister how he would parade when your and Billy Christianson who played father Mulcahy you know was dressed in his we would riding in a Jeep in the folly but it may have been the first year I don't remember and the public didn't really know who we were anything and it was a bitter cold night there a Hollywood parade I think runs it in December doesn't it yeah yeah it was a cold night and Billy had brought a canister a thermos of brandy and something else to to warm himself up and the rest of us is it for and he proceeded to get sloshed he was who was borracho there and but he had on the cassock and he had on a big heavy silver cross and everything and at some various points through the parade you know you get out of the Jeep and you walk around and walk alongside and he was in well Billy couldn't walk he was peepers he was in bad shape so he was kind of weaving around in the Jeep like this and people would say oh look it there's it and they say oh look at the priest oh my god the priest is drunk they said they thought he was a real priest of course and Billy was uh bless you my son I know thank you - you know he was gone so the public I'm saying telling this story because I don't think the public really ascertained that we were a hit yet and we certainly didn't know it and I don't think anybody took it that seriously it's difficult for me I'm I have to be honest with you personally to say that take any of that - seriously I I think you young actors tend to and I maybe maybe I got to the procession a little late but you learn very early not to take the public accolades very seriously the public is very sickle and you know you're the flavor of the month and next month there's another flavor who are you again yes why am I here yes hmm I don't know I've been on a lot of sets in my life I've never I've never been on one where well I take that back I've been on a very few sets where there was high tension you know high tension generally just thought of a funny story but high tension it generally is a product of the director and or if there's an unhappy actor then you the tension will will come from that but most of the time on the set unless there's some problem you know I mean if you said oh I by the way Wayne I don't like the lights here you know as something like that they might but really that I ever see any tension fact I thought we had a relatively happy set funny thank you around oh yes on MacLaine God love him may he rest in peace McLean was an intuitively had a slapstick element to him that I found very funny I told her story once about he had a one day he was great with props you know he'd find some prop and do something with he had a fly swatter one day in the office during the scene hidden imaginary flies with it and I could see in one part of the scene he didn't have a lot to do so the next thing I know he's using it as that he's cooking an egg with it he imagined it and his imagination he's good and then he's catching butterflies with it you know he was doing he was he could take a prop and do 15 things with it just like Johnny winters Johnny winters was like that you know and so he would keep me amused but I would say for the most part on the set we were we were serious about the work somebody asked me once said gee you know it looked like you and Alan made that stuff up out of your mind I mean Larry Gelbart broke those lines and by the way he wrote writes rhythm lines I mean it's not just bet it's mamak David Mamet stuff well you have to remember uh wait a minute did you you weren't saying am I wrong didn't you say that's a way Mamet right but Larry would write rhythm jokes I mean if you went to answer the phone you didn't say hello you'd go yeah yeah now I don't know why that's funny but someone's home he picks up the phone says yeah yeah there's something mildly amusing about but he could write funny jokes Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing and and they were in a rhythm and if you didn't do it in the way that he wrote the joke you could destroy the rhythm and so you we memorized all that stuff and so that was that was serious work so there was not a lot of kidding around about that every now and then Larry would direct one and he'd hear a line that he could think thought he could improve on and do that you know but but no his his stuff his material was you know I remember one episode Loretta Swit comes running into the tent and says oh my god oh my god something horrible has happened to me and I say take two aspirin give one to the rabbit call us in the morning and she says no no I'm serious come over come over we go over to her tent and there's this general laid out in the bed that she has had an evening with and he's dead and over the dead body which in those days the network would not let you and you know here is this dead body and the following dialogue ensues she says oh this is just awful nothing like this has ever happened to me before I said it's probably the first time for him to and she said says oh well I mean and I said didn't you try to give him resuscitation or anything and I was amazed how do you think he died you know so these were being Bing Bing jokes pulled over a dead body that were funny absurd ludicrous and and if you didn't save this series of lines in the right way that it didn't work so we would rehearse like hell that stuff so I would say that at least for me the atmosphere on that was was always serious I was not you know are we kid around when we found some things that we could do but yeah comedy is serious business there's nothing funny about comedy Larry Gelbart said are you guys you know was there any improvisation because my word was long it was like Shakespeare you don't mess with Shakespeare and he said and they took it so seriously that I went to see the dailies one day and Alan Alda said don't slam the door again he goes don't slam the door he goes down because what does don't slam the door it was a type of that's true we would do that yeah I think every now and then Larry Bundy as I said when he directed would let us improvise something you know little pieces or something like that or and he'd say oh wait keep that in there cut that out but he always said remember my name is on the script yes that's all we have time for today join me tomorrow for part two of my conversation with Trapper John Wayne Rogers will talk about mash co-creator Jean Reynolds what it was like working at Fox Studios during its temporary decline in the early 70s what it was like working with the great Mickey Rooney why Hollywood knows nothing what attracted him to acting in the first place why he left mash and why he and Alan Alda would continue to rehearse the scene even after it was shot and in the can don't miss it for now I'm David Levin see you next time and don't forget to subscribe [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Pop Goes The Culture TV

Views: 86,134

Rating: 4.7960091 out of 5

Keywords: Wayne Rogers, MASH, Trapper John, Alan Alda, Larry Gelbart, Tribute, Radar, Hawkeye, Pierce, R.I.P., wayne rogers and alan alda, trapper john mash, wayne rogers interview, m*a*s*h (tv program), television history, interviews, video interviews, emmy tv legends, alan alda, trapper john, house calls, i dream of jeannie, wayne rogers leaving mash, trapper john md theme song, larry gelbart henry blake, M*A*S*H, Wayne Rogers Mash, m*a*s*h

Id: jOqxHCUYWtc

Length: 25min 48sec (1548 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/ebulient]

Thanks for posting this, next hour is set!

[u/migdia]

Always thought he had the best laugh on the show. Thanks for sharing