When the television series M*A*S*H debuted on CBS on September 17, 1972, a sitcom about a Mobile Surgical Army Hospital unit in Korea, America was still locked in the waning years of the Vietnam War.
In hindsight, it’s not surprising the show became a hit. Coming of age during a time of cultural rebellion and shifting values, its writers crafted clever scripts full of punchy and witty dialogue. At times subversive, other time sarcastic – and often both at the same time, the ensemble cast struck a strong and loyal chord with American television viewers.
When M*A*S*H went off the air on February 28, 1983, a record 106 million viewers tuned in – a record that still stands today.
I have friends and colleagues whose parents didn’t permit them to watch the series, and for understandable reasons. With its overarching disdain for authority, not to mention the loose morals and values that were often celebrated as punchlines on the program, the content was hardly universally family-friendly fare, especially for young children.
The unquestionable star of M*A*S*H was Alan Alda. Born Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo in New York City, Alan traveled the country with his father, who performed as a singer and actor.
Playing the role of Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce of the 4077, “Hawkeye” (as he was nicknamed) was depicted as an excellent but irreverent surgeon. He was also supposed to be ever in search of “romance,” a somewhat generous euphemism for sex.
One of the great ironies of the show is that Alan Alda in real life was nothing like Captain Pierce. That’s because in real life, Alan married Arlene in 1957 – and is still married to her 67 years later. The Aldas met at a Christmas party.
“The hostess of the evening had made a rum cake and she put it on the refrigerator to cool,” he remembered. “The refrigerator shook and the cake fell off the refrigerator and hit the floor. Arlene and I were the only two people who went in with spoons and ate it off the floor. That’s how you know. When two people eat a cake off the floor, that’s it for life.”
The Aldas have three daughters: Eve, Elizabeth, and Beatrice – plus eight grandchildren.
Don’t ask him if they’re too doting.
“I don’t think of it as spoiling. They know we love them,” he says. “I think you can’t express too much how you care for someone, it doesn’t spoil them.”
Over the years, Alan Alda has shared about his faith journey, including his Roman Catholic upbringing.
“Until I was 20, I was sure there was a being who could see everything I did and who didn’t like most of it,” he wrote. “He seemed to care about minute aspects of my life, like on what day of the week I ate a piece of meat. And yet, he let earthquakes and mudslides take out whole communities, apparently ignoring the saints among them who ate their meat on the assigned days. Eventually, I realized that I didn’t believe there was such a being. It didn’t seem reasonable. And I assumed that I was an atheist.”
Yet as the years rolled on, Alda began to realize that he couldn’t prove God didn’t exist.
“I had been changed by eleven years of interviewing six or seven hundred scientists around the world on the television program Scientific American Frontiers,” he said. “And that change was reflected in how I would now identify myself.”
Alan Alda has said in recent years, “I haven’t come across any evidence for God.” He considers himself a “nonbeliever” rather than an atheist.
The M*A*S*H star acknowledges the world’s wonder and beauty but has yet to see the correlation between creation and the Creator.
Now 88 years old and suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, Alda continues to act and host a podcast.
Writing to Timothy, the apostle Paul urged that “petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people” (1 Tim. 2:1). So, on this, the 52nd anniversary of M*A*S*H’s debut, let’s consider it a privilege to pray for Alan and Arlene Alda.
Image from Getty.
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