Former 4077th M*A*S*H roommates Alan Alda and Mike Farrell reunited on Saturday to toast the 50th anniversary of the acclaimed war comedy’s premiere.
“Mike Farrell and I today toasting the 50th anniversary of the show that changed our lives – and our brilliant pals who made it what it was,” Alda wrote on Twitter, sharing the photo below of him and Farrell sharing some proper wine versus anything from the Swamp’s still. “MASH was a great gift to us.”
Alda starred as Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce on the Korean War comedy, whereas Farrell joined the cast in Season 4 as as Capt. B. J. Hunnicutt. (Original cast member Wayne Rogers played Hawkeye’s original BFF, Capt. “Trapper” John McIntyre, for the first three seasons; Rogers died in December 2015.)
Of note, a total of four CBS classics celebrated their 50th anniversaries this week: Maude (on Sept. 12), The Waltons (Sep. 14), The Bob Newhart Show (Sep. 16), and M*A*S*H (Sept. 17). That, kids, was a helluva week of TV.
M*A*S*H originally starred Alda, Rogers, McLean Stevenson (as Lt. Col. Henry Blake), Loretta Swit (as Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan), Larry Linville (as Maj. Frank Burns) and Gary Burghoff (as Cpl. Walter “Radar” O’Reilly), while Jamie Farr and William Christopher recurred as Klinger and Father Mulcahy.
Come Season 4, Rogers and Stevenson had been succeeded by Farrell and Harry Morgan (as Col. Sherman T. Potter), and in Season 5, David Ogden Stiers’ Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III replaced Major Burns.
Of the above, Alda, Farrell, Swit, Burghoff and Farr are still with us.
