Like good shows that run for a long time, good blogs will endure. It takes patience, humor, and commitment. If only I can remember this when I want to kick my own green blog around!

Nice piece of work, Ben.

Chad, how amazing to have received a reply from Alan Alda without the intervention of talking to his PR people! I have alot of respect for him as an actor. Thanks for sharing this letter.

Everyone-I love Cheers! What a great show.

As you know I am a huge fan of MASH too, and I like how you can still relate all that to blogging.

Just a question, how did you get such detailed still shots from the show. From what I remember from my TV, the quality is sort of hazy.

@Chad Storm – That is really a guy with a huge heart. I am sure if you email any stars from TV shows now, all you get will be PR answers or none.

I sent him an email, and I have no reason to believe it was anyone other than himself that responded.

————————————————————————————————–
Date: Friday, 22 May 1998 21:04:33 CDT
From: cstorm@wagner.mtco.com
To: SAFAlda
Subject: Letter to Alan Alda

Dear Mr. Alda,

My wife Jessica and I were wanting to know if you wrote your own material used
in the MASH series, or if your incredible sense of humor was more
improvisational in nature. We understand that Captain Pierce was never real,
but we also know that you breathed real life into Hawkeye.

I spent four long years in the US Navy riding around beneath the waves on a
Trident submarine, helping to deter the threat of a nuclear strike. Thanks to
your spark, wit, and uncanny ability to put the whole “government
intelligence” snafu into perspective, I was able to maintain some form of
sanity (albeit through insanity!) through the whole ordeal. Serving our
country is a great honor, but the games the military plays with one’s mind
really makes one question his or her own significance in the grand scheme of
things.

Mr. Alda, I know this is just one small electronic message and that it
couldn’t possibly equal all the awards you’ve received in your lifetime.
However, it does present me with the opportunity to thank you for being who
you are, actor, director, author, women’s rights activist, explorer of
science, and more simply put, a man with a huge heart. Thank you.

Chad Storm
Peoria, Illinois 61604

>From SAFAlda@aol.comTue May 26 14:59:31 1998
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 11:53:54 EDT
From: SAFAlda
To: cstorm@wagner.mtco.com
Subject: Re: Letter to Alan Alda

Thank you for your warm words. You’re very kind. In answer to your question, I
wrote about 35 episodes of Mash, but when we shot the shows, no mater who
wrote them, we stuck to the script meticulously. We were all theater people
with a respect for the written word.

Alan Alda

——————————————————————————————————-
How cool was that? A direct question and a direct answer!

/cs

Trapper always seemed like another Hawkeye to me and you didn’t need that. Blake seemed a lot like Burns to me and to me Potter was more enjoyable.

I loved M*A*S*H early on, but to me it got progressively worse through the years. BJ wasn’t as funny as Trapper John, Colonel Potter not as funny as Blake, Winchester not as funny as Frank Burns…hell, Klinger even stopped wearing dresses. It became much more of a drama than a comedy. No thanks.