I was in 4th grade when the final episode aired the next day my brother and went to school in our bath rodes and cowboy hats.

I could legitimately listen to him talk all day. His voice is so friendly sounding

The jockstrap incident Alda refers to here was the Hot Lips character angry with Dr. Friedman the psychiatrist for allowing it to be displayed in The Swamp tent while she was there. They did allow Alan Arbus, who played Friedman, to say "athletic supporter", but not "jockstrap".

Alan Alda is under-rated. As an actor, as a writer, as a producer, as a director, and as a pusher of creativity. He was THE MAN behind the biggest television show in history before 1990.

About the jock strap scene: It was funnier that the item was never shown. Margaret's reaction was priceless. If it had been done today, the camera would have lingered on the athletic supporter, and all the humor would be drained out of the moment.

Alan Alda is without a doubt my favorite actor of all time, and normally I couldn't give less of a rat's ass about celebrities. I'd love to get to talk to him some day.

Alan Alda is on my very short list of actors/directors I would love to actually chat with and get an autograph from. Such an amazing career and every interview I have seen he has very insightful commentary.

M*A*S*H was my all time favorite show. Its a shame there arent any shows like that anymore.

Suddenly, I feel like an order of Adam's Ribs.... 😎

"Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been." - Alan Alda

Very intelligent guy, great actor!

I recall the episode when Hawkeye dropped an SOB when a South Korean soldier was taking away an injured North Korean female prisoner who wanted to kill everyone at the MASH unit.

The first time I heard a "swear" word on TV was MASH when Potter said "I'm getting too old for this crap".

Back in the early 70's as a 13 year old. Mash was one of the adult shows I would have to watch. I didn't care for the movie to much but the tv show was fantastic. A show needs great writers, production crew and of course the right actors to make the characters come alive. This show had it all. I'm so glad to have the dvd's to all of these episodes. Alan is one of the top actors in Hollywood.

Thank you, thank you TVLEGENDS for your fabulous uploads! It feels as if I found a treasure chest full of my childhood memories & heroes. Kudos!

M.A.S.H. is my favorite of all shows ever made and Mr. Alan Alda and the entire cast are awesome! I'm proud to say I own every single episode of M.A.S.H. and I never stop enjoying watching them. I hope I can meet him someday. It's totally awesome what he has created. A super talented individual!

Hawkeye Pierce is one of my heroes.

I own all of these on DVD and just started watching them again. Alan Alda is so talented. Loved him in ER also!!!!

I love the episode where Mr. Alda's Dad and Brother showed up. It was hilarious and a nice surprise too!!

"Frank Burns" made Hawkeye a better actor. Thanks to Frank Burns, we had a funny Hawkeye!! 💙

Eloquent and intelligent.

I was a latchkey kid, so Alan Alda is one of my surrogate fathers.

Such a talented and humble man. Thank you for years of laughter (even in reruns) and inspiring me to be a combat medic (not quite a Doctor, though!).

Alan Alda's dad actually appeared in 2 episodess of M.A.S.H. as Dr. Anthony Borelli

Alan Alda is a very good actor and extremely intelligent. I find it still pretty funny how such a talented intelligent actor can be so myopic to believe that it was politicians or government who was the driving force behind Standards and Practices. It was the Advertisers who demanded it and would still be demanding it except that the public acceptance of more mature material has changed.

MASH is and will always be closest to my heart --- it was a very wonderful series -- l enjoyed that show very much, till to this day and in the future.

I wonder how much I would have to pay to be able to sit down and have a MASH marathon with the cast.. In the mess tent!!!! How awesome would it be to watch the series with Klinger & Hawk beside me! Hahah my favourite series ever. Such good hearted clean comedy, just love everything about the show! Hopefully Colonel Potter will order Klinger to pick me up in the jeep! ;)

I just finished watching my mash DVD set love it as much as I did growing up watching it with my grandma

My all time favorite TV show of all time. Alan Alda and ALL the actors played roles that were flawless. Who would have thought that a TV show following the smash movie hit would be even better. The movie was outstanding, the TV series was the best EVER!

my top favorite actor of all time..and his human thoughts about humans....he is so real...

Such a fascinating and intelligent man.

I still love his smile.

Still one of my favorite shows of all ......Ive never come across a TV series that come close to the caliber of MASH.. So so much respect for Alan Alda.. I own every episode and the show still makes me laugh, cry and think

As strong as Col Potter's character was, I think the show lost a lot when Mclean Stevenson left. I loved Blake's spineless indecisions as a CO! Truly a draftee doctor!

Alan is handsome and very mature, I adore him

One of those shows where you feel like nostalgia at its memory.

I went to grade school in the 70s. I heard WAY fouler language from my classmates than I ever heard on MASH. Heavens to Betsy, I actually USED worse language than I ever heard on MASH. People sure wasted a lot of time on fretting about bad language on TV back then. Sorry guys. Even 3rd graders were using rougher language than anything on TV. Is that good? Is that bad? It's neither. It's just how the world works. Maybe someday people will figure that out.

GOD I love this guy! It's really up in the air whether him or Bill Murray are the most beloved actors of all time. (Bill's got my vote... But I'm EXTREMELY biased...)

Alan is not wrong about the politicians

It was wonderful to see Alan and Robert Alda acting together.

What year was this interview????????

Alan Alda, sir, you, like your castmates, are a true talent! I enjoyed you as Hawkeye, and I thank you for the contributions you made to help make M*A*S*H* not only a great show, but my all time favorite television series....to this day! I also enjoyed you in The West Wing. The live-debate scene that you and Jimmy Smits carried out in a latter episode of that show....tremendous! It was a genuine debate. It didn't seem to be some scripted scene. Clearly, you and Jimmy Smits had to create your own talking points about a few different political subjects, and then defend them to each other as the characters you each portrayed. What a skillfully crafted scene! I remembered watching an episode of M*A*S*H* several years ago when I was traveling with a rock cover band, and there was a scene in one of the latter seasons (these were reruns being done in martahon on FX, I believe) when Hawkeye was undergoing some mental trauma therapy with Dr. Sydney Freedman (played with great compassion by Allan Arbus), and at one point, Hawkeye remembers what he actually did on a bus full of Korean refugees when they were being hunted by enemy forces, and Hawkeye says something afterward like: "You son of a b**ch! Why did you make me remember that?!" I did not realize that certain PG level profanities were allowed on tv that far back. Then when I watched my Martinis and Medicines M*A*S*H* DVD collection, I did not realize that even other PG level profanties were allowed...although as far as I know, back in the original airing of those episodes, they may have been censored, and only in the last couple of decades, perhaps restored to some "unedited" status.

Just as a matter of reference I'm trying to find the episodes he's referring to. The one where Radar says he's a virgin, is not Radar saying it, but Bobbie Mitchell's character asking Radar is he was a virgin. His answer is "I really don't know." You tell me what that means. Can't find the episodes, but the scene is clear in my mind. Season 2 Ep 7, "Sort of married is like sort of a virgin." The reference to the Virgin Islands isn't until Season 4 Ep 13, "Soldier of the Month" "I yield the floor to Miss. Virgin Islands" The Athletic Supporter episodes is Season 5 Ep 8 "Dear Sigmund" He didn't say any of the lines, but he did write this episode which is probably why he recalls it as his character being involved. Hope this is useful!

I easily listened to him! Interesting subject

I adore that man! I would give almost anything to meet him

Voice hasn't changed a bit

I have always admired Alan Alda. It is so funny how he mentions how on the show they were not allowed to show men's underwear but Margret always had her personals hanging up all over the place and so did the other women on the shows. The reason I say this is because the public School systems are exactly the same way and I know because when my boys were in Grammar School and High School the same rules applied. The girls could wear see through tops or net tops with a colored bra underneath and skirts that exposed the north pole but the boys were not allowed to wear tank tops or pants that were baggy and exposed their underwear and im not saying their butt hanging out im saying even the upper band of the men's underwear could not show or they could be expelled. That is sexist. Either that or someone likes exposing little girls to older men. If men can't show their under clothes in public, than women shouldn't be able to expose their underclothes in public.

Worth watching the entire thing.

Completely agree with him about language.

I watched M.A.S.H. in during it's original run and love watching the reruns now. However, with all due respect to Mr. Alda, I think censorship contributed to making this show the classic that it is.

@ 6:14 and yet today it is far different. I remember a M*S*S*H episode where he bet Trapper $50 that he (Hawkeye) could walk into the mess tent naked and no one would notice. He almost made it before someone dropped their tray. That wasn't censored. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/appmq9WdnMrDcX0.html

This country's prudity is beyond the pale.

On self-censorship, I think it's interesting that he says they were encouraged to self-censor, but then he says that there was less censorship when they became successful. I wonder if his view that there was less censorship had to do with the fact that they had been self-censoring for so long that their consent had been manufactured, so that they did it automatically and just didn't notice?

What an amazing human being

Some of the saltier comments have been edited out of this interview

The first time I heard the word "shit" on television was on "THE SHIELD" on FOX. Who else remembers that?

"Decency" and "Standards" have just been renamed - everyone acts like being "politically correct" is something new!! :)

The fact that they gained freedom after increased ratings and profits, said volumes. Those that have money, power, influence, and status have freedom, and those that don't are bullied and bruised.

People didn't cuss as much when they did this show. Now every show, well

Unfortunately for us, the cultural elite are very well aware of words' power over minds. Words convey meaning and meaning engenders thought and they don't like it when the masses think unapproved thoughts. Censorship is vital to keeping the masses in their place.

they did get the word "virgin" in an episode. remember the end of episode 8 season 11 "The Moon Is Not Blue"

MASH is still one of my very favorite shows, in the top five, and Alan will always be Hawkeye.

I found out years after the movie excalibur came out that the reason they could show a brief sex scene and it be rated R, was that they had a rule in place about how many buttock thrusts were R and how many were X. Really? Someone sat and counted them?

They couldn't say "pregnant" on I Love Lucy, but later on another sitcom had characters called "Beaver" and "Whitey". Also a TV star named Dick Van Dyke.

Anyone remember the episode where Hawkeye called that Captain (I think) a son of a bitch? He was going to take the female prisoner away to execute her. Then there was the episode where he is operating and says "don't let the bastard win" meaning death.

Very talented man!

Alan Alda fails to mention, the absurdity of the "family hour" being, it was 8 pm to 9 pm in the Eastern Time Zone. The networks broadcast the same shows at the same time in the Central Time Zone, so there it was 7 pm to 8 pm. If anything, the East is probably more tolerant of sexual innuendo and salty language that the Midwest, likely owing to more larger cities in the East, but the Central had the earlier time for the "family hour".

I have watched the entire MASH series many times and I noticed that Margaret is ALWAYS wearing pantyhose. When she is shown in shorts or a towel she is always wearing pantyhose. Wondering if anyone knows why that is???

Speaking just for myself, I miss the days when the networks would not allow certain things to be said or seen on TV. Today's 'gloves off' approach has ruined it for so many. They started trying to replace wit with vulgarity.

It's not remotely surprising that a show gets less censorship as it becomes more successful. The entire point of censorship is based on the network being worried that the public dislikes "bad behaviour" which will lead to fewer viewers, and then less advertising revenue. A successful show is clearly not driving away viewers, so whatever it's doing must ergo be ok. Network chiefs aren't inherently moral- they do what they do from fear of losing viewers.

censorship sucks

Very good points on censorship. Much of the filtering and restriction was completely absurd. "If you censor our jokes, then what will keep you from censoring our political jokes... after that, what will keep you from censoring our political thoughts." That said, it occurs to me that If we allow absolutely everything, then absolutely everything is permissible, and it's a very short step from absolute freedom of expression to absolute depravity. It really is true that it's what comes out of human has the power to either defile or edify. I firmly believe that with each door opened in the name of freedom comes great responsibility, but the problem is, humans are pretty consistent at spiraling downward when all restrictions are removed.

7:12 eyebrows!!!

6 min mark....it’s happening now Alan.

Here's the thing. censorship sucks... Sure.. *BUT* I feel that the limitations put on creators makes them more creative. It doesn't allow them to be lazy. Sure, they can be lazy and fit inside the box day in and day out, but if they take their passion and let it push the boundaries, honestly, some of the best stuff has come from being limited.

Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory was a known virgin for years on the most popular comedy on TV.

Now I'm grateful for Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers for censoring themselves out of courtesy. There will always be gutter language I suppose, but I don't want my little kids having to deal with what needs wisdom beyond their years. Those first years of MASH with all the sexist jokes didn't get much of any repercussion, but it should have since children were learning from the show.

All love

He was the first actor to call someone a Son of a Bitch

Alan you did call the Korean Lieutenant who had the female prisoner a son of a bitch in one episode!

Captain/Dr Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce

I should have said the show was never censored sorry

Uncle pete is actually a nice guy.

So, maybe they didn't censor ladies underwear because ladies didn't mind seeing it on television, but ladies would be more disturbed by seeing mens underwear, back then?

I should have said the show was never censored .Sorry

Uncle Pete!

I wonder if back then a religious show could say Virgin Mary?

funny I cannot call him Alan. to me is pierce.

They should have had other guys there when the guy said he was from the Virgin Islands, the next guy could have said he was from Virginia, then a guy would say Virginia City. Another fellow would then say" Virginia City, me too!" And the other one would say "Colorado!" and he would say "no, Montana."

I liked it at first until it became the Alan Alfa show even when they showcased a another cast member he was always front and center he was evoked every week

All concerns about censorship aside, let's see what's come of this....pretty much no standards with networks and studios competing in a race to the bottom. Indeed, now "family friendly" concepts are considered persona non grata in entertainment. So, censorship against traditional values. Nothing has changed...just what is being targeted.

The M*A*S*H was once blue?

Alda is right on when it comes to cenship, be it TV shows, what one can say in the work environment. The Politically Correct movement only serves to hide the actual realization of the the condition/situation/the frank truth . Censorship in not a part of our constitution or freedom of speech and for a government to do so is violating our civil liberties. A TV corporation may not want certain language, but that is only to not offend a certain population so their ratings don't suffer. But a person cannot offend another person. A person cannot create emotions in another. It is the other person who cognitively processes the words and creates his own emotions in regards to this. It is the other person's perception that he creates in his own mind that creates the feeling of offensiveness. That is his problem in cognitive thinking, and not the problem of the person who practiced his freedom of speech. M. Bailey , MD

During the first two seasons, the censors removed over 20 rape jokes. Rape jokes in the script were pretty much standard during the early seasons. Then Alda started sympathizing with feminism, and the writers dialed back on the rape jokes, so censorship was no longer an issue in that regard.

It wasn't his tent. The jockstrap was in Sidney Freedman's tent. You're getting old, Alan. Good to see you're still with us. :)

Alan Alda had blue eyes on MASH. Here they are dark/brown. WTF?

Could he ramble on any more?

No one is a bigger fan of MASH or Alan Alda than me. No one! However, Mr Alda has NO IDEA how THAT CENSORSHIP made that show. I'd give ANYTHING to have that same censorship today which focused heavily on characters, the story-line, the humor, the known and the unknown. Without that censorship, it would have cheapened the humor and distracted from an otherwise GREAT show. I find virtually NOTHING funny today because of the lack of censorship, be it the censors or writers, and only wish we could have the same quality as MASH today.

Alan Alda is lying. The word "virgin" is used by Klinger after the episode he's talking about in the first season. There was no censorship of this word.

Makes me glad I live in the UK