I had no idea he was sick. What Alda did for him was really heroic. So many other actors would have let the bus roll over him. His character was so important to the show. His was the rational, conscious voice of reason. This is so important in a world ripped apart by war. I thought he did a great job.

I never knew that the producers almost fired him from the show! That was wonderful of Alda to stick up for him like that!

It proves how great a man Alan Alda is. Loved MASH and Father Mulcahy was a must to the show.

Where Klinger became the heart of the show, Father Mulcahy was definitely the soul. He to me ask or brought the moral questions. He didn't always have the answers, but helped those that came to him find the answers for themselves. He truly was a Shepard that lead his flock.

William Christopher is one of the people who made MASH the popular show that it was. The show wouldn't have been the same if they had written him out. Great video!

I like Alan Alda for his standard of living and for everything he stood up for. He also fought for the equal rights of women. I did not know he challenged the producers of MASH to keep for William Christopher in the show, good job Alan.

Aldas Sweet kindness & heartfelt need to insist to have William Christopher continue as Father Mulcahy speaks volumes. Thank God.

Oh my God. I didn't know William Christopher actually had hepatitis but thank God he recovered. Thank you, Hawkeye/Alan Ada, for helping to keep William Christopher on the show. God bless you, Hawkeye/Alan Ada, and William Christopher. Mash is a great show. Several of the lines said in the show our Dad and me would use from time to time.

Father Mulcahey was a very important character on the series. He also had a sense of humor and was well liked and loved by the characters on the show. I remember an episode where Father Mulcahey saw Klinger bow his head in prayer and when Mulcahey said to Klinger "I thought you were Atheist.", with Klinger answering him saying "Gave it up for Lent." Plus, the episode where a captain kept saying he was Jesus Christ, Father Mulcahey simply went with the flow rather than act fanatically like Major Burns and Colonel Flagg did. Without Father Mulcahey, the series wouldn't have had that extra depth to keep the show balanced. I think he was a wonderful human being that really cared about and for everyone in the 4077. Thanks once again for uploading and keep the videos coming.

According to different forums Father Mulcahy never said "Jocularity" in an episode until after the episode where everyone imitated him saying it.

A military show without a Chaplain is, well, just another show. Some people think it was the comedy and close-to-home stories that made M*A*S*H at hit; the fans know that faith was the underlying ribbon that tied the whole show into one ridiculously great package.

Bravo! What a lovely tribute to Christopher and Alda. I CANNOT imagine the MASH that I love so much and that is such an important part of my life without Christopher as Father Mulcahy. “Jocularity!” ❤️ (Has anyone else seen him in the final season of Mad About You from the late 1990s? He plays a chaplain in a hospital and his one scene ends with him praying in character and then ending the prayer by subtly dropping his character and as William Christopher he asks God why he is always cast as a priest? 😆)

The casting was spot on for MASH. I truly believed he was a priest because he was so kind and wise.

Great video dude hay I actually met him once I have a autographed photo too

William Christopher was wonderful as Father Mulcahy. In one scene, an MP said he wasn't even Catholic and Father replied, "would you like to be?" I often wonder how many viewers became Catholic because of this actor. I know I learned some of my faith from Father Mulcahy. Thank you Mr. Chhristopher.

I loved MASH & never missed an episode. William Christopher was great as Father Mulcahy & in my opinion he was a very underrated actor!!! Thanks for sharing this informative video!! 🌝

The Father whatever his name was could not ever been taken off the show. What a great actor playing one of the most passionate men I have ever seen!!

Mash was my alltime favoured show till today!

Agreed! Christopher's character was integral to the show.

I loved William Christopher, he did a great job,

I remember the episode of Mash where his real life wife and him got on stage and sang together.

Two episodes of Father Mulchaey stand out...the one where Hawkeye has to answer the letter from the boy who lost his brother and has only hate and the one where Winchester has the concert piano player patient. In both he showed them the answer was within them if they would only look.

This Anecdote is a new on on me... but comes as no surprise Alda would be sympathetic to those with a long-term illness. He suffered from Polio as a kid & was bedridden for a long period of time! (Thanks for sharing!)

Every time I learn something new about Alan Alda I love him even more

Wow that's crazy! It reminds of the story I recently learned about Richard Dean Anderson standing up for Dana Elcar when they were considering letting him go when his glaucoma got bad and instead having them write it into the show (MacGyver).

I always liked Father Francis John Patrick Mulcahy.

Glad they went with William Chrostopher on MASH, George Morgan didn't speak a word on the pilot. Christopher had an incredited role in the Don Knotts film, The Shakiest Gun in the West.

Within the show's sea of insanity, the Padre provided islands of sensibility, touching acts of thoughtfulness, and some good natured religious humor. Christopher fit the part about as perfectly as it could be played. Glad Alda stuck up for him. Always liked the interplay between the Padre and Colonel Potter. The two wise men...

Until now, I never knew about Christopher's illness or Alda going to bat for him. It reminds me very much of what Raymond Burr did for his co-stars, William Talman (Hamilton Burger) and Ray Collins (Lt. Tragg). Talman suddenly disappeared from the series for a season and then returned, it was due to him being fired after being caught up in a police drug raid on a Hollywood Hills house where he was attending a party , on the lower level of the house, while unknown to him (and others), drugs were being done on the upper level. After a lengthy investigation, the DA did not prosecute and dropped the charges after determining that he was innocent. Talman wanted to return to the series, but the producers said no. It was Burr who then stepped in and got Talman back into his role. As for Ray Collins, he was already in his late 60's when he took the role of Lt. Tragg. A few years into the series, his health started to fail and he started to appear less an less, with other actors (Westley Lau as Lt. Andy Anderson) started to take on more of the homicide detective role. Eventually, Collins became too sick to continue acting and was replaced completely by Lau. Out of work, Collins almost became destitute from his medical bills, and the Perry Mason producers wanted to remove Collins from the shows credits because he was no longer appearing in episodes. Raymond Burr stepped in and said no way, Ray Collins help get the series off the ground in the yearly years and helped to make it into the success it became. So not only did Collins' name stay in the credits until the series ended as homage to his contributions, Raymond Burr also took care of all of the medical bills of Collins until his death.

A little trivia about him. He is a direct descendent of Paul revere

I loved him plain and simple.

Ahoy S.S.! Don't drink that Radar, the Swiss family hepatitis is swimming in there! Ah yes, a wonderful episode of a wonderful show!! You did a really good job Steve!! As Father Mulcahey once said "you can't miss if you have good material".(The Bible)

Another great video. thanks Stephen.

Great story

He was a very good actor.

Great information. Thanks.

He was my fave character on M*A*S*H & I’m an atheist! 🏥

I loved Father Mulcahy, William Christopher did a wonderfyl job. As to Alan Alda, he was a great actor, so people shouldn't be knocking him. Hell, I loved Clinger.

He was one of my favorite characters on M*A*S*H. He was a terrific actor. Awesome video.

My favorite moment is when Father Mulcahy grabs the gun from the soldier in the mess tent. It's still being used as a chapel.

Excellent video!

What a great story!

Amen and Amen...from Utah’s mountains north of you

Love Father Mulcahy he was a Great Part of Mash! glad he stayed on.

My favorite Father Mulcahy moments: 1. In the Christmas episode where he doubted himself after punching a belligerent patient. But his kindness was rewarded when Major Winchester was touched by his selfless gesture of securing items for the Major, from home; 2. When he was in a foot race with a private at the 8063rd, hoping to secure money for one of the orphanages. He got the man from the 8063rd to see what he was doing and the man agreed to let Father Mulcahy win. But only after he made everyone who was betting on the race contribute their winnings to the orphanage; and 3. When he decided to take up the idea of a new war ditty (“Klinger’s Letter Home” episode). At the end he notes that war is not something to sing about, to which Hawkeye replied “Amen!!”

I'm having such a good time catching up watching your videos. Maybe I should not have eaten a bag of mini donuts.... But😂😂😂😂

Good video!!! I need to book you for my program sometime soon.

I loved Williams character.

He looks really funny in the photo from Hogan's Heroes. I'm gonna have to check it out.

I recently read David Ogden Stiers Autobiography, didn't know he was a guy guy,not that it mattered. He was ideally cast as he was a trained musician and leader/ conductor of the Bosten Symphony Orchestra occasionally.

He was on Hogan's Heroes for 6 episodes

Rene Auberjois Of course was in the TV show Benson, and I met him at a comicon a couple of years before he died and he said the reason why he did not sign onto the television version of mash was because he did not want to be stereotyped in one role like Gary Burghoff ended up getting

I love MASH!! I’ve seen every episode at least three times each. But I didn’t know that William Christopher actually had hepatitis, I love Hawkeye and that was awesome for him to make sure that William was kept on the series. 👍🏼

God speed peace ✝️🇺🇸

William Christopher was on Hogan's Heroes as well as MASH. There are some connections between the 2 shows can you do a video about that.

No this was news to me. I've heard Raymond Burr also looked after smaller cast members on Perry Mason through the years.

"...Alan Alda's ego got too big...", Well, MASH is sometimes referred to as 'The Saint Alan Alda Show', so, yeah...I would say that is a correct statement...

Just as an aside, he did play another character on Gomer Pyle on the episode where Sgt. Carter gets a desk job. Mr. Christopher played Sgt. Carter's assistant while he had that job. I don't know why they didn't just say that it was Hummel promoted and transferred to a different part of the base, but for some reason they gave him a different name for that one.

Jocularity Jocularity Jocularity!!!

cool beans1

1:00 - believe-it-or-else but William Christopher was in my favorite Hogan's Heroes episode: "War Takes A Holiday". That's the one where Kinch and "Father Mulcahy" hijack a Nazi radio station to give a fake announcement that the War is over! (This allows Hogan to convince the Gestapo to release some important Underground leaders!)

What episode was it where father Mulcahy was doubting himself and Hawkeye told him as a doctor you could see immediate results of successful surgery but father Mulcahy couldn’t see his immediate results in preaching it was one of my favorite episodes

0;35 Auberjonois - I totaly forgot that , and that to me because I am a big fan of the actor. By the way I want of complement you on your perfect way to pronounce his name absolutly correct. Even here in Europe I know a lot of folks gobbling up his family name in the worst way possible :) 1:43 FULL STAFF MEMBER IN FROM THE FIFTH SEASON ON - I wonder if that episode were the good father fights for his promotion is an echo to this fact. :) Honnestly, no I did not know that Christoper´s role had been so in peril. I always liked the way the actor went on with his role as a priest. Now I know why his figure in HOGAN´S HEROS ( EIN KÄFIG VOLLER HELDEN in German ) looked so familiar to me. Because of the changed voice and the missing glasses he came over to different. Alan Alda, yes I know that he stood behind the show and supported his cast as best as he could. Naturally being also in the management of the show must have produced some friction off camera,

I didn't know that Christopher had been ill or that Alda went to bat for him. Did you know that his wife, Barbara, was in one of the episodes, "Dear Mildred", & they sang together?

"Jocularity, jocularity"

Alan Alda stuck by his people. I did not know about the hepatitis. Whenever I hear people talking junk about entertainers I never take it for face value. It seems to me the ones who get talked junk about the most in the world of entertainment are the ones who are not out there kissing everyones ass trying to please everybody. Sometimes being the better person and doing the right thing means pissing off naysayers thinking only of themselves. That cast had aot of love for each other. You can see it all the time. How they felt in real life over time transcended into the show.

This is a great story and while I am a fan of Alan Alda's acting and what he did for William Christopher is commendable I wish he treated his fans that same way. I have "met" him many times in the Hamptons and he is a rude horrible person but he appears to be completely different in professional situations. William Christopher was a close to perfect in his role as Father Mulcahy as any actor can be! I am happy that his role was saved.

I know I’m in the minority, but I think they should’ve kept him as a small recurring role. Maybe it’s because I’m a lifelong atheist and freethinker, but I never really saw the point of giving him a more prominent role on the show. He did have some great moments and I actually do like him and consider him a more positive character as far as religious characters go, but I still don’t think he needed to be a main character.

The show would've been less without William Christopher.

I knew about William Christopher’s autistic son, but I didn’t know they had almost fired him for being sick. That’s appalling. Alan Alda is a real class act. He’s just a genuinely decent human being. The people who hate on him, do it for one reason... pure jealousy that their favorite character (usually Trapper and/or Henry) wasn’t treated as the star of the show. M*A*S*H was an ensemble show... and like a lot of ensemble shows, there was an anchor character, and that was Hawkeye, from the start. McLean wanted the role of Hawkeye, but the producers knew they wanted Alan waited until the last minute to cast the role hoping Alan would be available. If you look at the plotlines of season 1, a lot of episodes were Hawkeye centric... including the very first episode. And the ones that had other characters as the central figure still had Hawkeye as a major part of the story. Alan first started writing for M*A*S*H in season 1. So, the notion that M*A*S*H wasn’t intended to be so influenced by Alan, but his ego caused it to become influenced by him later on, is, as Potter would say, bull cookies. I understand that other people have different favorite characters, but the hate that is heaped upon Alan for doing his job is ludicrous. And for the record, though I liked Henry and Trapper at the time and was upset when they were written out, I ultimately didn’t miss them. The show became much better as it became deeper, and it was still hilarious... Henry and Trapper’s humor about being cheating husbands grew old like a one-trick pony. Them being written out ended up being the best thing for the longevity of the show. We have the M*A*S*H box set of DVDs, and the seasons that get played most in our house are the ones without Henry and Trapper... and even to a lesser extent, the ones without Frank. The Hawkeye, BJ, Potter, and Charles years were gold!... and it was during those years that Father Mulcahy (and Margaret and Klinger) got the most opportunities to shine.

Alda was to liberal on the show. But I don’t care as I’m wearing now one of my many MASH shirts. The 50th anniversary shirt is really nice.