Hope you're enjoying your holiday weekend. In 1976, right after Labor Day filming began on the first MASH my partner David Isaacs and I ever wrote. (“Out of Sight/Out of Mind”, season 5). Being on the set for that was unbelievable! It was especially great to be there when Alan Alda (Hawkeye) did "the speech".
It took us a week and at least fifty drafts to complete. But it launched our career. I imagine it's on YouTube but I couldn't find it.
Here's the set-up: Hawkeye was temporarily blind, with no guarantee he’d ever see again. He dealt with it by staying very busy, even being a little manic. Finally, B.J. sits him down in Post Op and they have the following exchange:
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B.J.
Listen, Hawk, why don’t you just settle down for five minutes? I know what you’re trying to do, and I know how you really feel.
HAWKEYE
No you don’t.
B.J.
You don’t want to have time to think about what might happen to you.
HAWKEYE
That’s not it. Sure, when Overman walks in tomorrow and unwraps my package, I hope to God I’ll have my sight back. But in the meantime, this crazy accident has taken on another meaning.
B.J.
How?
HAWKEYE
One part of the world closed down for me, but another part opened up. Sure, I’ve been seeing myself sitting on a corner with a tin cup selling thermometers. But things are happening that take me away from that. This morning I spent two incredible hours listening to a rainstorm. I didn’t just hear it, I was part of it. I’ll bet you never realized that the sound of rain hitting the ground makes the same noise as steaks when they barbeque, or that thunder seems to echo forever. And you can’t believe how funny it is to hear someone slip and fall in the mud. Had to be Burns. Beej, it’s full of trapdoors, but I think I’m using this thing to my advantage. I’ve never spent a more conscious day in my life.
I just want to say the last four posts have been especially appreciated and enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteI remember that episode...wow! Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteI just saw this episode last week and was so moved. I've been reading your blog for sometime now and knew you wrote for MASH but didn't know you wrote that episode. Thanks for a great tv moment!
ReplyDeleteI remember that too. Must've been an amazing feeling to hear/ see it come to life.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with the other comments. You are really good at what you do here -- and obviously what you've done on t.v.. I'm sure you don't need to hear it from some random blog commenting schmo, but it's still true. Thanks for the great t.v. over the years, and thanks for the entrertaining posts.
ReplyDeleteSeason 5, Episode 3...air date 5 October 76 according to IMDB.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't find it on Youtube either...although there is a brief clip of another scene here:
http://www.tvland.com/shows/mash/videos.jhtml
Under "Freak Accident"
Buy the entire series@ about 20-40$ from Best Buy or some other big box salon. This was one of the episodes where the character is allowed to deepen. Its magic when you experience the actors not only showing their range but getting lost in the character. Many examples. The most emotional for me is the final scene from Period of Adjustment when BJ confides to Hawkeye why he is so upset when he finds out his daughter called Radar, "Daddy". I cry everytime I watch it. Brilliant writing for both episodes.
ReplyDeleteI just finished watching the entire show on DVD. Fantastic. I can remember that seen exactly. Beautiful work. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteA great piece of insight and writing outside of yourself. I remember that speech when the episode first aired in our still fairly politically incorrect and insensitive 70's, and thought "What an incredible viewpoint! Who would have thought enough about such an experience to bring out what a person who can't see is really more receptive to?" I thought for sure that the writers, whoever they were (didn't pay any attention to TV credits back then) had talked to a blind person about what it must be like to experience life without the sense of sight. These days, I'm made aware of similar experiences by my brother, who is a professional interpreter for the hearing impaired, and tells me about the challenges and and unique ways of coping with life situations that that segment must face, and how they bring a whole different set of experiences, attitudes and feelings to the table as a result, which without thinking about it, I probably never would have realized.
ReplyDeleteI also have always loved the two scenes in the nurses' quarters after the original explosion, the first where Hawkeye is doing the bump-and-grind music, the other where he has the blindfold on but still catches the cup the nurse throws him.
ReplyDeleteThat speech is a great reminder to us all to live each moment deeply and fully...thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite episodes. I love the scene in the nurses tent where Hawkeye starts doing the striper music as the nurse starts to change clothes.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great show, right up there with the one where he wrecks his jeep and is the stranded with a Korean family.
ReplyDeleteTom Q--it's because the 70s weren't PC that this show was so great. No one writes anything this real today.
ReplyDeleteI've been watching the World Cup, and every time the ESPN announcers say that the game is being simulcast for the troops (on whatever AFRN is called now), I'm reminded of this episode.
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