Mash_Before&AfterPhotos



Mash TV Show Cast Members



M*A*S*H

The crazy docs of the 4077th ended their 11-year run with the now-iconic "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen." The two-and-a-half hour extravaganza saw many teary goodbyes (plus one huge one made of stones) as Hawkeye, BJ, and Hot Lips all headed back to their lives stateside. The fact that the finale remains the most-watched episode in TV history pretty much says it all. 





http://www.mash4077.dk/ 
Velkommen til www.mash4077.dk. Dette er hjemmesiden, hvis du er uhelbredelig hooked på dette årtusindes bedsteTV-serie. Det er meningen at den trofaste fan skal kunne finde ALT der er værd at vide om M*A*S*H her på disse sider - og så vil det være på dansk!

Disse sider er stadig under konstruktion og bliver selvfølgelig løbende opdateret.

Med det samme må jeg tilstå, at meget på disse sider er "lånt" og "inspireret" af Andy Lawson, som har givet sit tilsagn! Har kommentare og bidrag, så send mig en mail 

Monday, July 31, 2006 Who the shit canceled M.A.S.H.?!

http://thecunning.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/who-shit-canceled-mash.html 
I swear to fucking God, sometimes the carrot dangling in front of your face gets yanked away before you can run its sweet, orange stalk around the inside of your lips, 
exploring the smooth, cold skin delicately with your tongue before sinking your teeth into it's delicious, crunchy pulp. That MAY have come off a little gay, 
but its not half as gay as the cigar smoking Hollywood bigshots who cancelled our beloved M.A.S.H. Though I haven't actually seen the show, I'm sure my anger is not unfounded. 
You see, we have no TV channels in the Antarctic, except for Global, which we were able to procure in exchange for a crate of Dr. Lugash 'The Gash' Visiliev's homemade vodka.
 Someone will have to explain 'Rockstar: Supernova' to me later...

Anyway, having had internet access for only the past 3 days, I'd come upon this sure-to-be-classic only to discover that some asshole had pulled the plug before 
I could even get a glimpse of the (alleged) hilarious wartime antics of Hotlid Hulahoop, Hawkman Pierce and Colonel Klinker, crossdressingly played 
by the outrageous Jamie Farr (or so I've read). No TV show in history has been as socially relevant (could someone confirm this please?),
 heartfelt (again, confirmation needed) or as true to the human spirit (I just made that part up), as M.A.S.H. I'd be interested to see where the cast goes from here. 
Is that a M.A.S.H. movie I smell in the future? Sam Peckinpah, I'm looking in your direction....







 Gene Reynolds 

MASH episodes tend to be complicated and I’m often asked how we plotted out stories. So here’s how we did it.


First off, we chose the best stories we could find – the most emotional, the most interesting the best possibilities for comedy. 
Plotting is worthless if you have a bad story. Chekov would pull out his hair trying to make “
B.J.’s Depression” work. 
(Side note: stories where your lead character is depressed generally don’t work in comedy. Moping around is not conducive to laughs. 
Better to make them angry, frustrated, lovesick, impatient, hurt – anything but depressed… or worse, happy. 
Happy is comedy death.)
We got a lot of our stories from research – transcribed interviews of doctors, nurses, patients, and others who lived through the experience. 
But again, the key was to find some hook that would connect one of our characters to these real life incidents.

Some of these anecdotes were so outrageous we either couldn’t use them or had to tone them down because no one would believe them.
For each episode we had two and sometimes three stories. If we had a very dramatic story we would pair it with something lighter. 
The very first MASH we wrote, Hawkeye was temporally blind and Hawk & Beej pulled a sting on Frank.

We would try to mix and match these story fragments so that they could dovetail or hopefully come together at the end.
All that stuff you probably knew. What you didn’t know is this:
We broke the show down into two acts and a tag. Each act would have five scenes. Brief transition scenes didn’t count. 
But go back through some episodes. Five main scenes in the first act and five in the second.
 As best we could we would try to advance both of our stories in the same scenes. But each story is different and we tried to avoid being predictable.

Usually, we wrapped up the heavy story last. That’s the one you cared most about.
The tag would callback something from the body of the show, generally drawing from the funny story.
And then we had a rather major restriction: We could only shoot outside at the Malibu ranch for one day each episode.
 So no more than 8 pages (approximately a third of the show). And that was in the summer when there was the most light.
 By September and October we could devote 6 pages to exteriors. And once Daylight Savings was over that was it for the ranch for the season. 
All exteriors were shot on the stage. So if we wanted to do a show where the camp is overrun by oxen we better schedule it for very early in the summer.
 Those 20th guards never let oxen onto the lot without proper ID.

If possible we tried to do at least one O.R. scene a show. We wanted to constantly remind the audience that above all else this was a show about war.
We always feared that a sameness would creep into the storytelling so every season we would veer completely away from our game plan
 for several episodes just to shake things up and keep you off the scent. That’s how all format-breaking shows like
 POINT OF VIEW, THE INTERVIEW, and DREAMS came about. And during our years we extended that to a few mainstream episodes.
 We did NIGHT AT ROSIE’S that was more like a one-act play. Everything was set in Rosie’s Bar. (I wonder if a series like that but set in Boston would work?) 
We moved them all to a cave. We did an episode set exclusively in Post-Op and assigned each of our characters to a specific patient. 
Letters-to-home was another nice device.

I should point out here that I didn’t come up with the MASH guidelines 
for storytelling. That was all Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds  
We just followed the template. And for the record, in all my years in the business, no one is better at story than Gene Reynolds. 
It was amazing how he could zero in on problems and more impressively, find solutions. The story had to constantly move forward, 
it had to have flow, logic, surprises, the comedy had to real as well as funny, and most of all – the dramatic moments (especially during the conclusion) had to be earned.

So that’s how we did it, based on how they did it. And when I occasionally watch episodes of MASH from our years there are always
 lines I want to change or turns that could be made more artfully or humorously, but those stories hold up beautifully. Thank you, Gene Reynolds.
 

Comments

Can't thank you enough for sharing that with us, Ken. I knew some of the crew at the latter part of MASH but never got that far into it at the time. 
Now I can really appreciate what it must have been like to write a show like that every week. 
You and the rest of the crew and cast have earned a very special place in my heart, and that of all the fans the world over!

We love your stories about writing and especially the idea (fantasy) that this is something we could all do just as well if we only learned a few secrets,
 like 5 acts and then a call back. 

Awesome. Love your work. 

W.V. Croni: What you make us feel like when we read your blog.

Oh, yeah? In the original M.A.S.H. movie, Capt. 'Painless' Waldowski was depressed and was planning suicide and they made that funny.
 But I suppose television execs wouldn't handle having a major character want to kill himself because one night he couldn't "perform". 
At least not when MASH was running. Never mind.

Michael said. 
My wife and I watch 60 Minutes and have noticed that the current generation doesn't do nearly so good a job at mixing it up. Once upon a time,
 if Morley Safer had a serious story, Mike Wallace had a light interview. If Iron Mike was doing a number on a con man, Morley interviewed Kermit the Frog. 
They knew how to mix it up.

MASH's writers had that marvelous ability to tell a story. Ken, you have said you learned a lot about storytelling from Vin Scully--as I did and as so many others have. 
The key is to know how to tell it, with the right pauses and twists. MASH did that better, I think, than any other show I have ever seen.

Pat Reeder said. 
Always enjoy the behind-the-scene stories on MASH. My late father and I used to watch it together when I was in junior high.
 He was a Korean War vet, and would often comment on how good a job the show did in finding locations that looked like Korea,
 or at least the part of it he got to see, which he described as a scrubby, rocky wasteland. 

Wish he could have shared his stories of the war with the writers, since I've never heard anything like them from anyone else.
 He was a photography buff, drafted out of high school and stuck into the photo corps as a sergeant. He had just about the worst job imaginable:
 he flew over the enemy encampments, leaning out of a helicopter and shooting at them with a camera while they shot back at him with guns.
His Indian name would've been "Sitting Duck." He'd then develop the film in a stream, and the officers would use the photos to learn about
 the size and location of the enemy troops. 

Once, Life magazine did an article about the photo corps. He saved a copy. The picture showed a captain and a lieutenant,
 leaning over a pan of photos in a stream and staring purposefully at them, like Gen. McArthur.
 He told me that those guys actually never took or developed a photo in their lives, but when Life showed up,
 they made damn sure they were the ones whose faces appeared in the article. You might be able to tell that my dad,
 although patriotic and I think, heroic, had about as much love for the Army as Hawkeye did.
 In fact, he enjoyed his two years in Korea so much that I didn't even know Oriental food existed until I moved away from home to go to college. 

Anyway, thanks for indulging the rambling memories, and for creating a show that my dad and I could both enjoy together, in our very different ways.

gottacook said. 
Let's not forget that "Thank you, Gene Reynolds" extends (at least for me) to LOU GRANT. Darn good storytelling.

Mike said 
I think Charles had a kind of descent into depression during his speed addiction. Perhaps that's it, depression was a feature of addiction, it didn't stand alone. 

Anyway, you guys did great with that, a terrific episode.

Jim said. 
I understand that as a series ages, there's a tendency towards the formulaic and predictable,
 but why were the last five seasons of M*A*S*H also so preachy compared to the first five?

And why did the characters become so loud and arch?

It isn't exactly an unbreakable comedy axiom that depression isn't funny. If so, Richard Mulligan's performance in S.O.B. would disprove it.

KEN LEVINE said 
I wasn't there the last four seasons. I really can't speak for what was done or why. I can just speak for my years.

SpectreWriter.com said. 
Why? Maybe they became more comfortable with Korea? More fed up? Maybe feelings about the war overall changed, or the Koreans' attitudes about them changed? Plenty of reasons that the characters might have tended to act differently in their last 5 years than their first 5 years, not the least of which would be the passing of time.:)

D. McEwan said. 
"Jim said... 
Why were the last five seasons of M*A*S*H also so preachy compared to the first five?"


Well they were freaked out about still being in the Korean War for a decade, when it only lasted a year. "Why are we still here? The war ended 9 years ago!"

Very interesting posting.

charliesmum said.. 
Um...now I would really like to hear some of those stories you couldn't use because no one would believe them. There's a trope for that, 'Aluminum Christmas Trees'. 

I think the Dreams episode was one of my favourites. And the one with the ghost. Was that yours?

Phil said.. 
Ken, thanks for sharing the behind-the-scenes info, as always.

Do you (or your readers) know which sitcom is credited with being the first to feature multiple stories per episode?

That was standard practice in Seinfeld and Cheers, but the shows I grew up with were much more simply constructed (e.g., "Beaver loses his sweater" or 
"Lucy steals John Wayne's footprints").

(Having one story made it easier for someone at TV Guide to summarize each episode.)

dodz said.. 
old pics. hmm maybe in present those in the pics are old now

Jaime J. Weinman said 
Do you (or your readers) know which sitcom is credited with being the first to feature multiple stories per episode?


I've wondered that too. As you say, the standard practice for many years was one story per episode. (Even WKRP or Taxiwould usually have one-story shows.) 

I always got the impression that Barney Miller may have done a lot to formalize the idea of having more than one story per episode, 
since Danny Arnold built each episode out of several different stories (all taking place on the same set). 
But before that, I recall Gelbart's M*A*S*H was doing more multi-story episodes.

John said. 
The best asset/skill MASH had in Seasons 3-7 was the ability to maintain the balance between the serious plot lines and the lighter ones, 
to the point that one side didn't dominate the other. 

Seasons 1-2 at times tended to be a little too lighthearted, going back to military shows the networks felt safe with in the 1960s,
 like McHale's Navy or Hogan's Heroes (both of which Gene Reynolds did some work on), while the Season 8-11 shows at times tended to either get too serious,
 or have forced comedy plot lines. And the decision to have the characters be less laid-back and louder and more expressive in the comedy scenes 
in the final few seasons (Harry Morgan especially) also didn't help things any.

(And while I'm thinking about, it, there was one Season 6 plot line that felt a bit weird, where Charles was scheming to exchange script at a higher rate, 
but ended up losing all his money because he couldn't get back into camp on time. While there was nothing wrong with the concept, 
it felt more like a plot line for Season 5, with Larry Linville's Frank Burns trying to pull off a stunt like that instead of David Ogden Stiers Bay State Brahman doing it. 
Were there ever any plot lines that didn't fit into one epsiode but were still considered good that were 'held over' for use in a later epsiode?)

SpectreWriter.com said. 
Reading all of the comments so far, I find it interesting that some of you have such strong recollection of specific episode's components,
 as well as tendencies within a season. Gotta disagree with John's statement, "The best asset/skill MASH had in Seasons 3-7 was the ability to maintain
the balance between the serious plot lines and the lighter ones," though. Hardly the BEST. The show and each episode in it, each aspect that made up the whole,
 those were all impressive. To me, that was the heart of MASH, rather than an overall tendency.

What strikes me, though, is that so much of it comes down to memorabilia. What about the now? What can we gain, learn from these masterful works? 
The times aren't that different. People are still human, and the show was decidedly about the that.

Some of you expressed that it got too preachy in the later years. I was glad to see them using their vehicle as a means of conveying messages,
 leading by example, per se. MASH was never about fluff -- not in the original film nor in the series. What would have been a shame 
and waste would have been to reduce it to a bag of laughs.

SuperBK said. 
Hi Ken, Question for a Friday. I liked the character Colonel Flag - CID, CID, CIA, etc. Where did you get ideas for him?

Chas Cunningham said.. 
Off topic, but I think that MASH in its later seasons would have played better if there'd been a regular camp barber character to keep both Jamie Farr 
and Loretta Swit from sporting 1980s blow-dried haircuts in a 1950s army setting.

Dawn Marie said.. 
I kept in mind when reading your post that MASH was only a half hour show. So you juggled all of that in what, 22-25 minutes of airtime? 
The economy of that is the part that blows my mind.

Kirk Jusko said. 
I think the drama in MASH was good right up until the end. However, the comedy in the last, say, three seasons, lost lot of it's punch.
 It was comedy relief, basically, and not so different from what you'd see in more innocuous sitcoms. There was no more black comedy,
 whereas there was quite a bit in the earlier seasons. Watch the final episode with Henry Blake. It's comedic for most of the episode, 
until Radar walks into the OR with the bad news. If anything, the earlier humor made the unhappy ending even more devastating.

SpectreWriter.com said. 
Exactly the point, Kirk. In the final analysis, it was still all about a war, and there's nothing happy/smiley about them. The characters made the best of it, but it's still a war.
 What would have been Wrong would be to paint it "All's well that ends well." The show seemed determined to pay proper respect to those who served in that war.

Ken, you gonna weigh in on this? :)..

Matt said.. 
Ken,

Just a thought ...

Any chance a collection of your M*A*S*H scripts could be collected and published, much like The West Wing scripts from a few years back? 

M*A*S*H still has such a base that I would think this could make a few dollars on the market.

bee said 
I loved MASH from the first season to the last.

As much as I loved the more freewheeling early seasons- I think adding more depth to established characters like Margaret and Klinger as well as 
all the various cast turnovers helped keep the show from going stale.

I think much of the whining about how MASH 'went to the dogs' after the early years has a lot more to do with Alan Alda's personal life then with the show itself 
- namely his outspokenness on some liberal issues back during the height of his fame .

Alda really hit a very, VERY sore spot with certain kinds of people - and all these years later I think they are still trying to make him (and the show) 'pay' for it.

Michael said.. 
Apropos of the comment about Alan Alda, I remember a Chicago TV critic, Gary Deeb, who just HATED Alda and beat him up every time he could in his column.
 Unquestionably, MASH could get preachy. But I've always thought a great example of the combination of comedy and drama in the later years 
was when the congressional aide accused Margaret of having been a communist. It fit the times incredibly well, and had a touch of lunacy to it.

Baylink said.. 
> I understand that as a series ages, there's a tendency towards the formulaic and predictable, but why were the last five seasons of M*A*S*H 
also so preachy compared to the first five?

Indeed, as others have said, the general allegation is that it was because Alda became more involved with pre-production and writing; for my part, it never bothered me...

Kirk Jusko said.. 
I don't think the episodes Alda wrote himself were particularly preachy. Indeed, I think he wrote some of the best episodes in the later seasons.

Again, I thought the comedy was less edgy in the last two or three seasons. Not because if was anti-war, but just the opposite. It didn't reflect the war at all.

With a few exceptions (there are always a few exceptions) the dramatic episodes were fine. 

I wonder if the reigning philosophy in the least few seasons was that the war could only be approached dramatically, but not comedically.

Gmajor said. 
I just wanted to mention, my wife and I have been rewatching all 11 seasons of M.A.S.H. on DVD, usually anywhere from 2-5 episodes a night, and we're currently in season 7, your era, and I take special notice when I see "Levine & Isaacs" in the credits. 

We both remember watching the show with our families as children, and then later, in our high school period, it was in syndication 3-4 times a day, so you could watch a M.A.S.H.-fest after school until dinner time every day if you wanted, so the show is quite fixed in our memories. 

Point of View, which you mentioned in your post about shaking up the format, was one of the handful of episodes that really stood out in my memory (The one with the ghost soldier and the one in real time were the others that immediately came to mind). So, yeah, it worked. 

Although it was always funny, each episode had touching, poignant moments that stay with you. I am a screenwriter trying hard to be a working screenwriter, and this show is the best education in balancing comedy and drama. Kudos!

There isn't much TV that we all watch together these days, but my daughter (8) is watching M.A.S.H. with us. Although she prefers Henry Blake to Sherman Potter, she's really enjoying the show, ("Can't I watch another M.A.S.H., pleeeease?") and we're delighted to share something special from our childhood with her, rediscovering an old favourite with new eyes.

Anonymous said. 
The show was funny in the first four of five years, then it became this boring, preachy, politically correct lesson each week.
 Alda is not a funny man. When Hot Lips became Margaret it was over. Gary Coleman could act circles around any of these people.

Anonymous said. 
The show was funny in the first four of five years, then it became this boring, preachy, politically correct lesson each week. Alda is not a funny man.
 When Hot Lips became Margaret it was over. Gary Coleman could act circles around any of these people.

JT said.. 
Dear Anonymous,

Everyone is most certainly entitled to his/her opinion. As you've expressed yours, unsolicited though it may be, I feel entitled to do the same:

1) Get a name change. Yours is far too similar to all the other trolls, and I'd hate to see you not getting the credit you so richly deserve for sharing your thoughts.

2)Since Gary Coleman is dead, it's highly unlikely that you're correct.

3) If you think Alda isn't funny, you should listen to yourself some time. The man has more heart and ability in his pinkie nail during any given 30 seconds (including sleep time) than you'll ever muster collectively in your entire lifespan. Just clarifying, since you seem to have become confused and deluded into thinking the existence of your opinion matters to anyone but yourself any more than your anonymity. Perhaps that's due to the name thing... or maybe you're just an unmitigated dull tool all the time. Either way, the clincher's the same: Be gone, before a house falls ... oh, wait, wrong script.




  1. Forty years ago, on Sept. 17, 1972, a TV show about an army surgical hospital premiered. Although it had been based on a popular movie, many wondered if a dramedy about war would be successful. It was slow going in the first season, but "M*A*S*H" gained a devoted audience and became one of the most beloved and longest-running series in history. "M*A*S*H" went on to win 14 Emmy Awards and eight Golden Globes, and fans came to love the camaraderie between Hawkeye, B.J., Frank, Hot Lips, Klinger, Radar, Colonel Potter, and the rest of the gang at the 4077th. But what has become of the actors who created these TV icons? Here's a rundown.


Alan Alda (Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce) Hawkeye, the illustrious chief surgeon and ringleader in the Swamp, was the only character to appear in every episode of the series. Alan Alda not only played Hawkeye, but also eventually began writing, directing, and producing the series. He is also the only person associated with the show to win an Emmy for acting, writing, and directing. While he is synonymous with his "M*A*S*H" role, he has managed to have a full career well beyond the tent flaps of the 4077th. After "M*A*S*H," Alda was involved in a string of movies, both in front of and behind the camera, including "Sweet Liberty" in 1986, Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" in 1989, "Flirting With Disaster" in 1996, and "Murder at 1600" in 1997. But it wasn't until his turn as Senator Owen Brewster in Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator" in 2004 that he finally got an Oscar nod. In 1999, Alda returned to his roots as a TV doctor on "ER" as Dr. Gabriel Lawrence. On the sixth season of "The West Wing," he made his first appearance as U.S. senator and presidential candidate Arnold Vinick. He won an Emmy for the role in 2006. More recently, Alda made several appearances on "30 Rock" playing Jack Donaghy's father, earning another Emmy nod, and Dr. Atticus Sherman on "The Big C." He also appeared in the 2011 film "Tower Heist" and the 2012 movie "Wanderlust."





Loretta Swit (Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan)
Loretta Swit (Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan) On "M*A*S*H," Loretta Swit played head nurse and chief stick-in-the-mud Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan and won two Emmy Awards for the role. Although she stayed with the series for all 11 seasons, she tried to exit in 1981 to take the part of Chris Cagney on "Cagney & Lacey." When producers held her to her contract, she stayed at the 4077th and left Lacey to find another partner.  After "M*A*S*H" ended, Swit appeared in numerous TV movies, including "The Execution," in which she played a concentration camp survivor plotting to murder her Nazi oppressor. She also appeared on the TV series "Diagnosis Murder," "Murder, She Wrote," "Love Boat," and "Burke's Law." She became a staple of the game show circuit, appearing on "Win, Lose or Draw," "Password," and "Hollywood Squares." In addition, Swit narrated several documentaries, including the 1987 film "Korea: The Forgotten War," which took her to "M*A*S*H's" location, and the '90s Discovery show "Those Incredible Animals."  Swit moved away from TV and film, but has continued her stage career in "The Vagina Monologues," "Mame," and more recently "Amorous Crossing" at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Florida. She also performed in "Love, Loss and What I Wore" in New York in 2011. Currently she can be seen performing as Eleanor Roosevelt in a one-woman show called "Eleanor: Her Secret Journe



Gary Burghoff (Corporal Walter Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly)  Gary Burghoff is the only actor who appeared in both the "M*A*S*H" film and the TV series. He played Radar, who earned his nickname due to his uncanny ability to hear incoming choppers before anyone else and his knack for appearing before being summoned. Burghoff's portrayal of Radar earned him seven Emmy nods and one win in 1977. He began limiting his appearances four years into the show's run, and by the end of Season 7, he decided to leave for good. His sendoff happened in a two-part episode called "Good Bye, Radar" at the start of Season 8.  After leaving "M*A*S*H," Burghoff appeared on a few episodes of the spinoff "After MASH" and even attempted his own follow-up "W*A*L*T*E*R," but the pilot was not picked up. He had appearances on "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," and a few TV movies, including "The Man in the Santa Claus Suit" and "Casino."  By the mid-1990s, he had stopped performing on camera but continued to have an artistic career both onstage and as a wildlife painter. Burghoff also became an inventor in the late '80s and early '90s, creating an advancedfishing pole, a toilet seat lifting handle, andChum Magic, a device for attracting fish to a boat.  Burghoff gave acting another shot in the 2010 Christian film "Daniel's Lot" playing Pastor Mahoney. A few years earlier, he contributed to a book called "How Do You Know He's Real? Celebrity Reflections on Christ."



Wayne Rogers (Captain John "Trapper John" McIntyre) Trapper John was Hawkeye's adorable and fun-loving sidekick on the first three seasons of "M*A*S*H." After reportedly tiring of playing second fiddle, Wayne Rogers left the show and moved on to other TV series, such as "City of Angels," "House Calls," and "Murder, She Wrote."  Rogers also made a few movies in the '80s and '90s, including "The Gig," "The Killing Time," and "Ghosts of Mississippi," but he increasingly relied on his business skills as he moved away from working as an actor. He excelled in various business ventures, including a restaurant, a production company, a string of convenience stores, and even a financial institution called Plaza Bank of Commerce.  When he bought the failing Kleinfeld Bridal in New York City, he turned it around and made the business the center of TLC's series "Say Yes to the Dress." Rogers also owns a financial strategy firm, Wayne Rogers & Co. His interests and expertise in the investing world led him to become a regular contributor to the Fox Business Network and a panelist on its news show "Cashin' In," hosted by Cheryl Casone.  In 2011 he wrote a book called "Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success," in which he shares his unorthodox approach to business. In April 2012, he became the spokesperson for Senior Home Loans, a reverse mortgage lender.less 


Born September 23, 1959 (age 52)
Anaheim, CaliforniaUSA
Nationality United States
Ethnicity Chinese
Education Bachelor of Journalism
Alma mater Marywood School
University of Southern California
Pomona College
Occupation Actress
Years active 1972–present
Spouse Simon Templeman
  • Photo Details

  • Caption: 

A 45-year-old woman of Chinese ancestry is outdoors in an urban setting wearing a floral dress and looking at the photographer


Rosalind Chao (play /ˈrɒzəlɪnd ˈ/; born September 23, 1959)is a Chinese American actress. Chao's most prolific roles have been as a star of CBS's AfterMASH portraying South Korean refugee Soon-Lee Klinger for both seasons, and the recurring character Keiko O'Brien with 27 appearances on the syndicated science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation andStar Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Chao is married to voice actor Simon Templeman.

Early Life
Born in Anaheim, California as a first-generation Californian of Chinese descentChao's parents ran a successful Chinese American pancake restaurant, Chao's, across the street fromDisneyland, and employed her there from an early age. After moving from Garden Grove to Villa Park, California, Chao was enrolled at Marywood, an all-girls school where she was the only non-Caucasian student. She graduated from Pomona College in 1978.

Career

Chao's parents were instrumental in her decision to pursue acting;[4] she began at the age of five in a California-based Peking opera traveling company at the instigation of her parents who were already heavily involved, and during the summers they sent her to Taiwan to further develop her acting.[6] She later performed in television commercials and guest starred on TV series in her teenage years. Her first acting role was in the CBS sitcom Here's Lucy, but she was first noticed performing in another CBS sitcom: 1972's short-lived Anna and the King as the eponymous king's (Yul Brynner) eldest daughter.[2]

Dropping out of acting, Chao enrolled in the communications department at the University of Southern California where she earned her degree in journalism.
 However, after spending a year as a radio newswriting intern at the CBS-owned Hollywood radio station KNX,[6] she soon returned to acting.

Re-commitment

Remembering Chao from Anna and the Kingtelevision producer Burt Metcalfe provided her big break with the role of Soon-Lee, a South Korean refugee, in the final episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H.Soon-Lee married longtime starring character Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr) in the series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", the most-watched television episode of all time (as of 2010). Chao continued playing the character in the M*A*S*H sequel: 1983's AfterMASH, her first role billed at co-starring status.

Post-M*A*S*H

Chao regularly portrayed the Japanese exo-botanist Keiko O'Brien (née Ishikawa) on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) with eight appearances in the former and 19 in the latter before DS9's end in 1999. In 2010, a preliminary casting memo forThe Next Generation from 1987 was published, revealing that Chao was originally considered for the part of Enterprise security chief Tasha Yar.

Performance credits

Television

Film

Theatre

References


References

  1. ^ Rosalind Chao (2007) (AOL Video). Nanking: 'Nanking - Unscripted'New York CityUnited StatesMoviefone. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  2. a b c d e f g h i j k "Rosalind Chao Biography"Yahoo! MoviesYahoo! Inc. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
  3. ^ "Rosalind Chao Biography"The New York TimesArthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  4. a b c d e f "Rosalind Chao Biography"Fandango. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
  5. a b Rosalind Chao (2007-02-04) (YouTube). Sundance Film Festival '07 - Nanking PartyGilbert, ArizonaUnited States: Greening Productions. Event occurs at 00:00:50. Retrieved 2008-06-02. "Well, most people ... don't feel bad. I grew up with Chinese parents, and I learned nothing about it [...]. Nothing."
  6. a b c Hodgins, Paul (2008-02-01). "A career made from scratch"The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CaliforniaUnited StatesTerry Horne). Retrieved 2008-02-02. "Former Star Trek actress Rosalind Chao talks about her latest work with playwright Neil LaBute."
  7. ^ Pomona College Alumni Directory 2000, p. 40.[verification needed]
  1. ^ "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen". M*A*S*H. episode 16. season 11. 1983-02-28. CBS.
  2. ^ RJ. "AfterMASH: Main Article" (embedded video). M*A*S*H, Finest Kind. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
  3. a b c "Keiko O'Brien" (Wiki). Memory AlphaWikia. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
  4. ^ "T'Bonz" (2010-08-26). "Star Trek: The Next Generation Casting Memo Unearthed". Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  5. a b c d e f g h i j k l "Rosalind Chao - Ovreview - MSN Movies"MSN MoviesMSN. Retrieved 2010-02-15.
  6. a b c d e "Rosalind Chao Filmography"Fandango.comFandango. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
  7. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Rosalind Chao"The New York TimesArthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
  8. a b c "Rosalind Chao Filmography"Yahoo! MoviesYahoo! Inc.. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
  9. ^ "US-China Institute :: calendar :: the rising tide" (in American English). Los Angeles, California, USA: USC US-China Institute. Archived from the original on 2011-04-03. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
  10. ^ BWW News Desk (2008-01-15). "LaBute's 'Some Girl(s)' Opens Feb.6 at Geffen Playhouse". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
External Links



Mike Farrell (Captain B.J. Hunnicutt) 
Mike Farrell joined the cast of "M*A*S*H" in Season 4. When Wayne Rogers left the show, Farrell was cast to play Hawkeye's new sidekick, B.J. Hunnicutt. He stayed through the end of the series. In the finale, B.J. avoided saying goodbye to his pal by spelling out the word in white rocks so that Pierce could see it from his helicopter when it took off from the 4077th. 
After "M*A*S*H," Farrell began a successful career as a TV and film producer for productions such as "Memorial Day" and "Patch Adams." He also continued acting through the '90s on "Coach," "Matlock," and "Murder, She Wrote." In 1999, Farrell once again became a series regular on "Providence," playing veterinarian Dr. James Hansen. 

He continued appearing on TV after that show ended with guest spots on "Desperate Housewives," "Law & Order: SVU," "Without a Trace," and "Ghost Whisperer."
Farrell has also spent a great deal of his time since "M*A*S*H" pursuing his off-camera passion -- political 
activism. He is currently president of Death Penalty Focus, a group committed to abolishing capital punishment. Farrell is also the co-chair of the California Committee of the Human Rights Watch Council and has won numerous awards for his humanitarian efforts. In 2007 he wrote a bookcalled "Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist." He often contributes articles to the Los Angeles Times and is a contributor to the Huffington Post.



Jamie Farr (Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger) 
Corporal Klinger wasn't introduced to the "M*A*S*H" audience until six episodes into the first season, but he immediately became a fan favorite. Jamie Farr played the cross-dressing, bow-legged soldier trying desperately to get discharged from the Army. Ironically, when it came time for the series finale, Klinger had fallen in love and decided to stay in Korea. 
That was not the last of Klinger for TV fans. In the short-lived 1983 series "After MASH," he and his family moved back to the States and met up with Colonel Potter and Father Mulcahy. The show didn't have the same spark as its predecessor and lasted only halfway into its second season. 
After this disappointment, Farr had some luck on the big screen with "Cannonball Run II" (the follow-up to the popular 1981 film), "Scrooged" (in which he played Jacob Marley to Bill Murray's Ebenezer-like character), and "A Month of Sundays." 



David Ogden Stiers (Major Charles Winchester) 
David Ogden Stiers filled the void created when Larry Linville, who played Frank Burns, left "M*A*S*H." Stiers played Major Winchester, the refined Boston Brahmin who found the conditions at the 4077 beneath him. He stayed with the series until the finale in 1983. 
When "M*A*S*H" ended, Stiers immediately began getting roles in movies and miniseries, including 1985's highly acclaimed "North and South" and its sequel. He went on to play Perry Mason in several TV movies and did some guest spots on "Matlock," "Wings," and "Alf." 
He didn't return to TV as a regular until 1998's "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" and then moved on to "Love & Money" in 1999. He also had a recurring role on "Bull" in 2000. In 2002, he took the role of the Reverend Eugene Purdy on "Stephen King's Dead Zone," which lasted six seasons. 

Stiers has also successfully lent his voice to film projects, most notably in Disney movies. He's brought many of these characters' voices to TV and worked on numerous video games as well. He currently voices Mr. Maellard on the animated series "Regular Show." 
Like his "M*A*S*H" character, Stiers is a classical music fiend, and not just as a fan. He's a 
conductor and currently works with the Newport Symphony Orchestra. In the past, he has worked with more than 50 orchestras in numerous cities.

Kellye Nakahara (Lieutenant Kellye Yamato) 
Nurse Kellye was the likable, sometimes outspoken nurse at the 4077th who befriended both Radar and Charles. Although Kellye Nakahara appeared in more than 160 episodes of the series, her most notable moment was the time her character confronted Hawkeye for chasing all the nurses -- except her. 
"M*A*S*H" was Nakahara's first professional acting gig, and she continued pursuing an acting career when the show ended. She made it to the big screen in films like "Clue" and "Doctor Dolittle," and made appearances on TV shows such as "Hunter" and "Growing Pains." Her most recent TV work was providing the voice of Yak on "The Wild Thornberrys" in 2000. 
These days, she spends most of her time painting watercolors under her married name, Kellye Wallett. She is active in the arts community in Pasadena, California, where she has done exhibitions. Her work has been 

Allan Arbus (Major Sidney Freedman) 
Whenever there was a psychiatric issue that needed attention at the 4077th, Major Freedman would be called to the unit. He was most often seen evaluating Klinger to determine if he was worthy of his desired Section 8. His answer was always no. Allan Arbus appeared on only 12 episodes of "M*A*S*H" but left a lasting impression. 

He also carved out a steady career as a character actor and made numerous guest spots throughout the years on shows like "Cagney & Lacey," "L.A. Law," "Hunter," and "Mad About You." His most recent TV appearances were on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" in 2000 and a recurring role on "Judging Amy" as Judge Fowler. 

Before becoming an actor, Arbus was a shutterbug and had a business with his first wife, famed photographer Diane Arbus. The couple had two children but divorced in 1969. He married his current spouse, Mariclare Costello, in 1977. They have one child.


William Christopher (Father Francis Mulcahy) 

Father Francis Mulcahy made his first appearance at the M*A*S*H 4077th in Episode 3. The role was actually played by George Morgan in the pilot, but he was replaced by the quirkier William Christopher for the series. The actor's naive boxing priest soon became a fan favorite, earning him a promotion from guest actor to series regular. 

When the TV war ended and the staff of the 4077th went home, Christopher moved on to the series "After MASH" with co-stars Harry Morgan, Jamie Farr, and Rosalind Chao. The series lasted only one and a half seasons and was a critical flop. From there the actor continued taking parts on TV shows. But Christopher has not graced the small screen since his 1998 appearance as Chaplain Olsen on "Mad About You." 

The actor also returned to his original love -- the stage. He has starred in "Run for Your Wife," "Rumors," and "Lend Me a Tenor." In 1997, he teamed up with Jamie Farr for a touring production of "The Odd Couple." In the spring of 2012, he played Norman Thayer in "On Golden Pond" at the Cape Fear Regional Theatre in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 

Christopher spent much of his non-acting time raising his autistic son with his wife of 55 years, Barbara. 

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