Alan Alda Reveals Unexpected Way ‘M*A*S*H’ Role Impacted Fans’ Lives

On May 21, Alda spoke with Joy Behar and Roger Rosenblatt about Rosenblatt’s new book More Rules for Aging, as part of 92NY’s Recanati-Kaplan Talks. He noted that the line “live usefully” stood out the most to him, tying it back to the enduring influence of M*A*S*H*.

“You talk about making a contribution, and it makes you feel good,” Alda said, per People. “It’s not just giving, it’s getting.”

He continued, “One of the ways that I noticed that I must have lived usefully is people, this is really true, people come up to me on the street and they say, ‘After seeing you play a doctor on M*A*S*H, that made me want to become a doctor.’ And they became doctors because not a single one of them says they wanted to become an actor. But it was sort of me.”

During a 2022 interview with The New York Times discussing the show’s 50th anniversary, Alda reflected on why he thinks the audience connected so deeply with M*A*S*H.

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