Alan Alda, who famously starred as Captain Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H, also served as one of the directors and writers for the 11-season series.
During a 2000 interview for the Television Academy Foundation, Alda noted that he had penned the script for Season 5, Episode 8 (“Dear Sigmund”), which focused on psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus) grappling with depression. Alda, who described the episode as “one of [his] favorites,” revealed that one of the executive producers, Gene Reynolds, wasn’t too keen on his idea for “Dear Sigmund.”
“It was a difficult show to get Gene to agree to let me do this idea for the story about the psychiatrist becoming depressed and to get out of his depression, he writes a secret letter to Sigmund Freud, and I mean, in his imagination. Freud is of course dead by this time for several decades,” said Alda, now 90, during the 2000 interview. “Gene said, ‘No, this is a mistake. Don’t do this. Because if you ask an actor to play depressed, it’ll be depressing for the audience.'”
Alda said he pivoted accordingly and made sure that Sidney hid his depressive state in the season 5 episode.
“I took that to heart, and I went even more for what I had a sense I could do. But it really confirmed this for me and made me go more in this direction, which was that the guy is fighting his depression and, on the surface, seems cheerful. But he’s got a lid on it and is trying to hold it down, and that helped make that work,” said Alda.
Alan Alda Discussed His Emmy for Writing an Episode From the Seventh Season of ‘M*A*S*H’
In the Television Academy Foundation interview, Alda referenced that his script for M*A*S*H Season 7, Episode 17 (“Inga”) won him the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series in 1979. He said he was thrilled to be recognized for his writing, as he wasn’t sure if he was being rewarded for his talent when he took home the Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Actor of the Year in Series in 1974.
“To get an award for acting, and you don’t really know how much of it is because you’re cute or because you’re on a popular show. But if you get an award for writing, the chances are much higher, I think, that it’s because you did good work, and work that’s hard to do,” said Alda.
While receiving his 1979 Emmy Award, Alda shared that he had long-time dreams of being a writer.
“It has been many years since I’ve been trying to be good at being a writer, since I was a little kid. I think, as a matter of fact, I wanted to be a writer from the time I was eight years old, and I wanted to be an actor from the time I was nine,” said Alda during his acceptance speech. “So it’s been a very long time. And this really, really pleases me enormously and encourages me enormously. I accept this as encouragement from you, and I will really continue to do my best to get better.”
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