Mike Farrell/BJ - rozprávali sme sa nielen o MASH...

First steps to M*A*S*H

Lukáš Lancz:

Were the producers of MASH OK with one of their stars traveling to dangerous places?

Mike Farrell:

I didn’t ask, you know we had wonderful situation on MASH, we worked maybe for 6-7 months of the year and the other 5-6 months we were able free to do whatever we wanted. So, I chose to do things I did and nobody asked me, I didn’t asked anybody if that was ok.

Lukáš Lancz:

Once you declined role in situation comedy called Jerry with simple sentence: Well it’s not a MASH

Mike Farrell:

That is right, back then I was under contract at Universal studios I’ve done TV series for a year with Anthony Quinn, wonderful actor, big star, so I was thrilled to work with him…But it involved being under contract to the studio even if when the show stopped being there, I was under contract, which was source of some discomfort at times. 
You know studio paying you and the wanted you to work. So, they want me to do these some of their shows and some of their shows were just terrible and I didn’t wanted to do them so we had our little series of disagreements. One of them was not particularly a disagreement it was just a flattering thing. In a meantime I’ve seen MASH, it started in 1971 when I was under contract doing the other show and by accident seen episode and I was very impressed with the work they did and very impressed with the fact that the show was in my mind about something, there was a thesis that was very powerful so I’m back at the studio, the series I was doing was over, I did some other work – movie and some things. 

This man contacted me and he said he like to me to do lead in his TV series and I said that is flattering and I would like to read it. So, he gave me the script and it was silly and I just, there is lot of on television just dump, in my estimation not the kind of thing I wanted to spend time on doing so I said No thank you. 
He was very surprised because I’m turning down the lead in TV series and he thought that was quite good thing to offer, which under more circumstances is, but I just didn’t want to be part of that show and I didn’t wanted to say I think your show is dump and I didn’t wanted to say I think it’s corny. So, he said why you don’t want to do it? I said well, it’s not a MASH and what I meant by that was its not about anything.
It is show that has no soul, no heart, nothing about human condition. And then it was funny because year later I’ve got call from my agent about the fact that Wayne Rogers was leaving MASH, might have been leaving MASH and they wanted to know if I can come over and have a meeting to talk about possibility of filling in that character and I said: could I? can I?
I’m under contract here, and he said well no harm in going and talking to them and I will never forget it, you know I had this wonderful meeting with these people who were doing this show that I so admired, I was nervous as a cat, I was scared to death that I would be idiot instead of charming fellow I wanted to be… They were just as warm and friendly and comfortable, generous as they could be. 
I remember the conversation I said one thing I wouldn’t be interested in doing would be to stepping into the boot of Trapper John, playing same character that Wayne Rogers has played, which people had tried to do in the past in other TV shows not very successfully, and I said that didn’t make sense to me and they say no no no, of course we wouldn’t do that, we are in military and in military people transfer away, people get moved, people die – different things happen. 

We would want the character that we are talking about bringing in, if Wayne Rogers leaves and we don’t know if he’s gonna leave or not and we hope he doesn’t, but if he does, we ‘are gonna create new character. All we know about him he is married and he has a child at home and he indents to be faithful to his wife and he’s not gonna be womanizer that Hawkeye and Trapper are and they said how does this feel? And I said: are you kidding? Laughs, you are talking about guy who will be model of fidelity on national television? That would be fabulous…
So, I went away, not knowing if Wayne Rogers was gonna come back or go away and it turned out that he went away and I’ve got very lucky and got the role.

Lukáš Lancz:

When this finally happened and you’ve got chance to be part of MASH, what was your first day? I can imagine people can have some resistance that beloved person/character is leaving, someone new is coming in. What were your feelings and first day on a set? 

Mike Farrell:

It’s a good question, the day I’ve got the call saying I was to be one, because there was screentest involved and other actors have been tested for the role as well and when I’ve got the call that they select me, I was over the moon, I was just insanely happy. That same day, soon as the decision had been made, Alan Alda called me and asked if I would be willing to have dinner with him – I never met him, well I had met him to do the screen test, but I’ve never really knew him so and I was thrilled with that. We had dinner and we sat late into the night talking about the show and the characters and what was possible and what he intended for the show. It was really wonderful and generous thing for him to do and wonderful opportunity for me.
And yet that was, as I recall it was Thursday and I was report to work Monday morning and I started to think about the question that you’ve raised about vow I don’t know any of these people and I don’t know what they feel about Wayne leaving and I don’t know how they will feel about some new guy taking his place. They may just hate me, but you know Alan had been really welcoming so I thought ok here I go and I reported to the studio and went on the stage and went it. 

Gary Burghoff who played Radar walked up and stuck his hand out, shook my hand, welcomed me there and told me how happy he was that I was with them, joining them. Loretta came up and did exactly same thing, Bill Christopher – father Mulcahy, Larry Linville…it was just wonderfully warm welcome in. Of course, producers I had met and some of the writers I’ve not met and I was introduced to everyone. And it was like this happy circumstance and the something I will never forget, we set down around the table to read the script which was a real treat. 
Most of the TV shows in those days didn’t take that time for actor to get to know each other or hear the whole script or any of those things, they went were they told you, said your lines and dismissed. But this was part of this company just sitting down and reading the script and we went through it and you know there were some laughs and some good things that happened and then we got to the end of the script and Gene Reynolds – one of the producer, director of the show said: Ok page 1

And I kind of look at him because we have just read the script and I didn’t know he was talking about and he said: Oh, Mike this is where we go through page by page to see if you folks have any question or any comments or any problems or thoughts about something. Well, I’ve could not believe it, I’ve could not believe that producer, writers were there wanting our opinion about the story and about what are our characters were doing, it was like falling into most happy circumstance you’ve can imagine where people value your opinion and wanna hear from you. In so many instances in those days and to some degree today, actors are taught as a kind of selfish, self-involved, egoistical jerks who should just shut up and said their lines.
These guys wanted to have my opinion and the opinion of every other actors and it never stopped, I mean that first day it just kept getting better. For 8 years I had privilege of working with most dedicated and most talented group of people you’ve can ever imagine being with. It was really a singular experience, there will be never a show like that. 

Lukáš Lancz:

Hawkeye and BJ Hunnicutt were very different people. Why do you think they became such good friends?

Mike Farrell:

 I adore Alan, he is really wonderful man, and he brought all the intelligence he has in a kind of wackiness that comes with living in fear that you are gonna die before you get a chance to go home. All the characters shared, but in Hawkeye, I think it was kind of thumbing his nose at everything – nature, circumstances that brought him there, he drank too much, he chased too many women, but he had this fundamental decency that kept him challenged by the work, kept him insisting he can heal the wounds and he was the ones with the gifts necessary to do that and Hawkeye and BJ recognized that in each other. BJ was giving up his family, his child, the right to raise his child…Hawkeye was giving up another things. Hawkeye was giving up the opportunity to have a life of health giving and saving and helping and preparing…But the knowledge, this is me guessing, because I was not in Alans’s head and we didn’t talked about why BJ and Hawkeye liked each other. It just happened because of Alan and Mike liked each other, loved each other I should say and still do. But the differences in characters in terms of commitment, in terms of kind of go to hell attitude on Hawkeye’s part about everything. Each found attractive in the other I think so they were flips side of the same coin. They both understood and appreciated the decency and the commitment and courage of the other.