This interview comes from 2021, done by Lukas Lancz (pc.sk)
TV show M*A*S*H 4077th is one of the most famous TV shows ever and even though it's of the air for incredible 37 years! The series has still fans around the world and is finding its way with younger generation as well. M*A*S*H is literally passing from one generation to another generation and claims that it has affected lives of millions around the world are not accidental. Few don't know literally legendary characters like Hawkeye Pierce, Radar, Max Klinger, Margaret Houlihan, Frank Burns, BJ, Trapper, Charles Emerson Winchester, Henry Blake or Col.Potter. But M*A*S*H is not only about these characters but also about supporting characters like Igor, Kellye, Rizzo, Mulcahy and others.
Last episode - Goodbye Farewell and Amen holds the record for the most-watched single-network television broadcasts in US - 105.9 million people, worldwide it was 121.3 million people. It was overtaken only by the Super Bowl. By comparison, the last part of Game of Thrones attracted 19.3 million people to TV and the last part of Big Bang Theory attracted 18 million people.
I got the opportunity to talk with Mike Farrell, who played BJ Hunnicutt in this series. We talked not only about the series itself but also about Mike's activities in various organizations, his book and the films Patch Adams, or Dominick and Eugene ...
Mike didn't lose any of his charm, we talked openly about all the topics and after the interview, which lasted more than an hour, we continued to talk about Mike's other activities. For someone who has been watching MASH for over 20 years, this interview was a dream come true ...
I want to thank Mike for taking the time for this interview and being open to all the questions I had...
Mike Farrell
Michael Joseph Farrell was born on February 6, 1939 in St. Paul, Minnesota. At the age of 2 a move to Hollywood, where his father’s work as a studio carpenter provided young Mike’s first glimpse of the world behind the studio walls, began his fascination with the “movies, one he has never fully lost.
After graduating from Hollywood High and a hitch in the Marines, he worked a number of jobs – including a stint as private investigator – while pursuing a career as an actor, beginning with small parts in films like “The Graduate” and “The Americanization of Emily”.
Stage roles and small parts on TV eventually landed him in the soap “Days of Our Lives”, where he starred as Scott Banning for two years. “Days” was followed by leading roles in two series, “The Interns” and “The Man and The City,” then a four-year contract with Universal Pictures.
Mike is best known for playing Captain B.J. Hunnicutt in the ever popular series M*A*S*H. His eight years with the memorable show allowed the opportunity to both write and direct several episodes, earning him nominations for Director’s Guild and Emmy Awards.
His first production experience outside of “”M*A*S*H was the CBS-TV film “Memorial Day”, in which he starred opposite Shelley Fabares.
On the documentary front, among many others, Farrell co-hosted “Saving the Wildlife” for PBS, hosted “The Best of the National Geographic Specials” and had a great adventure scuba diving with his children, Michael and Erin, among hundreds of sharks in French Polynesia for “The World of Audubon”.
On December 31, 1984 Mike married actress Shelley Fabares (star of ABC-TVs “Coach”)
Together with partner Marvin Minoff he formed ‘Farrell/Minoff productions’. Farrell/Minoff’s first production was “Dominick and Eugene”, a film starring Tom Hulce and Ray Liotta. After making a number of TV movies, one of their more recent productions is “Patch Adams”, starring Robin Williams.
Beyond the film industry, Mike is a very active and outspoken citizen. Promoting human rights and opposing the death penalty are two of his prime concerns, making him a regular lecturer to interested audiences.
In 1996 Mike was presented the Valentine Davies Award by the Writers Guild of America, given to members: “whose contribution to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large have brought dignity and honor to writers everywhere.”
In February 1998 Farrell was appointed to a three-year term on the Commission on Judicial Performance, an 11 member California State Commission that adjudicates complaints against judges in the state.
1998 also brought him NBC-TV”‘s “Providence” playing veterinarian Jim Hansen with cast-mates Melina Kanakaredes, Concetta Tomei, Paula Cale and Seth Peterson.
In 2002 Mike was elected First Vice President of the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles and served three years in that capacity.
In 2004 he received the Donald Wright Award from California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, only the third time in its 28 year history that the award has been presented to a recipient who was neither a lawyer nor a judge.
In his spare time Mike loves to read, spend time with his wife and kids and enjoys cross-country motorcycling. His bike trips have crisscrossed, amongst others, the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Mike Farrell is represented by Innovative Artists.
Mike Farrell with his wife Shelley Fabares / Mike Farrell during activist campaign
Image: Zimbio / Damon D'Amato
Emotions and help to the world
Lukáš Lancz:
Before we start with interview I need to mention your book, “Just Call Me Mike” which is very honest, enjoyable and full of powerful stories so I can recommend it to everyone to read it - not just fans of the MASH.
Lukáš Lancz:
In your book, you openly share that you dealt with emotional issues as a young person, and that you were helped by a Marvin Bass. What advice would you give to young people today who are struggling with their emotions?
Mike Farrell:
That’s difficult you know, people have their own issues to deal with and I think the answer is to deal with them, to be as straightforward and honest and hopeful as you can be. At some level trust your instincts, but sometimes that can be deceptive. Instincts are some dictated by fear, circumstances but I think the most important I thing for people, for me it was and for everybody who’s problems tend to overwhelm them, to understand they have value and that if they trust fundamental instincts they will lead them to a right direction, I think people are basically good. Too many people don’t know they are worthwhile, don’t they have value because they are treated badly or sometime, they’ve got idea they don’t live up to expectations of other. From my own experience I can say that you are good, you are decent, you are worthwhile and you are, as we all are in need of loving, need of attention and need of being respected and once you discover that you deserve those things, you are on right path.
Lukáš Lancz:
Fans of MASH know you as BJ Hunnicutt and in Slovakia as well as Dr.James Hansen. But not everyone knows you how passionate and caring about the world you are. If my list is correct, I’ve counted 9 organizations: Concern America, the Committee on U.S./Central American Relations, Projects for Planetary Peace, Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, Human Rights Watch, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, The Christian Children’s Fund, Death Penalty Focus, and, the Center for International Policy – you are involved in many things that tries to improve injustice in this world. It’s amazing…
Mike Farrell:
They are all branches of same basic concern – death penalty I think is awful, it’s antihuman to practice killing people because they don’t measure up to expectations, and there are some people who behave in very very destructive an inexcusable manner, so they need to have some consequences, but I think we only stoop to their level when we decide to kill them. But the point I was trying to make UNHCR is out there trying to help people who are center way from their home or chased away from their home is some instances and they were struck either by some terrible misfortune, natural misfortune or perhaps the war or terrible rules. So, it’s really all about human rights…
Human right watch is organization I have been involved for many years but it’s all the same, it’s really all about the rights of human being to live in manner which is comfortable and serves them.
Lukáš Lancz:
What was your personal trigger to explore all these options and help people around the world?
Mike Farrell:
If we are speaking about the time when there were elections (1st election in Czechoslovakia) I was invited and I was thrilled to be invited. I was invited because I had been involved in some other things that people who had organized this particular event or to be part of election oversight knew me and they said would you be willing be part of this. I would be thrilled to part of it, I wanted to see how people in that area dealt with first election in many many decades and you know I learn from those experiences and I was able to take that experience and come back here to my country and say people of, at that point it was before you split, it was Czech Republic at that time…people of Slovakia and Czech lands came together, it was for the first time under the boot of Soviet union and I said I was at the first election and people were lined up under 2nd floor of the school down the stairs, out in the street and down the street blocks to vote. Here in America if we are lucky, we get half of the people who can vote, to go out and do it. There are things that people in US takes for granted, that people in your country didn’t and we have a lot to learn as a result of the good things that’ve come our way and we begin to take advantage of rather than cherish the way people in your country did that day and I’m sure they do today.
Lukáš Lancz:
I believe it was in 1980 when you first traveled to Cambodia. What was your mission?
Mike Farrell:
That was correct it was 1979 or 80 and that was result of number of circumstances but when I was doing MASH, there was an episode of the show that dealt with BJ reaction to group of children who were refugees of war. I was contacted by a woman which I knew earlier part of my life, she was now a Doctor of Public Health and she asked if I would take a look at film made by a man who was associated with this organization and it was about children in Asia. I said I would be happy to, I did and I was very impressed with a film and they wanted to know if I could get some exposure for the film and therefor for organization and work they are doing. This is organization from Ireland called Concern and I was able to get it on TV show which was quite popular here. Dinah Shore, an actress had a daytime show and she invited me to come on show and talk about this film and actually interviewed priest who made the movie. This introduced me to this organization Concern and they had an American branch Concern America – they do wonderful work, they provided nurses, the provide nutritionist, they provide doctors they provide whatever is needed for different refugee situation in a world.
And as I’ve got to know them, they then decided they would like to have me be their official spoke person and I said that I would be honored to do that, but I needed to go out to the field, go out what they are doing some of their work to see for myself so that I’m just not saying the words that I’m talking about things I’ve seen and experiences. At that point the most important things or more pressing issue was in Thailand and Cambodian border area where as a result of depredation of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge had just committed terrible terrible terrible crimes against these people and many of them rushed out for the country or tried to and they were stopped and Thai border, so the UN came in and set up a camp or many camps to take care of these people. They were sort of landless – they’ve couldn’t be in their own country and they were not welcomed in new country, so they were stuck on border.
And I went there and saw horrors of circumstances of these people and was able as a result of that to come back to US and talk to people why we should be supporting UN and why we should support in particular UNHCR and that begin through Concern, couple of trips that I took later on to Central America, two to Afrika and for me its mind expending, terrible gratifying to see the good work that some of these people are doing and be able to come back and talk about it because I’m helping in some way. I will say I feel little bit guilty, because I have US passport in my pocket, I can go to these counties strife and usually I can come home without any problem. Sometimes there is little bit of stress into that involved but generally speaking these are adventures and I can experience this.
Lukáš Lancz:
Are you traveling to these countries even nowadays – I mean before COVID year
Mike Farrell:
I haven’t been invited to do any of those trips. Most recently I was asked to go to Samoa in South pacific, this was against death penalty and to talk to government official to sing to the UN declaration about opposed to death penalty, so that was the last international effort I’ve been involved.
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.
Why did M*A*S*H end
Lukáš Lancz:
I need to ask, why did B.J. grow a mustache?
Mike Farrell:
I don’t know why that is so much interest, but I hear that question a lot. Simple fact is that I’ve got a call from Alan before we started one season, the producer’s thing that you and I are too much alike. We are trying to figure out the way create a difference beside fact that BJ was married and Hawkeye is womanizer and all that. And he said how would you feel to grow a mustache? And I said: I do not have any problem growing mustache. Ok so let’s try that, so I grew mustache and we had fun with it. We made jokes about it, we had a thing about com com com, at the end of the one season we shaved off half of it as practical joke. It was a way to try and create distinct difference between two of us and I thought ok why not?
Lukáš Lancz:
In Last episode Goodbye, Farewell and Amen those tears and hugs were about something more than we saw on TV…
Mike Farrell:
Result of our conversation Alan and I had when we were doing particular show near the end of the 10th season of the show, my 7th I said how long do you anticipated doing this? And he said you know I always felt 10 years and it should be over. I said: wouldn’t it be great if we could have an end of the episode when the war is over? – I don’t want to say I came up with all these ideas, we as a group came up with that.
What we said was: television series are canceled periodically for all kinds of reasons and what we don’t want to just go on till some network executive says oh how I had enough of this and turns this off. And we don’t want that after doing 10 years of episodes, 7 for me, the writers were scratching their heads, banging their heads against the wall trying to figure how do we keep doing this and what new something we can come up with, another turn, twist in circumstance to a keep the show alive.
None of us wanted it to become what happens sometimes with show that goes for a very long time is that they become stale, they become sort of copies of themselves. And we don’t want that to happen. We sat down with the rest of the company – other actors and we had long talk about it. There was some disagreement, Harry (Morgan) particularly he said: you will never have another experience like this, why end it now? But we all finally came to an agreement and said we want to tell the studio and the network that we not only don’t want to do the show anymore, but we want and end to the war episode where we get to say goodbye to each other as characters and we got to say goodbye and thank you to the audience.
Alan came up with that genius idea of goodbye in rocks as he pulled away in helicopter. And when we told the studio, I’m sure they had heart failure…they wanted to show to keep going because it was making them lots lots lots of money… One executive came down to the sat and he said look, we can agree to the end of the show if that what you guys want, but there can’t be no end war episode. And we said why not? And he said: do you remember Fugitive, we said yes sure we know …
He said well: at the end of series when David Janssen decided he wanted not to do it anymore, he decided he wanted to have an end of the series where he found one arm man, he proved his innocence and it was over.
We said yeah? He said: it killed the show in syndication (reruns after the show will go off the air) – studios make lot of money selling shows in syndication and it killed to have end of his journey know to them – people didn’t watched episode anymore.
So, he said you can’t have end of the war episode, because in David Janses case (Fugitives) it killed the show in syndication.
We looked at each other and looked at him and I said: it may surprise you to know this, but most people know that Korean war ended. He looked at us and everybody smiled at him and he got up and walked out of the room. They came back no no no, you can’t do half hour episode that ends the war. But if you will come back for abbreviated season – 12 episodes we will let you make 2 hours movie that does what you wanted to. And as you know it turned out to be 2.5-hour movie and the reason they let us do it is because they held it back, they wouldn’t show that for a long time, because they were afraid the audience will stop watching MASH once they knew that war ended and we got to home. It always makes me laugh to think about this poor fool who thought that was gonna be end of the show for them. And as you said when it did air, the audience was, it skyrocketed and our ratings have been very good and sometimes sensational but suddenly they were earth shattering. No TV show has ever duplicated that. I guess the football games, the Super Bowl gets more audience. But who cares.
Lukáš Lancz:
There is even one story and I think it was in NY city the water level at some point went down, because all the people used toilet at the same time…
Mike Farrell:
Alan found that factoid somewhere and he came and told us all about it and we all laughed, all went to restroom at the same time
Laughs
Lukáš Lancz:
MASH speaks for itself, it’s like almost 50 years from when it started and almost 40 years from last episode and we are sitting here speaking about MASH and Im one the young generation who is still in love with this show, saw it so many time that I know the lines by myself. So that’s speak by itself, that you’ve created something special which will never ever be repeated…
Mike Farrell:
I’m not in position to be objective about it because I was part of it. A just can’t imagine, I’ve been in good shows since that time and I produce couple of very good show and we had some fun, but the particular chemistry that resulted in the people together doing this show that was about the war and saving lives if you can and putting yourself in danger... It was set of circumstances and group of people that heaven sent and it will never be repeated.
Lukáš Lancz:
Still, if you should pick some pieces why do you think is still even after 50 years it’s appealing to young generation. Because for us it is something you have never experienced, its something imaginary – Korean war, you never dealt with such a things but still you find something that is attractive for you...
Mike Farrell:
I think its magical ingredient that Gene Reynold and Larry Gelbart and Alan – the creators of the show found and Gene put it into words very well one time when he said – it’s the perfect existential situation – he said, as you suggest, not everybody goes to war, not everybody puts on uniform, not everyone has all of these experience. But everybody understands having to do something that is sacrifice, everybody understands sometimes having to be away from loved ones, everybody understand to be called to sacrifice time, some energy, something in your life…
There were those elements in the show that are universal, everybody identifies – some people identify with characters, some identify with the situation, some people just feel kingship to those folks Hawkeye, BJ, Klinger, father Mulcahy and for some people Radar is the innocent wonderful kind of childlike character that identify with in situation that was overwhelming to him.
Some people thing of father Mulcahy as this sweet good religious decent man who represents everything good about being dedicated to a particular faith. Women goes crazy for Hawkeye. There are elements in the show that appeal on a very individual level to people and sometimes it’s just the show it’s a kind of magic that happened on the show, that people are enhanced by.
Whatever it is, we were embraced by people the world over and continue as you suggested, today new generations – I can tell you I’ve get letter virtually every day, sometimes just simple request for autograph or something. But very often I hear from people who say I watched this show with father, sometimes with my grandfather or my mother or grandmother or whole family and now I’m watching it with my grandchildren. And I think oh my god we transcended generations and people still feel as strongly as they did 40 years ago.
After M*A*S*H
Lukáš Lancz:
It’s amazing that you were/are able to affect people live through the show, they just didn’t have fun, but the show helped them to get through some tough time in their lives, made some decision in their lives and that is amazing…
Mike Farrell:
Yes, it is amazing to know…I will tell you a story: I was in state of Michigan I think some years ago when I was doing the show and I’ve been there to appear for charity event. There was a break in the show and I stepped out of studio and walked down the street, kind of look around and there is man walking towards me and he looked up and he said heeey! He stopped, I stopped, and he looked at me and he said: How the hell are you? Grab his hand and shook his hand and I said: how the hell are you? He suddenly his eyes got big and he stepped back and he said Oh my god, I just realized I don’t know you! Laughs
And I laughed and laughed that’s fine I said I’m flattered its perfectly fine and no problems. He said: god how does it feel to have half relationship formed with million and millions of people? And I said: I will tell you it feels pretty good, thank you. It’s a remarkable experience to have this guy suddenly say hey I know you, how are you?
Lukáš Lancz:
You had a wonderful time working with such talented people like Alan Alda, Harry Morgan, David Ogden Stiers, Loretta Swit, Jamie Farr, Gary Burghoff. Sadly, Mr. Stiers and Mr. Morgan passed away, but the rest of you had a reunion on Alan Alda’s podcast, Clear and Vivid. What was it like to be together again?
Mike Farrell:
People talk about Are you ever gonna have MASH reunion, show and I say no…But we have reunions all the time, we made a practice getting together for dinner. Alan lives in NY, Loretta moved to NY but periodically Alan comes out here and when he does, he always lets us now and we all get together for a dinner or if one of us back in east we always manage get together. But when he comes this way, for the first few years, Harry, Jamie, Bill and David, Larry would join us and the whole bunch get together at the restaurant somewhere and we were laugh and…when we were doing the show, we would work hard, long hours Monday to Friday and then Saturday nights we would all get together for dinner, bring our wives, husbands and special people and sit down and laugh what happen week before.
Lukáš Lancz:
So we can say one big family…
Mike Farrell:
Yes
Lukáš Lancz:
And you are friends to these days and not only with people we just mentioned, but rest of the cast as well, that is something special…
Mike Farrell:
Yeah, you’ve talked to Jeff so you know about that, Kelly Nakahara – nurse Kelly was one of the great human being and she was always part of any gathering we had. The Mini MASH was a very much a part of the family, we would have party in the of the season and everybody would hug and kiss and say well see you in 6 months or whatever. We often saw each other sooner. But it was really a family and it’s been very sad that we lost or the years lost so many, I guess it’s part of the deal in this life. But its particularly hard, I was really close to Harry and David Stiers as well, they were hard loses to take I must say…
Lukáš Lancz:
You wrote 5 episodes of MASH and directed 4. And you also produced movies like Dominick and Eugene and Patch Adams with wonderful actors like Tom Hulce and Robin Williams. Do you have a favorite between acting, writing, directing and producing?
Mike Farrell:
Acting for me is like going on for vacation, it’s like holiday…Directing is tougher because you have lot of responsibility, producing is really about selecting properly appropriate talented group of people and the protecting them. Letting them do what they do. I can’t say there is one I prefer over the others, I love doing them all, you are part of creative process. If your face is on camera, that is one of the creative process but if you are writing something and people are able to get what you wanted to have portrayed, its very exciting to see.
Producing, I’m incredible proud of particularly Dominick and Eugene, I just…it’s a film that resulted from a story which was sent to me by a man when I was doing MASH. He wrote me long letter – he said you were in the marines, I was in the marines and I had this idea that I wanted to see if it might be a movie. So he wrote this very long complicated story about his experience in Marine corps. I wrote him back and I said you know it’s not a movie I don’t think, it may be a book. I urge you to look finding someone to publish it. It isn’t a movie, but you have a nag as writer if you ever come up with another idea I would be happy to see it.
And he probably in 6 months or a year later send me another story which was essentially about Dominick and Eugene – about these two paternal twin brothers, one of them was brain damaged…And I just felt in love with it. After MASH was over, I formed partnership with a friend and we set up Farrell/Minoff productions and we came very close…He said what do you got on your shelf, I’ve got some things on my shelf that I would like you to read and you’ve got some things on shelf I assume that I…I pulled out Dominick and Eugene and he loved it.
We had an idea, at that time I’ve met his Shawn Penn and knew his brother only slightly, but I thought Shawn and his brother could make interesting Dominick and Eugene.
So I contacted Shawn, I’ve told him the story and he was very excited about it, but he said: I don’t want to work with my brother… Which I thought that was funny…
But he said: I’ve got a deal at Ryan Pictures and let’s talk to them. We did and they were very excited, they gave us go ahead to get a script done. Shawn wasn’t happy with the script, Ryan was happy with it. So, then Shawn said he wanted to write itself and we thought oh god you know whats gonna happen, is if we don’t like what he does, I think we might lose him as an actor and he was the kind of connecting device. So we said sure ok, he run of and he wrote it and came back. It was a darker story, not the one I wanted to tell. We said, it doesn’t work for us and he said ok I get, but I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to do your movie. We thought ok we gonna lose it now and we went to studio and they said oh no we love the story, doesn’t matter if Shawn doesnt want to do, we will find somebody else.
So we ultimately were able to find Tom, Ray and Bob Young – wonderful director. I didn’t act in a foot of it, but I was part of the rewrite, part of the process and it was one of the great creative experience as I’ve had in this business. Very sadly studio got into financial troubles, so they cheated us on opening, they really sluffed it, they didn’t give picture the support it needed.
At the same time that year Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise came out with film that had similarities of our story - Rain Man, about a man who was autistic and unusual. That was a big hit because Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise were big stars and ours didn’t get attention it deserved but I’ve always loved the film and actually I was talking in recent months to a fella who came up with the story, because he now thinks that there should a be a sequel to Dominick and Eugene and we are trying to figure out if there is a way to do it that makes sense, but I’m not sure. But it was fabulous experience, but on other hand Patch was not fabulous experience for me as produces because it got into more studio politics and director who didn’t had the ability to make it what it should be and the writer who also didn’t had ability…that was a shame, Robin (Williams) was a genius and he made it come to life but we had a very much deeper story we wanted to tell and they just didn’t had talent to pull it off. Patch who was a dear friend of mine, that’s how I got the rights to do it, he is thrilled. Patch isn’t the film you wanted to make, but it made me worldwide figure know around the world. I’m now invited to do these things he does in Russia, southern hemisphere and all kinds of things all around the world as the results of that movie. So, some good was done.
Lukáš Lancz:
Your book, Just Call Me Mike, is full of powerful and inspirational stories. For me it’s a guide for all of us on how to make this world a better place. Was that your intention?
Mike Farrell:
Well, you are very kind to describe it that way Lukas…I was working at that time, I guess it was just after launch of the war in Iraq… Fellow of name of Robert Greenwald, decided that I’ve should write a book and he had relationship with publisher, I guess he was part of the publishing company. He said: I’ve want you to write book and I’ll publish it. I said I do not know that I’ve story to tell, that people gonna care about. It feels a little self-conscious to me, but he insisted. Well, I said I can certainly talk about things from my point of view and if they mean something to people than ok. I sat down and I wrote a book that was an 800 pages long and I remember getting a call from his partner and he said: Mike, nobody is gonna read 800 page book and nobody writes 800 page book other than Bill Clinton and his book is not selling all that well. So, and what I’ve done, I talk about being in Somalia or Ruanda or being on my motorcycle, I’ve written journals about each of those experience and I’ve included them all in my book. I said here’s what I can do – I can take out the journals and note a website where people can see the journals if they would like. That condenses it to about, I guess it’s over 300 pages anyway. But it will give a taste of each all these things without going into all glory detail. So that is what we settle down. That what we have now.
M*A*S*H 4077th / Mike Farrell
Image: CBS, Wikipedia
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