September 21, 2020

Fact-checking Alan Alda.

42 comments:

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

But did Alda retain any knowledge of Constitutional Law from that?

cronus titan said...

I didn't know Alan Alda was still alive. That's nice.

By the way, the law professor was correct. The ERA was and is silly since women already reap the benefits. The ERA would have threatened those. For example, good bye pussy pass.

Jerry said...

Looks at 'Care' meter.

Nope, needle's not even twitching.

Michael K said...

He's always been a lefty. I never saw the TV version of MASH.

Fernandinande said...

So Alda prefers the company of people who apparently know the Constitution but work to subvert it and to limit peoples' freedoms? That's so sweet!

stlcdr said...

There's a lot of brilliant and kind women that Alan Alda would quite happily throw under the bus.

Fandor said...

Alan Alda, demonstrating nothing has changed about actors. Paraphrasing a figure of speech, they are all, empty vessels, filled to the brim with intoxicates, allowing them to boast and pretend they are someone else.

rehajm said...

There's a magazine about Multiple Sclerosis?

Charlie Eklund said...

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this or not, but Amazon is experiencing a run on barf-bags that is quickly threatening to overshadow the run on toilet paper seen earlier this year.

gerry said...

I never saw the TV version of MASH.

After two or three episodes, it was pretty much the same. Alda got really trite really fast.

The worst character was Radar O'Reilly, who evolved from a clever army bureaucracy foil into a namby-pamby go-fer.

n.n said...

The Constitution does not... did not indulge diversity, neither racism, nor sexism, nor other class-based divisions. It does recognize that the sexes are equal in rights, and complementary in Nature implicitly in "our Posterity".

gilbar said...

Alan Alda admits he is a clueless idiot
these "Dog Bites Man" stories are the oldest news out there

Anonymous said...

A name dropping has been actor. Yawn.

Curious George said...

I only like Alan Alda when it's actually Bill Hader doing an impression of him.

PM said...

Whatever he's in, he smarms.

Bunkypotatohead said...

All the people I know who agree with me are brilliant and kind, too.

daskol said...

When are people going to notice that in her entire judicial career, she hired precisely one black clerk? By today's standards, she's a vile racist.

daskol said...

Or will this change things, and now that RBG has passed, the BLM PoC moment will shift and the new grievances of the moment will be feminist?

Swede said...

OMG I forgot about that guy.

His estrogen levels are so high, he'll probably live longer than most men.

Chris N said...

Boomer (S)elf-Regard and righteous political idealism doesn't play well when you hand over an institutional mess.

Just shut the f**k up already!

Scott said...

I really dislike Alan Alda. He ruined MASH. one of the worst of the Hollywood left. Ann empty man.

bobby said...

Think back to your high school theater geeks and college theater majors. When did we decide that they would make good political mentors?

Jim at said...

He's always been a lefty. I never saw the TV version of MASH.

The first three seasons (with Henry and Trapper) were good. The rest? Meh.

rcocean said...

Alan Alda writing for Ms. Magazine. One reason why MASH was so popular with women. Ginsberg wasn't kind to those she disagreed with. Nor is the ACLU. Btw, Alda is 84. All the Hollywood types seem to last forever now days. Dick Van dyke is still going strong.

Scott M said...

Just as long as he doesn't refer to her as "the most beautiful creature".

Gahrie said...

I have never forgiven Alda for what he did to Hawkeye Pierce. Skip the TV series and watch the movie/read the books.

RK said...

In the 70s I wrote a piece for MS. magazine on why men should support the ERA

That's where I publish when I want influence men.

Heartless Aztec said...

Elliot Gould or Alan Alda? It's not even a question. I choose one of the "Pros from Dover"!

Joe Smith said...

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the original Soy Boy.

JackOfClubs said...

So RBG knew more about constitutional law than Alan Alda? That is the faintest praise for a Supreme Court Justice I can imagine.

J Melcher said...

I'll never forgive TV's version of M*A*S*H for what they did to SPEARCHUKKER.

In the late 40's a black man won an Ivy League football scholarship, became famed among his competitors for prowess in both football AND track (javelin) endured racist nicknames, graduated and went to med school, specialized in neurosurgery (brains and spines) and then went (willingly, if drafted, but maybe he volunteered, who knows?) into the US Army. This after being drafted, as well, by the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team.

Dr Captain Oliver Harmon Speakchukker Jones. Erased. Memory holed. Barely appeared in the pilot episode and early first season then seen again. This character direct from the book and movie could have been a great source of comedic tension between the black specialist and "Duke" the southern racist general surgeon. ("Duke" was ALSO cut from the TV shows.)

And TV wants to claim the industry is so progressive and diverse. HA!

J Melcher said...

https://mash.fandom.com/wiki/Oliver_Harmon_%22Spearchucker%22_Jones#The_truth_about_black_surgeons_in_Korean_War_MASH_units

The original novel M*A*S*H by the pseudonymous Richard Hooker was at presented as partially autobiographical. The character of Spearchukker as a near-pro ringer was key to the whole "football" rivalry between Army units. Surely the author knew whether or not blacks, and black doctors, and black surgeons, served in the Korean War.

Larry Gelbart, super-genius of Hollywood, explained they (he) wrote Spearchukker OUT of the stories because " "Extensive research indiated (sic) there were no black surgeons in MASH units in Korea. We were not interested in empty tokenism. "

So, the direct lived experience of the veteran who wrote the story upon which your Hollywood career is founded must be discounted because the producer (and his teenaged research assistants) couldn't find a reference in a history book that matched. "Tokens" -- right out.

And Alan Alda is the public face of this historical travesty.

William said...

I remember some of the rhetoric about ERA and how bad things would be for women if it didn't pass. Well, it didn't pass and things didn't get bad for women. I wonder if Alan Alda has learned any useful lessons from this history.....I wonder if Alda made some of the big bucks that the Seinfeld and Friends crew made. MASH was around forever, but I don't think it's on endless rerun like some of the other long running series. Life is so unfair. Sitcom actors should work to try to lessen the wealth disparity that exists and breeds so much resentment among sitcom actors. There should be a pool where all residual money from sitcoms goes and each actor in a sitcom should share equally from that pool.....This rule should not apply to police procedurals. The residual money from CSI and other such shows should go to George Floyd's widow.

Not Sure said...

In the 70s I wrote a piece for MS. magazine on why men should support the ERA.

This has gotta be the most Alan Alda-ish sentence ever written..

stevew said...

I'm old enough to remember when Alan Alda was the sort of man every woman hoped her man would be.

rcocean said...

MASH the TV show was much better than the movie, which fell apart in the last 30 minutes (who give a fuck about a dull football game). The movie also had Donald Sutherland who was about as funny as a wet rock. Not to mention some racist "gook" talk, and plenty of good ol'boy sexism.
In the movie, Movie Hawkeye and Trapper aren't funny, humane pranksters. They're mean, arrogant, assholes. Lots of teenage boys loved them.

The Vault Dweller said...

That was a nice and kind thing for Alan ALda to tweet out. I'm happy some people are making these nice gestures.

Readering said...

Here's where I come to read insults of Alan Alda.

Tina Trent said...

Ugh. I don't miss the era of Alan Alda in Ms. and Jimmy Carter in Playboy, but I still have shamefully mixed feelings whenever I drive past the courthouse in Lawrenceville where some nut disabled the execrable Larry Flynt.

Innocent times.

Nichevo said...

In the movie, Movie Hawkeye and Trapper aren't funny, humane pranksters. They're mean, arrogant, assholes. Lots of teenage boys loved them.

9/21/20, 6:25 PM


I was a regular watcher of the TV show during as far as I can remember its entire run, to be honest I was a bit young at the beginning but I'm sure I saw most all of it in reruns...

...but looking back, what, 30-40 years later, I don't think the characters have aged so well, certainly not Hawkeye Pierce.

Nichevo said...

Readering said...
Here's where I come to read insults of Alan Alda.


Are you very lonely?

Dave said...

So many angry idiots ITT. So much stupid.