Larry Petit, who was kind enough to provide an in-depth look at the original broadcast of “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” (read it here if you have not already) has come across an interesting curio about M*A*S*H in syndication: a few promotional spots for something called Alan Alda’s M*A*S*H Festival from 1980, broadcast on WNEW-TV in New York City (now known as WNYW).
Unfortunately, the promos don’t offer a lot of details about Alan Alda’s M*A*S*H Festival. Was it really a collection of episodes hand-picked by Alda or was that just marketing hype? If so, was it a package available for stations across the country or was it an exclusive to WNEW?
Check out Larry’s complete write up at his blog The Northeast Ohio Video Hunter.
It’d be nice if there was some video clips available, but I guess the author isn’t able to do that.
But judging by the screencaps he’s got, I would say it probably was Alan Alda’s favorite episodes, because I see the likes of “Dear Sis” (7×15) and “In Love and War” (6×08), which I know are among his favorites, so I would say yes to the former.
Unfortunately, being a free account, WordPress doesn’t appear to allow me to upload videos.
Big thanks to RJ for passing this along. I’m very curious about this festival, how long it ran, what eps were shown etc., so if anyone has any more info on it, please, pass it along!
I tend to agree with Big Daddy O’Reilly, these are all very Alda-ish episodes, as far as what we know he likes, so I do think all of these were chosen by Alan Alda himself, but I’m more curious as to whether this was unique to WNEW or if the “festival” was shown in other markets. The voiceover tells us specifically that they were chosen for WNEW, but was that just hype, or…?