It didn’t take long for “M*A*S*H” to show America that it was more than a sitcom. Of course, the earliest episodes and even the movie that spawned the beloved TV series all have serious moments — an inevitability when the “situation” of your situation comedy is the Korean War. But you can point to the exact episode “M*A*S*H” changed for good: Season 1, Episode 17, “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet.” Alan Alda’s performance is at the center of this historic moment of American television, but he’s never been the biggest fan.
“‘Sometimes You Hear the Bullet’ was the first time we had a guy die on the operating table, and the network went nuts,” Alda said in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “I think [series creator] Larry Gelbart feels it was when we started to really realize what we could do, that you could really go all the way with the tragedy of this situation, the horror of this situation, and be funny too.”
Although Alda appreciates how important the episode was, both at the time and in retrospect, he has harsh criticism for his own performance. “There’s a shot of me crying over the guy who’s dead, which I really don’t like, I don’t like my performance in it,” Alda continued. “I was forcing it. I mean I wasn’t as good an actor at that point as I was later.”
Sometimes You Hear the Bullet was just the start of something
These days, it’s rightly seen as one of the biggest TV shows of all time, but “M*A*S*H” was nearly canceled after just one season. Surviving a first year of poor ratings, the series found a much stronger foothold in Season 2, but studio executives had major doubts early on — especially after “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet.”
In the same interview with the Television Academy Foundation, Alan Alda described the uproar the episode caused: “The guy who was in charge of programming said, ‘What is this, a situation tragedy? What are you doing to me here?'” It was a needle-mover, and Alda’s frustration over his supposedly bad scene getting so much airtime in the years since is understandable.
That moment, where Col. Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) comforts Hawkeye (Alda) after he loses a friend on the operating table, is one of the show’s most famous scenes, largely due to Blake’s iconic line: “There’s certain rules about a war,” he told Hawkeye. “Rule number one is that young men die. And rule number two is, doctors can’t change rule number one.”
“Unfortunately, they liked that shot of Hawkeye crying,” Alda told the Television Academy Foundation. “It gets played over and over again, and I would like to say now for posterity that I don’t care for that performance.”
Alan Alda grew into Hawkeye’s more serious acting moments
After gaining more traction over its second and third years, “M*A*S*H” started dipping more and more into the realm of drama, with Alda taking an increasingly creative role behind the scenes as well. Alda has incredible moments that he might see as a sort of acting redemption in later seasons, like in the self-titled episode “Hawkeye,” which sees him stranded with a Korean family, and the famous “M*A*S*H” finale, which features a similar, but more dramatic breakdown from Hawkeye.
While the comedic heights of the show are still iconic, “M*A*S*H” is more remembered today for the dramatic episodes — a trend that started with “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet.” No one spends time talking about moments of overacting, or the flop episodes, or the forgotten “M*A*S*H” spin-offs. Fans remember the moments when the series expanded the definition of what comedy on TV could be.
