Wayne Rogers

You gotta love the feisty attitude of former 'M*A*S*H' stars Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers about Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast being a record-breaker. Alda was gracious about the 'M*A*S*H' finale being topped by the Super Bowl broadcast. The New Orleans Saints victory over the Indianapolis Colts had more total viewers than the 1983 'M*A*S*H' finale. But Alda and Rogers both added a shot of vinegar to their honey coated responses.

Alda said in a statement to the L.A. Times, "If they broke our record, I'm happy for New Orleans and I hope it gives even more to cheer about to a city I love." However, he did wonder about how Nielsen measured the audience. It's a good question and one many people ask.

A lot of M*A*S*H fans were upset when Wayne Rogers left his role of Trapper John on the CBS show. Many thought he wouldn't have the success he had on the show and others just missed the character (he was replaced by Mike Farrell's B.J. Hunnicutt). He went on to many guest roles and a short-lived, 1976 private eye series I liked, City of Angels. But he actually made most of his money over the past 30 years from smart financial investments. So much so that he's now a commentator on the FOX Business Network. His recent guest was his former co-star Alan Alda.

The two talk about several things in the first video, including Alda's new movie (Diminished Capacity), memory loss, Alda's award nominations, and their days on M*A*S*H. In the second video, Alda sticks around for a discussion with an expert on shows that are actually good for you, and two of those shows are shows that Alda starred in (M*A*S*H and The West Wing).

AOL has an interesting slide show over at their TV section, about the cast of M*A*S*H and what they're up to now.

Of course, we know what happened to a few of them. McLean Stevenson and Larry Linville both passed away, and Alan Alda almost became President of the United States. But I wasn't aware that Wayne Rogers wasn't acting much anymore and had made a ton of money in the business world and was on the board of directors of a Fortune 500 company and appears on a FOX business show, Cashin' In.

Adam told you in September that TV Land was going to start airing M*A*S*H, and now comes word that the network will have a week long marathon of just M*A*S*H episodes in January. The marathon will start on New Year's Day and run until January 7.

In addition to the marathon, the TV Land web site will have a trivia game for fans of the show and will also include bios of the cast and other information about the show.

Starting on January 8, the show will go into it's regular time slot. It can be seen Tuesday through Sunday at 10pm, and there will also be another episode at 10:30pm on Monday and Wednesday.

There was a time when I was obsessed with this show and watched it every single day. But then I just stopped watching it, so I'm ready to watch it again and it's great that it will be seen on a regular basis again. There's a new DVD box set of the complete series that looks pretty cool.

[via TV Tattle]

For anyone I owe money to (friends, family, phone company, etc), you might just have to wait several months if they keep releasing these damn complete series DVD sets.

It's not official yet, but TVShowsonDVD is reporting that a box set for M*A*S*H is on its way November 7. The set will include every episode on 36 discs, along with the original Robert Altman-directed film, and two discs of bonus materials including a trivia game and a 30th Anniversary cast reunion. Throw in a special collector's booklet and you have the ultimate Christmas gift for the 4077 fan on your list.

Hopefully one of them is me.