Although his prolific and extremely successful career evolved from acting on stage to writing, directing, and acting in his own films, Alan Alda will forever be best remembered for his inimitable portrayal of Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the award-winning TV comedy series M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 to 1983. The most popular pre-Seinfeld series in television history, M*A*S*H concerned a Korean War medical unit struggling to maintain their humanity—indeed, their very sanity—throughout the duration of the war, by relying on humor in the form of constant wisecracking and elaborate practical jokes. Featuring humor that was often more black than conventional, the show proved an intriguingly anachronistic hit during the optimistic 1980s. Alda's Pierce was its jaded Everyman; a compassionate surgeon known for his skills with a knife and the razor sharp wit of his tongue...