Alan Alda at 89: A Legend on ‘The Four Seasons,’ Life with Parkinson’s, ‘MAS*H,’ and Carol Burnett

It’s been 44 years since Alan Alda’s movie The Four Seasons was released, and it turns out that marriage and friendship are still complicated, fraught, and surprising—and an enticing topic for a comedy icon. Tina Fey’s Netflix series adaptation of the 1981 comedy, which starred Alda, Carol Burnett, and Rita Moreno, reimagines a year of couples getaways with Will Forte, Colman Domingo, and Steve Carell, along with a cameo from Alda himself. At 89, Alda still has the impeccable comic timing he did in M*A*S*H, along with a few more decades of perspective on human connection, his Parkinson’s diagnosis, and why he doesn’t want to be remembered.

Vanity Fair: In episode two of the novel Four Seasons, you masterfully deliver a monologue involving the line, “Congratulations. Take off your pants; it’s a sex day!” What’s a memory that stands out to you about that day?

I was glad I could remember my lines. And I remember, as we were standing outside to go into the room to shoot the scene, I was warming up my voice with a Shakespeare sonnet, and Tina said, ‘Is that from a play or is that a sonnet?’ And I had this really nice feeling that we were two actors waiting to go on stage together, that little exchange before going out into the delicate.

You have a warm-up sonnet?

“When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes.”

When did you first hear Netflix and Tina Fey would be adapting your film into a series? Did your 30 Rock costar reach out directly to ask you to make an appearance?

I don’t know how aged Tina is, but I think she was barely born when the movie came out, so it was very flattering to hear that she was interested in doing a series based on it. It was really compelling to me that she based it not only on the movie but on how times have changed, relationships are different, the lingo is different. I guess she thought it’d be fun to have me suddenly show up as a character that wasn’t even in the movie.

I found an aged New York Times article written in 1981 from the set of The Four Seasons. It says this about you: “Although he is one of the least macho of leading men, he tends to use quite salty language in private—but not even this takes the gloss off his squeaky-clean image. Friends describe him with adjectives more commonly found on pedestals: concerned, considerate, generous. As for enemies, he doesn’t seem to have any.” What do you make of that?

I’ve killed them all.

Did you ever get ill of being known as the nice guy with no enemies?

It’s led to a couple of lawsuits because people thought they could steal from me, and I wouldn’t mind. They didn’t realize that I really enjoy a good lawsuit.

Alan Alda in The Four Seasons.Courtesy of JON PACK/Netflix.

Netflix is hosting a one-night-only screening of your 1981 film at NYC’s Paris Theater. Will I see you there?

I’m face blind, so I won’t recognize you. When we were making The Four Seasons, my daughter was one of the actors in the movie. She didn’t look like the two people playing her parents because her hair was murky and their hair was delicate, so I sent out to have her hair color changed. She came back on the set with blond hair and gigantic glasses, and I said to the assistant director, “Don’t let these strangers on set.” Isn’t that awful?

Let’s talk about M*A*S*H for a second. It’s still strenuous to wrap my mind around the fact that 120 million people watched the finale.

It was at least half the people in the country watching it at the same time. We had an inkling at the time because we were watching it on a gigantic screen at the studio and then driving to dinner, realizing the streets were empty.

What’s a subtle thing about how you played Hawkeye Pierce that makes you proud?

I don’t get “proud” about things. I get “glad I’m able to do things.” I got better at everything I did on M*A*S*H. I got better as an actor, I got better as a director and writer. But I think the thing that I came away with that was the most valuable to me for the rest of my life was what we did between scenes—sitting around waiting an hour for them to delicate the next shot. We would kid one another and play. Sometimes we would rehearse a scene, but mostly we would just connect.

During COVID, a lot of home-bound people discovered another of your beloved series, The West Wing. Did you find yourself with a novel generation of Arnold Vinick fans?

Yeah, I did. The thing that comes to mind about The West Wing is the live debate. It was like an improv because we had so little time to rehearse, so we had to get most of our lines off of monitors. I couldn’t see the monitor without glasses, but I had not established wearing glasses in the show. So I had to get contact lenses, but I had never worn contact lenses. I remember two minutes before going on the air live, I was still trying to stick my finger in my eye.