Alan Alda's River Of Liver Dance In M*A*S*H Came Out Of Left Field
"M*A*S*H" took place during the Korean War, but one of the classic show's most memorable conflicts happened not on the battlefield, but in the mess hall. In the show's third season, the episode "Adam's Ribs" served as a comedic jolt to the series, allowing Alan Alda to do some of the most dizzyingly energetic and surprising work of his career — all in pursuit of some ribs.
The plot of "Adam's Ribs" kicks in within the first moments of the episode, when head surgeon and resident goofball Hawkeye (Alda) reaches the front of the line at the mobile hospital's cafeteria tent, only to be told by hapless server Igor (Jeff Maxwell) that he has to choose between chicken and fish. It might seem like a simple decision for viewers, but for Hawkeye, it's emblematic of every demoralizing, mundane moment of life during wartime. "It's inhuman to serve the same food day after day," Hawkeye says, a dangerous gleam in his eye. His voice begins to rise as he laments the cafeteria's limited options, yelling, "I've eaten a river of liver and an ocean of fish!"
The rest of "Adam's Ribs" follows Hawkeye's near-pathological pursuit of a mail-ordered rack of ribs from a restaurant he once visited in Chicago, but it's this initial protest that's most memorable of all. Hawkeye stages a one-man riot, throwing his mashed potatoes at the wall, leaping onto a table, and starting a chant that the rest of the unit soon takes up. "We want something else!" his colleagues chant, pounding the tabletops while he slips into a brief, boneless-looking dance. Like a frustrated animal trapped in a cage, he climbs a pole, bangs a metal tray, and, finally, grabs a piece of bread, taking a single bite and flinging the rest of it into the sky.
'No one else could do that'
The "Adam's Ribs" riot is a moment of memorably gonzo comedy from Alan Alda, proof that he could take Hawkeye's obnoxiousness to great lengths and, thanks to his riveting performance, audiences would follow him there. According to Jeff Maxwell, though, the scene is even more impressive than it looks on the surface: Alda apparently improvised some elements of Hawkeye's tantrum on the spot, including his jump to the table and frenzied, funny dance. "I remember his doing the 'River of Liver' speech, I never expected him to dance on the table," Maxwell shared in an anniversary retrospective from The Hollywood Reporter.
"I asked him afterward if he planned that and he said he hadn't," Maxwell added, noting appreciatively: "No one else could do that." The actor who played the put-upon cafeteria clerk elaborated further on the scene in an episode of "M*A*S*H Matters," a podcast he co-hosts with Ryan Patrick. "Anybody that was interested in improvisational acting, that was a lesson in it," Maxwell recalled. "At one point I asked Alan, 'How did you figure out that little dance you did? Because that looked very complicated.' And he said, 'Honestly, I didn't know I was gonna do it until I did.'"
The episode captures the best of Alda's wildly energetic comedy
While many stories of improvisation refer to something an actor tried on the day and ended up perfecting with several takes, it sounds like this is a true case of the final product capturing a moment of serendipity. According to Jeff Maxwell, the scene was only shot two times — once with Hawkeye throwing his potatoes, and once without. "I'm a big fan of Alan Alda, so watching him go through that and do that was a real pleasure," Maxwell told co-host Ryan Patrick on "M*A*S*H Matters."
While "Adam's Ribs" marks neither the first nor the last "M*A*S*H" moment improvised — and improved upon — by Alda, it's certainly one of the most unforgettable. There's a lack of structure to the scene that feels unusual for the sitcom format; Hawkeye shows up, makes a scene, and the sequence ends with a sense of reckless joy rather than a return to status quo or a quippy, tension-breaking one-liner. "Adam's Ribs" is loud and in your face for a reason, committed to putting viewers squarely in the headspace of someone in miserable conditions who just wants to satisfy one simple craving. As with many "M*A*S*H" episodes, "Adam's Ribs" ends with a dark punchline: Through a series of miracles, Hawkeye gets his ribs, but as soon as he sits down to eat them, he's whisked away to the operating room yet again.