Blythe Danner Took A Leap Of Faith To Give M*A*S*H One Of Its Best Episodes
One of television's greatest cads is Army surgeon Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, played by Alan Alda, on the classic sitcom series M*A*S*H. He's almost always hooking up with one nurse or another, but in one special episode, audiences got to see what happened when a woman truly captured his heart. In the season 4 episode "The More I See You," a nurse named Carlye ends up working in the MASH 4077 unit, and Hawkeye recognized her as the only woman (at that point) he had ever loved. She broke his heart and might even explain why he has such a negative view of marriage and even monogamy throughout the series, and their reunion is as chaotic as you might expect.
Carlye is played by actor Blythe Danner in the episode, and she's absolutely fantastic. She manages to feel totally at home in the world of "M*A*S*H" and has great onscreen chemistry with Alda, but apparently, she had to take a real leap of faith to even sign on for the episode at all. In "TV's M*A*S*H: The Ultimate Guide Book" by Ed Solomonson and Mark O'Neill, series creator Larry Gelbart revealed the story behind Danner's casting and the reasons for her initial reluctance.
Hawkeye's broken heart leads to a great M*A*S*H episode
Gelbart said that while writing the script for the episode, the "M*A*S*H" team knew they wanted Blythe Danner and wrote the character with her in mind. There was one little concern, however, as Gelbart explained:
"Only problem was, she didn't do half hour shows and we didn't yet have a script to show her. Gene Reynolds got her on the phone and we both made a very strong pitch to her, promising the part would be worthy of her talent. She took a chance, not seeing a word on paper. She was divine on the show. It's still a personal favorite of mine."
For an actor of Danner's caliber to tackle a half-hour TV comedy in the mid-1970s (back when "TV" was still a dirty word to many entertainers), that's a pretty big leap of faith. The episode needed someone who would be able to really go toe-to-toe with Alda in both charm and wit, and it needed a woman that people would believe was the love of Hawkeye's life. Thankfully, Danner was the perfect fit and the two have incredible chemistry, making it believable when they end up having an affair despite the fact that Caryle is married and Hawkeye generally doesn't mess around with women in relationships.
A woman who can take on Hawkeye
Danner really makes Carlye believable as the love of Hawkeye's life while also being her own woman. She knows that her passion for Hawkeye is something very different than the love she has for her husband, and she ends up putting in for an immediate transfer. Hawkeye's first love will always be his work as a surgeon, and that doesn't leave a lot of room in his heart for a significant other. It's a great episode that gives more depth to Hawkeye and helps explain some of his womanizing and fear of commitment. When he later has a relationship with a Korean woman, he's much more mature about the whole thing, although he still has to learn and grow from that experience, too. "M*A*S*H" was fabulously progressive and managed to sneak some great stuff past the censors, showing human sexuality on TV years before many other shows would even dare.
"M*A*S*H" is one of the greatest television series of all time, and episodes like "The More I See You" really help cement it as both heartfelt and funny. Thank goodness Danner took the leap of faith, giving Hawkeye and all of us a character to really love.