u/ecdc05

On my latest rewatch I've become fascinated with how this show was filmed. In the images above from season 4, episode 1, there's a rather unconvincing stand-in for Angela Lansbury. (No shade to the production team, they had no way of knowing someday we'd be watching this in hi-def on 65" tvs!) Then we cut to a closer shot and it's very clearly a soundstage. But for the stand in/double, it looks like they really filmed at the Eiffel Tower, which is wild to me. Even a second-unit crew and the logistics must've been quite expensive.

I of course know exteriors were filmed in Mendocino for at least the first half of the show. And they often shot on the Universal backlot—it's always fun spotting the Munster house or the Orca boat from Jaws in the "harbor." But are there other details on how the show was shot? In later seasons was there a lot of on location filming done in New York? Or is it mostly establishing shots then soundstages?

Are there any good sources on how the show was filmed and produced? I've searched this sub and found a couple of similar questions, but unfortunately the top answers have been deleted.

In the post about Gwen Farrell's passing (RIP), I mentioned that she may have appeared in more episodes than any other person on MASH, save Alan Alda. A few people went to IMDb and pointed out that she had a meager 26 appearances to Kellye Nakahara's 170 appearances. I was wrong, but not because IMDb was right.

IMDb typically relies on credited appearances. SAG-AFTRA has specific rules for what counts as a credited appearance since being a credited actor means that actor now earns SAG money—considerably more than extras or background actors. It often involves actually having lines, but not necessarily. Gwen Farrell seems to have shied away from having lines, as did Roy Goldman, who would get horribly nervous.

To see who had more appearances, I went to my M*A*S*H bible, "TV's M*A*S*H: The Ultimate Guidebook." This book lists every credited appearance, as well as non-credited appearance by background actors like Gwen, Dennis Troy, Roy Goldman, etc., who appeared in multiple episodes.

Here's who appeared in the most episodes, either as a credited or uncredited actor:

Kellye Nakahara

Roy Goldman

Dennis Troy

Gwen Farrell

Jeff Maxwell

Gwen was in fewer than I remember. But man, you watch that show and she just seems to pop up all the time. She did have an appearance in at least every season.

Jeff is a little different in that he was typically credited as Igor, especially after season 4, and I think that the producers didn't want him as a random background actor since he became identified with that role. He was also fired at the beginning of season 6 and appeared in only a couple of episodes that season, before returning in season 7. This is why, in Fade Out, Fade In, they dubbed Johnny Haymer's voice in for Jeff's in the Officer's Club. Apparently a producer felt like Jeff's performance was poor and they let him go.

Kellye was known as Kellye but, as she famously said, she showed up every day and would just kind of insert herself into scenes. What's more impressive for Kellye is she didn't appear at all in season 1. Both she and Jeff didn't appear on M*A*S*H until season 2. So, after season 1, Kellye was basically in every single episode of the series, minus just a handful of episodes. Amazing, really—apart from Loretta Swit and Alan, she probably was in more than anyone else, including Jamie Farr and William Christopher, since they were considered recurring characters until season 4 and season 5, respectively.

Dennis and Roy were on M*A*S*H from day one to the final day. Which is amusing since, according to Jeff Maxwell, they couldn't have been more opposite people.

I've rambled on long enough, but I love seeing these five background actors pop up. As the series went on, Kellye and Jeff got established as a particular character, and Roy did a bit as well. It's worth noting that, of these five, Jeff is now the only surviving actor. Hope he's with us for a long, long time sharing M*A*S*H stories.

Edit: No idea why, but the middle part of my post got removed where I'd listed the actors and how many episodes they'd been in. I've added in the actors but don't remember the number each person had. Kellye had over 200, Roy had around 185, Dennis 150 or so, Gwen around 135, and Jeff around 115.

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