Alan Alda Discusses His Hawkeye Character's Influence on Pop Culture on October 15th

Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo is better known as the actor “Alan Alda,” but he’s probably best known as “Captain Hawkeye Pierce,” a Korean War army surgeon with a sharp wit in the long-running TV show M*A*S*H*. On the air from 1972 to 1983, the sitcom transformed viewers’ understanding and experience of the Korean War. Its finale was the most widely viewed TV episode in U.S. history with more than 125 million people tuning in. On October 15th, Alda will lead a discussion celebrating and examining M*A*S*H* and Hawkeye, one of the most influential characters in the history of the small screen. Presented by the Museum of the Moving Image and the Comedy Hall of Fame, The Rationalist: Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H will be moderated by Jeff Greenfield, a TV journalist, analyst and historian who appears on CBS, ABC, CNN and PBS. The program will also kick off Iconic Characters of Comedy, a series of discussions with major comedians and their characters. Pairing actors with moderators, the discussions will trace the artists’ experiences, the development of their characters and the icons’ influence on social mores.