What is it?
Herz, Peggy. TV 74: The Stars – The Shows – The Action. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1973.
Why should M*A*S*H fans care?
This unique children’s book from 1973 profiled 16 different actors on newer shows. The book includes a chapter on Alan Alda, but there is also a chapter about a future M*A*S*H guest star!
As a M*A*S*H fan, what part(s) should I read?
Each chapter provides a biography and interview with a different actor from a different show, so I recommend reading the ones you are interested in! Of course, you won’t want to miss the interviews with Alan Alda and future M*A*S*H guest star, Blythe Danner.
TL;DR Review
Peggy Herz was a well known entertainment writer for the Scholastic classroom magazines division. Being based in Los Angeles, Herz was able to write about the newest shows and their stars. In 1973, when this book was released, M*A*S*H was early in its second season and moving up the ratings charts. The profile of Alan Alda would have been great to introduce kids to the actor behind the popular Hawkeye Pierce.
Full Review
In the 1970s, Peggy Herz was a well known entertainment writer for Scholastic. The children’s book publisher offered magazines that were exclusively distributed through the school market. Herz interviewed poplar actors and featured them in age appropriate classroom magazines, and Scholastic saw an opportunity to create a series of books based on her popular articles for their Book Clubs division. TV 74: The Stars – The Shows – The Action is another in a series of books that featured a collection of interviews with popular actors, and this volume included an interview with M*A*S*H‘s Alan Alda.
In previous reviews, I have noted that these books often included around ten interviews/profiles of actors. However, this volume is earlier in the run having been published in December 1973. It was written as a preview of popular shows in 1974, and there are several notable shows and actors featured including The Waltons, Sally Field, Bob Newhart, Shelly Fabares (the future wife of Mike Farrell), Danny Bonaduce, and future M*A*S*H guest star Blythe Danner. Danner was interviewed for an ABC show called Adam’s Rib, which had nothing to do with the M*A*S*H episode “Adam’s Ribs” (03×11)! The chapter is optimistic about the series, but it only ran for 13 episodes before it was cancelled. Danner later appeared on the M*A*S*H episode “The More I See You” (04×22). As for M*A*S*H, this book features a profile of Alan Alda. Unfortunately, this is the same chapter/interview with Alda that was in the book TV Time ‘74, which I previously reviewed. When this interview was published, M*A*S*H was still new, and Alda offered his take on the future of the series and what made it different from other war show on television.
I was a bit disappointed when I realized the chapter in this book on Alda was the same as the one featured in TV Time ‘74. It is worth noting that this book was published first, so the other book contains the repeated interview chapter. Having previously worked for Scholastic, I am not surprised to see content reused. In fact, most of these interviews were likely repeated from articles that were featured in classroom magazines. Despite the duplication of the chapter on Alda, the two books did feature a different collection of interviews. A child or family may have purchased one book and not the other, or if someone did purchase both books, they got several other interviews that were unique. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a chapter reused in this way. Last month, the chapter on Gary Burghoff in TV People had also been previously used. It was, and still is, common practice for Scholastic to cross promote material across its magazines and Book Clubs divisions since they are both exclusive to the school market. What is impressive is that Scholastic continues to create books like these for the school market today, more than 50 years later!
The M*A*S*H Historian 