The M*A*S*H regular you never saw... until now

It’s Friday Question Day, Mousekateers. And remember, if you have questions for my free teleseminar here's where yo go. Thanks.

Cap'n Bob Napier starts us off:

When you and David write you always get top billing. Did you flip a coin for this? How was it decided?

We went in alphabetic order and neither one of us could spell. Actually, I got top billing originally because I called David and said I wanted to write a script and asked if he wanted to write it with me. Once we started actually selling I offered to alternate top billing, either script by script or year by year. David said it was easier this way. His relatives knew where to look for his name and the credit was on screen so briefly there was little time to search.

Anonymous (PLEASE leave a name) asks:

No one is always right and no one is always wrong. Do you have any examples of one of those evil network suits saying, why don't you try x instead of y, and x being the better idea.

CBS in the 90s had a GREAT Director of Comedy Development, Tim Flack. Sadly, he is no longer with us. When David and I did the pilot for BIG WAVE DAVE’S our initial concept was three middle-aged guys chuck it all and open a surf shop in Hawaii. Tim suggested one of them have a wife. It would provide an outside perspective and give the show a better dynamic – kind of like Wendy and the Lost Boys from PETER PAN. He could not have been more right. He also suggested we do a scene in the pilot where they have to convince her to go along with this hare brain scheme. It proved to be the best scene in the show. You can watch the pilot here.

Conversely do you have any examples of a suit saying, I prefer x instead of y, but I'll defer to your judgment and having y absolutely bomb?

On ALMOST PERFECT there was an actor we liked that the network did not. Begrudgingly, they let us have him. On the day of the table reading it was clear they were right. So we replaced him with another actor the network didn’t like. But when they saw the first runthrough they totally fell in love with him.

Today’s world of television pilot casting is very different. Networks make all the key decisions; there’s no such thing as them letting you go with someone they have reservations about. They have complete and final say. You hope they even ask for your opinion.

And finally, from Mike da Canuck:

Recently, we had a discussion at work about the P.A. announcements in M*A*S*H, and someone asked who the character was that made them as it seemed Radar wasn't the guy on the mic. We couldn't seem to find any info online, so I thought maybe you could fill us in?

The person who voiced all the announcements was actor Sal Viscuso. We used him three times on the show, all as different characters. Otherwise, you've seen him in hundreds of shows.

What’s your question?