Alan Alda, at 90, on polio, Hawkeye and living with Parkinson's
His conversation with Dr. Jon LaPook led a busy Sunday for the program, and a longer web-only cut of the same interview ran well ahead of the usual too.
CBS Sunday MorningStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 566,801 views a day, 44 times a normal first day on this channel (12,796).
Alan Alda on fighting Parkinson's with laughter
"Alan Alda on fighting Parkinson's with laughter" pairs the actor, now 90, with Dr. Jon LaPook, CBS News chief medical correspondent. It became the clear standout of the weekend on CBS Sunday Morning's channel. Fourteen hours after it went up it had passed 400,000 views, on a channel where a new segment usually spends its whole first day in the low tens of thousands.
Alda covers a lot of ground. He talks about a hard childhood, about having polio, and about his mother's schizophrenia. He talks about the decades he has spent helping scientists and health care workers explain themselves more clearly, work that also gave its name to the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. And he talks about living with Parkinson's disease, which, the description says, he refuses to let define him.
The program gave him more room online as well: a longer, web-only cut of the interview also started far ahead of the channel's usual pace. The morning's other strong segment was Matt Gutman's talk with passengers who helped stop the attack in the cockpit of FlyDubai Flight 1073.
The comment section moved even faster than the views. In those first fourteen hours it gathered many times the comments of a usual full first day. Many viewers write about a husband, a wife or a parent living with Parkinson's, and some say they are passing the interview on to them. Others came for Hawkeye Pierce, the M*A*S*H surgeon Alda played for all eleven seasons, and a few say they still watch the reruns every night.
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What viewers say
For me, Hawkeye is my favorite role of his. I was raised on M*A*S*H. He’s a phenomenal actor.
@michelesiger6890See it on YouTubeLove Alan Alda. I still watch Mash reruns every night. The cast feels like family and they always comfort me. Thank you Alan.
@katespear1233See it on YouTubeAlan Alda is a gift. ❤️
@JillKnappSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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- Channel
- CBS Sunday Morning
- Subscribers
- 1,880,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 4,607,900
- Channel views, pace per day
- 399,255 (on a normal day: 517,356)
- Video published
- October 4, 2026
- Video views so far
- 429,123 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 566,801
The numbers
The figures below show how far this interview ran ahead of a typical Sunday Morning upload, in views and in comments.
