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I'd like to state for the record that I consider Alan Alda to be a national treasure. I'm going to write a bit about Alda, so I wanted to be up front about my personal feelings.

I should probably also mention that I consider both "National Treasure" movies to be national treasures, too. I've got a bunch of opinions.

I don't need to tell you about Alan Alda. He's been a fixture of American culture for nearly 50 years, since he took on the role of Hawkeye Pierce in "M*A*S*H" in 1972 and kept it for 11 seasons.

When "M*A*S*H" finally went off the air in 1983, Alda was 47 and very much aware t...