HERE’S TO OUR FRIENDS… AND THE STRENGTH TO PUT UP WITH THEM.

When one of them has startling news, three middle-aged couples begin to question their lives over four seasons.

As Alan Alda was approaching the end of M*A*S*H, he made his feature directing debut with this popular and lauded drama-comedy where the war zone consists of relationships between affluent people of a certain age. Inspired by personal experiences, Alda takes a hard look at battles between men and women (and sometimes within yourself) where you can never be sure of the outcome.

Characters may come across as grating, but it’s a good cast, the dialogue is funny and Vivaldi has a natural place in it.

1981-U.S. 107 min. Color. Written and directed by Alan Alda. Cast: Alan Alda (Jack Burroughs), Carol Burnett (Kate Burroughs), Len Cariou (Nick Callan), Rita Moreno (Claudia Zimmer), Jack Weston, Bess Armstrong, Sandy Dennis. 

Trivia: Alda’s daughters Elizabeth and Beatrice play the Burroughs’s and Callan’s daughters. Followed by a TV series, The Four Seasons (1984); remade as another TV series, The Four Seasons (2025- ).

Quote: “How come everyone thinks I’m paranoid? You discuss this behind my back, don’t you?” (Weston)

Last word: “I’m face blind […] When we were making The Four Seasons, my daughter was one of the actors in the movie. She didn’t look like the two people playing her parents because her hair was dark and their hair was light, so I sent out to have her hair color changed. She came back on the set with blond hair and big glasses, and I said to the assistant director, ‘Don’t let these strangers on set.’ Isn’t that awful?” (Alda, Vanity Fair)