Alan Alda is back in The Four Seasons, if only for a moment. The actor appears in season 2, episode 6, “Little Thanksgiving,” in a quick Zoom cameo that catches him laughing along as the family’s talent show unfolds.
The appearance lands in the middle of a story that rewinds a few years, to the last Thanksgiving the group spent together before Nick died. The holiday falls in a COVID year, after the characters had spent weeks quarantined to avoid illness, and the talent show is broadcast to family and friends, giving Alda’s return a place inside the show’s most intimate scene.
For viewers searching the four seasons cast, the cameo is the clearest new reason to look. Alda is not just a guest star dropped in for nostalgia. He is tied to the series from the start: Netflix’s The Four Seasons is a re-imagining of the 1981 film, Alda serves as a producer, and he was introduced in season 1 as Anne’s father, Don. In season 2, the show brings him back in a way that feels less like a plot point than a salute.
That salute is brief. It is, as one account of the moment put it, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. Alda is shown laughing while Anne performs with her daughter, Lila, and Kate and Jack’s daughter, Beth, and the shot does the job quickly: it reminds viewers that the man who helped shape the original story is still in the room, even if only through a screen.
The brevity matters because it also reflects the limits of Alda’s place in the series. He is closely connected to the show’s history and involved behind the scenes, but he does not have a consistent role on screen. That gap is not accidental; it fits a career that has slowed in recent years as Alda, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015, has appeared less often. The cameo gives him visibility without pretending the series can build around him the way it once might have.
That is what gives the moment its weight. Alda is still best known for playing Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce on MASH, and in The Four Seasons he now stands as both origin point and current producer, a rare combination for any revival. The show’s choice to fold him into a family scene, rather than write him into the center of the season, turns the appearance into a nod to legacy instead of a bid for attention.
What comes next is the more open question. No further appearance by Alda has been confirmed, and the season 2 cameo may be the extent of his visible role for now. That uncertainty is part of the story, too: the series has found a way to honor one of its most important names without promising more than it can deliver.
