Colonel Potter first tells the story about the bottle’s significance to a young Korean refugee being treated at the 4077th (a bit of safe emotional distance for him before he can tell his new friends the significance of the bottle). The TV special showed archival interview footage with Harry Morgan, where he declared the episode his favorite:
“Well the one I liked the best because I got an Emmy from it was a thing we did called ‘Old Soldiers,’ which was about a tontine that I think five of us had made in World War I […] I tell you, one time I started and I couldn’t even get through the scene.”
Colonel Potter’s big speech includes mourning his friends Ryan, Giannelli, Stein, and Gresky, but also a thank-you to the new friends he’s made with the 4077th. “Forgive me, I can’t talk about this and him without a struggle,” said Farrell, choking back tears. “Colonel Potter was this wonderful, decent, thoughtful, talented, intelligent man who had this extraordinary career treating us like comrades, treating us like his equals. The idea was stunning to me, and I think to all of us. We were all wrecked by the end of that scene. Wrecked.”
The episode’s title is a reference to an old barrack ballad quoted by General Douglas MacArthur during his farewell address to Congress after being fired by President Truman for overstepping his role in the Korean War, where he stated, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Fortunately, the “M*A*S*H” episode has yet to fade away and continues to be viewed as one of the greatest episodes in television history.