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AP M*A*S*H 4077 Thread.

PiazzaFan411 Jun 21 2006 08:35 AM

Post your comments here about the old hit tv show, M*A*S*H*. The unit of the 4077 is still on tv a lot on the Hallmark Channel, around 1 or 2 AM where I live sometimes and during the evening. Post here. Hate or Appreciate? I don't care.

metirish Jun 21 2006 08:38 AM

Can you give us the MASH lineup?, I forget it.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 08:40 AM

Loretta Swit wasn't all that hot.

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 08:49 AM

School is clearly out for Piazza fan. Do you think Hawkeye settled down with any single woman on the homefront, or did he swing 'til his dying days? I get the feeling that his charm had worn off by the end of a Korean war that lasted three times as long as it should have, and without the threat of imminent doom, his act wouldn't play back in his sleepy New England town.

PiazzaFan411 Jun 21 2006 08:50 AM

LOL metirish, this is not the WWE thread. Thats also near the top.

PiazzaFan411 Jun 21 2006 08:51 AM

School is clearly out Edgy, clearly.

sharpie Jun 21 2006 08:53 AM

I thought he was "Hawkeye" because he was from Iowa, not a sleepy New England town. The show didn't do a lot for me though I watched it occasionally when it was first on. I liked the movie.

Johnny Dickshot Jun 21 2006 08:55 AM

20some years ago I useta know all kinds of arcane M*A*S*H trivia, but forgotten most of it. As I see it today, the TV show pretty much jumped the shark as the original cast departed: Frank> Winchester Henry>Potter Trapper>>>>>>>>BJ Plus Hawkeye stopped being a fratty horny alcoholic womanizer and turned into Alan Alda; Klinger stopped being a comic distraction and became a sensitive boob, etc etc. Good show in the early days

PiazzaFan411 Jun 21 2006 08:57 AM

Here's yer actors and actress list for ya, if thats what you mean by lineup. Alan Alda - Cpt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce Wayne Rogers - Cpt. John Francis Xavier "Trapper" McIntyre Loretta Swit - Maj. Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan Gary Burghoff - Cpl. Walter Eugene "Radar" O' Reilly McLean Stevenson - Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake Mike Carroll - Cpt. BJ Hunnicut Jamie Farr - Cpl/Sgt. Maxwell Q. Klinger William Christopher - Father John Patrick Francis Mulcahy David Ogden Stiers - Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III Larry Linville - Maj. Franklin Delano Marion Burns Harry Morgan - Col. Sherman T. Potter

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 09:03 AM

]I thought he was "Hawkeye" because he was from Iowa, not a sleepy New England town. No, no, no, Radar O'Reilly was from Iowa. (On this show, the Irish were from the heartland and the WASPs from New England.) Hawkeye's father was a small-town gentleman doctor from Crabapple Cove, Maine. His real name, Benjamin Franklin Pierce is in part a tribute to US President Franklin Pierce, who hailed from New Hampsha. His nickname reflects his father's appreciation for James Fennimore Cooper, whose adventures were set in the woods of northern New York and New England.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 09:04 AM

I watched throughout its run, but was never a big fan. I do remember that when it went off the air it was generally considered to be one of those rare shows that maintain quality over a long period of time. I think it was still good at the end, but it was a different show. A lot less madcap and more thoughtful. I don't know that I've ever seen a single episode in syndication. It's possible that I haven't watched M*A*S*H since 1983.

Frayed Knot Jun 21 2006 09:07 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 21 2006 09:09 AM

sharpie wrote: I thought he was "Hawkeye" because he was from Iowa, not a sleepy New England town. Crabapple Cove, Maine via Androscoggin College in the both the show and the original book. Not sure if they mentioned his hometown in the movie but it was implied that he was a New Englander. "Hawkeye" was from a character in 'The Last of the Mohicans'. Radar was the one from Iowa (Ottumwa). Agreed that the show jumped the shark in it's later years, although I always thought more to the plunge in writing and attempts to sledge-hammer home their 'War is Bad' message than specifically to the cast changes. Blake & Trapper were gone after season 3 - Burns after about the 5th - and the show certainly had some good years after that. It finally died in season 11 - about 3 years after hurdling hammerheads. By the time Hawkeye & Hot-Lips stopped being antagonists it pretty much suxxed.

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 09:08 AM

10 Schaefer points to anybody who finds the M*A*S*H* thread at the old board.

Frayed Knot Jun 21 2006 09:14 AM

](On this show, the Irish were from the heartland and the WASPs from New England.) Well it was never specifically stated but I'd guess that Burns ("those Catholics!") & Blake (country club membership and all) were Protestants even though from the mid-west (Ft. Wayne, Ind & Bloomington, Illinois). Plus John Francis Xavier McIntyre - Catholic both in name and in the book - was from Boston.

Johnny Dickshot Jun 21 2006 09:16 AM

Mashy hometowns/homestates: Hawkeye -- Crabapple Cove, ME Trapper -- ?? Useta know this ?? (Boston) Henry -- Illinios (Bloomington) Klinger -- Toledo Radar -- Ottumwa, Iowa Frank -- Indiana (Bloomington or Terre Haute?? -- acutally Fort Wayne) Potter -- Hannibal, Mo. Hot Lips -- Army Brat, no hometown Beej -- San Francoisco Nurse Kellye -- Hawaii Spearchucker Jones -- The Jungle (just kidding -- I have no idea, but suffice it to say the latterday Hawkeye would deny ever having lived with a black man named Spearchucker) Rizzo – New Orleans Winchester -- Boston Mulchahy -- Philly edit -- see above!

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 09:20 AM

Very impressive. The only one I would have remembered was Toledo for Klinger. (Didn't he wear a Texas Rangers cap that was supposed to be playing the role of a Mud Hens cap?) Now that I'm reading this thread, Hawkeye and Radar's hometowns are triggering my memory. As for the others, I don't know if I would have even known the hometowns back when I watched the show a quarter century ago.

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 09:24 AM

]Well it was never specifically stated but I'd guess that Burns ("those Catholics!") & Blake (country club membership and all) were Protestants even though from the mid-west (Ft. Wayne, Ind & Bloomington, Illinois). Plus John Francis Xavier McIntyre - Catholic both in name and in the book - was from Boston. Well, I distinguish the Heartland (breadbasket states such as Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska) from the Mid-West (more industrialized states bordering the Great Lakes). Missouri is a part-fish and part-foul. The story of the Irish in Iowa is actually pretty Interesting. Emmetsburg was founded by a bunch of former Irish revolutionaries and named in honor of revolutionary hero Robert Emmet, the Nathan Hale of Ireland.

Willets Point Jun 21 2006 09:25 AM

One of my favorite shows of all time. Used to watch it nightly in syndication so I probably saw every episode at least once. I think the show weathered the cast changes well up until Radar left. After that it got too preachy and serious.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 09:26 AM

Edgy DC wrote: Do you think Hawkeye settled down with any single woman on the homefront, or did he swing 'til his dying days? He ended up running for President on The West Wing. But he lost to Bobby Simone.

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 09:27 AM

Funny how they cut down Frank Burns' character. They couldn't make him a religoius fanatic and they couldn't make him a repressed homosexual, but they had no problem getting a guy named Spearchucker past the CBS suits.

MFS62 Jun 21 2006 09:33 AM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Very impressive. The only one I would have remembered was Toledo for Klinger. (Didn't he wear a Texas Rangers cap that was supposed to be playing the role of a Mud Hens cap?) I always thought that was a Toledo Mud Hens cap. Actor Jamie Farr is a legend around there, he used to show up at their games, and was known as their biggest fan. I loved the different expressions Col. Potter used instead of "bullshit". Later

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 09:41 AM

Harry Morgan shares the distinction with Dennis Franz as a guy who appeard on a long-running show as a guest star, and was later brought back as one of the stars, playing a different (though somewhat similar) character.

Johnny Dickshot Jun 21 2006 09:49 AM

Major Steele: ("Three E's, not all in a row!") He's another character who was edgy at first and summarily turned into a pansy wussbag. His first appearance as Potter ("Stick that horn in your ear!") indicated he'd be a hardass, which is something a show about the army needed, IMO, but instead he became a gentle fatherly type (tho one with a temper).

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 09:51 AM

I'm not sure about that. Dennis Franz was a minor character (I think) on Hill Street Blues, but he was a regular from the beginning on NYPD Blue.

RealityChuck Jun 21 2006 09:54 AM

Edgy DC wrote: Funny how they cut down Frank Burns' character. They couldn't make him a religoius fanatic and they couldn't make him a repressed homosexual, but they had no problem getting a guy named Spearchucker past the CBS suits. Spearchucker was not in the TV show at all. Just the movie. ]Harry Morgan shares the distinction with Dennis Franz as a guy who appeard on a long-running show as a guest star, and was later brought back as one of the stars, playing a different (though somewhat similar) character. I can think of several in the Dr. Who series: Colin Baker and Lalla Ward being the most prominent. There was also Sheryl Lee in Twin Peaks.

RealityChuck Jun 21 2006 09:57 AM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I'm not sure about that. Dennis Franz was a minor character (I think) on Hill Street Blues, but he was a regular from the beginning on NYPD Blue. No, he's right. Franz played Dirty Sal Benedetto in the first season or two of Hill Street. Benedetto was killed off, but Franz came back as Norman Buntz later on in the show's run.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 10:01 AM

Thanks, Chuck. My bad. I was never a Hill Street watcher, and didn't realize that Dennis Franz played two characters. Vincent Gardenia on All in the Family. In a very early episode, he played a neighbor passing around a petition to keep the Jeffersons out of the neighborhood. He later played one half of a couple of swingers (along with Rue McClanahan) who an unknowing Edith befriended and invited over. Finally, he ended up settling in as Frank Lorenzo, the neighbor who liked to cook while his wife Irene (Betty Garrett) liked to fix things. Of course, Frank Lorenzo wasn't nearly as prominent a character as Sherman T. Potter. (I almost typed "Harry" as his first name.)

Johnny Dickshot Jun 21 2006 10:04 AM

RealityChuck wrote: Spearchucker was not in the TV show at all. Just the movie. That's just what Alan Alda wants you to believe. He was, along with Ugly John, in the Swamp for the first handful of episodes only. Then he disappeared, Chuck Cunningham style, never to be heard from again.

MFS62 Jun 21 2006 10:22 AM

Others who turned a guest role into long time starring engagements in the same show: Fonzie on Happy Days. S.Epatha Merkesen(sp?) on Law and Order. Her guest shot was a very moving portrayal of a cleaning woman whose son had been killed. Later

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 10:23 AM

Most of the 4077 disappaered. Initially, they sold you on the idea that they were a unit with 30 or so surgeons, and you were just hanging out with the bad boys. Halfway through the first season, the impression was that the four surgeons you met were the only ones in the 4077. On one episode, the stupid army sends them a lawyer instead of a surgeon to cover while Frank is away, and Hawk and Beej inexplicably give the guy a crash course in surgery, rather than upgrade Margaret. Along with Ugly John and Spearchucker, there was a Korean teenager who was initially supposed to be a regular, I think. Good call on Vincent Gardenia. I don't think he appeared more than once as any of those characters, though. The Odd Couple was great for bringing back guest actors in multiple roles.

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 10:24 AM

Fonzie does not qualify.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 10:28 AM

Henry Winkler didn't play more than one character, though. How about Garret Dillahunt on Deadwood? In the first season, he played the guy who shot Wild Bill Hickok. He returned in season two as Francis Wolcott, a much larger role.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 10:31 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 21 2006 10:32 AM

Gardenia did have multiple appearances as Frank Lorenzo, but he didn't stick around as long as Betty Garrett did. Allan Melvin, best known (to me, anyway) as Archie Bunker's friend Barney Heffner had an earlier appearance on the show as a Polish-American police sergeant who Archie offended. Others might better remember Melvin as Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch or as the voice of Magilla Gorilla. According to IMDB, he's a Person Who Is Still Alive, 84 years young. His last acting credit was voice work for a Scooby Doo show in 1994.

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 10:32 AM

]There was also Sheryl Lee in Twin Peaks. Qualifies, but barely.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 10:37 AM

This guy, Richard Stahl, was in the Odd Couple stable as a frequent role player. IMDB didn't include a photo, but I think he's the droll bald guy who seemed to be on every TV show during the 70's. Also still alive, age 74. Last acting credit 1999. EDIT: Yup, it's him:

RealityChuck Jun 21 2006 10:53 AM

="Edgy DC"] ]There was also Sheryl Lee in Twin Peaks. Qualifies, but barely. My forte: playing on the edges of any category. :) There was an actor in the TV show V who played one of the aliens and was killed off, but came back to play the dead alien's brother. (This is the perfect example of the show's pointeless stupidity: all the aliens wore masks when they pretended to be human. Why did it have to be the dead one's twin?)

MFS62 Jun 21 2006 11:22 AM

="RealityChuck"]There was an actor in the TV show V who played one of the aliens and was killed off, but came back to play the dead alien's brother. (This is the perfect example of the show's pointeless stupidity: all the aliens wore masks when they pretended to be human. Why did it have to be the dead one's twin?) Chuck, there you go again, trying to dazzle us with logic. LOL! Later

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 11:28 AM

As always, we're straying from our assigned thesis. I wonder how many different actors played Joe Rockhead? I remember that an early version of Mr. Slate looked more like Mr. Spacely than like the later, Phil Silvers-looking incarnation.

Vic Sage Jun 21 2006 11:39 AM

When Robert Altman's film version of MASH came out in 1970, the body count in Viet Nam will still being broadcast every night on the evening news. Though it dealt ostensibly with the Korean "conflict", Altman's breakthru movie was very much about the war at hand. Altman's MASH is an unsentimental, gory, brutal, mean and hilarious black comedy about the absurdities of war. Hawkeye and Trapper are "merry pranksters" provoking the military institution and anybody loyal to it. They even have their way with that most militaristic of sports... Football! When translated into a TV show, it was deneutered and made as inoffensive as possible. Hawkeye and Trapper were now naughty, but compassionate. The first few seasons, the show was kept light, and ended up more often silly than funny, but entertaining nonetheless, in an inconsequential sitcom way. At a certain point, the show "jumped the shark" (as LF rightly observed), and became a "dramedy" which took itself entirely too seriously. I think the moment was when both Wayne Rogers and MacLean Stevenson left the show in 1975, after the 3rd season (Stephenson left to do "Hello, Larry"... i hope he fired his agent thereafter). They wrote stephenson off by crashing his helicopter, and Trapper just left without saying goodbye. BJ Hunnicutt and Col.Potter were perfectly nice characters, but their arrival marked the show's move from comedy to dramedy, with all the virtues and vices thereof. Alda started directing a few episodes during that 1975 season, and started writing and directing some episodes each season from 1976 on. So, after that `75 season when Stephenson and Rogers left, it became Alda's show, and he drenched it in earnestness from there on. It got even more heavy-handed when Burns was replaced (he'd been rendered as a cartoon villain from day 1, but was at least amusing) with the insufferable Winchester in 1977. The show It went completely off the rails after Radar left in 1979. The show then limped along like that till 1983, when it was mercifully put down in the most overhyped, overlong, overwrought, self-indulgent, final episode ever made for any tv show ever. If they were going to make this show today, HBO could do it without cutting its balls off.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 21 2006 11:44 AM

That's a great idea, Vic. I'd love to see HBO do M*A*S*H. Classic movies get remade all the time, why not classic TV shows? I guess they do get remade, but as dumb big screen movies. The only TV series I can remember that got remade as a TV series (not counting game shows and the like) is The Odd Couple. Remember the black version with Demond Wilson and Ron Glass?

Iubitul Jun 21 2006 12:14 PM

What Vic said. I loved MASH in the beginning, with Trapper John, and Henry Blake in the cast. I felt it became too preachy afterwards. On a lighter note, one of my favorite recurring characters was Colonel Flagg.

Iubitul Jun 21 2006 12:16 PM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: The only TV series I can remember that got remade as a TV series (not counting game shows and the like) is The Odd Couple. Remember the black version with Demond Wilson and Ron Glass? I try not to.

Frayed Knot Jun 21 2006 12:23 PM

Col. Flagg to Hawkeye (after tending to a Korean ahead of a less badly wounded U.S. soldier): 'Pierce! ... you took a Yellow Red before a White American and that's pretty Pinko' Hawkeye: 'You're even boring in technicolor'

RealityChuck Jun 21 2006 01:02 PM

="Vic Sage"]When Robert Altman's film version of MASH came out in 1970, the body count in Viet Nam will still being broadcast every night on the evening news. Though it dealt ostensibly with the Korean "conflict", Altman's breakthru movie was very much about the war at hand. That's the usual story, but other than the blood in the operating room, Altman's M*A*S*H was no more antiwar than Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates or Andy Griffith's No Time for Sergeants. They were all service comedies about army life in general. MASH was just at the front lines. Its main message wasn't antiwar, but rather, "let the professionals do their thing, even if they break the rules." It was also pretty misogynistic. Hot Lips was very a one-dimensional bimbo, who says nothing even when faced by blatant contempt. Loretta Swit fleshed out the character into a human being in the TV show. On the up side, the movie has much more black (and sexually oriented) humor. Frank Burns is a much better character -- he was dangerous in the movie, but just a buffoon on TV. The TV show also left out Duke Forrest -- Tom Skerrit was great, but completely forgotten by everyone. Most people don't realize he was in it, despite the fact he was one of the leads (his part was larger than Elliot Gould's and he had one of the best lines: "Colonel, fair's fair... if I punch Hawkeye and nail Hot-Lips, can I go home too?"). The early seasons of the TV show were quite good; the show just began to peter out; I'd say it jumped the shark the season Radar left (Burghoff was in four episodes before his goodbye, and they show lost it then). The show was far more antiwar than the movie, however. The one regular I wish they had actually done something with was Loudon Wainwright III, who supposedly was going to be part of the regular cast, but only was in about three episodes (though he did get to sing in one of them). My favorite strange fact about MASH in general is that the two actors who played Henry Blake (on TV and in the film) died within 24 hours of each other.

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 01:09 PM

Allan Melvin qualifies. Good job. Did Norman Lear only know a half dozen actors? "Gardenia's busy? Get me Melvin." "We don't need another actress. Put a wig on Stapleton; she'll be great."

Edgy DC Jun 21 2006 02:47 PM

Wilipedia on Hawkeye: Hawkeye Pierce M*A*S*H character Hawkeye Rank Captain Gender Male Hair color Black Eye color Blue Home city Crabapple Cove, Maine, USA Film portrayer Donald Sutherland Television portrayer Alan Alda First appearance M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce was the lead fictional character of the book M*A*S*H (and sequel books) (by Richard Hooker, the pen name of Dr. H. Richard Hornberger), the film M*A*S*H and television series M*A*S*H. The character was played by Donald Sutherland in the film and Alan Alda on television. About the character Born and raised in Crabapple Cove, Maine, Hawkeye was the son of Dr. Daniel Pierce. He did his medical residency in Boston (where he met Trapper John). He is a drafted US Army surgeon called to serve at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War. Between long, intense sessions of treating critically wounded patients, he makes the best of his life in an isolated Army camp with heavy drinking, carousing, and pulling pranks on the people around him, especially the unpleasantly stiff and callous Major Frank Burns and Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan. Changes in the character Although the Robert Altman film followed Hooker's book somewhat in structure, much of the dialogue was improvised and thus departed even from Ring Lardner, Jr.'s screenplay. The screenplay itself departed from the book in a number of details (e.g. Frank Burns became a major instead of a captain, and was identified with the zealously religious officer that Pierce and bunkmate Trapper John McIntyre got removed from their tent and, subsequently, the camp) but on the whole left the main characters and the mood intact. Perhaps the main difference in the character's development from the book, to the big screen and finally to the small screen comes in Hawkeye's marital status. The Hawkeye of the book is married but faithful whilst in Korea, as far as the reader is concerned. He offers several doctors love advice, "Jeeter" Carol for example, extolling the virtues of extramarital sex but never partaking himself. The film version of Hawkeye is still married but has more leeway with his morals, arguing that he is far from home, no one is ever going to know and it will reduce stress for both involved. Finally, he becomes the womanizing and single Hawkeye of the TV series. Richard Hooker, who wrote the book on which the show (and the film version) was based, noted that Hawkeye was far more liberal in the TV show (in one of the sequel books, Hawkeye in fact makes reference to "kicking the bejesus out of lefties just to stay in shape"). Hawkeye in the television series The television version of Hawkeye proved to be a somewhat different character: While his professional and social life was much the same, he also gradually evolved into a man of conscience trying to maintain some humanity and decency in the insane world into which he has been thrust. Some fans regretted the change in Hawkeye, feeling that he eventually became too self-righteous and sanctimonious for his own good and the good of the show, and profess that Hawkeye worked better as a sardonic goofball. Developed for television by Larry Gelbart, the series departed in some respects radically from the film and book. The character of Duke Forrest was dropped altogether, and Hawkeye became the center of the MASH unit's medical activity as well as the dramatic center of the series itself. In the book and the film, the Chief Surgeon had been "Trapper" John MacIntyre; in the series, Pierce had that honor. In the book and the film, Hawkeye had played football in college (Androscoggin College, based on Hornberger's alma mater Bowdoin College); in the series, Alda's Hawkeye was hardly the football-champ type and even seemed proud of it and reveled in it, while his cohort Wayne Rogers' Trapper looked sturdy enough to have played football. He seemed to resemble Groucho Marx, with his quick wit and 'madcap' antics, sometimes even affecting a Groucho-like schtick. Interestingly, Hawkeye had been married in the book and the film; at the beginning of the series, he was married as well, but references to his marriage were eventually dropped and it was made clear that he was single. Presumably this alteration rendered his romantic dalliances (chiefly with nurses) more morally acceptable in the eyes of Gelbart and the other series officials. (In general, Gelbart tried to make the series less deliberately offensive and more "politically correct" than the film while nevertheless retaining some of its anarchic spirit.) Also, in early episodes, Hawkeye tells his father (Daniel) in a letter to say hello to his mother and sister, but in later episodes, he is an only child and his mother died when he was young. There is also a reference in the episode "Dear Dad", where he wrote a letter to his father, that their home is in Vermont and also in the Season 1 episode "Ceasefire", but all other references, including in the book and film, are to Hawkeye being from Maine. "Hawkeye" The series established that Pierce's nickname of "Hawkeye" was given to him by his father. It comes from the novel The Last of the Mohicans, which Pierce initially claimed was the only book his father ever read to him. In an episode in which Hawkeye believed himself to be in mortal danger due to heavy enemy shelling, he made out a will, and left Colonel Sherman Potter the edition of The Last of the Mohicans that his father had given him. "It was his favorite book," Hawkeye wrote in the will. Note that his real name is the combination of Benjamin Franklin and Franklin Pierce, a Founder and a US President respectively. After the war At the end of the television series, with the truce, Hawkeye was the second to last to leave the dismantled camp with the announced goal of returning to his hometown of Crabapple Cove, Maine, to be a local doctor who has the time to get to know his patients instead of the endless flow of casualties he faced in his term of service. In the book series Hawkeye does indeed return to Maine and begins to recruit his fellow M*A*S*H surgeons to help out at the "Finestkind clinic and Fishmarket", after a period of thoracic training under the watchful eye of "Trapper". Trivia Both the actors who portrayed Hawkeye Pierce had a role as a Republican on a television political drama in the 2000s. Alda plays Arnold Vinick in The West Wing and Sutherland plays Nathan Templeton in Commander in Chief. In the FOX animated series Futurama, the episode War is the H-Word includes an extended parody of M*A*S*H, including a Hawkeye-like medical robot aptly named "iHawk" which had the ability to alternate between jocular and somber moods at the flick of a switch; the switch's moods were "irreverent" and "maudlin".

Frayed Knot Jun 21 2006 08:48 PM

]He did his medical residency in Boston (where he met Trapper John). Both the book and the movie explain it as them knowing each other by sight only via being opponents on the football field. Hawkeye sealed an Androsoggin upset of Trapper's Dartmouth team when he intercepted a Trapper pass. They did not know each other otherwise until Hawkeye's memory is jarred as they toss a football around the camp.

Edgy DC Jun 22 2006 10:19 AM

In WAtFO news, it comes over the wire today that Richard Stahl has died. RiP, Richard Stahl. This thread kills. Yancy, be a dear and don't mention my name for a few days, okay?

Benjamin Grimm Jun 22 2006 11:03 AM

Holy crap! Somebody please check in on Allen Melvin!

Edgy DC Jun 22 2006 12:02 PM

Screw that. Somebody check on Dwight Gooden and Ben Grimm!

Johnny Dickshot Jun 27 2006 04:11 PM

You tell 'em, Ferret Face.

SteveJRogers Jun 29 2006 01:34 PM

Edgy DC wrote: Screw that. Somebody check on Dwight Gooden and Ben Grimm! TECHNICALLY Ben died a couple of years ago. Not sure how many times he's done that though through the years

Edgy DC Jul 22 2006 11:38 PM

An entry on Chuck Cunningham Syndrome sums up the missing members of the 4077. M*A*S*H: Spearchucker Jones was a lead character during the first season as a doctor at the 4077th and the fourth tent mate in the Swamp. Although his character was carried over from the film, he quietly disappeared without explanation during the first season when the producers were made aware that his presence was a factual inaccuracy, as there were no black surgeons in United States Army M*A*S*H units during the Korean War. Despite this, however, there are many instances of black extras wearing doctors' uniforms. Later on in the first season, the anesthesiologist Ugly John Black, who played a rather prominent role in the series, also disappeared. No explanation was ever given for his departure, even though he too was a carry-over from the film. However, the character of B.J. Hunnicutt was scripted to reference Ugly John in a much later episode, but the line was removed from the final cut. BJ was scripted to write a letter to his wife, in which he wrote "It seems like they're all leaving us. Even Ugly John got shipped home." Ginger Bayliss, an African-American nurse played by Odessa Cleveland, was another prominent character in the first season & appeared in the M*A*S*H Christmas Episode. However, she was never seen again in the series.

Benjamin Grimm Jul 23 2006 05:48 AM

Of course, having somebody disappear from a military unit, or any workplace for that matter, isn't all that remarkable. Chuck Cunningham actually disappeared from a family, and nobody even remembered him. (Maybe he took some secret government job, and the family was brainwashed to forget him.) On Bonnie Hunt's most recent TV series she had a daughter evaporate on her between the first and second seasons.

Edgy DC Jul 23 2006 06:27 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jul 23 2006 01:55 PM

What makes it remarkable is the lack of mention. When Ben Jones held out for mofre money on The Dukes of Hazzard, suddenly there was another mechanic besides Cooter helping the Dukes out, named J.B., I think. Cooter came back and J.B. just wasn't there. The real forerunner isn't even Chuck Cunningham, but Mike Douglas (not the great talk show host) who was the oldest of My Three Sons for five years in black and white, until he got married (in the first color episode). Steve adopted a thrid son, Ernie, ten minutes after the wedding, keeping his son total at three. But thereafter he would refer to himself as the father of three sons, as if Mike never existed. I think Bub was assumed to have died, but Mike was memory wiped from the Douglas's household.

KC Jul 23 2006 08:08 AM

I was born in a house with the television always on Guess I grew up too fast *wagnhh* *wagnhh* And I forgot my name

Frayed Knot Jul 23 2006 07:59 PM

btw, I just picked up my old paperback copy of M*A*S*H and re-read most of it (you can knock it off in a few hours) and here's it's original description of Pierce: Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce was 28 y/o, slightly over six feet and slightly stoop-shouldered. He wore glasses and his brown/blond hair needed cutting. ... He was married and the father of two small sons. The movie's also been floating around the movie channels. It doesn't mention a wife or kids there, and, of course, he was famously single in the TV show. His mother is deceased in both the movie and the show - but very much alive in the book. His father is "Big Benji" Pierce (Daniel in the show) and is not a doctor.

Edgy DC Jul 23 2006 08:44 PM

Basically there are three Hawkeyes --- book, movie, and TV show --- without much more in common than being irreverent surgeons from Northern New England stationed in Korea. The book guy was a football player, and his irreverence perhaps was linked with the privileged untouchability of a New England college boy. I doubt that Alda's Hawkeye would have liked him much. I also think Trapper outranked him as a surgeon, both in the unit and stateside.