Did Radar ever consummate a relationship with a member of the opposite sex?
There was an episode from the Wayne Rogers era where a bomb landed in the compound, but it didn’t explode. I remember Radar picking up a blonde nurse, and she led him by the hand into one of the buildings.
Later on, he made reference to his virginity, most notably in the episode where Hawkeye sent him to Seoul (and he was wounded on the way).
So, did Radar ever fulfill himself with a woman?
Well, as the proud owner of the first two seasons of MAS*H on DVD, I can tell you that through those two seasons, the answer is probably no. I’ll tell you more when the other seasons come out…
Zev Steinhardt
Ah, Bach…He was so close once.
That’s highly significant…
Zev Steinhardt
In the episode Springtime (my favorite, btw) from Season 3, Radar “seduces” a nurse (Mary Kay Place) with some seafaring poetry, and returns disheveled to say, “I got slaked”. Alex Karras was also in this episode.
Notice the change in Radars character over those two seasons. In the Pilot and first few episodes he was more impish and likely to be involved in plots to get nurses etc. Suddenly he becomes cute and cuddley then finally a niave boob.
The one thing that bugged me in Season 1 is in the episode “Mosse” Radar helps bilk a soldier out of money by reading the cards as if he was an expert in poker a few episodes later he didn’t know how to play at all.
I think it was a case of the writers trying to figure out what Radar’s character would be like.
I don’t think he was a naive boob at all, he was supposed to be a teenager who got drafted and shipped overseas during the 1950’s for Chrissakes!!! The world was a hell of a lot more innocent back then, relatively speaking.
Radar was thoroughly slaked.
In one of the early episodes of After MASH**, Radar got married and the implication was that he was a virgin on his wedding night.
Wife: So that really was only your second time? When was your first?
Radar: Oh, about fifteen minutes ago.
My SIL: Little bugger’s fast!
In one of the early episodes of After MASH**, Radar got married and the implication was that he was a virgin on his wedding night.
Wife: So that really was only your second time? When was your first?
Radar: Oh, about fifteen minutes ago.
My SIL: Little bugger’s fast!
I actually thought there was a kind of creepy moment with Radar in the original movie. It’s when Margaret and Frank are starting to make out in her tent. In the window in the background Radar is watching, with this kind of odd almost leering look on his face. There was a wierd kind of perversity to his character in the movie, IMHO. Sort of like he’s a peeping tom.
Even in the scene in the series that kingpengvin mentioned (scoping out cards for a scam) he starts watching nurses through the binoculars.
I understand that they probably couldn’t go very far with a voyeuristic character on a TV series, but I think that the degeneration from kind of sly/sneaky to “Gee whiz!” farm boy was not an improvement.
Are you sure that was AfterMASH and not that short-lived spinoff starring Radar, WALTER?
I’m sure you really believe that but the Kinsey Report would show you the only innocence of the 1950s regarding sexuality was the fact it just wasn’t discussed.
Radar was a more realistic teenager when he was leering and hormone driven. But that was not necessary. However what bothered me was as the series progressed he became more child like instead of having the war help him grow up into manhood as he experienced the horrors.
He wasn’t sheltered from the wounded. He lost Henry! Why would he become more gee whiz golly when he should have become more cynical and worldly. Ask any Vet who went to war as a teenager, they’ll tell you they grew up fast because of their experiences.
He was unrealistic because instead of growing as a charcter he became a caracture.
Sam Stone
Radar only thought he had been slaked.
I can’t believe you guys are picking on Radar 
Yeah - the hell with his Iowa nievete!
I think the first few eps were closer to the book - we saw Spearchucker, Painless, etc. Radar was taking Hawkeye’s, Trapper’s, etc money at cards in the book - until Hawkeye distracted him by putting up Henry’s pinup pix behind them.
Yup. Never even heard of WALTE*R.
Well, I have about as much faith in the Kinsey Report as I do in Richard Nixon, which is to say none. It has been well and thoroughly proven that Kinsey’s study was very badly flawed in terms of his research methods.
So, you can believe the Kinsey report, but it’s about as worthwhile as Nixon saying, “I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve gotten.”
[hijack]Ah so no one had sex in the 1950s… interesting.
Oh you mean they only had proper sex. No extra marital, no kink and no touching of unmentionables. Lights out, heterosexual, monogomus, missionary style sex.
Well ok.
That’s right the 1950s were cleaner better times and every time before that was cleaner and purer.
May you please cite something that shows how flawed the report was. [/hijack]
And something that proves your idealism isn’t just as niave as Radar was by the time he left the series?