# MASH-Hawkeye's marital status **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 13, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638 "2004-08-13T02:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/1 "2004-08-13T02:20:00Z")
Ok, in the movie, Hawkeye was married. In the book, Hawkeye was married. Richard Hooker, the author of the book, who based Hawkeye on himself, was married. But, in the TV series, Hawkeye is single. Does anyone know why they made the change? Was it just that the TV series, while it could show a lecherous Hawkeye, didn’t want to show a lecherous, adulterous Hawkeye? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/2 "2004-08-13T02:27:34Z")
I’d guess that that’s exactly it. I recall one episode in particular where Hawkeye breaks off a romantic exchange because he notices a wedding ring on his girl’s finger. “You’re a married madam, madam!” ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/3 "2004-08-13T02:28:57Z")
They didn’t have any problems with a lecherous, adulterous Frank, Trapper or Henry Blake so I can’t imagine there’d be a problem with showing a lecherous, adulterous Hawkeye. Having him single opens up some storylines that are otherwise foreclosed and any marital storylines can be assigned to one of the other three leads. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/4 "2004-08-13T02:41:12Z")
Hmmm. It never really occurred to me. Thing is, Trapper John McIntyre was married, but in the series, he was portrayed as having his share of liasons with assorted nurses. Frank Burns was married, and liked to play himself as The Upholder of Decency and Morality, but yet spent much of his off-duty time in the sack with Hot Lips Houlihan. But then, neither one of them was what you would really call lecherous. True, Trapper seemed to have no compunctions about seeking extramarital companionship, but it seemed to me to be more a function of being several thousands of miles away from home, and it was apparent from a couple of episodes that he did love his wife and looked forward to returning home to her. It was also implied at least once that he suspected that she was also enjoying male companionship in his absence, but didn’t hold it against her. (I can’t remember which episode it was, a drunken Trapper was hitting on a nurse and when she protested, “but you’re married”, he replied, “That’s alright, so’s my wife”) And Frank Burns was in love with Margaret. What she saw in that sniveling little weasel, I’ll never know. Hawkeye, though, seemed to be on the prowl on an almost constant basis, so it does seem likely that the TV series portrayed him as single because the network didn’t like the idea of a married character actively seeking, on a continual basis, casual liasons with other women. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/5 "2004-08-13T03:49:45Z")
IIRC, Alan Alda required that at least one scene of every episode take place in an operating room before he agreed to take the role. Perhaps Alda also insisted that Hawkeye be single as well. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/6 "2004-08-13T04:06:26Z")
The marital infidelity bothered Mike Farrel when he joined, and he insisted that his character be completely faithful to his wife. Though tempted once, BJ Hunnicut was completely faithful for the entire run of the series, and I believe so was Colonel Potter, though I’m not as sure about him. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/7 "2004-08-13T04:39:11Z")
> [@Number Six](#): > > The marital infidelity bothered Mike Farrel when he joined, and he insisted that his character be completely faithful to his wife. Though tempted once, BJ Hunnicut was completely faithful for the entire run of the series, and I believe so was Colonel Potter, though I’m not as sure about him. IIRC, Potter mentioned being unfaithful to his wife during one of his tours in a prior war, but that it bothered him greatly and he never did it again. Certainly, there was a female character that Potter had a flitatious banter with, but it was more of a close friendship with someone of the opposite sex who’d been through similar experiences, than an actual desire to have an affair. ---
**Author:** ![DrMemory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/8 "2004-08-13T13:43:06Z")
IIRC B.J. did “Fall off the fidelity wagon” as Hawkeye put it in one episode. He had a one-nighter with a nurse who was also very lonely , once again, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/9 "2004-08-13T14:02:44Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > IIRC, Potter mentioned being unfaithful to his wife during one of his tours in a prior war, but that it bothered him greatly and he never did it again. Certainly, there was a female character that Potter had a flitatious banter with, but it was more of a close friendship with someone of the opposite sex who’d been through similar experiences, than an actual desire to have an affair. That was the episode in which Potter found out his son-in-law (stationed in Korea) was having an affair and it was the reason he didn’t kill him. There was a multi-married Gypsy Rose Lee style burlesque queen who had the major hots for Sherman in one episode who also tempted him. Charles once fell in love with a hooker whom he exalted in his mind, but that’s the only romance I can think of his character having. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/10 "2004-08-13T17:29:43Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Charles once fell in love with a hooker whom he exalted in his mind, but that’s the only romance I can think of his character having. Charles also came back from a drunken visit to Tokyo to discover he had married a rather charming Red Cross worker. Hawkeye had never married in the TV series, but he had a “love of his life” – a nurse played by Blythe Danner. As I recall, in the first season Henry was actually cheating on his wife, but in the later seasons he was on, they wrote him more as suffering from middle-age-guy crushes, but not really doing anything. And according to Margaret, “Frank Burns was a lipless wonder.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/11 "2004-08-13T17:52:16Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Charles also came back from a drunken visit to Tokyo to discover he had married a rather charming Red Cross worker. Charles also fell deeply in love with a French woman (red cross? UN? I don’t remember). He was about to propose when she revealed she hadn’t been actually married to the man Charles thought was her (now dead) husband. He was devastated and broke off their affair because he didn’t think his family would be able to accept a woman who had lived with a man outside of marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/12 "2004-08-13T18:03:07Z")
Potter was also tempted by a touring USO actress, which gave Radar fits. Hawkeye had another “love of his life” with a Korean woman who he thought initially was a local “princess” but turned out to be taking care of a number of refugees and family members. Charles never actually married the Red Cross worker in Tokyo. The “priest” was a bartender. Other romantic entanglements on the show off the top of my head included Margaret’s on again-off again fling with a soldier who kept getting promoted and demoted (Sully?), a nurse who had a crush on Father Mulcahy and Henry’s infatuation with a young woman who ended up hitting on Hawkeye. And of course Hawkeye and Margaret knocked boots in one two-part episode. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/13 "2004-08-13T18:04:20Z")
Oh! And the Swedish doctor played by Mariette Hartley was another of Hawkeye’s “love of his lifes.” ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/14 "2004-08-13T19:34:12Z")
Didn’t Klinger get married at the end of the series? Although, I seem to recall that he (in one of the “documentary-style” episodes) mentioned having a girl back home. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/15 "2004-08-13T19:51:57Z")
> [@av8rmike](#): > > Didn’t Klinger get married at the end of the series? Although, I seem to recall that he (in one of the “documentary-style” episodes) mentioned having a girl back home. Klinger got married to his sweetheart back home (Laverne) via telephone and proxy, then got a Dear Max letter at some point and got divorced (I think she fell in love with a friend of his), then he married a Korean woman at the end of the series and stayed in Korea for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/16 "2004-08-13T19:56:13Z")
The name Soon-lee (sp?) comes to mind as Klingers Korean sweetheart. And I’m pretty sure he did get a Dear Max letter, sometime after marrying Laverne via wireless or phone. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/17 "2004-08-13T20:12:35Z")
Klinger also fell for a lieutenant who broke his heart because she was only in it for the laughs. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/18 "2004-08-13T20:42:40Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Other romantic entanglements on the show off the top of my head included Margaret’s on again-off again fling with a soldier who kept getting promoted and demoted (Sully?), I thought ol’ HotLips married that guy and broke it off with Frank. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/19 "2004-08-13T20:56:01Z")
I don’t remember Margaret marrying Sully, but she did marry, Donald Penobscott. This, I believe is what caused Frank to go crazy. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638/20 "2004-08-13T21:30:26Z")
I believe Mike Farrel had in his contract that he must be shown jumping over a shark at least once each episode. 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mash-hawkeyes-marital-status/259638.md?page=2)