And in the final episode: He showed dedication in his effort to teach the Mozart piece to the Chinese musicians. And he suffered severe anguish when he found out that the truck they were in (going to a POW exchage) was hit by mortar fire. He wept bitterly and said he could never listen to music the same way ever again. To me that is the height of compassion. 
As I recall, he told Father Mulcahey the it was inappropriate to offer dessert to a child who hasn’t had dinner.
Labdad:
Not Father Mulcahy, but the man who ran the orphanage, whom he had been angry at for selling the chocolate.
I like the one where Winchester defends a wounded soldier, who has a speech impediment, from the ridicule of his comrades. Later, he is listening to a taped letter from his sister Honoria, who has a severe stutter.
Our family STILL watches MASH reruns, whenever they are available. It says something when you can watch a show over and over, and have a new appreciation with each viewing.
Our absolute FAVORITE episode is the “hot” one: Winchester is doing his taxes in the mess tent, Hawkeye and BJ operate on a critical patient who must be evac-ed by chopper, Margaret has prickly heat on her butt, and Colonel Potter takes a sleeping pill.
Oh, GAWD…
~VOW
VOW:
And he was an absolute saint. If I were in that situation, I would have so totally lost it at Father Mulcahy’s constant chatter.
MAS*H of course always came up whenever Larry Linville was interviewed, and he stated flat-out that the reason he left (and it was voluntary, he wasn’t let go) was because he thought Frank was a cartoon and it was going to hurt him careerwise. When asked if he regretted it since the show went on for so many more years without him he said, and I think he’s probably right, that if he had stayed on the show it wouldn’t have lasted that many more years because it had no place to go.
It’s a pity that he never got another really big TV role, but from what I’ve read (such as his divorce proceedings in the tabloids:p) he at least made a really good living from episodic guest work and theater. And he seemed to not be bitter and have a really good sense of perspective.
As for Charles, I liked the episode when he fell for one of Rosie’s bar girls, seeing her as a diamond in the rough in spite of all evidence to the contrary (she really was a mean spirited, vapid, mercenary bar girl [I don’t remember if she was actually a prostitute]). It was one of the first times he and Pierce bonded at all, because Pierce was making fun of him until he realizes how hurt Charles was by the realization she was just another ‘make you feel good’ girl, and realized also that the reason Charles saw her as something more was because he needed to see something more.
Charles was sent to the 4077th by a superior officer who owed him money from a gambling debt. One of the first episodes to show he had moral integrity was when that officer came to the 4077th and offered to reassign him to Tokyo if Charles would swear the officer hadn’t assaulted Margaret (which of course he had), and Charles refused.
My nickname in high school was Charles because of this character, incidentally.
The Winchester scene I always think of is from the episode with everybody’s dreams. He saw himself as an apparent wonder worker, visualized as a stage magician; called upon to do something past his power. (Looked at wikipedia to check my memory; it was actually worse than I said. His fears recast himself as someone as useless and ridiculous as a stage magician doing tricks.)
Agree that the story with the chocolate was brilliant.
Other way around. Klinger brought the dinner to Winchester in the swamp, and told him that it’s an “old family tradition” and he must remain “anonymous” - indicating he overheard Winchester’s conversation with the head of the orphanage. Charles turned to him and said “Thank you Max.” and he replied “You’re welcome Charles”.
He ends up tap dancing joylessly while a soldier dies. That was a brilliant episode all around.
Charles having a corny sense of humor was brought up in a couple of episodes; the Three Stooges mentioned above was one, but when the USO troupe comes through their third rate Borscht Belt comic (played by Sid Melton) keeps Charles cracking up. That’s also one of the episodes where he gets his stuffed shirt punctured (the accordion player he riffs on turns out to be a classical pianist), though the episode where he’s outsnobbed by the son of a butler was also good.