Hawkeye in the novel and film was married. In the series, he merely pretended to be married in one episode. That was the one in which everyone but Trapper was celebrating due to a rumor that a truce was going to be declared. The nurses Hawkeye was chasing after each asked him what his plans were “for them” (i.e., the nurse and hawkeye in a permanent relationship) after the war. Hawkeye’s tactic to avoid marriage was to respond to the nurse that he was already married and had children.
He was drafted, sent to Korea, and fell in love with a black surgeon. The surgeon was expelled from the U.S. Army and the Cunninghams, shamed by their son’s entrance into a 1950s interracial same-sex affair, never spoke of him again.
I don’t remember that, but in one of the first Dear Dad episodes, he told his dad to give hugs to Mom and Sis.
Another thing, a couple of early Winchester episodes have him acting out of character. I’m thinking of the one where he tries to pull a a con with military banknotes, and the one where he gives the wrong drug to a patient, and almost kills him. In these episodes he acts more like Frank than Charles. I’m wondering if these episodes were originally written for Frank, and then altered to fit Charles.
The latter episode (with Charles giving curare to a patient) was understandable as a mistake anyone could make – I believe they were all overworked / on little sleep at the time. Charles’s problem was that he pompously refused to acknowledge that he made a mistake, nor did he thank the others for saving the patient. Considering Charles’s egocentrism and superiority complex, I find it pretty believable and in character.
The scrip scam was a bit OOC, though Charles does have more than a touch of Shlyock in him at times – see his obnoxious behavior towards B.J. and Hawkeye when he lent them some money, and his unrepentent hording of warm clothing / wine / packages of food in various episodes.
After he left MAS*H Linville was cast as the son-in-law in the short-lived Grandpa Goes to Washington. In the couple of episodes I remember, his character was obviously the antagonist, but Linville was allowed to play it as a mature adult, rather than a whining ninny. Linville was fine – the show itself stunk.
I also remember in one post-MAS*H reunion that Larry Glebert said they would have liked to have Linville continue to play Burns, but the writers didn’t think they could give Burns the total personality makeover the character would need to be a more effective foil to Hawkeye and B.J. So they let Linville walk and brought in the character of Winchester.
It’s impossible to keep a logical and consistent MASH timeline.
The best wat to figure it is that each season, and the pilot episode are set in a different parallell universe. Each one has many similarities, and some differences to other universes. Every season lasts about a year in that particular universe.
So, there were two universes where the marriage lasted maybe a year. In most of the other universes the marriage didn’t happen at all.
I think that was also one of the early Charles episodes, where they hadn’t really “found” his character yet. One of my favorite episodes is the dream episode- Charles’s tap-dancing was the most out-of-character/in-character touch they could have done for him- totally worked as his nightmare.
A Korean space-time fold, probably born of Einstein’s emigration to the U.S. and a secret project for the military.
One of my biggest beefs with MAS*H is the same as the one I have with Little House on the Prairie. Every Korean War vet I’ve ever known (who were admittedly all from Alabama or other no-snow states) remembered well the horrible winters and blizzards. I think these are addressed in about two episodes (rather like Walnut Grove, Minnesota having snow once or twice in the same time [and the Minnesota residents couldn’t deal with said snow]) but most are Californiaesque.
I certainly agree that anyone could make that mistake. Even Hawkeye made medical mistakes on occasion. The thing that didn’t ring true was Charles making excuses. His character, as shown later, was much more compassionate than that.
Also, remember the episode where he made a large **ANONYMOUS **donation to the local orphanage. And kept his donation a secret, even when his friends accused him of selfishness.
Charles was a businessman. He would make money where he saw the opportunity. But he wasn’t greedy or dishonest.
I also remember an episode where Penobscot was in a full body cast and the butt of numerous Hawkeye-directed gags.
Anyone else think that Will Ferrell would make a very good double for Wayne Rogers?
They had more than a few cold-weather episodes IIRC.
Now who might have done that?
Wasn’t that the wedding episode? It was a gag from BJ and Hawkeye and they told them about it after they left for the honeymoon.
My dad told me that Mike Farrell was Will Ferrell’s dad. And that Mike Farrell played Trapper John. I actually passed that tidbit on to my little sister a couple days ago.
I didn’t realize until this thread that it was incorrect in so many ways. (when “Mike Farrell” popped up in the credits, I assumed it was the guy who played Trapper John working behind the scenes).
I guess it should have occurred to me earlier. I need to quit trusting everything my dad says.
Well, exactly how cold do you think it gets at the 20th Century Fox Ranch up near Malibu anyway? 
december?
The scrip exchange wasn’t a con or a scam - it was just a brutally unfair business deal. The army was changing scrip - red for blue. Only military personnel were allowed to exchange it. So all the Koreans holding blue scrip were about to find it worthless. Charles offered to buy it from them with actual US cash at 10 cents on the dollar. He didn’t sell them anything useless, he didn’t mislead anyone - he just took (unfair?) advantage of a business deal.
Of course - Hawkeye and BJ made sure he didn’t make it to camp in time for the exchange, then stole some of the money when he asked them across the MP barrier to exchange it for him, which was pretty much in character for them.
they most certainly did *not * steal the scrip. They reimbursed the soldier who had accused them of stealing, and finding themselves with a surplus (due to the whole Charles thing) gave that money to Father Mulcahy for the orphange
self-correction: they gave Charles’ money to the soldier, then some anonymous soul returned the soldier’s now exchanged scrip, which Hawkeye and BJ then gave to Father Mulcahy
Charles asked them to take the scrip he had but couldn’t exchange and exchange it for him (I don’t remember if he offered them a commission or not). They took the lockbox with all his scrip in it, took out the amount to give to the soldier that accused them of stealing, and gave the box back to Charles. To me, that’s stealing from Charles.
Actually, they paid Charles 10 cents on the dollar. Since this is what Charles paid the Koreans, he ended up with no net loss (or gain) on the day.
Specifically, he gave the orphanage a cache of candy. It was supposed to be anonymous but the head of the orphanage caught him. Charles explained it was a family tradition. Later he found out that the orphan wrangler sold the candy and angrily confronted him, only to be chagrined to find that the candy money went to buy meat and vegetables.
Offering to buy the scrip for ten cents on the dollar seems a little bit greedy.