Based on the thread title, I thought this was going to be about the sexual escapades of the 4077.
But to answer the op, I’m probably a Hunnicutt. Funny, capable, but more sidekick than star.
Maybe I’m Oliver Harmon Jones. Doesn’t do much and disappears after 6 appearances without explanation.
Or maybe Calvin Spaulding. Pop in a few times to amuse everyone then disappear.
Oh, yes. Loudan Wainwright III.
He was so cool in the 3rd season.
I’m the post-Radar version of Klinger. My driving ambition (to get out of Korea) crushed, I find myself in a position with some actual responsibility and importance which I skillfully but grudgingly perform competently.
I see Sgt. Luther (a.k.a “William”) Rizzo, motor pool grump and future frog leg producer is already taken.
So, dibs on Sgt. Zelmo Zales. Electrician and deal maker. But then again, G.W. Bailey is a much better actor.
(I am perpetually amazed the writers couldn’t keep character names straight, the number and gender of siblings or whether their parents were dead or alive. You keep a notebook of such info, folks.)
In the days before streaming and especially in the days before VHS they didn’t care too much about that. No one expected the audience to rewatch over and over. Who is going to remember a throw away line about a sibling in an episode you watched once 5 years ago?
I’d say I’m a Trapper-John. I stand back a lot and observe but I’m usually in there with the best line when shit goes down. I also tend to leave early.
Aside, we had a dog in day-care named Frank, pet-parents last name: Burns. So I was making MASH jokes half the day to nothing. I finally asked my two twenty-something cow-orkers if they ever heard of the TeeVee show. Nothing. Snake eyes. No clue. I didn’t even bother to ask about the movie.
I’m old.
“Why are you calling that dog Ferret Face?”
Charles is my favorite character, especially when they stopped giving him recycled Frank scripts. (I can’t imagine the lofty Charles Emerson Winchester III wasting his time and effort on a cheap scheme to make money trading in old military scrip for new).
I think he had the best character arc of any of the main cast–he went from an insufferable snob who nobody liked to an insufferable snob who also happened to be a man of integrity, a loyal friend, the possessor of a wicked sense of humor, and the best surgeon at the 4077th.
It crushed me in the finale when he spent all that time training the Chinese musicians to play Mozart, and then they all get killed when a bomb hits their POW truck. Music and his records had always been his refuge from the horrors of the war, and after that he couldn’t even listen to them.
But Frank Burns (the dog) probably does eat worms.
I don’t think Frank Burns was anybody’s favorite character, but Larry Linville was my favorite actor on the show. I wish they gave his character a little more depth.
My theory is that despite his good caring character, BJ was secretly jealous of Trapper. When he raged about his daughter mistaking Radar for him, he admitted to Hawkeye he felt the same about Trapper, even though he never met him. In a later episode, when the others would reminisce about Trapper’s practical jokes, BJ would snidely comment “Oh yes, Good ol’ Trapper. Everybody just thought he was soooo clever,” and then he orchestrated a campwide prank on Hawkeye, just to establish his superiority over his predecessor.
In addition, he was faithful to his wife, unlike Trapper, thereby instituting himself as a moral paragon in comparison. While Hawkeye might occasionally miss his former partner in crime, BJ would throw darts at his picture.
I guess I’m either BJ or Colonel Potter.
BJ because:
That’s me, in a nutshell.
But then, there’s Potter. Certainly competent, and willing to cut through whatever red tape got in the way, but also capable of ignoring piddly-little bureaucratic rules when necessary in order to get the job done. That’s also me.
Plus, he owned a horse. I once did too.
B.J. did cheat on Peg once, in the episode “Hanky Panky.” He was wracked with guilt over it, but it happened.
Potter was such an improvement as a commander over Henry Blake, loveable as Blake may have been. I remember an early episode where Radar tried to slip an unauthorized three-day pass into the raft of paperwork that Potter was signing. That would have worked with Henry, but it didn’t with Potter. Unlike Henry, Potter actually read things before he signed them.
I once played Frank Burns in a high-school production of MASH. Yes, there is a play version of MASH. It has basically the same plot as the movie, but without all the sex scenes. Like in the movie, Frank is made to look insane and discharged early, so I only lasted for a few scenes.
I’m upset that they treated the nurses are mere set dressing (and occasional Hawkeye conquest). Look at their names: Able, Baker and Charlie. I mean, seriously!?
"From Seasons 2-11 there were at least 21 episodes with a character named Nurse Able. They do not necessarily refer to the same person, and these characters were played by at least 11 different actresses. "
I rather admired Dr. Sidney Freedman, the psychiatrist.
Freedman or Major General Bartford “Trim those nose hairs!” Hamilton Steel
Just about every character replacement was an improvement. Scratch that, every replacement was an improvement.
My faulty memory thought that he just fooled around but I guess it was more than that.
For a good chunk of my life I had an embarrassingly significant overlap with Major Frank Burns in personality and behavior.
I like to think I outgrew most of it.