I remember the episode pretty well – he goes AWOL while Margret is away in Tokyo with her husband, he gets drunk, then ends his day jumping into the Japanese bath with a General and his wife. His penalty: sent home. And if I recall correctly, no charges.
So what happens to him later: he’s a US veteran of the Korean War, and a Major. But he hadn’t earned enough points for discharge. (I assume, since Hawkeye hadn’t) Will he run into problems in his future, collecting a pension, or receive other penalties? Do any military dopers think he got a few more ribbons after he left, maybe a medal or other rewards? Would the circumstance of his discharge come back to bite him on the ass if he decides to wrap himself in the flag and run for public office in the late 1950’s?
According to wikipedia, he was promoted and posted to a VA hospital. After that, I don’t think we know anything canon, but I could see him getting pushed out of medicine due to incompetence and getting involved in politics during the “red scare” period.
Yeah, he gets posted Stateside and has a relatively good job, something all of them are more qualified for and would have loved compared to their current situation.
The Old Boy network being what it was in that time period, I have no doubt that Frank landed on his feet and went on to a prosperous civilian life. That isn’t to say he, personally, was happy; but he probably found a spot in a hospital or medical partnership where he was shunted into things where he could do a minimum of harm.
The character was from my mom’s hometown, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Since my mom was not a fan and cleared out of town as soon as she could, she was amused that a doofus like Burns was supposed to be from there.
True story: When she was back in Ft. Wayne to care for her dying mother in the late 1980’s, she swears she was walking in the hospital when she heard a page over the loudspeaker “Dr. Burns, Dr. Frank Burns, report to the OR” and it made her stop in her tracks.
For some loose values of canon, we do. Frank Burns ended up as President or Spiritual Leader, or whatever they call it for a group of doctors specializing in Tonsils, Adenoids, and Vas Deferens (sp?). That group was derisively referred to as “tube snippers”, because most of their business was performing vasectomies. Hawkeye and Trapper got drunk at some convention, and somehow became members of the group despite being “real doctors”, and this led to their trip to another convention, which is, I think, chronicled in MASH Goes to New Orleans*. This one one of a series of books detailing the post-war adventures of our heroes, along with a zany cast of other characters.
Hot Lips becomes a religious figure for a gay church, despite remaining actively heterosexual.
Radar becomes a rich business man, owning a chain of restaurants built around his mother’s Irish Stew recipe.
Somehow, Henry Blake did not die. Instead he ended up running Walter Reed Hospital, and drafts Hawkeye and Trapper to go somewhere…maybe Paris? on behalf of the U.S. government in another book in the series.
Friends of mine met Larry Linville at some appearance he had in the early 90’s and had him sign pictures “Frank Burns eats worms.” They got one for me too, and I have no idea where it went to after all these years.
Didn’t they join that professional group to get a discount on a trip for them and their wives? I think that’s why they are in New Orleans - on vacation. They have to show up at the convention to get their documents, and then the book happens. IIRC it also involves surgery on Archbishop Mulcahy.
That sounds right. And Archbishop Mulcahy managed to get a pilot’s license. Sometimes wears a flight jacket (only around his MAS*H buddies) with his call sign on it…Dago Red.
Looking back, I feel more and more sympathy for Burns and less tolerance for Hawkeye. Frankly, I’d’ve been okay if Burns’ last episode had him beating the crap out of Hawkeye (vaguely akin to the film) and the two of them getting drunk together, resolving their differences, going their separate ways with a handshake.
As I’ve written before on this board, I don’t think TV-Hawkeye did well after the war. He was too sensitive & high-strung for what he went through in Korea. He never got completely over his breakdowns, and slowly got worse after he went home. Died young and of the bottle.
BJ only had one kid at the time of the series, yes? Anyway, he did some damage to his marriage trying to save Hawkeye before Colonel Potter talked sense into him.
There are two series of sequel books. The one you mention is in a series that stays true to the TV series. The is another series, written by the guy who wrote the original novel, which is much superior. In it Hawkeye, Trapper, and Spearchucker Jones all wind up in Maine running the Finest Kind Medical Clinic and Bait Shop. The characters invented for TV are not there. I don’t remember Frank or Hot Lips, who weren’t nearly as important in the book as in the movie/series, are there either.
I’m not sure if Hooker liked what Alan Alda did to his character. In the final book, Mash Mania, Hawkeye testifies in court how he, at the end of WW II. used a fire breathing dragon to incinerate Hiroshima when the A-bomb turned out to be a dud. Not a sensitive New Age guy at all.
