# What eventually happened to Frank Burns on M\*A\*S\*H? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465 "2011-05-19T16:50:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/21 "2011-05-19T20:24:22Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > 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. Hooker didn’t like Alda’s version of M_A_S\*H. Dr. Hooker was actually a conservative Republican who didn’t appreciate the anti-war message Alda’s show was relaying. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/22 "2011-05-19T20:35:58Z")
can we speculate on what happened to: Colonel Flagg Sidney Freedman Igor Nurse Kellye (my personal favorite supporting actor) Captain Tuttle 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/23 "2011-05-19T20:39:23Z")
By the way, if you check out _Whispers in the Dark_ (1992), you get to see (in addition to Anabella Sciorra tied up), Alan Alda: …bludgeon a woman with a wine bottle ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/24 "2011-05-19T20:49:35Z")
Missed edit by a longshot. Here’s what I read somewhere (can’t remember): Hawkeye starts a family practice with his dad in Crabapple Cove. His dad passes away not long afterward. Hawkeye never marries. Trapper John disappears and is never heard from again. Suicide is suspected. B.J. returns home to San Francisco to find Peg has been seeing another man for quite a while. They divorce shortly thereafter. Col. Potter happily retires on his farm with Mildred. They keep horses. Frank Burns was promoted to Lt. Colonel and assigned a post as doctor at the V.A. hospital in Virginia, but it didn’t take long for him to get committed to an institution. As stated before, Maj. Winchester assumes the role of Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Massachusetts General in Boston. Hot Lips is promoted to Lt. Colonel and is assigned the Head Nurse position at the Army hospital at Ft. Bragg. Klinger stays in Korea indefinitely to find the family of his wife. He returns to the States briefly to appear on Family Feud. 🙂 Father Mulcahy splits his time between spiritual counselor and boxing trainer. I don’t remember what happened to Radar. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/25 "2011-05-19T20:51:11Z")
The reasons why I didn’t like the _M_A_S_H\* finale is because it didn’t explore their lives post war. I would have preferred a movie that detailed the problems of Hawkeye, BJ, Charles etc after they got home. The writers could have exploited the often ignored tragedies of war. and Yes I know there was some forgettable show called _After Mash_, which could have been written into the finale It was an opportunity missed. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/26 "2011-05-19T20:57:39Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > The reasons why I didn’t like the _M_A_S_H\* finale is because it didn’t explore their lives post war. I would have preferred a movie that detailed the problems of Hawkeye, BJ, Charles etc after they got home. The writers could have exploited the often ignored tragedies of war. Jesus God, man, how long a finale did you want? The story was about their lives in Korea, not their lives back home. I think we were better off never seeing Peg Hunnicut and Mrs. Potter and Hawkeye’s father and so forth. I like the fact that we never saw Radar & Burns again after they left, and we don’t know how Klinger’s marriage turned out, and so forth. Some times are best left to the imagination. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/27 "2011-05-19T21:36:12Z")
The finale was 2.5 hours. The war could have ended on the next to last episode, it did not need the drama of Hawkeye in the looney bin, or Charles POW band, or Mulcahey’s going deaf, etc. The war could have ended in the next to last episode and the finale details the characters reintegration into life after the war. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/28 "2011-05-19T21:39:14Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > can we speculate on what happened to: > > Colonel Flagg > Sidney Freedman > Igor > Nurse Kellye (my personal favorite supporting actor) > Captain Tuttle 😃 I’m working my way through the entire 11 season run of MASH right now. Maybe I’ll start a thread when I’m finished, but my favorite character by far is Colonel Flagg. It would be a lot of fun to think of what becomes of him. There was an episode where his cover story was that he’s a rabbi, and his “disguise” consisted solely of a pair of glasses. I like to imagine that after the war he actually becomes a rabbi as a front for some sort of deep cover spy operation. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/29 "2011-05-19T21:40:18Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > The reasons why I didn’t like the _M_A_S_H\* finale is because it didn’t explore their lives post war. I would have preferred a movie that detailed the problems of Hawkeye, BJ, Charles etc after they got home. The writers could have exploited the often ignored tragedies of war. > > and Yes I know there was some forgettable show called _After Mash_, which could have been written into the finale > > It was an opportunity missed. It sort of did. Didn’t they have a scene where everyone goes around the table and says what their future plans are? Presumably thats what the audience is supposed to take away as what happened to them. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/30 "2011-05-19T21:48:09Z")
and the roundtable was my favorite of finale. but it was only a teaser. And we all know that what you plan and hope, does not happen all the time. It may not what anybody wanted to see, but I could definitely see alcoholism ruining Hawkeye’s life and career and turning him suicidal. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/31 "2011-05-19T22:06:30Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Trapper John disappears and is never heard from again. Suicide is suspected. Actually he turned into Pernell Roberts, and became chief surgeon in a San Francisco hospital. No suicide, but usually pissed off about something. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/32 "2011-05-19T22:18:41Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > can we speculate on what happened to: > > Colonel Flagg > Sidney Freedman > Igor > Nurse Kellye (my personal favorite supporting actor) > Captain Tuttle 😃 If we’re willing to entertain speculation, then I remember that on the NBC series ER, Alan Alda played an older physician in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He was a mentor to Kerry Weaver and a professor of trauma surgery. So I imagine that’s what happened to the character of Hawkeye; he returned to the US and used his Korean War experience to improve civilian trauma care. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/33 "2011-05-19T23:40:28Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Hooker didn’t like Alda’s version of M_A_S\*H. Dr. Hooker was actually a conservative Republican who didn’t appreciate the anti-war message Alda’s show was relaying. Yeah, I was probably being too subtle. In the later MASH books, the characters used “Democrat” as a curse. The TV inspired books were competent hackwork. Hooker’s books were weird and funny. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465/34 "2011-05-20T02:35:08Z")
> [@Shark](#): > > Win! > > 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. Actually Larry Linville died in 2000 so I think it’s the other way around now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-eventually-happened-to-frank-burns-on-m-a-s-h/582465.md?page=1)