But having Radar be the sneaky conniving one made for a better character, because in Klinger it’s just a cliche - the tough kid from Chicago bit.
Toledo!
By the way, Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) is a really nice guy. 
When did the Teddy Bear first show up, what episode?
or even better…Who the Hell was always on the PA? It wasn’t Radar or Klinger.
kinda sounds like Igor the cook, but who knows for sure?
I don’t think the PA guy was ever shown. His voice was in the movie though: You can hear him on the PA at the HQ in the scene where Hawkeye steals the jeep. The voice on the PA at the 4077th was the guy who played Sgt Vollmer.
BTW, why didn’t that character make into the TV series? Every military outfit in the world has a Vollmer!
According to imdb there were two, Todd Susman and Sal Viscuso. They’ve both got extensive movie credits. Viscuso is the one I always remember (he did it in the movie as well). From now on I’ll have to see if I can hear Susman…
Eric
Nope, they didn’t. Not even when the main characters were in Radar’s office right next to the PA equipment during an announcement. Where was he supposed to be broadcasting from ?
Eric
I’m not positive, but I think it was in the first season episode with the rash of thefts. My sister has the DVD of Season One, but we watched the shows out of order…
Viscuso played a couple of parts in the show as well. I can’t remember exactly which parts off the top of my head, but I know he showed up on screen as an injured soldier at least two or three times.
He also played the priest on Soap.
Since this thread has already been hijacked, let me ask, where did all the 4077’s blacks/Negros/African-Americans go to? In the first season they had Nurse Ginger and Dr. Spearchucker Jones, but after that blacks only appeared a few times as patients when they wanted to showcase some outsider’s racism. Truman desegregated the armed forces but apparently not MAS*H 4077.
According to what I’ve read, it was found that there were no black surgeons in MASH units in Korea and, therefore Spearchucker was written out without explaination.
Back in the late 70’s, I used to work the box office at a porno theatre/strip club (first a movie, then a girl, then a movie, then a girl) on Hollywood Blvd, and one day WIlliam Christopher came in and bought a ticket. I nearly fell off my chair. Father Mulcahy in a porno theatre? Shocking! I think I kinda embarassed him…
LOL Stoid, thanks for the mental image of Father Mulcahy in a porno theatre. I love it.
They also somehow poofed out Ugly John of the universe after the first season, which meant the poker games always ended up being with some token sargeants.
If you really want to see changes to characters and continuity, read the book:
There are a lot more surgeons and nurses at the 4077, with round the clock shifts. Although during times when the fighting is especially heavy, it mentions them working marathons shifts (18-20 hours), only stopping to sleep or eat for two weeks straight. The logistics of portraying that realistically would be impossible for a TV sitcom.
In the series, did they ever explain why Ugly John was an Aussie (I think) in the US Army? In the book he’s a handsome American.
Where’s the Painless Pole and his neverending card game?
Where’s Duke?
In the book, Col. Blake is a Regular Army officer.
Father Mulcahy is a very different character in the book, I can see why he would be re-written for the movie and series to create a more hapless and flustered character.
In the early episodes of the series, Hawkeye has a living mother and sister as well. Remember the uneven sweater his sister sends him. Not to mention being married with kids in the book and movie.
In early episodes, Radar sneaks Col. Blake’s liquor and cigars in addition to being the scrounger, later on he can’t handle drinking at all. His innocence and virginity worked backwards I guess, remember the unexploded bomb episode? He sneaks off to the supply tent (I think) with a nurse when everyone worries they are going to be killed. Only heavy petting? It’s the only way I can explain the “special” episode where he gets wounded driving to the Pink Pagoda in Seoul to get laid on Hawkeye’s advice. That’s the Hawkeye hangover episode IIRC.
In the book, and the movie IIRC, Spearchucker was brought in as a ringer for the football game. He was a neurosurgeon stationed with the 72nd Evac before that.
BTW, in the series, what did Capt. Spaulding (Loudon Wainwright III) do? I know he was only in three episodes, but was his job ever explained? Was he another surgeon? I don’t remember him being in an of the operating room scenes in his episodes.
Duke, Spearchucker, Ugly John, Lt. Dish, Ho-Jon, and most of the other minor characters from the book/movie made it into the first season of the TV series. And Hawkeye still said “Finest Kind” all the time. In addition, a number of subplots straight out of the book and/or movie became episodes of the TV series in the first couple of seasons (The best two years of MASH by a long shot, if you ask me).
The supporting characters were largely written out as the series went on, probably for good reason. It’s hard to make a sitcom with THAT many characters in it and have them all be relevant and get enough screen time to make their characters come alive. So they pared down the cast.
Another difference between the book and the movie, and it’s a big one, is that in the book Hawkeye, Duke, and Trapper are all a bunch of good ole’ boys. In the TV series, Hawkeye refuses to fire a gun or carry one. In the book, Hawkeye and Duke took ‘Shaking Sammy’, (the lousy priest before Mulcahy came along), drove him out of camp, and then shot the tires out of his jeep.
The liberal slant to the TV series enraged Richard Hooker, who wrote the book, because he was a conservative and was very unhappy with the new tone.
As for Capt. Spaulding, I’m pretty much certain he was another doctor. He might have been a gas-passer or something, though.
Early in the series, they played lip service to the idea that there was a lot going on at the MASH than what we typically saw. There were other doctors and nurses that were not part of the regular cast, plus the aforementioned Duke and Spearchucker and Spaulding. Later on, they just dropped the pretense and made the camp much smaller so that the only people in it were regular characters. That led to all those continuity problems later on.
Sam Stone, I agree about the first couple of seasons being the best, even more so since I finally read the book. Like you posted, I’ve noticed some of the elements of the book being integrated in early episodes since reading it. Trapper calling in the Rev. (Father Mulcahy) for “a fix” during a particularly rough surgery. Hawkeye playing poker while waiting until a patient stablized to operate, despite the general’s complaining and thinking Hawkeye is lazy and incompetent. Also calling him “Dad” for the whole episode.
Capt. Spaulding possibly being a gas-passer makes sense considering his even more laid back tone and not hearing him in surgery. He would have been masked and speaking little; Ugly John didn’t cut up or speak very much during surgery in the series.
Some random MAS*H thoughts:
I think the first season was the best, as it was closer to the spirit of the movie.
I agree that as the series progressed, Alan Alda’s influence ruined the show. It is almost embarrassing how the show turned into Alda’s very own political statement.
Is it just my imagination, or did Jamie Farr shout every line he had in the last 2 seasons? He gives me a headache… I guess Harry Morgan was deaf.
I always thought the voice on the speaker was Igor.
Finally, the best, most consistent extra character was Colonel Flagg. That character was one of the classics bit parts of a TV series.
I’ve been checking around, and Radar’s Teddy Bear (no name) given to him by his brother, (I thought he was an only child) anyway, the bear showed up in the 10th episode “I hate a mystery” the one where Ho-Jon is taking everyone’s stuff. Col. Blake found it in his search. I guess that’s when Radar began his second childhood. He was engaged when he left home for Korea. He started out smoking cigars and drinking from the start.
and SANTOS you’re right about the PA guys! They are Sal Viscuso and Todd Sussman. They both did some characters on the show as well. Sal was Corp. Benny Bryant in “Tea and Empathy” , Sgt. McGill in “Post Op” and the patient John in the episode “Dear Sigmund”
The other guy was Todd Sussman, he played Prvt. Danny Baker in “Operation Noselift”, you remember the one where everyone had bandaids on the nose at the end of the show.
Sorry guys, didn’t mean to “steal the show”, it’s been bugging me for years. Now I’m gonna have to look for these guys on the show. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!
I can’t recall the title or the main plot points, but I think I remember an episode where Hawkeye stepped away from an operating table and said “Spaulding, you can close.”