Choose as many as you like.
I only picked four, but really I could pick them all. I loved every character on that show, including the ones I loved to hate.
I like the show, but basically every character was either a foil or accomplice for Hawkeye, the show didn’t do a very good job developing the rest of the cast.
Except Intercom guy. He was the second best character.
Actually, Margaret was far more developed as a character in the TV show then in the film.
OTOH, the TV show left out Duke Forrest, who had the best line of the movie: “Now, fair’s fair Henry. If I nail Hotlips and hit Hawkeye can I go home too?”
The poll is missing the best character, Captain Tuttle
Sherman Potter is one of my favorite television characters. He was just so…real.
All of them, but Radar holds a special place in my heart.
RADAR (barges in): Yes, sir?
BLAKE: RADAR!.. Ugh, stop doing that!
Of my two favorites, one has 15 votes (Potter), the other just 2 (Burns).
What in the name of Beelzebub is going on here ?!?
mmm
Huh. Well it turns out that while I liked at least six characters on Cheers, I didn’t like any characters on MASH.
Hunnicutt was blandly inoffensive, the rest annoying.
Me too. Actually I thought Klinger would be doing a lot better in this poll than he is!
MAS*H is the best show ever. I voted for everyone.
I liked some of Hunnicut’s puns, but my overall impression of the show has diminished greatly over the years. Part of this is because in early seasons I find Burns to be sympathetic (because Pierce and McIntyre were such jerks to him) but not likable, and in later seasons Pierce becomes overbearing and insufferable.
Thus, I abstain.
Donald Sutherland.
I picked (in no particular order):
B.J.
Col. Potter
“Chahles” Emerson Winchester. (The Third!)
I think “Trapper John” was way too one-note/one-dimensional (and I’m not blaming Wayne Rodgers). B.J. was an affable, generally moral, ordinary guy, and a steady sounding board (without being the perpetual straight-man) for Hawkeye.
Henry Blake was more a befuddled, harrased clerk trying to deal with TPS report cover sheets than a U.S. Army Lt. Col., and was a door-mat for the lead characters. Colonel Sherman Potter was a Commanding Officer of a military hospital in the middle of a shooting war. Harry Morgan brought a mature gravitas to the role as the war-weary war horse who was still plugging away. Like B.J., he was the grounding rod, the reality check, to Hawkeye’s manic moralizing. And he could, and would, put his Army Boot down on Hawkeye when needed.
Charles was the replacement “villain” taking over from Frank Burns. He was quite often a spoiled, pompous ass, whining because he didn’t have silk slippers and PJs, and 5-star cuisine at every meal. Yet he was also amazingly human when compared to Frank Burns. Charles was a competent doctor, and also (if grudgingly) acknowledged the other doctor’s medical competency as well. He was also amazingly kind to certain patients (the one where he helped the wounded soldier/piano player really won me over), as well as generally being nicer to other people (than Burns), if in a distant, often “Lordly” (and sometimes, condescending) manner.
And in the end, he didn’t fold like Burns did, but gave back as good as he got against B.J. and Hawkeye.
Liked “Okay:”
Margaret: after Burns left, she became a human being, if a hard-nosed one. She just really needed to get laid more often. Like Winchester, she wasn’t a door-mat for Hawkeye and B.J.
Radar: perpetual man-child, but hating on him is way too much like kicking a puppy.
Father Mulcahy: too often a one-note character, but he had his moments. Disliked the tremulous, high-pitched voice. Liked Rene Auberjonois in the movie better, even though he did less.
Meh: Klinger, Rizzo, Hawkeye.
Alda’s quasi-Groucho Marx impersonation portrayal of Hawkeye, coupled with the in-your-face preachifying on why war is bad, really got old.
During the seasons when Burns was still there but Trapper was gone, Burns and Margaret had a real chemistry. Those were my favorite seasons.
A few comments:
Sidney Freedman: Doing quite well. I came to really dislike him and his pop psycho-crappo approach to fixing crazy. The time he pretended to shoot hoops with a cracking-up Hawkeye was painful to watch. Also, he seemed to be smirking at everyone all the time.
Col Flagg: Not doing well, and I am surprised. I thought he was a big hit. I’m guessing that he’s a bit too over-the-top to get much love?
Sherman Potter: Every word out of his mouth was golden. Any scene with him in it is worth watching.
Frank Burns: Love him. “I don’t chew my cabbage twice!”
mmm
I like the clerks, both of them. Doesn’t matter which version of Radar - the streetwise, lecher, or the naive farmboy. Like 'em both. Also like Klinger more after he developed into more than a joke (but even the later days of his being mostly a running gag were good).
Friend Ex Tank said:
I agree.
I’d like to nominate the Aussie gas-passer, Ugly John for an honorable mention.
Bri2k
Blake and Flagg were my two favorites. I tossed a vote for Hawkeye because a lot of my favorite bits involved him. I never got all the “preachy” hate targeting his character, although I do admit I enjoyed the goofier Hawkeye of earlier seasons slightly more.