The only good thing to come out of Hello Larry is my most awesome ringtone ever:
I make sure to let it ring long enough to play the entire thing while I pretend I’m wearing a polyester suit and do a little dance. It’s so awesome, and I know it makes everyone green with envy. I mean, I can actually see their complexion change. I used to think that was just an expression.
Rogers was upset that Trapper wasn’t just playing second fiddle to Hawkeye, but rather was hardly in the show at all towards the third season. Since Rogers was primarily doing the show for fun, and giving one line per episode was not fun, he quit.
I remember seeing an interview with Rogers where he said something along the lines of: “I was losing money by doing this show, the least they could have done was make it fun. They didn’t, so I left.”
Too many actors appear in a hit TV series and think they’ve finally entered arrived. What they fail to realize is that for most of them appearing in a hit TV series is not the beginning of their career - it’s the peak.
Actually, when I first saw the movie a few years ago I was struck by how much it seemed that Trapper was much more of a lead than he was in the series.
-Joe
Ooops. Thanks. Then IMDb.com has it wrong (not for the first time :rolleyes:). That’ll teach me to rely on a movie website for politicotrivia.
From what I’ve heard, both Stevenson and Rogers seemed to feel that originally the show was supposed to be more of an ensemble piece, with them and Alda each getting their share of major storylines. In fact, both Stevenson and Rogers were reported to feel that they had fallen to third banana behind Alda and “the other guy.”
Linville was sick of playing Frank Burns, pure and simple. I saw him in the short-lived Grandpa Goes to Washington after MAS*H and even with the crappy role he had, he showed me he had more talent than he had been called on to use.
And just to round things out, Gary Burghoff left because he had played Radar forever. Apparently the prospect of complete anonymity was still better than more Radar.
At the time, maybe – but it wasn’t long before he signed on to WALTER*, and I’ll bet he was disappointed that it didn’t get picked up.
Yes. Remember, Burghoff also played Radar in the original movie.
I wasn’t aware of Burghoff’s withered hand when the series first aired. Now in re-runs I am totally distracted watching for how they cover up. He now sells his corny nature paintings on the web.
quick hijack…
how old was Radar supposed to be?
I’m guessing no more than 20.
Kinda like James Doohan’s missing finger. Now whenever I watch ST:TOS I look for it.
And he cashes that royalty check everytime it comes in.
yeah, when Hawkeye went into the nuthouse for a while it really threw me off.
Since people have started mentioning people other than McLean Stevenson in this thread, this will only be a slight hijack. Back in May 2004, I started a thread about bad career decisions:
You’d be surprised at all the “names” that have moved into oblivion.
Nothing about it in the original book, or in the follow-up books done by the original author (not the TV spin off books.) Pick em up - the real Hawkeye is a Republican, who tells a wild story about getting a sea serpent to nuke Hiroshima when the bomb fails. :eek: I bet Hooker was pushing as far from Alda as possible.
I saw Stevenson on Johnny Carson, and IIRC he claimed they never told him what was going to happen to his character. He seemed rather pissed about it.
He was great in that role, but I still kept expecting Jack Webb to show up.
I heard that Radar was a prick in real life. Any truth to that?
Regarding who was the star and who was supporting, I think Alan Alda was supposed to be the star, and the casting was so perfect that it became an ensemble cast. Just my opinion. I loved that show. I remember the glory that was Wednesday night. When you could catch M.A.S.H. three times that day. The early re-run, the current episode, and the late rerun. Aaaaah…heaven.
A making-of special (don’t know if it made it to the DVD or not) said the actors filmed what they thought was the whole episode, up to the chopper taking off. Then the OR set was readied, and the director handed out the last page of script. So no one knew what was going to happen until a few minutes before shooting.
I Liked Hello Larry …
…Yes, of course I Was Stoned…It Was the early 80’s 