Trapper from MASH dies.

[Crossless2.0]

Random gripe about the TV show: In both the book and the film, Radar -- though an enlisted man -- is very much a part of the gang and gladly complicit in their carryings-on. In the film, he's the one who smuggles the microphone under the bunk where Hot Lips and Frank are getting busy. He certainly wasn't the naïve, teddy-bear-clutching simpleton he was portrayed as in the series. That re-characterization always rankled.

[Brian37]

Random gripe about the TV show: In both the book and the film, Radar -- though an enlisted man -- is very much a part of the gang and gladly complicit in their carryings-on. In the film, he's the one who smuggles the microphone under the bunk where Hot Lips and Frank are getting busy. He certainly wasn't the naïve, teddy-bear-clutching simpleton he was portrayed as in the series. That re-characterization always rankled.

I never saw him as a simpleton. I was a big fan of that show at the time, watched just about every episode. The only part of that character looking back at it now I hate now, being the skeptic I am now is how he seemed to read people's minds and "felt" the choppers coming before anyone heard or saw them.

There were many episodes where he helped out in key events and he kept the office spic and span and organized, and always new how to get supplies and deal with brass on the phone. Even in real life sensitive people can be and are much smarter in many ways than the bosses above them. I've worked for complete idiots before.

I'd trust someone like him in real life before I'd trust an idiot like Frank Burns.

[vorlon13]

I loved Frank's conservatism and his marital infidelity.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Frank: 'Colonel Potter, I have reason to believe the Chinese have captured Major Houlihan.'

Potter: 'I see. So naturally, you shot Captain Hunnicut.'

Boru

[Crossless2.0]

Random gripe about the TV show: In both the book and the film, Radar -- though an enlisted man -- is very much a part of the gang and gladly complicit in their carryings-on. In the film, he's the one who smuggles the microphone under the bunk where Hot Lips and Frank are getting busy. He certainly wasn't the naïve, teddy-bear-clutching simpleton he was portrayed as in the series. That re-characterization always rankled.

I never saw him as a simpleton. I was a big fan of that show at the time, watched just about every episode. The only part of that character looking back at it now I hate now, being the skeptic I am now is how he seemed to read people's minds and "felt" the choppers coming before anyone heard or saw them.

There were many episodes where he helped out in key events and he kept the office spic and span and organized, and always new how to get supplies and deal with brass on the phone. Even in real life sensitive people can be and are much smarter in many ways than the bosses above them. I've worked for complete idiots before.

I'd trust someone like him in real life before I'd trust an idiot like Frank Burns.

Yes, Radar was competent at his job. But he was a very different creature in the series than in the book/film.

The book explains why he's nicknamed Radar. He wasn't "feeling" the approach of the choppers but had such unusually acute hearing that he was aware of their approach before anyone else could hear them. I don't recall if the series made that clear or if it was attributed to some sort of woo, but the book's character just had freakishly keen ears.

And, yes, Frank Burns was an idiot. Even his character was changed though. In the book/film, he was a hypocritical religious zealot and a bad surgeon (according to Trapper and Hawkeye, anyway). In the series, he was pussified somewhat and the religious zealotry softened. He was also a bigger idiot in the series. I don't remember the show having the bad surgeon angle though; if he ever lost a patient due to incompetence, I don't recall it.

[vorlon13]

I seem to recall Hawkeye having to fix a few of Frank's surgical fuckups.

[Crossless2.0]

Now that I think of it, you may be right, Vorlon.

Random gripe about the movie: they changed the subplot involving the Swamp's mess boy, Ho Jon. In the movie, they try to get him out of his induction into the South Korean army by getting him amped up on pills, but it doesn't work and he's taken anyway. In the book, they decide to try to raise money to have him sent to the states to attend college. The scheme they come up with involves a very drunk Trapper (who is rail thin and has grown a beard, prompting the priest, Dago Red, to remark that he looks a bit like Jesus) being driven around from one post to another near the front in the back of a truck. At each stop, he is hoisted up before the amused GIs on a makeshift cross while a friendly chopper pilot appears to cast a bright light on The Savior. The show is a hit at each stop and brings in money from the bored soldiers, but they finally run afoul of a unit from Mississippi who object to the display. I suppose the sequence was deemed to be potentially too controversial for inclusion, but I would have loved to see it.

[Thumpalumpacus]

We did the play in drama my senior year in high school; I chopped off my bitchin' heavy-metal feathered hair to play Col Blake.

I liked, but not loved the series. I preferred the Trapper John to the BJ years.

And yes, the series referenced Radar's nickname being from his acute hearing, and Burns's medical incompetence.

[Brian37]

This should be an easy trivia question, no cheating, what was the name of the theme song of the show?

[vorlon13]

Instrumental on TV so as to not offend the public with controversial lyrics.