(January 1, 2016 at 7:38 pm)Brian37 Wrote:(January 1, 2016 at 5:09 pm)Crossless1 Wrote: 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.
