Shark Bytes

A Guest said, "And as for Burghoff, I have never heard anything about him being hard to work with on the set."

I have definitely heard that Burghoff was difficult to work with. In fact, it's a well-known rumor, so I'm surprised you have never heard that one. I don't believe the rumor has merit, but I do know that there are many allusions to it.

Peace.

Ahhh yes...Alan Alda, the wisecracking meatball surgon.

Quote: "Alan Alda is
either on a soap box lecturing everybody (the episode where he stops drinking is intolerable)"

How can people continue to miss the entire point of this episode? Hawkeye was supposed to be intolerable in the episode where he stopped drinking. They were trying to show that Hawkeye had a preachy, annoying "dark side" to counteract the characterization from the first few seasons when Hawkeye was always the "hero" of the story.

And as for Burghoff, I have never heard anything about him being hard to work with on the set. Neither was Larry Linville, who was said to be completely opposite of Frank Burns in personality.

I've got a guide book on MASH (a coffee table size one that is about 15 years old) and there is mention from Maclean Stevenson (Blake) himself that he was not popular among the producers. The reason being he didn't like some of the conditions (no AC for one)and when he got annoyed he'd go up the road to a diner and await their word. They usually caved but in the end he knew it would bite him in the butt because they didn't want him around. His parting was mutual though as he thought he was leaving for bigger and better things, but years later we know he made a poor choice and should have ridden it out (the show would have been different though).

Wayne Rogers (Trapper) leaving was slightly more vague in the book. He claimed he was not happy during season 2 and 3 because his character was being edged into sidekick territory. He admitted to not being as good as Alda in keeping up with the rhythm of the writing and the dialogue delivery. There is evidence of this in season 3 where Trapper in some episodes is seen very little and other episodes he is given a bone (some spotlight).

The book mentions briefly that Rogers, Stevenson and Alda were friends though and often drove to the set together.

I dislike MASH from season 4 to the end. I think some of the cast, due to people's worship and love for the show (pre-cable years), got a little rockstarish like Hotlips suddenly with fake tan and 80's hair and BJ with his pink long johns, suspenders and mustache. None of this is accurate historically and for the record, in my opinion, Alda aged badly on the show. Maybe this was done to show war is rough but the guy went from youthful to old pervert somewhere around season 5 or 6 and just went downhill more and more. They should have promoted him to colonel because he started to look as old as the visiting colonels and generals.

Casey, maybe Alda is correct about something after all. He probably would know more than Steven Lance. Lance says that Stevenson was very unpopular with the writers. According to Lance, they killed Blake off because they didn't ever want to deal with Stevenson again.

I really think that the show was a good fusion of comedy and drama, a good war story. Korea was, of course, a horrible cover for the Vietnamese war, that's old news. But I think that it shows the war in a proper light, and the things people have to deal with. Okay, so maybe no actual MASH would run like the 4077 would've, had it been real. That hardly takes away from a good comedy show. It was funny, and whether or not Alan Alda was being all bitchy (for the right reasons, BTW) about it didn't change that. Okay, so the show went downhill after Season 3, granted. However, it didn't just slide right off a cliff, agreed? Yeah, there were the lame episodes (I hated the one where the girl was being taught by Father Mulcahy, and of course the stupid two-episode back-and-forth with M*A*S*H moving, then coming back abruptly with almost no reason as to coming back except for "our boys beat 'em back," when no soldiers were even in sight), and the preaching, and all that. But regardless of Alda's thoughts and behind-the-scenes work, other characters pulled through quite nicely (Hunnicutt came through as a better version of Pierce, I think). I don't think it jumped the shark early enough to merit much attention.

Let me put this to bed right now.. It WAS sarcasm (mustache and a pony tail in 1951?! Come on now...only a mentally challenged historian or a 1970s era producer could come up with that one!)
And mine was NOT a pro-Alda commentary. I am with those who say that history will not be kind to this show.

I think it's pretty obvious that "The Only Honest U.S. Soldier" was being sarcastic. Pretty damn funny too.

Aaron said, "
I believe "The Only Honest US Soldier" was being sarcastic. Who's with me on this?"

I hope to hell that he's just being sarcastic, seeing how almost every single word he said is full of crap. I would love to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he is only being sarcastic. At BEST, he is being sarcastic. At worst, wow!

Aaron, in his autobio (Never Have Your Dog Stuffed) Alan Alda never mentions Burghoff being difficult to work with when he writes of Burghoff. I read it was actually Maclean Stevenson who was difficult to work with I heard that Burghoff and Larry Linville were pretty much the best of mutual friends in reallife (can't remember where I read that).

To Ginger Snaps:

I recently checked out the book Written Out of Television by Steven Lance, and in the MASH section, Lance seems to think that Burghoff was very difficult to work with on the set, recalling that many of the cast would say things like "Loved Radar, hated Burghoff." Lance claimed that he would often show up to taping late and that he once threw a chair at Wayne Rogers.

To Casey Jones:

I believe "The Only Honest US Soldier" was being sarcastic. Who's with me on this?

To Ginger. What other roles would usually be available to actors like Burghoff?

To the poster called The Only Honest US soldier. presuming you are not inventing your 50's Korean War service bit (or more nicely just honestly remembering it the wrong way), let me explain a few things. The US army, air force, and marine corp seargents had to get tough and angry with recruits as they have to let the recruits know that it won't be a free easy ride to be in the military. And that if property is mistakenly damaged by the recruits (say through misusue of a firearm)the recruit is in big trouble.

About how bad the commies were in that war. Well, the head of South Korea in 1950-53 was honestly (to a degree) something of a dictator----but he did allow freedom of worship in SK! The commie head of North Korea didn't allow such religious things in his domain so South Korea was somewhat nicer a place as far as democracy than North Korea. And Stalin killed over 20 million people! Mao equalled or surpassed him!

To Casey Jones: Maybe if Gary(no k) Burghoff didn't play such an unusual character (much like Ron Palillo-Horshack in Welcome Back Kotter), he wouldn't have been typecast. By the way, I probably misspelled Palillo wrong too!

I Personally served in Korea in 1950-51 and I can tell you that I had both a thick mustache AND a pony tail! And while we had to fight soldiers of Kim Il Sung, Mao and (if only by proxy) Stalin..secretly most of us thought they were just a little nicer than our own forces! (Hey, those Stalnists weren't angels, but OUR officers? GAWD!!!!)
Props to M*A*S*H!! (Especially the Alda-driven espiodes!!)

If I had to put my finger on when it jumped it was somewhere in the middle of season 3. Trapper seemed either invisible or forced up front. The Alda Conspiracy People could and should say it was around that time he really sunk his preachy hooks into the show. Wayne Rogers (Trapper) mentioned the decline of his character way before in season 1 when he went from being the "chest cutter" to now Hawkeye was the chest cutter. After season 3, the show was brutally unfunny and rehashed the same plot lines every few episodes... Is BJ going to cheat? What's wrong with Hawkeye this time? Which one of Potter's old friends was going to get turned in by Potter because the guy annoyed Hawkeye etc etc.