I often browse eBay to see if anything interesting related to M*A*S*H is up for auction. In August of 2007 someone was selling what I believe is a press photograph for the series featuring McClean Stevenson and Gary Burghoff. They’re in character but Burghoff appears to be holding a script. If I had to guess I’d say this is from the very first season. Look at McClean Stevenson’s eyes. They’re crazy. And where does the cord on the phone Radar is holding go?
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 Update
In the comments, Big Daddy O’Reilly pointed out that in addition to his crazy eyes McClean Stevenson is sporting some wild hair, which might mean this particular photograph was taken very early on, perhaps before the pilot episode was filmed. Take a look at the black and white promotional photo included in my feature Promoting The Premiere and you’ll see the same bushy hair. And speaking of hair, in that same photo Loretta Swit’s hair is pretty curly while in the pilot episode Margaret had relatively straight hair.
Furthermore, Phil suggests in the comments that the above photograph is flipped incorrectly. Here are Henry and Radar facing the other direction:
I’m no photographer but somehow it does look better this way.
I know a M*A*S*Her who has this same photo (only with Gary’s signature on it) on deviantART; I favorited it a few months ago.
Notice how unusually shaggy McLean’s hair is too, it’s believed this was a publicity shot that was taken even before they started filming the pilot (after all, Gary and Mac were the first ones hired for the show).
That’s certainly possible.
I’m not exactly sure how the procedure works, but I believe when they’re doing a new movie/TV show/season/etc, they shoot publicity stills before the actual production begins.
I think that picture is flopped – Gary’s hand & McLean’s shirt look wrong. It should look like this;
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/stonetriple/MASHpic_rightreading.jpg
Phil, I’ve added the flipped photo to my post so everyone can compare the two. It does look better your way.
Big Daddy O’Reilly, take a look at the black and white photo near the bottom of my Promoting the Premiere feature. Henry has the same hair sticking out from under his cap. They could have been taken during the same photo shoot.
You know what’s interesting about that B&W photo you pointed out? Everyone else looks more or less the way they did after the pilot… at least the way I’m looking at it… I don’t know what’s going on with Mac’s hair though, that’s still a mystery to me.
The folicles of the show were always interesting…
It’s always interesting to me to see how different the pilot period of a long-running show sometimes is from what the show eventually settles into. M*A*S*H wasn’t too different, but there were a few signs that they had an idea or two they scrapped or tweaked away.
Also, Mac really needs a shave in all of the mentioned photos.
In the pictures above, Radar’s hands are in pretty good view.
If the hand holding the phone has the smaller ring and pinky fingers, then the flopped picture is the correct one. If not, then the original picture, with Radar on the RIGHT is the correct way to view.
In the Army, the officer’s rank was on the right hand collar, and the branch insiggnia, in the case of MASH, being the Medical Branch, was displayed on the left hand collar. Therefore, the second photo, with Gary on the left and MacLean on the right, is the correct photo.
Gary Burghoff’s (Radar’s) left hand is seriously deformed. His fingers are tiny and skeletal. He hides it in every scene except the one fifth a football. In the first picture he is hiding his right hand and in the second picture he is hiding his left hand. This one is correct. Case closed