Last month’s poll asked visitors to the site to pick which character who departed the series during run do they wish had stayed. Here are the results:
Radar (44%, 80 Votes)
Colonel Blake (23%, 43 Votes)
Trapper (20%, 37 Votes)
Frank (13%, 23 Votes)Total Voters: 183
I voted for Trapper. I’m a little surprised to see Colonel Blake receive more votes than Trapper.
Preview February’s Poll:
This month’s poll asks “Who was the better foil for Hawkeye and Trapper/B.J.?” and the choices are Frank or Charles.
My pick was Trapper, although I like all 4 characters.
Radar would be my 2nd choice and if not for Gary Burghoff’s personal problems and series burnout, would probably be number 1.
Henry was terrific and Mclean brought a zanyiness to the show that was never fully realized after his departure, but I don’t know exactly where Henry’s character would have gone in the long run.
Frank (even in the words of Larry Linville and others from M*A*S*H) had pretty much exhausted his potential. Once the affair with Margaret was over, he was like a fish out of water, and no longer had even a single ally in camp.
Trapper, I always felt, got the short end of the stick. I thought the chemistry between he and Hawkeye was excellent and I never found BJ quite as good a partner.
If memory serves, Trapper is the superior surgeon (a chest chutter) in the book and film, but he became 2nd banana to Hawkeye in the TV series. I feel this was a mistake on the part of the producers. I would like to have seen Trapper developed — for instance nothing was ever made of his unfaithfulness (unlike Frank who constantly feared his wife divorcing him). In the long run would Trapper have abandoned flings for his wife, or would she have gotten wind of his shenanigans and dumped him?
I voted for Squeaky the Skunk Ghost.
I voted for Trapper too. The potential to develop his character was tremendous. Such a wasted opportunity!! It would have been wonderful to see his TV character develop into some semblance of his character from the movie. Oh well!!
I voted for Blake mostly because McLean truly made me laugh but I do agree with the comments above that Trapper’s character could have really developed.
As a “new” MASH fan I do understand and agree with Larry Linville that he took Frank’s character as far a possible. Lately I’ve been catching myself wondering how the writers could have even kept going with Frank’s character.