M*A*S*H Season 4 Episode "The Interview"

[Stanislav]

Wayne Rogers left the show because according to Rogers, he and Alda were supposed to be equals in both billing and camera time. It didn't quite work out that way. Supposedly, they had the idea to have both Trapper John and Col. Blake in the same plane, but decided to find another way to write Trapper out. They decided one death was bad enough. Mike Farrell was subsequently hired with the very clear understanding that he was to be a second banana to Alda.

And yet, Rogers had a point: when you watch some of those early episodes, he really has little to do. Hawkeye will be yakking, mugging, tossing off one-liners, while Trapper gets to occasionally throw in a set-up line, or a one-line reaction. (I always thought that in the early 1st season "Yankee Doodle Doctor" episode, his playing the mute Harpo to Hawkeye's loquacious Groucho was rather prophetic!) The character of B.J. is, IMHO, far more balanced in scenes with Hawkeye -- there's more of a constant give-and-take between them that was almost never the case between Trapper and Hawkeye. B.J. also provided more of a contrast to Hawkeye, being a family man who was devastated when he allowed himself a one-time fling with another woman -- as opposed to Trapper, who broke his marriage vows at the drop of a hat. :

 

[Braves2005]

Getting back to Loretta Swit, Swit did some Broadway shows and dinner theater shows when M*A*S*H was on hiatus during the spring and summer (which was the answer why she wasn't in the episode "The Interview") She also did some TV movies among the most popular was the 1981 pilot movie for Cagney and Lacey when she played Christine Cagney. Now would she have left M*A*S*H for the TV show Cagney and Lacey? Would she have been a better Cagney than Meg Foster (who was the first Cagney on the TV show)?

 

[Don62]

Wayne Rogers left the show because according to Rogers, he and Alda were supposed to be equals in both billing and camera time. It didn't quite work out that way. Supposedly, they had the idea to have both Trapper John and Col. Blake in the same plane, but decided to find another way to write Trapper out. They decided one death was bad enough. Mike Farrell was subsequently hired with the very clear understanding that he was to be a second banana to Alda.

As for Larry Linville, he told my friend that he was actually pushed out gently, as he and Alda never did get along. Every other character was given at least one episode where they had a "shining moment". Never Frank Burns. Apparently, someone with a lot of weight on the set saw to that.

As part of the confidentiality agreement they arranged when he left, Linville was "requested" to never divulge that he was fired, and to speak well of MASH in future interviews, and they would speak well of him.

FYI: Linville was originally tested for the part of Col. Blake.

FYI: MASH was headed for cancellation after Season 2. CBS wound up changing it's mind. Linville told my friend that the producers were telling everyone back then to expect the worst.

My own little take: Mike Farrell looked absolutely ridiculous with that moustache. Notice on his two later shows, that he didn't have it? What was he thinking? That it made him look more romantic or something?

Wow. That's great information, some news there I hadn't heard before.

In the Mash movie, Trapper John was the lead doctor, the thoraccic (spell?) surgeon. The TV producers reversed the role, and as others have said in another Mash forum, "they screwed Trapper."

http://www.mashtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=299&highlight=trapper

http://www.mashtalk.com/forums/show...865&perpage=40&highlight=screwed&pagenumber=3

Having both Henry and Trap die on a plane together! That might have been a bit too traumatic.

 

[Don62]

Getting back to Loretta Swit, Swit did some Broadway shows and dinner theater shows when M*A*S*H was on hiatus during the spring and summer (which was the answer why she wasn't in the episode "The Interview") She also did some TV movies among the most popular was the 1981 pilot movie for Cagney and Lacey when she played Christine Cagney. Now would she have left M*A*S*H for the TV show Cagney and Lacey? Would she have been a better Cagney than Meg Foster (who was the first Cagney on the TV show)?

On that other discussion board, and other places online, it is stated that she did want to play in Cagney and Lacey. Fox, however, wouldn't let her out of her contract.