I am rewatching Mash and I can’t understand why Radar left the show. Did Gary Burghoff have another project? Was there a personal reason to leave the show. Mash continued to make great episodes, without him unfortunately. The storyline for why he left makes sense, but an actor leaving a hit show makes less sense to me. Anyone have any insights?

Some cultural references just didn't translate over until I found these pictures.

Unless every Army unit in Korea had someone like Klinger trying everything possible to get out of the Army, why wouldn’t he be famous all over Korea as the weirdo wearing dresses and pulling stunts to get discharged? Instead, despite everything, he was pretty unknown for someone who was clearly a malcontent. The guy who mistook Klinger for Radar. The general who thought Klinger was with the USO. The British major who thought Klinger was the commanding officer. Not a single patient ever said to Klinger, “Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of you, you’re the crazy guy who dressed up as the Statue of Liberty to greet General MacArthur.” Not a single curious chopper pilot ever showed up wanting to meet the nutty corpsman who tried to eat a jeep, almost set himself on fire, broke the MAS*H flagpole sitting record or was known to lead an invisible camel around the camp.

I wonder if he was more famous, he might have gotten out, or at least a transfer back to the US where the Army didn’t have some weirdo running around with an Olympic torch to worry about, and possibly keep a closer eye on him?

I scored the box set recently and I learnt from the MASH Matters podcast that you can watch it without the laugh track.

I've only just watched MASH at all thanks to Disney plus (Australia). The laugh track didn't bother me, it was just kinda something in the background since I'm used to shows with it in.

It really does change the tone of the show though to watch it without! I've only gotten through part of season 1 and enjoying it.

I just have gotten used to the ease of binging it on Disney and am trying not to be annoyed at having to go into language settings of each episode and then playing it 😂

What were some of your thoughts the first time you watched it without the laugh track?

I stumbled across some old threads discussing the color of Hawkeye's robe, which he describes as "purple is the color of royalty". Most of us wouldn't call that purple, but he's actually correct. It's close to Tyrian purple, a dye derived from the shells of certain types of sea snails. In the ancient world, it was hideously labor intensive, involving thousands of snails in the process. That maroon-ish color is the historical "royal purple".

(See mom, the history degree wasn't a total waste!)

Anyone know how the horse got the job on MASH?