The success of the greater M*A*S*H franchise is rooted in expanding upon what came before. CBS’s 11-season dramedy proved a recipe for success and ushered in several brands of spinoffs. However, only one character proved a common denominator in all iterations of this wartime series, and it wasn’t Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, but rather Radar.
Airing from 1972 to 1983, CBS’s M*A*S*H is, itself, an adaptation of Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors; this, itself, became a feature film before it hit the small screen. The timelines split a bit between film and show, but the expanded family tree centered around the show only has Radar, as played by Gary Burghoff as the one constant in this turbulent world.
Radar, played by Gary Burghoff, is the only character to appear in all spinoffs of the show ‘M*A*S*H’
256 episodes aired across over a decade of historic television that literally ground a city’s plumbing to a halt when it came time to watch the series finale. It’s already a fun numbers game to figure out which incredibly small number of actors has appeared in every one of those episodes.
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This distinction belongs strictly to Alan Alda, although Margaret Houlihan, played by Loretta Swit, comes in close second with 239 episodes to her name.
But what about the character that transcends storytelling medium and cast changes alike? CBS wanted to continue capturing the lighting in the bottle that was the original M*A*S*H series, and so it was bestowed with some spinoff ideas all of which included Radar.
Standing out in an exceptional crowd
Courtesy: Everett Collection
Despite appearing in every single M*A*S*H episode, Alda cannot boast of his Hawkeye appearing in every spinoff related to the series; Burghoff and Radar, however, can. Every cast member who voted to keep M*A*S*H fighting the good fight hopped on board AfterMASH, allowing for some highly-anticipated reunions between characters for whom fans had been hoping for some closure.
Radar proved to still be such a favorite, with Burghoff’s performance continually lauded, CBS felt comfortable giving the okay to yet another spinoff series, this one called W*A*L*T*E*R, serving as a Radar solo series.
He had a lot less luck with this project, however. In fact, it required only a failed pilot to convince the crew that this was not something worth pursuing in earnest, and so the show was allowed to quietly disappear into the sunset.
Radar’s distinction is made possible because of one important technicality: Trapper John, MD is actually a spinoff of the film, specifically, not the universe as established by the show. It was a distinction they had to set up, Screen Rant notes, because the crew could have landed in a litigation web if there weren’t lines drawn in the sand.
What is your favorite version of M*A*S*H, in all its iterations?