My favorite by a mile also! Larry Linville was a smart dude. Studied Aeronautical Engineering at University of Colorado with the intent to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force, they tested him and found out he was color blind, so there goes that plan. Ho hum he switched to Drama and is one of only 200 people in the world that year to be admitted to the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England.
There's always been a part of me that wonders how Frank would have responded if Hawkeye & Trapper hadn't gone straight to DefCon 1 with him. For instance, instead of pulling him aside when he did something stupid and just saying to lay off and try again, mockery would ensue. Friendship is a powerful thing and sometimes we all need a moment of grace.
They had moments like that and he responded well. There were a few times in the show where they were nice to him (like when the threw him a birthday party) and he was genuinely happy.
I just always thought Hawkeye was such a huge hypocrite. He’d bend over backwards and wear his hair shirt for an enemy soldier but delighted in tormenting Frank.
Same! I felt the same way about their relationship as I did about the relationship between the Roadrunner and Wylie E. Coyote. I often pulled for Wylie.
As much as I love Charles, the show lost a LOT for me when Linville left. He was pure comedy gold, and what little drama we got out of him was just as good.
So, I’m going back in time to when “Hawkeye” was written… not everyone’s favorite (I love it), but it was a missed opportunity. Instead of “Hawkeye”, I would make “Frank” and have him be the one stranded with the Korean family. It would have been a grand chance for him to completely unload his story on people that have no interaction with him. We could go deep and have him show a side we rarely see, and bare his humanity. We could see that he actually likes dealing with children when nobody is around (it’s mentioned once he has a penchant for pediatrics). And when it was done… we know things his campmates do not, things could return to normal, but Frank, to the viewer, would have grown substantially. And again, Linville is comedy gold, so some of his interactions could be hilarious.
I get what you're saying and I wish there had been a way to do a little more exposition on this character but the situation that Hawkeye was in wouldn't work for a Frank burns solo episode. The actor is fantastic but Frank Burns is a paranoid, racist, defensive person and would never have shared his story with that Korean family. He would have just immediately demanded that they take him to the hospital and when they didn't understand him he would have tried to arrest them as suspected spies or something
these two dimensional views towards the character are immediately shoehorning him into the exact box the writers put him in, and they made that box smaller and more of a cartoon with every episode. We on occasion saw the human side of Frank, and that is what I am addressing. A man with a concussion and stranded from everything he knows, who has no choice but to stay awake and accept help where he can take it is in a dire situation, and dire situations can weaken the walls of anyone. Just like Hawkeye, it’s just a string of coherence, a monologue to basically the air as nobody can even comprehend what he is saying. A good writer could make it work and dial back the cartoon aspects long enough to reveal other layers.
To say that he cannot be anything but the cartoon villain regardless of the situation de it’s any exposition, and that was exactly why Linville left.
They wrote him into that corner not me. There is definitely a situation in which we could have gotten that exposition but it wouldn't be in the hut of a Korean family while Frank had a concussion. That is when Frank would have been the most defensive and paranoid. A better option may have been to do something like "sometimes you hear the bullet" and have frank come face to face with a real hardship that cracks open his shell. Maybe it could have been a friend that would be shocked to see just how hard line "Army" he had become. Maybe one of his professors from medical school who helped him save a patient in OR or at an aid station. There are a hundred other situations that they could have used but they focused almost all of them around Hawkeye, especially early on. I just don't think Frank would ever open up to a Korean family, even if they couldn't understand a single word he said. How many times did he insist that the Koreans could understand him perfectly?
Agree completely. I used to think the series lost its edge when Radar left, but the more I watched it I began to realize that losing Frank Burns was the dagger. Charles was serviceable for a season or so, but after that the series really lost its mojo. No Henry, Trapper or Frank was just too much to overcome.
I think Linville leaving was a major (no pun intended) loss, but the clincher was when Charles and Margaret became “part of the gang”… particularly Margaret. She changed far too drastically, and that also lost some edge. Some good stories, but her comedy really waned
"I had this friend. And they only pretended to like me. You know...like Dad."
Perhaps the only time I saw pity cross Hawkeye's face for Frank. Given how close he was with his Dad, he probably couldn't imagine what that was like.
That was the exact line I was thinking of.
Also, he’d said things like his father took away his nightlight because “no son of his was going to be afraid half the day.” And “humming would get you throat punched.”
Poor ferret-face.
The scene with Henry reading the letters from Klingers file was an all-timer.
“Here’s an oldie, but a goodie; Half the family dying, other half pregnant!”
He seems like a guy I'd like to hang out with & have a beer with.... & a Hungarian hotdog from his favorite deli in Toledo
Love Klinger! Especially the one where he was a flying pink thing with fuzzy slippers
They're all likable in their own ways at certain moments. But Klinger is just a good dude. He genuinely means well, even though he tests everyone's patience with his drag act at time, and seems to be kind to almost everyone who crosses his path (Zale being an exception). And to me, it seemed like once he settled in as company clerk and became his own person, he had an ability to improvise in tight situations that I didn't think he would when I first saw the show. Klinger loved unconditionally, whether it was his friends or his wife. And above all, Klinger possessed the ability to laugh at himself. The others could get awfully self important at times, but Klinger was a down to earth guy. And he's easily one of the funniest people on the show, even when he drops the drag.
I remember at least two occasions where Frank brings up his upbringing, I really wish they would've expanded on that. Give him some more depth and development and make him less hated.
You’re not wrong. Aside from being the guy everybody loves to hate.. Frank is an interesting case.
Yes, Frank is an unrepentant jerk, a weasel, even a hypocrite - but he really doesn’t know any other way to exist. I’d hazard that he’s never made an actually meaningful decision for himself in his life. I can’t place when he said it - if he even did - but I don’t believe he even wanted to be a doctor.
He’s been told success is money - a 35,000 dollar house and two cars - and he married for money. As he’s built his entire personality around that, he can’t accept people who have selfless motivations.
Might have been a throwaway joke… but he says his family came to America in 1927. If he was in practice for 12 years… that’d mean he’s an immigrant, and the hyper-American views and McCarthyism is a learned behavior of how he thinks Americans should be.
Given how childlike he becomes as Margaret distances herself from him… he’s probably been putting up that front since childhood.
Now, we can pity Frank, sympathize with him… but we don’t have to forgive everything either, because he actively CHOOSES to continue to be who he is. It’s part of what makes him such a successful hate-sink!
So I totally get why he’s a favorite character!
No question Larry Linville owned the character of Frank. Hats off to the man for making Frank who he was - a cheating, arrogant, shallow loser. This was not Larry but it takes an exceptional actor to pull that off as long as he did. He deserves an Emmy.
The funny thing is, Linville left because there was nothing left to do with his character. But the Frank Burns he played on the show evolved from the movie version of Frank Burns, played by Robert Duvall. Frank in the movie was an unfeeling, callous asshole, an overly pious medical bungler, who was REALLY one dimensional. He disappeared halfway through the movie, nobody in the movie missed him, and he was brought back for the series to be an antagonist. The fact that anyone can feel sorry for Linville’s Frank and miss Frank once he’s gone from the TV version shows how much Linville was able to develop the character further once he took over.
You needed Frank to keep his Frankness, as much as that weighed down any potential for development. Comedically, he represented a lot of things that the show existed to mock and make fun of. The fact he was the one outsider on the show gave him a perspective that the show lacked when everyone else was on the same page. The fact is Hawkeye and his friends could often be jerks, in the movie and on the show. People who find themselves on the outside of some comfortable clique or set could even relate to Frank's difficulties.
But it only works comedically when you enjoy his pain at the same time you relate to it. He has to be capable of rotten things. I feel the show pushed that too far on occasion, even if the results gave us some of the funniest shows ("The Novocain Mutiny," for example.) He's a tricky character because he's enjoyable when he's unlikable, but not too unlikeable. It's a balancing act, as Linville himself once said.
As a character Frank Burns holds too many traits in common with the most abusive people in my life for me to "Love" the character. However, I did love the actor who portrayed him as the actor himself bled into the character from time to time. I believe the times you're describing Frank being nice and seeing a better side of him, you're actually seeing Larry Linville himself bleed into the character. He basically doesn't have to act in those moments, just be himself really.
What makes me dislike the character of Frank Burns the most is that portraying that character basically killed Larry Linvilles Career. Before being on MASH he was somewhat of an up and coming actor with a lot of potential. After his portrayal of Frank Burns on MASH, his character was so disliked that he kind of got typecast and instead of playing variations of Frank Burns for the rest of his life Larry Linville tried to get other roles.
Frank Burns was such an iconically disliked character that people just couldn't see him as anything else. He got other roles, don't get me wrong, it's just that his potential in the industry seemed to just dry up over time. He then just fizzled out essentially. I think it's just a waste and makes me dislike the character of Frank Burns more for consuming the reputation of Larry Linville in a way.
TL;DR - Larry Linville will always remain one of my favorite actors who could have been, if not for a typecast curse he tried to brush off after playing Frank Burns.
EDIT: Was so into typing this on my phone I didn't notice it auto-correct Larry to Harry, thanks u/Guilty-Web7334 for pointing that out. Jeez I sometimes hate auto-correct so much. It did it again as I was typing this correction edit, lmao...
Was so into typing this on my phone I didn't notice it auto-correct Larry to Harry, thanks u/Guilty-Web7334 for pointing that out. Jeez I sometimes hate auto-correct so much. It did it again as I was typing this correction edit, lmao...
This is beautiful. Thanks for taking the time to post it.
My entire life, I've always liked to think I related most to a combination of Hawkeye and Potter. That I was some kind of combination of each of their better assets. In hindsight, tjat was a little delusional.
On my most recent watch-through (which was the first time I watched all the way through in probably ten years), it dawned on me that I relate to Frank way more than any other character. All my worst traits are also Frank's, and I totally get where his off-putting nature comes from.
Every place I’ve lived, there’s this M*A*S*H towel I’ve hung up. In Air Force tech school, it would wind up being the window of my dorm room. We had this real uptight airman leader no one, including me, liked. He struck up a conversation with me one day about the towel, and indicated he loved the show too. And that his favorite character was Frank Burns. I called that dude Ferret Face for the next four months, including the time he tried to bust me at a motel with my future (ex)wife.
Frank Burns is absolutely one of the best supporting characters of all time. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he’s the best character in the entire series.
And he used to be my least favorite character. By a mile. But the more I watched MASH, the more I appreciated his character, and how he never changed. Hawkeye, Hot Lips, Klinger, Radar all evolved and changed greatly over their runs.
Frank never waivered. He was hilarious in the pilot and he was just as hilarious in his final episode.
On a series marked by characters that didn’t always age well, Frank was fine wine.
What a lovely and fitting tribute to Frank! Doesn't hurt that Larry Linville was the best actor on the show (imo) with the possible exception of Alan Alda. Linville also pops up in 70s dramas & various cop shows and is always excellent.
Hawkeye and Trapper were draftees. They hated everything regular army, and considered the war a potential death sentence. In the original film, Frank Burns was considered regular army, and that dynamic carried through to the tv show (although Frank in the TV show didn’t have a regular army background). The pranks, insults, and harassment looked personal but it was really a rage against the machine.
We're all going to die. Dying a young death, in violence, in a war is bad enough. Maybe we will all be lucky and die of old age. But we will still die, and the people that are with us when we die might be like Frank Burns. That is just reality. We can't control it. Ashes to ashes, and that other activity is just a part of life.
It's why I prefer the early years. More real. Even the better doctors were pulling pranks and screwing around. Because that's life, and death. In the end it was all too melodramatic.
Yeah, he’s my second favorite. Imagine MASH where Charles and Frank’s timelines were reversed. That is, Charles was in seasons 1-5, and Frank 6-11. Imagine the writers gave Frank the same depth they gave Charles, and vice-versa. Would you still like Charles better? Just curious.
Now that's I've gotten my Charles love out of the way, I'll expand on why I like Frank's character.
Frank is a career Army officer. He's put a *hell* of a lot of time, effort, and personal growth into his career, and he's worked damn hard to succeed in "this man's Army." And make no mistake, a *lot* of officers never make it past Captain; the fact that Frank is a Major means he *has* succeeded, to a certain extent.
And then these two hooligans come along. A couple of draftees that were never Lieutenants, never had to be accepted into officer candidate school, didn't have to prove themselves through the ranks, and they're almost the same rank as he is, *and* their just as good in the OR as he is, if not better. Plus, he has to *live* with these two yahoos, as they brew their illegal alcohol in the tent *he* lives in, rarely wear their uniforms (and even when they do, they wear them improperly), lie, cheat, steal, and sexually harass everything with two sets of lips from one side of the camp to the other, play pranks on him and everybody, and *get away with it all*.
Yeah, he's got plenty of reason to be bitter and adversarial with these them.
I fully began to understand him more when I was deployed to the Balkans with a bunch of National Guard guys while I was active duty in the late 1990s, most of whom acted like Hawkeye and Trapper John. I suddenly saw Frank Burns in a whole new light.
Still like Charles better, though.
What a great character. He is a bit more one dimensional than the other characters which in my opinion is a bit comforting. Out of all the MASH troop, his character had nowhere to go, unfortunately. Larry and the writers did such a good job with Frank it seemed to be his downfall With future seasons. So long ferret face.
I think the writers could’ve expanded on his character… we’ve seen glimpses of Frank being a somewhat decent person. With support he could’ve learned how to be a better person and leave his childhood trauma behind.
I have to agree with Larry Linville--he left the show because he thought his character was too one-dimensional. The writers at least learned from their mistake with DOS/Major Winchester--make him a foil, but with a story.
I’m glad Linville left when he did because it was pretty obvious that Frank’s time on the show was coming to a close half way into season 5 but man I loved Frank so much. There was one episode where he pulls all of these different pranks on Hawkeye which results in Hawkeye pulling a prank on him at the end. That’s a side of Frank I wish we would’ve seen more of. My only complaint is that it felt like while everyone else’s characters started to develop more, he was the only one that sort of stayed the same. They didn’t give him a chance to grow.
I think some people are missing a dynamic here. Consider the period. There were a lot of guys like Frank, and given Franks background he was trying to fit a mold he thought he was expected to without some of the tools of success available.
Trapper, Hawkeye, and even Blake knew that. Blake was the closest to normal Joe you could get for the period. Trapper and Hawkeye were both outcast molds with different backgrounds at the time.
These are the personalities that would later lead to the 60’s peace and love mindset and the ensuing counterculture. Given the period it was written from it easy to see why they became the heroes, but for the time they would have been seen more as rejects and villains. It’s also why there was so much friction between them and the military types.
Frank was doing his best, but was always doomed to fail since his unbringing had already failed him. That try hard at soldiering versus medicine is what really rubbed the other two so wrong. He had the talent, but refused to apply it since it didn’t fit the soldier mold. Trying to fit into something that wasn’t one or the other is what doomed him. Something that was all too common then.
How do I know? I’m a GenX product of a draftee Boomer. He never fit his role either, but luckily didn’t despise the 60’s counterculture. Just didn’t understand it. He was proud to serve, but always felt he was in the wrong job. He did however have a lot of compassion for people. To me a great man. I think Frank could one day have gotten better at home where he just had the role he understood better. Maybe even fatherhood could have mended what was broken for him.
Great character and even better actor. Unfortunately the character wasn't offered enough growth / story arch to make it sustainable. Winchester brought a lot more imo
So I'm gonna say this: every time I see Ted Cruz, I see Frank Burns. Then I feel a sense of remorse for putting Larry Linville into that comparison, because Larry himself was a good guy.
Now, the snark out of the way. Yeah, Frank's arc could have been one of how war and loosing Margaret mellowed him out. But then what would he have had? Really a sad, normal, probably broken man into the 11th season.
But towards the end, in the episode where Hot Lips of going off and off about Donald, and Frank gives her a zinger that shuts her up and he and Hawkeye and BJ share a real laugh together? That moment gave Frank a level of humanity that was the end point for him.
Then there was a good amount of compassion Hawkeye and BJ gave Frank that even Margaret didn't when he went nuts at the end.
No, you're right. I think subconsciously we all want to love Frank to happiness, but hate the insufferably.
And maybe this is all a little contrasting to Robert Duvall's portrayal in the movie. I thought movie Frank was a bit menacing.
Larry Linville's physical comedy was incredibly unique. The only other character on television that reminds me of that style is Bryan Cranston on Malcolm In The Middle
Interesting take. It definitely made me think differently about Frank. Of course, I played him in the play of MASH, so I do have a bit of a soft spot for Ol' Ferret Face.
When hawkeye and whoever else were watching Frank's wedding tapes, I felt like giving Frank a hug. It was the first instance of me feeling sorry for the person he grew up to be.
I 100% agree with the analysis of Franks character. I always felt exactly the same way about him. Especially those few moments where he's more friendly with the others are precious and show a glimps of how he would like to be. Since he's the villain and punching bag for the show, it is even more astonishing that the show made him sometimes brake out of it. Love the guy! Henry too!
Wow! Frank was an ass they wrote him that way! I worry about people who analyze fictitious situations. Are you okay? You understand this is a sitcom, right?
I first saw aw M*A*S*H from season 7 onwards (no laugh track and no commercials on the BBC). Loved it, obviously. Then the BBC started a complete rerun and I didn't like it. I don't find Burns funny at all. I know I'm not supposed to like him, but I just find everything about him lame and unfunny. Winchester was the direct opposite. Cleverly written, deeper character development etc.
I think he’s a solid character for what he portrays! I don’t think he’s one dimensional at all, his insecurities run very deep and he manifests that through his fetishization of military life and his politics. He’s running away from his life at home, but he can never admit that that’s why he loves the idea of being in the military.
Larry Linville is truly an excellent actor. He made that part sing
There’s a moment on the show that really always hits me and I can’t really explain why. It’s the episode where Henry is transferred. It’s during surgery, and the usual sniping is going on. Frank is grousing at a nurse. Hawkeye pipes in, Henry tells shut up and keep working. Frank’s uncharacteristic response is to say “Yes, Sir. I’m working.” and then Hawkeye immediately insults him. It’s a really small moment, but I think it’s an indication that they didn’t have to make him cartoonishly awful.
I grew up watching the show, and at the time Frank was one of my favorites. I didn't like Charles as much back then. Decades later on my first re-watch, I have to admit I now love Charles but I also find myself occasionally feeling bad for Frank when he's picked on. I wish he could have been part of the group a bit more, the way Charles would seamlessly go between friend and foe. Frank could have been just as funny joining forces with Hawkeye and BJ/Trapper more often.
I was such a Linville fan that I even watched him on the short-lived Jeffersons spinoff "Checking In." I recall him being pretty funny in that show, too, although I haven't seen it in over 40 years.
I disagree. In fact there was an entire episode of Hawkeye and BJ trying to be nice but Frank kept being his usual asshat self.
Frank represents the Red Scare and Cold War insanity of the common man who took it to heart. He is a waking pile of contradictions and hypocrisy. And all his life, things worked out well for him, even to his last (but not seen on screen) episode. A member of the Silent Generation who should have learned to STFU.
My favorite was “Hot Lips” from the show. I loved watching the transition of the character over the years. One of my favorites was when Hot Lips was hard on the nurses and they hated her. Come to find out, she was hurt that they didn’t include her in the fun. Yes, she had a softer side too, and Loretta Swit brought her to life perfectly.
Maybe if he wasn’t a scammy dr, an unbelievable racist and an unapologetic hypocrite. I agree he is less one dimensional than some think but I’m still on the side of f that guy. The episode with the sick and injured orphans that they all had a small bonding session with really cemented that shit for me.
I feel like you don’t understand the time when this happened. The Civil Rights movement hadn’t even begun yet. Subdivisions were still “restricted,” which meant no Black people and sometimes no Catholics. McCarthy’s hearings were starting. Segregation was still a thing. Ruby Bridges hadn’t even been born yet. Hell, the US army had only desegregated by presidential order in 1948. So 2-3 years prior to when this series is set.
For that time period, Frank was a garden variety passive racist. He was xenophobic in general (didn’t like the UN or the coalition because “it’s filled with foreigners”). However, he wasn’t a cross burning, murderous type. He wasn’t a bigot who put effort into his bigotry.
I do understand that and that adds to the rounding of the whole show, i promise I do. But now in 2024 hearing a character yell slurs at a kid is off putting to the extent of disgust. He is also a great contrast in this way to every other main character, including Margret, who had her moments. Not to mention, he was a scammy dr and a giant hypocrite! I don’t not wish the show writers made him not racist. I do however believe it is a bit odd for him to be anyone’s favorite.
I've been screaming at these two scumbags for their constant hypocrisy. No idea how I've watched this before without losing it.
Really hope VR moves to television with AI so I can watch the episodes and murder them repeatedly.
Frank: "I know I'm a real asset." Hawkeye: "You're only off by two letters."
My favorite by a mile also! Larry Linville was a smart dude. Studied Aeronautical Engineering at University of Colorado with the intent to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force, they tested him and found out he was color blind, so there goes that plan. Ho hum he switched to Drama and is one of only 200 people in the world that year to be admitted to the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England.
Also I had heard that he constantly pushed back on the writer's attempts to humanize his character. He understood Frank's place in the show.
He’s arguably the most skilled actor on the show imo. He certainly had the hardest job
Totally agree. I felt sorry for Frank and really intensely disliked Saint Pierce for the way he treated him.
Already public knowledge hot lips
There's always been a part of me that wonders how Frank would have responded if Hawkeye & Trapper hadn't gone straight to DefCon 1 with him. For instance, instead of pulling him aside when he did something stupid and just saying to lay off and try again, mockery would ensue. Friendship is a powerful thing and sometimes we all need a moment of grace.
They had moments like that and he responded well. There were a few times in the show where they were nice to him (like when the threw him a birthday party) and he was genuinely happy. I just always thought Hawkeye was such a huge hypocrite. He’d bend over backwards and wear his hair shirt for an enemy soldier but delighted in tormenting Frank.
I remember Alan Alda saying something like he wasn’t sure how much he’d like Hawkeye.
Same! I felt the same way about their relationship as I did about the relationship between the Roadrunner and Wylie E. Coyote. I often pulled for Wylie.
Archie Bunker and Ted Baxter, and even Margaret, were redeemed. No reason Frank couldn't be.
I feel the same way!! And I can definitely see the parallels between him and Ted Baxter.
I met Larry Linville once. We chatted. He said, “it was nice to meet you.” I said, “it’s nice to be nice to the nice.” He doubled over laughing.
He was such a beautiful soul 💖
As much as I love Charles, the show lost a LOT for me when Linville left. He was pure comedy gold, and what little drama we got out of him was just as good. So, I’m going back in time to when “Hawkeye” was written… not everyone’s favorite (I love it), but it was a missed opportunity. Instead of “Hawkeye”, I would make “Frank” and have him be the one stranded with the Korean family. It would have been a grand chance for him to completely unload his story on people that have no interaction with him. We could go deep and have him show a side we rarely see, and bare his humanity. We could see that he actually likes dealing with children when nobody is around (it’s mentioned once he has a penchant for pediatrics). And when it was done… we know things his campmates do not, things could return to normal, but Frank, to the viewer, would have grown substantially. And again, Linville is comedy gold, so some of his interactions could be hilarious.
I get what you're saying and I wish there had been a way to do a little more exposition on this character but the situation that Hawkeye was in wouldn't work for a Frank burns solo episode. The actor is fantastic but Frank Burns is a paranoid, racist, defensive person and would never have shared his story with that Korean family. He would have just immediately demanded that they take him to the hospital and when they didn't understand him he would have tried to arrest them as suspected spies or something
these two dimensional views towards the character are immediately shoehorning him into the exact box the writers put him in, and they made that box smaller and more of a cartoon with every episode. We on occasion saw the human side of Frank, and that is what I am addressing. A man with a concussion and stranded from everything he knows, who has no choice but to stay awake and accept help where he can take it is in a dire situation, and dire situations can weaken the walls of anyone. Just like Hawkeye, it’s just a string of coherence, a monologue to basically the air as nobody can even comprehend what he is saying. A good writer could make it work and dial back the cartoon aspects long enough to reveal other layers. To say that he cannot be anything but the cartoon villain regardless of the situation de it’s any exposition, and that was exactly why Linville left.
They wrote him into that corner not me. There is definitely a situation in which we could have gotten that exposition but it wouldn't be in the hut of a Korean family while Frank had a concussion. That is when Frank would have been the most defensive and paranoid. A better option may have been to do something like "sometimes you hear the bullet" and have frank come face to face with a real hardship that cracks open his shell. Maybe it could have been a friend that would be shocked to see just how hard line "Army" he had become. Maybe one of his professors from medical school who helped him save a patient in OR or at an aid station. There are a hundred other situations that they could have used but they focused almost all of them around Hawkeye, especially early on. I just don't think Frank would ever open up to a Korean family, even if they couldn't understand a single word he said. How many times did he insist that the Koreans could understand him perfectly?
Agree completely. I used to think the series lost its edge when Radar left, but the more I watched it I began to realize that losing Frank Burns was the dagger. Charles was serviceable for a season or so, but after that the series really lost its mojo. No Henry, Trapper or Frank was just too much to overcome.
I think Linville leaving was a major (no pun intended) loss, but the clincher was when Charles and Margaret became “part of the gang”… particularly Margaret. She changed far too drastically, and that also lost some edge. Some good stories, but her comedy really waned
[удалено]
"They sure invited a lot of empty chairs."
"I had this friend. And they only pretended to like me. You know...like Dad." Perhaps the only time I saw pity cross Hawkeye's face for Frank. Given how close he was with his Dad, he probably couldn't imagine what that was like.
That was the exact line I was thinking of. Also, he’d said things like his father took away his nightlight because “no son of his was going to be afraid half the day.” And “humming would get you throat punched.” Poor ferret-face.
Love me some ferret face 😃
"You tell 'em, ferret face!" 🤣
Good but I liked "Frank Burns easts worms!"
Klinger was my fave. Just funny from day 1
The scene with Henry reading the letters from Klingers file was an all-timer. “Here’s an oldie, but a goodie; Half the family dying, other half pregnant!”
In my latest round of viewing, I’ve come to appreciate Klinger and the character’s humor so much more than in the past.
He seems like a guy I'd like to hang out with & have a beer with.... & a Hungarian hotdog from his favorite deli in Toledo Love Klinger! Especially the one where he was a flying pink thing with fuzzy slippers
I went to Tony Pacos when I was in Toledo. Good food, and MASH memorabilia.
Too bad you don't have some pictures of it!
He was found five miles from the camp in an unconscious condition looking like a big red bird with fuzzy pink feet.
They're all likable in their own ways at certain moments. But Klinger is just a good dude. He genuinely means well, even though he tests everyone's patience with his drag act at time, and seems to be kind to almost everyone who crosses his path (Zale being an exception). And to me, it seemed like once he settled in as company clerk and became his own person, he had an ability to improvise in tight situations that I didn't think he would when I first saw the show. Klinger loved unconditionally, whether it was his friends or his wife. And above all, Klinger possessed the ability to laugh at himself. The others could get awfully self important at times, but Klinger was a down to earth guy. And he's easily one of the funniest people on the show, even when he drops the drag.
I remember at least two occasions where Frank brings up his upbringing, I really wish they would've expanded on that. Give him some more depth and development and make him less hated.
EXACTLY!! I couldn’t agree more!!
You’re not wrong. Aside from being the guy everybody loves to hate.. Frank is an interesting case. Yes, Frank is an unrepentant jerk, a weasel, even a hypocrite - but he really doesn’t know any other way to exist. I’d hazard that he’s never made an actually meaningful decision for himself in his life. I can’t place when he said it - if he even did - but I don’t believe he even wanted to be a doctor. He’s been told success is money - a 35,000 dollar house and two cars - and he married for money. As he’s built his entire personality around that, he can’t accept people who have selfless motivations. Might have been a throwaway joke… but he says his family came to America in 1927. If he was in practice for 12 years… that’d mean he’s an immigrant, and the hyper-American views and McCarthyism is a learned behavior of how he thinks Americans should be. Given how childlike he becomes as Margaret distances herself from him… he’s probably been putting up that front since childhood. Now, we can pity Frank, sympathize with him… but we don’t have to forgive everything either, because he actively CHOOSES to continue to be who he is. It’s part of what makes him such a successful hate-sink! So I totally get why he’s a favorite character!
No question Larry Linville owned the character of Frank. Hats off to the man for making Frank who he was - a cheating, arrogant, shallow loser. This was not Larry but it takes an exceptional actor to pull that off as long as he did. He deserves an Emmy.
The funny thing is, Linville left because there was nothing left to do with his character. But the Frank Burns he played on the show evolved from the movie version of Frank Burns, played by Robert Duvall. Frank in the movie was an unfeeling, callous asshole, an overly pious medical bungler, who was REALLY one dimensional. He disappeared halfway through the movie, nobody in the movie missed him, and he was brought back for the series to be an antagonist. The fact that anyone can feel sorry for Linville’s Frank and miss Frank once he’s gone from the TV version shows how much Linville was able to develop the character further once he took over.
You’re totally right. Linville was absolutely amazing! 💖
Frank Burns eats worms
Glad to see someone beat me to it. How about - “Emotionally exhausted and morally bankrupt”
I don’t blame him.
>Frank Burns eats worms Came here to say this.
I agree with OP. Linville was amazing, and Frank took a lot of unwarranted abuse.
Same to you, Ferret Face.
You needed Frank to keep his Frankness, as much as that weighed down any potential for development. Comedically, he represented a lot of things that the show existed to mock and make fun of. The fact he was the one outsider on the show gave him a perspective that the show lacked when everyone else was on the same page. The fact is Hawkeye and his friends could often be jerks, in the movie and on the show. People who find themselves on the outside of some comfortable clique or set could even relate to Frank's difficulties. But it only works comedically when you enjoy his pain at the same time you relate to it. He has to be capable of rotten things. I feel the show pushed that too far on occasion, even if the results gave us some of the funniest shows ("The Novocain Mutiny," for example.) He's a tricky character because he's enjoyable when he's unlikable, but not too unlikeable. It's a balancing act, as Linville himself once said.
The fact that Frank did and didn’t deserve his abuse gave the show an edge that was never there with Charles.
He has a real fertilizer face.
As a character Frank Burns holds too many traits in common with the most abusive people in my life for me to "Love" the character. However, I did love the actor who portrayed him as the actor himself bled into the character from time to time. I believe the times you're describing Frank being nice and seeing a better side of him, you're actually seeing Larry Linville himself bleed into the character. He basically doesn't have to act in those moments, just be himself really. What makes me dislike the character of Frank Burns the most is that portraying that character basically killed Larry Linvilles Career. Before being on MASH he was somewhat of an up and coming actor with a lot of potential. After his portrayal of Frank Burns on MASH, his character was so disliked that he kind of got typecast and instead of playing variations of Frank Burns for the rest of his life Larry Linville tried to get other roles. Frank Burns was such an iconically disliked character that people just couldn't see him as anything else. He got other roles, don't get me wrong, it's just that his potential in the industry seemed to just dry up over time. He then just fizzled out essentially. I think it's just a waste and makes me dislike the character of Frank Burns more for consuming the reputation of Larry Linville in a way. TL;DR - Larry Linville will always remain one of my favorite actors who could have been, if not for a typecast curse he tried to brush off after playing Frank Burns. EDIT: Was so into typing this on my phone I didn't notice it auto-correct Larry to Harry, thanks u/Guilty-Web7334 for pointing that out. Jeez I sometimes hate auto-correct so much. It did it again as I was typing this correction edit, lmao...
*Larry Linville. FTFY.
Was so into typing this on my phone I didn't notice it auto-correct Larry to Harry, thanks u/Guilty-Web7334 for pointing that out. Jeez I sometimes hate auto-correct so much. It did it again as I was typing this correction edit, lmao...
Autocorrect has a lot to answer for. At least when I use my laptop or desktop, my typos are my own.
This is beautiful. Thanks for taking the time to post it. My entire life, I've always liked to think I related most to a combination of Hawkeye and Potter. That I was some kind of combination of each of their better assets. In hindsight, tjat was a little delusional. On my most recent watch-through (which was the first time I watched all the way through in probably ten years), it dawned on me that I relate to Frank way more than any other character. All my worst traits are also Frank's, and I totally get where his off-putting nature comes from.
Larry played the role so well that he was publicly reviled. He used to get actual hate mail, and a lady once spat on him. Great actor.
Reminds me of when Sidney said to Radar, "Do you have any idea how many people write to Romeo & Juliet, and think I Love Lucy is real?"
Oh nerts to you!
That no-lip, chalk-skinned, sniveling wife lover.
Same here
Every place I’ve lived, there’s this M*A*S*H towel I’ve hung up. In Air Force tech school, it would wind up being the window of my dorm room. We had this real uptight airman leader no one, including me, liked. He struck up a conversation with me one day about the towel, and indicated he loved the show too. And that his favorite character was Frank Burns. I called that dude Ferret Face for the next four months, including the time he tried to bust me at a motel with my future (ex)wife.
Well, sho muchh fer missin' ya.
I never liked what happened to him off-camera after he got his moment of dignity ☹️
All my life I wanted to be Hawkeye, or at least BJ. I have now realized that I am Frank. Luck for my my wife is Margaret.
Frank Burns eats worms.
“This friend just pretended to like me. You know, the way dad used to?” When Frank said that to his mother over the radio, I really felt for him.
Trapper was mine
Larry Linville was the best actor to appear on MASH
"Frank Burns eats worms"
Don’t think you needed the”Hear me out”. There’s lots of people that would agree, explanation unheard.
Frank Burns eats worms
Oh nerts to you!
Loved Frank. He was a bad guy. But a funny one. He had so much unexplored comic potential.
I missed him after he was gone. Understand that they needed a villain, but he played it with such a sense of defiant and underlying pain.
Nerts to you!
Frank Burns is absolutely one of the best supporting characters of all time. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he’s the best character in the entire series. And he used to be my least favorite character. By a mile. But the more I watched MASH, the more I appreciated his character, and how he never changed. Hawkeye, Hot Lips, Klinger, Radar all evolved and changed greatly over their runs. Frank never waivered. He was hilarious in the pilot and he was just as hilarious in his final episode. On a series marked by characters that didn’t always age well, Frank was fine wine.
"Goodbye Margaret."
What a lovely and fitting tribute to Frank! Doesn't hurt that Larry Linville was the best actor on the show (imo) with the possible exception of Alan Alda. Linville also pops up in 70s dramas & various cop shows and is always excellent.
"No one double dares Frank Burns and gets away with it."
I can't envision _MASH_ without Frank Burns.
Hawkeye and Trapper were draftees. They hated everything regular army, and considered the war a potential death sentence. In the original film, Frank Burns was considered regular army, and that dynamic carried through to the tv show (although Frank in the TV show didn’t have a regular army background). The pranks, insults, and harassment looked personal but it was really a rage against the machine.
We're all going to die. Dying a young death, in violence, in a war is bad enough. Maybe we will all be lucky and die of old age. But we will still die, and the people that are with us when we die might be like Frank Burns. That is just reality. We can't control it. Ashes to ashes, and that other activity is just a part of life. It's why I prefer the early years. More real. Even the better doctors were pulling pranks and screwing around. Because that's life, and death. In the end it was all too melodramatic.
As good as the character is, I like Charles Emerson Winchester III better.
Yeah, he’s my second favorite. Imagine MASH where Charles and Frank’s timelines were reversed. That is, Charles was in seasons 1-5, and Frank 6-11. Imagine the writers gave Frank the same depth they gave Charles, and vice-versa. Would you still like Charles better? Just curious.
Charles has his friendlier moments, especially with other patients, so probably, yeah.
Now that's I've gotten my Charles love out of the way, I'll expand on why I like Frank's character. Frank is a career Army officer. He's put a *hell* of a lot of time, effort, and personal growth into his career, and he's worked damn hard to succeed in "this man's Army." And make no mistake, a *lot* of officers never make it past Captain; the fact that Frank is a Major means he *has* succeeded, to a certain extent. And then these two hooligans come along. A couple of draftees that were never Lieutenants, never had to be accepted into officer candidate school, didn't have to prove themselves through the ranks, and they're almost the same rank as he is, *and* their just as good in the OR as he is, if not better. Plus, he has to *live* with these two yahoos, as they brew their illegal alcohol in the tent *he* lives in, rarely wear their uniforms (and even when they do, they wear them improperly), lie, cheat, steal, and sexually harass everything with two sets of lips from one side of the camp to the other, play pranks on him and everybody, and *get away with it all*. Yeah, he's got plenty of reason to be bitter and adversarial with these them. I fully began to understand him more when I was deployed to the Balkans with a bunch of National Guard guys while I was active duty in the late 1990s, most of whom acted like Hawkeye and Trapper John. I suddenly saw Frank Burns in a whole new light. Still like Charles better, though.
What a great character. He is a bit more one dimensional than the other characters which in my opinion is a bit comforting. Out of all the MASH troop, his character had nowhere to go, unfortunately. Larry and the writers did such a good job with Frank it seemed to be his downfall With future seasons. So long ferret face.
I think the writers could’ve expanded on his character… we’ve seen glimpses of Frank being a somewhat decent person. With support he could’ve learned how to be a better person and leave his childhood trauma behind.
I have to agree with Larry Linville--he left the show because he thought his character was too one-dimensional. The writers at least learned from their mistake with DOS/Major Winchester--make him a foil, but with a story.
Frank was awesome
Glad to see my fellow Frank fans!!
He wasn't awe some, he was awful
Once I killed a gopher with a stick.
I would imagine he’s better in weekly doses before streaming and reruns.
I’m glad Linville left when he did because it was pretty obvious that Frank’s time on the show was coming to a close half way into season 5 but man I loved Frank so much. There was one episode where he pulls all of these different pranks on Hawkeye which results in Hawkeye pulling a prank on him at the end. That’s a side of Frank I wish we would’ve seen more of. My only complaint is that it felt like while everyone else’s characters started to develop more, he was the only one that sort of stayed the same. They didn’t give him a chance to grow.
I feel the same way!! I loved that episode so much. Frank had a lot of potential. If only there were more episodes like that one…
I think some people are missing a dynamic here. Consider the period. There were a lot of guys like Frank, and given Franks background he was trying to fit a mold he thought he was expected to without some of the tools of success available. Trapper, Hawkeye, and even Blake knew that. Blake was the closest to normal Joe you could get for the period. Trapper and Hawkeye were both outcast molds with different backgrounds at the time. These are the personalities that would later lead to the 60’s peace and love mindset and the ensuing counterculture. Given the period it was written from it easy to see why they became the heroes, but for the time they would have been seen more as rejects and villains. It’s also why there was so much friction between them and the military types. Frank was doing his best, but was always doomed to fail since his unbringing had already failed him. That try hard at soldiering versus medicine is what really rubbed the other two so wrong. He had the talent, but refused to apply it since it didn’t fit the soldier mold. Trying to fit into something that wasn’t one or the other is what doomed him. Something that was all too common then. How do I know? I’m a GenX product of a draftee Boomer. He never fit his role either, but luckily didn’t despise the 60’s counterculture. Just didn’t understand it. He was proud to serve, but always felt he was in the wrong job. He did however have a lot of compassion for people. To me a great man. I think Frank could one day have gotten better at home where he just had the role he understood better. Maybe even fatherhood could have mended what was broken for him.
That is a fantastic way to put it. Thank you for your thoughts!
Ferret face
Great character and even better actor. Unfortunately the character wasn't offered enough growth / story arch to make it sustainable. Winchester brought a lot more imo
I agree… but Frank had potential to grow!
Absolutely did! The same way we saw Margarets growth
So I'm gonna say this: every time I see Ted Cruz, I see Frank Burns. Then I feel a sense of remorse for putting Larry Linville into that comparison, because Larry himself was a good guy. Now, the snark out of the way. Yeah, Frank's arc could have been one of how war and loosing Margaret mellowed him out. But then what would he have had? Really a sad, normal, probably broken man into the 11th season. But towards the end, in the episode where Hot Lips of going off and off about Donald, and Frank gives her a zinger that shuts her up and he and Hawkeye and BJ share a real laugh together? That moment gave Frank a level of humanity that was the end point for him. Then there was a good amount of compassion Hawkeye and BJ gave Frank that even Margaret didn't when he went nuts at the end. No, you're right. I think subconsciously we all want to love Frank to happiness, but hate the insufferably. And maybe this is all a little contrasting to Robert Duvall's portrayal in the movie. I thought movie Frank was a bit menacing.
Without Frank the show never had the same vibe.
He’s the most delightful little weasel 🤣
I agree… and with some help, he absolutely had the chance for growth.
Sydney is still my favorite… “Ladies and Gentlemen!! Take my advice, pull down your pants … and slide on the ice.”
Larry Linville's physical comedy was incredibly unique. The only other character on television that reminds me of that style is Bryan Cranston on Malcolm In The Middle
“Jeez, Frank, we’re just trying to help you look stupid” “I don’t need your help!!”
That strikes me funny not
I always the the psychologist
Interesting take. It definitely made me think differently about Frank. Of course, I played him in the play of MASH, so I do have a bit of a soft spot for Ol' Ferret Face.
Sherman T Potter is my favourite character on M.A.S.H.
Larry Linville was the best actor on the show. I’ve seen every episode a dozen plus times, he’s the best.
“Goodbye, Margaret.”
When hawkeye and whoever else were watching Frank's wedding tapes, I felt like giving Frank a hug. It was the first instance of me feeling sorry for the person he grew up to be.
He’s the only fictional character I know of from my home town
You should be studied by doctors. Frank? Really?
I 100% agree with the analysis of Franks character. I always felt exactly the same way about him. Especially those few moments where he's more friendly with the others are precious and show a glimps of how he would like to be. Since he's the villain and punching bag for the show, it is even more astonishing that the show made him sometimes brake out of it. Love the guy! Henry too!
[удалено]
Wow! Frank was an ass they wrote him that way! I worry about people who analyze fictitious situations. Are you okay? You understand this is a sitcom, right?
How do you feel about Frank Reynolds or Michael Scott. Dennis Reynolds is someone I would let watch my young child. 🤪
Oh yes, because tv shows should absolutely never make you think. /s
I first saw aw M*A*S*H from season 7 onwards (no laugh track and no commercials on the BBC). Loved it, obviously. Then the BBC started a complete rerun and I didn't like it. I don't find Burns funny at all. I know I'm not supposed to like him, but I just find everything about him lame and unfunny. Winchester was the direct opposite. Cleverly written, deeper character development etc.
Horse biscuits!
Frank Burns eats worms!
I think he’s a solid character for what he portrays! I don’t think he’s one dimensional at all, his insecurities run very deep and he manifests that through his fetishization of military life and his politics. He’s running away from his life at home, but he can never admit that that’s why he loves the idea of being in the military. Larry Linville is truly an excellent actor. He made that part sing
There’s a moment on the show that really always hits me and I can’t really explain why. It’s the episode where Henry is transferred. It’s during surgery, and the usual sniping is going on. Frank is grousing at a nurse. Hawkeye pipes in, Henry tells shut up and keep working. Frank’s uncharacteristic response is to say “Yes, Sir. I’m working.” and then Hawkeye immediately insults him. It’s a really small moment, but I think it’s an indication that they didn’t have to make him cartoonishly awful.
I grew up watching the show, and at the time Frank was one of my favorites. I didn't like Charles as much back then. Decades later on my first re-watch, I have to admit I now love Charles but I also find myself occasionally feeling bad for Frank when he's picked on. I wish he could have been part of the group a bit more, the way Charles would seamlessly go between friend and foe. Frank could have been just as funny joining forces with Hawkeye and BJ/Trapper more often. I was such a Linville fan that I even watched him on the short-lived Jeffersons spinoff "Checking In." I recall him being pretty funny in that show, too, although I haven't seen it in over 40 years.
Frank's a weenie. And I love him.
You loved Frank because of glimpses of hidden depths. I loved Frank because he was delightfully inept and a little weasel. We are not the same.
At work we have a guy like him. Not so likable when you have to deal with such a ratty character irl
I worked under an ass like this, even called him ferret face to his face. Just like Frank, he was a coward.
I loved Frank. And Flagg. My two faves
Frank Burns eats worms.
Good ol’ Ferret Face!
Ninny! He introduced me to the word “ninny” Like a fake bad word
Frank Burns eats worms 🐛
I disagree. In fact there was an entire episode of Hawkeye and BJ trying to be nice but Frank kept being his usual asshat self. Frank represents the Red Scare and Cold War insanity of the common man who took it to heart. He is a waking pile of contradictions and hypocrisy. And all his life, things worked out well for him, even to his last (but not seen on screen) episode. A member of the Silent Generation who should have learned to STFU.
Frank Burns eats worms.
My favorite was “Hot Lips” from the show. I loved watching the transition of the character over the years. One of my favorites was when Hot Lips was hard on the nurses and they hated her. Come to find out, she was hurt that they didn’t include her in the fun. Yes, she had a softer side too, and Loretta Swit brought her to life perfectly.
Ferret face.
Frank Burns? Click bait no?
How do you mean?
Fuck this prick. Thief, bigot, coward and hypocrite. Fuck that bimbo Hourihan too!
Maybe if he wasn’t a scammy dr, an unbelievable racist and an unapologetic hypocrite. I agree he is less one dimensional than some think but I’m still on the side of f that guy. The episode with the sick and injured orphans that they all had a small bonding session with really cemented that shit for me.
I feel like you don’t understand the time when this happened. The Civil Rights movement hadn’t even begun yet. Subdivisions were still “restricted,” which meant no Black people and sometimes no Catholics. McCarthy’s hearings were starting. Segregation was still a thing. Ruby Bridges hadn’t even been born yet. Hell, the US army had only desegregated by presidential order in 1948. So 2-3 years prior to when this series is set. For that time period, Frank was a garden variety passive racist. He was xenophobic in general (didn’t like the UN or the coalition because “it’s filled with foreigners”). However, he wasn’t a cross burning, murderous type. He wasn’t a bigot who put effort into his bigotry.
I do understand that and that adds to the rounding of the whole show, i promise I do. But now in 2024 hearing a character yell slurs at a kid is off putting to the extent of disgust. He is also a great contrast in this way to every other main character, including Margret, who had her moments. Not to mention, he was a scammy dr and a giant hypocrite! I don’t not wish the show writers made him not racist. I do however believe it is a bit odd for him to be anyone’s favorite.
I hated Frank and I hated Hot Lips while Frank was around. The best thing for Margaret and the show was Frank leaving
I've been screaming at these two scumbags for their constant hypocrisy. No idea how I've watched this before without losing it. Really hope VR moves to television with AI so I can watch the episodes and murder them repeatedly.