"Hawkeye" (Alan Alda) is a crackerjack meatball surgeon and the outspoken rebel of the 4077th M*A*S*H unit. Always on an anti-war crusade, he is not adverse to confronting superior officers with his antipathy for war. He is also known for his girl-chasing and hard drinking.
He even has a still for brewing alcohol in the BOQ (a.k.a.)"The Swamp" and often communicates with his beloved widowed father back home. He is the only character to have a fictional place as a hometown.
2. Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt
Answer: Mill Valley, California
B.J. (Mike Farrell) was a replacement for Capt. "Trapper John" McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) whose character was "transferred" at the end of the third season. In contrast to Hawkeye, B.J. is more laid back and easy-going and a devoted husband, only succumbing to temptation once and then deeply regretting it.
He relishes the letters, and sometimes food items, received from his wife, Peg. He also has an infant daughter, Erin, back in Mill Valley, a suburb of San Francisco. One episode focuses on Hawkeye's attempts to discover what B.J.'s initials stood for.
The only thing learned was that they stood for was "Anything you want."
3. Lt. Col. Henry Blake
Answer: Bloomington, Illinois
Blake (McLean Stevenson) was the original C.O. of the 4077th. He was a competent surgeon albeit somewhat bumbling when it came to interpersonal relations and Army bureaucracy. He relied heavily on his company clerk, "Radar" O'Reilly to smooth things out.
Although married, he wasn't above having an occasional fling. When Stevenson left the show after the third season, his character was written out. In the emotional episode "Abyssinia, Henry", he perished when his transport plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan.
4. Col. Sherman Potter
Answer: Hannibal, Missouri
Potter (Harry Morgan) was Blake's replacement. An experienced cavalry soldier and veteran of WW1, he is much older that most of the others at the 4077th and often dispenses fatherly wisdom and advice to other personnel, but at the same, has an easily riled temper.
He is very happily married to his wife, Mildred, of whom he keeps a framed photo on his desk and in his tent. Potter's main hobbies are horses and artistic painting. He keeps a horse, Sophie, which Radar found and gave to Potter as a gift. Potter also painted portraits of other camp personnel, some of which were displayed in his office. Harry Morgan was an accomplished artist and actually painted them.
5. Maj. Frank Burns
Answer: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Frank (Larry Linville), a.k.a. "Ferret Face", was an officious officer who constantly rubbed others, especially Hawkeye, the wrong way with his "by the book" attitude of adhering to Army regulations. He is married, but carried on a long-lasting affair with Maj. Margaret Houlihan.
He was more emotionally invested in this relationship than she was. In the fifth season, when she came back from leave in Tokyo, and announced that she was engaged to Maj. Donald Penobscott, Burns went a little haywire. After her actual marriage, his behavior got to the point that he was given a medical discharge by the end of the season.
6. Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan
Answer: Army brat
Maj. Houlihan (Loretta Swit) was born in an Army hospital. Her father was a career officer and the family moved from base to base wherever he was assigned, so she had no permanent address, although at one time she mentioned they stayed a while at Fort Ord, CA. Margaret was proud to also be a career officer, not easy for a woman in the 1950s, and fiercely defended her position and responsibilities.
While outwardly wanting to project a tough-as-nails persona, inside she was emotionally vulnerable as explored in several episodes.
However, she was not above doing almost anything to maintain discipline or her image. She was married in the fifth season, but it didn't work out, and she divorced Maj.Penobscott.
7. Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester
Answer: Boston, Massachusetts
Winchester (David Ogden Stiers) was Frank Burns' replacement. He is from an affluent and influential Bostonian family and is very proud of his high social standing. He projects a snobby and conceited personality and hardly ever misses an opportunity to put down others he sees as social inferiors, and barley tolerating higher ranking officers.
He also sends taped messages home (rather than written letters) to his parents asking to be transferred out of the 4077th to Tokyo, or even stateside. However, he does show a tender side from time to time as in the case of helping a soldier that was a concert pianist and lost the use of his right hand, and when he counseled a stuttering soldier.
He also sat with Hawkeye awaiting news of Hawkeye's father who was having surgery.
He is the only character to share a home town with another character, "Trapper" John McIntyre.
8. Father Francis Mulchay
Answer: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fr. Mulchay (William Christopher) was probably the most level-headed and even-tempered member of the 4077th and was on hand to see soldiers received their last rites, if needed. He was also called upon to counsel others with their personal problems. He often helped out at a local Korean orphanage and frequently asked for donations for it in the way of food, clothing and money. Even though usually easy-going, he did display grit from time to time like when he took the place of a mannequin for ballast on a chopper headed into a battle zone or wresting the gun away from a psychologically disturbed soldier.
9. Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
Answer: Ottumwa, Iowa
Radar (Gary Burghoff) was the original company clerk. Although a naive and gullible young man, he was very efficient in his duties and could wrangle needed supplies with ease. He was hardly ever seen without a stack of papers, a clip board or his teddy bear in hand (it is alleged that Burghoff almost always had something in his left hand to cover a deformity).
He received his nickname for his ability to hear approaching choppers before anyone else and his seemingly telepathic ability. He often mentioned the family farm in Ottumwa where his widowed mother and Uncle Ed resided.
When Uncle Ed passed away, Radar was able to get a hardship discharge and left the series at the beginning of the eighth season, leaving behind his teddy bear, indicating how he had matured.
10. Cpl. Maxwell Klinger
Answer: Toledo, Ohio
Klinger (Jamie Farr) was introduced as a cameo part in the first season episode, "Chief Surgeon Who?", but his character proved so popular, he was given more frequent and longer appearances as the series progressed. He is the only character whose home town is the same as the actor's. Klinger, who is proudly of Lebanese descent, hates the Army perhaps only second to Hawkeye, and was always trying to get out on a Section 8 (mentally unfit for service).
His favorite ploy is dressing in drag, which doesn't convince anyone.
He even tried faking a few illnesses and making up hardship stories about his family with no success. He took over as company clerk when Radar left, at which time he also gave up trying to get a Section 8. In the last two episodes, he meets and falls in love with a Korean woman, Soon Lee Han, whom he eventually marries.
When the war ends, after all his efforts to get out, he decides to stay in Korea and help Soon Lee look for her family.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Gamemaster1967 before going online.
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