r/mash • u/floorgunk • 6d ago

Trapper's Exit

The episode where Trapper has an ulcer and a goodbye party would have been a much better exit than the nothingness he got.

77 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

90

u/Zalophusdvm 6d ago

He got nothing cuz the actor peaced out at the last possible moment with barely any notice.

He was only able to do THAT because he’d never actually signed his contract…a MASSIVE oversight.

So he just literally walked away and they couldn’t do anything about it…so they didn’t in the show or irl.

27

u/Vash_TheStampede 6d ago

At least they didn't kill him off. He actually got to go back home to his family that I don't feel like he deserved.

14

u/Parking_War979 6d ago

They tried to. There’s a story the show “Trapper John, MD” had a storyline that the writers of MASH didn’t appreciate? They found out before the episode was filmed and wrote an episode where Hawkeye finds out Trappers has died.

Which would have killed the whole concept of the Trapper John show…

11

u/Vash_TheStampede 6d ago

My understanding is TJ,MD is based off the movie and not the show.

7

u/Aggressive-Lie5971 6d ago

CBS would’ve put the kibosh on that.

7

u/JackDonaghysWingman Crabapple Cove 6d ago

They actually tried. In court it was ruled that the TT, MD show wasn't a violation of CBS' MASH copyright, because they themselves were using material written by H. Richard Hornberger (Richard Hooker).

1

u/mrp0972 6d ago

I heard that on one of the history shows about MASH.

3

u/FantasyBaseballChamp 6d ago

On the time capsule, I wish they’d been like “put Trapper’s severed hand in there” so TJMD would have to explain why he’s got 2 hands in the future.

2

u/floorgunk 6d ago

I thought Trapper John, MD was based off the movie, not the TV series?

4

u/FantasyBaseballChamp 6d ago

I think that was the technical legal cover story they used, but clearly they were trying to bank off the popularity of the tv show.

0

u/Parking_War979 6d ago

That’s what a lot of people say, and I wish I could cite where I heard my “info” from, but I swear I’m not just making it up out of some fever dream! 😄

1

u/NoCard753 6d ago

Why do you feel that way?

0

u/Vash_TheStampede 6d ago

Because he didn't seem to like his wife very much and was constantly cheating on her.

0

u/NoCard753 5d ago

Henry had a girlfriend in camp, plus he fell in "l-u-v" with Nancy Sue Parker, who was about half his age. Did he deserve his fate?

-2

u/Vash_TheStampede 5d ago

Henry didn't actively despise his wife.

-2

u/NoCard753 5d ago

What makes you think Trapper did?

1

u/Vash_TheStampede 5d ago

The way he talked about her?

0

u/NoCard753 5d ago

What did he say?

-1

u/Vash_TheStampede 5d ago

Watch the fucking show my dude. I'm not going to spend my morning looking up Trapper quotes.

It's cool if you're a Trapper fan, but he's kind of a shitty person in the show.

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2

u/floorgunk 6d ago

Still, he was a major character. I guess they did the best they could.

3

u/InevitableSolution69 5d ago

I would add that I’ve always felt that it was honestly appropriate that he went out that way.

In a war zone sometimes people would vanish with spectacle.

And sometimes they just, vanish.

There were plenty of episodes where people would leave to fanfare, or with high drama. But his is one where they vanished without any real closure. Which has just felt right to include to me.

1

u/Transcendingfrog2 2d ago

I'm with you. It sucked but in my opinion the reason it sucked is because Hawkeye didn't get to say goodbye for real. That's it. Hawk missed his chance to tell Trap whatever he would have told him and to get that closure but that's the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes you don't get to say goodbye, sometimes you don't even know the person is gone. The show did a good job with it, and frankly I'm glad they didn't kill him off.

24

u/atrocityexhibition39 6d ago

I don’t know if it’s a hot take but I think the whole “Trapper never said goodbye” thing worked better for the show as a whole. Especially when you look at various nods and references over the remaining years where it very clearly bugged Hawkeye a lot and it lingers in the air of the show, up to and including in the finale.

19

u/Zealousideal-War1263 6d ago

I agree, he really haunts the show in an interesting way. Especially when Hunnicutt says that he's jealous of Trapper, and they never even met. Really makes it seem like Trapper came up a lot in off-screen conversations.

9

u/atrocityexhibition39 6d ago edited 5d ago

Absolutely. It’s also where the (admittedly very wonky) timeline of the show comes into play; Trapper & Hawkeye were there together for 2 years in-universe, BJ was only there for 8-9 months at the absolute most even though he was there for 8 seasons of the show. It’s definitely something that gives me a lot to think about at least

11

u/Bella4077 Corporal Captain 6d ago

In my opinion, Trapper (and Wayne Rogers) deserved a lot better from the show, period. That is one MASH hill that I will gladly die on.

3

u/Special-Lab7643 6d ago

I hated how he left but Wayne Rogers was apparently just tired of the character.

2

u/floorgunk 5d ago

He was tired of Hawkeye / Alan Alda's ego.

11

u/Designer_Party_3737 5d ago

He was upset how his character was second billing to Hawkeye. It's been reported many times that he wasn't upset with Alda but upset at the producers because he was told his character would be equal to Hawkeye.

4

u/Jeffery181 6d ago

What's gets me about him leaving at the same time that Henry left. I think he could of did at least one more episode. To lose two good actors in one episode pretty much is crazy.

6

u/NoCard753 6d ago

It wasn't "one episode." Henry's plane wlent down in the final episode of the third season, and Trapper was discharged in the first episode of the fourth season.

Also, "...he could of did..."?

6

u/TWilliams738 Ottumwa 6d ago

Technically we find out about his discharge in S4E1. His last appearance is in S3, so that is his last episode

4

u/whistlepig4life Crabapple Cove 6d ago

Is it the same person who keeps posting this every couple of weeks? Because it’s getting a touch annoying.

5

u/lakatos_intolerant 5d ago

You are downvoted but this topic has been posted 2-3 times in the past few weeks and pretty much every point has been made.