I did, like when he was talking on the phone to his mom and said he had a friend (Margaret) who just pretended to like him, "like dad did." That line broke my heart.
shareYes. Sure the man was a jerk, but they just went WAY overboard with his bad treatment in Season 5. It's like they were intentionally trying to drive Larry Linville off the series.
shareYeah. Okay some of his views were terrible but I think the way he was treated was only going to encourage him to be even worse or screw up more in surgery.
The world is your lobster.
Yes, and I even felt sorry for Larry in his final season. I always look back at "Margaret's Engagement" and Frank's quip about youth being a nice change, and the short lived camaraderie with BJ and Pierce, then the next week and throughout S-5 it was the SOS only worse than usual without Margaret behind/beside him. By the last episode, even now, I was happy to see him go (Frank that is.)
It must have been really hard on Larry, knowing you're leaving and being treated as a bigger turd than ever.
Not really since the guy is cheating on his wife.
In that way he does get his comeuppance from the guys.
Plus he is just an all around mean jerk.
Damn, I'm good.
Blake and MacIntyre cheated on their wives and I do not recall any comeuppance for them. Pierce and Potter are jerks when you fail to agree with their point of view. Where is their comeuppance?
shareKind of. I always figured that at one point he was like anybody else and probably due to being treated the way he was in the 4077th it turned him into what we saw on the show. So his behaviour and attitude is just a result to his treatment.
He seemed friendless in every aspect of his life. Even Margaret was just clinging to him as he was equal in rank and she could manipulate him. After he leaves she does a complete 180 and becomes part of the Swamp.
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.
If it wasn't a show and if it was a group of real people, I'd say a lot of the angst between the guys was self-inflicted. Frank wasn't a great person, but he didn't always start it with Hawkeye, Trapper, or BJ. There were a lot of times that they could have helped one another out and could have been supportive of one another. Instead, they just got all over one another. So, yeah, I did feel sorry for Frank sometimes.
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I blame autocorrect.
You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.
It's interesting that although Frank was annoying, most times he would go by the book even though he would become a megalomaniac as soon as he tasted power.
That said, Hawkeye, Trapper and BJ were much the same, and they did bully Frank a lot of the time.
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.
Sometimes Hawkeye and Trapper were flat out wrong, too. I would have liked to have seen Frank be a good commander and a great administrator when he was in charge. I think that would have been more entertaining than seeing him be a near complete failure.
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I blame autocorrect.
You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.
That could have made the show really interesting, Hawkeye and gang never had a credible opponent to go up against. Frank potentially could have done well but due to everyone being against him he never stood a chance.
Would have been nice to see him succeed every now and again.
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.
I felt a little sorry for him ater Margaret's wedding when he stood there all alone. But he got the last laugh, getting transferred to the states and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
shareThis has been discussed here before. If I were a human resources administrator at some large company I would pop in a couple of MASH DVD's to show my new hires how NOT to conduct themselves in a workplace environment. If I were a competent CO of a MASH unit and had a problem child such as Pierce that person's quality surgical skills set would be completely negated by his poor attitude IMO. I would be writing weekly requests that this surgeon be reassigned until the request was fulfilled.
shareThat is true Biff, I have worked with people like Hawkeye who are very good at their jobs but in the process cause a lot of disruption and encourage other people to goof off as well, and many of the people they encourage to play up can't perform their tasks at the best of times.
Trapper or Hunnicat would be better role models, still not great but without Hawkeye they would have gone about their roles in a lot quieter manner.
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.
I'd move him to an aid station and put the aid station doctor in the MASH. We never heard any problems coming from the aid stations.
They didn't even have problems when the front lines shifted.
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I blame autocorrect.
You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.
But that was kind of the point behind MASH is that the civilian drafted doctors could get away with things the average soldier couldn't.
A trained surgeon was harder to replace than a rifleman.
Not so hard to replace so that when Frank went AWOL that his replacement was at the 4077 within a day. Not so hard to replace that the CO did not deny dangerous field assignments upon occasion. Not so hard to replace that MASH units were placed in areas prone to shelling and snipers by the enemy.
In the MASH universe the CO looked like he was walking in a shooting range when Pierce ran afoul of a senior officer whether that officer was from the artillery, infantry, or medical corp. Yeah, Henry or Potter may have had strings they could pull on occasion to make somebody with a beef against Pierce go away but certainly not all the time as shown on the series. I have said it before and will say again that if MASH were produced in a latter era the producers would not paint themselves into a corner in terms of keeping Alan Alda to the very end. Some producer would identify the proper shelf life of Pierce and for the sake of quality let Pierce take the fall we all know he had coming to himself,
That's a good point.
The endless harassment of Frank -- even when not deserved -- gets old.
When I was writing about other characters that I would prefer to see in the episode where Hawkeye talks nonsense to the Korean family, I realized that the one character we really never get to see a human or soft side from is Frank.
The closest we get is seeing Frank drool and suck up to Houlihan when she threatens to dump him. Or when he might be in danger of losing money.
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.
You see his vulnerable side when he's under pain meds or when he's talking to his mother sheet Margaret gets engaged.
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