They should have had Flagg as a regular guest star instead of Sidney.
Flagg: You took a yellow red before a white American. That's pretty pinko.
Hawkeye: You're even boring in Technicolor.
He was much more amusiing. I would have liked to see more of him.
shareI agree, they should have brought Col. Flagg back at least once per season.
shareThe actor who played him Edward Winter had his own series and did other work which most likely affected his availability. That aside I don't know how much more he could have done on MASH as the character was pretty much done for laughs in his last couple of appearances. If the show was willing to take chances like some of the dramedies of the 1980's and beyond Flagg could have been a very serious antagonist to the people of the 4077. As it was the producers wanted a simplistic good versus bad theme where people with money or career army people were strictly bad.
shareOnce Frank Burns left and the character of Margaret was drastically changed, there was no natural ally for Flagg at the 4077th. In Flagg's final episode, his character was even being upstaged by Potter and Winchester. I always found him hilarious, but there was no real place for him on the show during the last three sit-commy seasons.
shareI always found Sidney to be ten times the man & human being that Flagg was. As Sidney said to Flagg, in the episode where the bombardier thought that he was Jesus, "You're a victim too, Flagg." And he was. Flagg was an emotionally damaged little bully boy driven by fear. Sidney was a compassionate, mature adult.
Were they ever in an episode together? It would be interesting to get Sidney's professional opinion of Flagg.
shareFlagg was even worse than Frank Burns. Both of them were some kind of one trick pony who's one trick lost its appeal fairly quickly. There's only one way to make that work, change the scenery. Obviously there wasn't many places to go with that on MASH. But on the other hand The Three Stooges did it and did it in spades. Can you imagine how fast you'd tire of Larry, Moe and Curly slapping each other around in the swamp? That's what Frank and Flagg were like. I like Flagg slightly more than Frank only because I'd seen less of him.
shareI think the problem with both characters is that they were one dimensional personality wise. The reason the actor who played Burns left I believe. Give them some redeeming traits, let them win on occasion. That said Flagg was sometimes right.
shareYeah, that's why Larry left the show. He felt that his character was going nowhere. If anything, Frank's behavior only became more ridiculous over time.
The one time I can remember siding with Flagg is with the female sniper. It's just very short sighted to not see one's enemy for who they really are.
In reality Hawkeye would have been court-martialed for his behaviour. I recall him giving aid to the enemy over allied soldiers which I think Flagg disagreed with and was also against their own rules of conduct.
I got bored with Hawkeye being this work of perfection no matter how stupid some of his own decisions and behavior was. Would have been nice to see him taken now every so often.
Sidney was boring and pompous. I always got an evil vibe from him too.
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