The Only M*A*S*H Actor To Appear In Both The Movie And The TV Series
Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" was a New Hollywood sensation upon its release in 1970. It announced Altman as one of the most exciting filmmakers in Hollywood, and turned Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland into A-list movie stars. Several of the supporting cast — namely Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, and Tom Skerritt — got a career boost as well. So when Larry Gelbart sold CBS on the idea of a sitcom adaptation of the material two years later, these actors were far too prominent to reprise their roles in the series (it's worth noting that television was considered small time in relation to movies back then).
Gary Burghoff was a different story. As Corporal Walter "Radar" O'Reilly, the diminutive Burghoff didn't pop on your first viewing of the movie. He darted to and fro in the background, but never strayed too far from his superior, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (Roger Blake). Radar didn't participate in the company's shenanigans, but he didn't object to them — at least not outwardly. He just took their acting out as a given, and inexplicably thrived in the chaos.
Radar is a unique character. Indeed, for Gelbart's creative team, he might've been the hardest to re-cast. Fortunately for them, Burghoff's career hadn't taken off like his castmates', so rather than hunt for a Burghoff facsimile, they offered the role to the genuine article — and he took it!
The evolution of Radar
For seven seasons of CBS' "M*A*S*H", Burghoff's Radar served as the company's highly resourceful mascot. As in Altman's film, he buzzed all around the base, always turning up precisely when needed. If you weren't looking closely, you might've assumed Burghoff had simply carried over what worked in the movie, but he didn't see it that way at all. As Burghoff told former "M*A*S*H" writer Ken Levine:
"In the original feature film 'M*A*S*H,' I created Radar as a lone, darker and somewhat sardonic character; kind of a shadowy figure. I continued these qualities for a short time until I realized that the TV M*A*S*H characters were developing in a different direction from the film characters."
Burghoff felt that Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda), Trapper John (Wayne Rogers), and Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) were metamorphosing from invertate troublemakers into more grounded, "sophisticated" characters. Realizing this, Burghoff took Radar in a slightly different direction.
"With Gelbart's help, I began to mold Radar into a more innocent, naïve character as contrast to the other characters, so that while the others might deplore the immorality and shame of war (from an intellectual and judgmental viewpoint), Radar could just REACT from a position of total innocence."
It worked and paid off smashingly in the series' most devastating episode.
Burghoff as Radar was a marvel to behold
Radar's naïveté endeared him to Blake. Over the first three seasons, the characters formed a father-son type of bond. This became achingly clear in "Abyssinia, Henry," the third season finale that concludes with Radar informing the company that Blake's plane, which was taking him back home to his family in Illinois, was shot down over the Sea of Japan.
Burghoff plays this moment beautifully. He wanders dazed into the operation tent, and, through tears, delivers the heartbreaking news. It was the actor's finest hour on the series, one that should've earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination. Instead, Burghoff continued to be the most unappreciated member of the ensemble until he opted to leave the series after its seventh season.
Burghoff's exit was motivated by a desire to spend more time with his family, and, if possible, to back away from the glare of celebrity. He eventually returned to the role for the short-lived spinoff "AfterMASH" and even shot a standalone pilot titled "W*A*L*T*E*R" (that they didn't call it "R*A*D*A*R" should give you a sense of this undertaking's doomed nature).
After the pilot flopped, Burghoff backed away from acting. He appeared in a 1995 episode of "Burke's Law," and showed up in a couple of films (including "Small Kill," which he also directed). It's a shame he couldn't build off the triumph of Radar because he was a surprisingly versatile performer. As his "M*A*S*H" co-star Mike Farrell observed, "Gary Burghoff may well have been the best actor in the company, it's always seemed to me. His focus, his ability to find those little gems of behavior that made everything absolutely true were a marvel to behold."
Most working actors never get the opportunity to shine so brightly in a single role, so Burghoff should have no regrets.