All of the characters in the series either began with another actor, were introduced after the premier episode or were replaced by another character at some point with the exception of Alan Alda and Loretta Swit.
Swit was not in all the episodes , but I'm fairly sure that Alda appeared in every single one during the entire run of the show. Can anyone confirm or refute this?
We are the makers of music and we are the dreamers of dreams.
All of the characters in the series either began with another actor, were introduced after the premier episode or were replaced by another character at some point with the exception of Alan Alda and Loretta Swit.
Not quite. Radar O'Reilly was played by Gary Burghoff--who was the only carryover cast member from the original film--from day one until his departure from the series in 1979.
Larry Linville and Wayne Rogers also played their characters (Maj. Frank Burns and Trapper John MacIntyre) from the series start. Neither character was ever played by another actor--both Rogers and Linville left to be replaced by two different characters--Charles Emerson Winchester III, played by David Ogden Stiers, and BJ Hunnicutt, played by Mike Farrell. Maclean Stevenson departed as Henry Blake to be replaced by Harry Morgan as Col. Sherman Potter.
Jamie Farr, who was not introduced as the cross-dressing Klinger until a couple of episodes in also always played the character and was never replaced with another actor; he essentially took over the place of the departed Radar as company clerk.
To the best of my recollection there are no MASH episodes sans Alda, though there are a few focusing on other characters where he makes only an appearance at the beginning and/or end of the episode.
50 Is The New Cutoff Age.
What you write is correct amyghost, but the fault is mine in the way I phrased my statement.
I should have simply asked: was Alan Alda the only actor who appeared in every episode of the tv series from beginning to end?
We are the makers of music and we are the dreamers of dreams.
LOL, the series remains one of my favorites--I can get into exhaustive detail over it, as the above bears witness to.
I did some looking around online, and from what I can tell, Alda was indeed in every episode--soemtimes less, mostly more, but I don't think there's any where he's AWOL entirely.
50 Is The New Cutoff Age.
loretta Swit was also in every episode.
sharehttp://kenlevine.blogspot.com.br/, he was involved in MASH and Cheers mainly, his blog is very informative about TV in general. But I'm sure he'd surely know the answer to your question. He answers fan questions every Friday in his blog.
shareThere was an episode in Season 4 where Hawkeye crashes his jeep and stays with a Korean family; although the regular cast were billed, Alan Alda is the only one to actually appear in the episode.
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