MovieChat Forums > MASH (1970) Discussion > Why wasn't Duke in the TV series?

Why wasn't Duke in the TV series?

posted 14 years ago by ExplorerDS6789
9 replies | jump to latest

Duke Forrest was a primary character in the movie and in the books, but he was never seen or mentioned on the TV show. In fact, he's the only major character who didn't get carry over, with the exception of Painless Pole, although he is mentioned in the pilot.
You have to wonder why the producers decided not to use this character. Maybe they were so busy shoving Alan Alda in our faces that they wanted to focus on as few secondary character as possible?

[–] slokes 14 years ago

With a 30-minute (really less than 23 minutes with commercials) series, you needed to focus more on some characters and less on others. Ho-Jon, Ugly John, Spearchucker and Lt. Dish are examples of characters we see in the first episodes of the series but lose before Season 1 ended.

It's hard to imagine any focus on Cpt. Forrest with the need to establish and develop Hawkeye and Trapper John for the series, and I say that as someone who probably found Alan Alda at least as annoying as you. You have to make choices with a half-hour sitcom.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 14 years ago

They should have at least kept Ugly John. They had plenty of doctor characters, nurses, there was no need for a houseboy in a tent, but the 4077th still needed an anesthesiologist.

"You have to make choices with a half-hour sitcom."

I realize that, but you don't need to focus on the same characters over and over and over, do you? When Radar left, that's all they did. The same 7 characters. It would have been an ideal time to add at least 1 or two.

[–] james_oblivion 14 years ago

Actually, you can explore a lot more character on a series than in a film. Sure, they're limited by the 30-minute runtime, but only in what they can explore in a single episode. With episode after episode after episode, you can explore a lot more characters than in a single two-hour film.

And as I've heard it, Spearchucker was written out when someone told the producers of the series that there were no black Army surgeons in the Korean theater.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ExplorerDS6789 12 years ago

That was certainly a weird reimagining of Duke's character: not only was he NOT friends with Hawkeye and Trapper, but he was also a klutz.

[–] Cold_In_Space 12 years ago

Tom Skerritt didn't want to be in it so they dropped the Duke character in the end.

In one episode though, he's mentioned as "that surgeon from Georgia that userd to be at the 4077th"

- Gothamite #4

I've learned that it's OK to be flawed - Winona Ryder

[–] freebird1987 11 years ago

I think he was also mentioned as being a brain surgeon that fell down a lot.

[–] flyerzzrul 10 years ago

It turned out being Aldas show which is why Trapper and Henry left. Helps having dad in high places

No offense, but you're an idiot.

[–] freebird1987 8 years ago

In the book, Duke was kind of a racist.