Why Marcia Strassman Left M*A*S*H After Only Six Episodes
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People like to tell you that film and television are basically interchangeable now, but that is far from the truth. Each medium has its own strengths, and while they utilize similar filmmaking techniques, the stories told in one medium are not necessarily suited to be transported to the other. In the case of television, stories are heavily reliant on a sturdy ensemble. Being a more condensed art form, films can so easily hone in on the inner life of one character, but with a long-running TV series, spending all your time with one person would become monotonous and give you a false sense of the world they inhabit.
This is especially true of sitcoms. Comedy is built on action and reaction, and to build that kind of back-and-forth, you are going to need a cast of characters to show up week after week to bounce off one another, as well as grow together as the show goes on. Determining the right amount of people to populate that ensemble, though, can be tricky. For some shows, having a small core is best for comedic opportunities and insulating the characters in their own worldview, such as the quartet in "Seinfeld." Others require a wider swath of people to follow, such as "Modern Family." In order to show the chaos and complexity of that family tree, the show needed 10 series regulars at the start, which eventually grew to 13 in the final season.
Sometimes, creators try to force a character into the series' main ensemble, and that just doesn't work out in the end. Writers may think this character is important but ultimately, the character makes the ensemble too unwieldy. This is what happened with Marcia Strassman as Nurse Margie Cutler during her six-episode stint on the first season of "M*A*S*H."
'Too many regulars'
Nurse Cutler was introduced in the show's third episode, "Requiem for a Lightweight," and it's immediately clear she was there to be a romantic interest. At first, she gets between Alan Alda's Hawkeye and Wayne Rogers' Trapper John, but over the course of her subsequent five appearances across the first season, it's her connection with Hawkeye that crystallizes. In her final appearance, the season's penultimate episode "Ceasefire," a rumored ending of the Korean War prompts Nurse Cutler to wonder about her and Hawkeye's life after the war, to which he lies and says he's married.
And that episode is the last we see or hear about Nurse Cutler. Romantic interests are key to the American sitcom, so it's odd to just abandon her without reason. Well, there was a reason behind the scenes. Recounted in the book "MASH FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Best Care Anywhere" by Dale Sherman, creator Lewis Gelbart is quoted in 2000 saying about the character's departure that they "just had too many regulars on our hands."
The cast of "M*A*S*H" is rather expansive, and over its 11 seasons, many people would join as regulars as others left the show. Notably, Loretta Swift was the only female series regular on the show, playing Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan. Nurse characters were often cycled through, frequently to pair with Hawkeye for some flirting or a fling. They weren't going to tie him down to one woman so quickly. Also, had Nurse Cutler become a regular in season 2, that would mean that the two female regulars both played characters named Margaret.
Things worked out for Marcia Strassman, though. 18 months after her final "M*A*S*H" appearance, the first episode of "Welcome Back, Kotter" aired, in which she was a series regular.