Gary Burghoff's Original M*A*S*H Exit Had A Lot More Tears Than The Final Shot
Actors are a confounding creative breed. They can be wonderfully inventive one moment and then turn right around and surrender to their most vain impulses the next. Fortunately, most actors are eminently directable. They might put up a bit of a fight and insist that they know better than their director, but if the director has earned their trust, they'll eventually come to their senses and realize they aren't always the best judge of their own work.
It's also important to understand that, in most cases, actors aren't being difficult out of diva-like entitlement. They're the only person who's spending all of their time on- and off-set thinking about this specific character, so, of course, they're going to get protective every now and then — especially if they're a television actor who's been playing the same part for multiple seasons. It's a well-meaning impulse and one that a sensitive director should respect even when they're seeing something the actor simply can't.
Gary Burghoff learned this while shooting his final scene as the lovably naive Radar O'Reilly on "M*A*S*H." With the encouragement of series creator Larry Gelbart, Burghoff had taken partial ownership of the character, turning him into a more innocent iteration of the Radar he originated in Robert Altman's 1970 film. As a result, he thought he'd earned a big emotional sendoff. He was right about the significance of Radar's departure during the show's eighth season (it's a two-parter after all), but dead wrong about how to play his last moments as a member of the 4077th. And he's incredibly fortunate that he had a chance to rectify his mistake.
Viewers did all the crying for Radar
In the new Fox special "M*A*S*H: The Comedy That Changed Television," Burghoff revealed that he disagreed with director Charles S. Dubin when it came to the emotional tenor of his final scene. At the end of the two-part episode, the 4077th has prepared to throw Radar a huge party before he returns to the United States. Alas, a fleet of wounded soldiers gets flown in right as they're about to fete the beloved company clerk. By the time Hawkeye and the gang are done stitching up soldiers, Radar will be long gone.
According to Burghoff, he initially viewed this turn of events as an Emmy reel opportunity:
"I said to myself, what a wonderful moment, I can cry my eyes out and I can do this wonderful dramatic moment, I can just completely fall apart. And [Dubin] said, 'If I were you, I would fight the tears.' And I said, 'No, no. Just let me do it, okay?'"
Burghoff tried alright, only to realize Dubin, who'd directed 13 episodes of "M*A*S*H" prior to "Good-Bye, Radar," was absolutely correct:
"The next day, in dailies, I look at the screen and it's awful. I mean, it is just terrible. The director was right, I was wrong... I turned to [showrunner/producer Burt Metcalfe] and said, 'Please can I do this again?' And he said, 'Yes, you may.'"
While we don't have the option of comparing Burghoff's differing takes on the moment, underplaying feels like the right call. As Radar quietly wanders around the mess hall decked out signs wishing him well, we do all the crying for him — until he scrapes off a piece of icing from his cake, tastes it, and makes a sour face. No sitcom could nail a bittersweet note like "M*A*S*H."