Why did Radar leave MASH? The show needed a two-part farewell just to let him go
Why did Radar leave MASH? The real story behind Gary Burghoff's exit, the Good-Bye Radar two-parter, and what happened behind the scenes of his farewell.
Some characters get written out with a phone call and a suitcase. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly required a two-part television event, a national outpouring of grief and, as it later emerged, a full reshoot of his final scene. Not bad for a corporal from Iowa with a teddy bear.
The man was knackered
Gary Burghoff was the only actor to carry his role over from the 1970 film to the series, and by the end of season seven he'd been playing Radar for nearly a decade. The reasons he gave for leaving were the sort no publicist needs to spin: burnout, and a family he barely saw. As he put it:
"Family, to me, became the most important thing."
He explained that fame didn't switch off when filming did — every family outing got interrupted by public recognition. So he left. Except telly being telly, he didn't quite.
One last salute (twice, actually)
Burghoff came back the following year to give Radar a proper ending. A few things worth knowing about "Good-Bye Radar":
- It was originally meant to close season seven, but CBS pushed it into season eight and stretched it into a two-parter for the ratings sweeps. Nothing says heartfelt farewell like scheduling strategy.
- In the story, Radar's Uncle Ed dies and he's sent home to Iowa to look after his mum — the army, for once, doing something humane.
- His leaving party gets interrupted by incoming wounded, so he slips away with barely a goodbye, leaving his teddy bear on Hawkeye's cot. If you didn't cry, you're lying or you're a Frank Burns.
The wildest detail surfaced decades later: Burghoff filmed the farewell sobbing his eyes out, hated it, and asked to do it again. He recalled the director's advice:
"If I were you, I would fight the tears."
So the version broadcast in October 1979 — watched by tens of millions — is Radar almost crying, which is, of course, infinitely worse for everyone at home. The restraint did all the damage. Radar left younger than everyone else at the 4077th, and somehow older than all of them too.