RIP Trapper John, M.D. (TV Version)

I thought I was the only person to remember that show. Hershel Bernardi as Arnie, of course.

20-point bonus question: At what company did Arnie work? (no fair Googling.)

 

It had to do with flange or something.

Continental Flange? My grandpa thinks it is, since he watched Arnie. I had to ask him tonight.

 

Speaking of Bernardi, didn't he play Jacobi on Peter Gunn? I remember watching that series in college on one of the old Starz mystery channel.

 

Your grandpa gets the points.

 

Damn straight he does. He knows as much t.v. as I do. His ears perked up when I asked him about Hamilton Majors. He never forgot the name!

 

An early victim of what later became known as "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome," when a character departs a TV series, never returns for visits home and, in fact, is never referred to again.

Another early victim - Mike Douglas (Tim Considine) on "My Three Sons."

 

I remembered the show. It was the rage at my high school because the girl who played his daughter -- Stephanie Steele -- was a classmate.

 

Not to be confused with "Ted McGinley Syndrome," that peculiar malady that means you can start polishing your resume as soon as Mr. McGinley joins your cast.

 

LOL, that's very true.

 

It was ironic that while Trapper John (played by Pernell Roberts) looked absolutely nothing like Trapper John (played by Wayne Rogers) would have looked like 20 years later, he did look passably like what B.J. Hunnicutt could have looked like in the late 1970s.

Trapper John, 1951-52, Korea


Trapper John, 1979-82, San Francisco


B.J. Hunnicutt, 1952-53, Korea (fictional hometown, San Francisco).


Not to mention, the personality of Trapper John as played by Roberts: gruff, stern, buttoned-down, etc etc, was nothing like the Trapper John of M*A*S*H (even given 20 years of maturing, cynicism, etc etc), while it was plausibly like the character of Hunnicutt could have been.

It's like they sat down and started to write a series about "B.J. Hunnicutt 20 years later," and at the last minute decided to change it back to Trapper John.

 

Times obit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/arts/television/26roberts.html?hpw

 

It's to bad they killed off Henry Blake. I think his character would have been a fabulous post war sitcom.