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Frank Burns
About Frank
A native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he was born and raised Francis Burns was born June 13, although what year is not revealed (this is debatable, because in the Season 2 episode "For Want of a Boot", his birthday party takes place in the winter). In one M*A*S*H episode, Burns claims he was in practice for 12 years. In another episode, Burns sneered at Hawkeye because while Hawkeye was in a General Hospital, Frank had a thriving three year private practice in Fort Wayne with a $35,000 house and two cars. Other episodes also tell that Burns also has a 30 foot yacht, a country club and a men's lodge memberships and is involved in a kickback prescription racket and has an ongoing affair with his receptionist twice a week in the Golden Goose Motel. He also falsifies his Income Tax returns and dabbles in the Stock Market. He once claims to Houlihan he can't marry her because he can't afford a new wife and an ex-wife although the real reason he won't divorce his wife is because the house and stocks are in her name! He engaged in cheating other members of MASH by secretly listening to baseball games on a hidden radio and then tricking others into making bets he could win-until Hawkeye, B.J. and Radar tricked him with his own game. Several times he tried to steal objects-an alarm clock and a ring from Major Houlihan; a Korean national treasure; a pistol from a visiting coloneland never succeeded. A running gag is that besides his greed Burns is also inept-he was a Scoutmaster until he accidentally set fire to himself and is basically incompetent with firearms: he wildly shot his pistol and missed in the dark in the mess tent when he and Hawkeye investigated a noise; he shot a lamp out while the rest of MASH personnel were playing a poker game; he accidentally shot BJ Hunnicut in the leg while cleaning his pistol and shot himself in the leg as well while trying to return a stolen pistol to a gun bin, {Both wounds were just scratches}. Twice Burns is awarded the Purple heart medal-once for throwing his back out while dancing with Major Houlihan and once for getting an egg shell fragment in his eye. Both times he doesn't keep the main medal-one goes to a hospitalized underage soldier who's going home and the other goes to a Koren baby whose mother was wounded just before birth. At least once he tried to steal a Purple heart from a patient. Another running gag is that when he is happy or asleep he lets out a hysterical screech of a laugh. Frank can sleep through anything. One time Hawkeye and Trapper "milked" him for a pint of blood while he was asleep. Another time, after a "night out on the town" encouraged by Colonel Potter, a drunken Frank drank up all of Hawkeye and BJ's liquor and won all their money in a poker game and then was toe tagged by BJ and Hawkeye and was accidentally shipped up to the front where he continued to sleep, uninterrupted, until the next morning.
Last appeared in: "Margaret's Marriage" (Season 5) M*A*S*H (TV series) Larry Linville Nationality/Race: Spouse: Mrs. Burns, first name not mentioned Unamed father Relatives/Children: Unnamed mother 3 daughters Appearances First appeared in: "Pilot" (Season 1) Weight: 185 lbs. Hair Color: Eye Color: Height: Black Brown 6'0" Home Job/Role in unit: Rank
M*A*S*H character
Vital information Major (O-4), U.S. Army Reserve, later promoted to Lt. Colonel (O-5) when transferred to a VA Hospital in Indiana Ranking Former Chief Surgeon at the 4077th M*A*S*H Same as birthplace
His skills as a Surgeon are also debatable with MASH 4077's record of 98% survival rate-since at least two patients have to be saved from infection after being operated on by "Ferret Face" (Burns' nickname). Another time he almost cut a surviving kidney from a patient (after refusing to look at the x-ray, which revealed that the patient only had one) and nearly allowed a comatose patient to die. Hawkeye claims his feud with Burns began when Hawkeye remarked Burns created more widows and pallbearers than salmonella. Burns himself admits the local funeral director gives him thank you cards
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every Christmas. Trapper John claimed Burns couldn't cut a Salami without bungling it and BJ wrote that Hawkeye claims Burns became a doctor only after washing out of embalming school. Burns himself admits he flunked the medical exam twice and only passed by buying the answers for $200.00 and that he failed being a male nurse when he couldn't fold hospital bedsheets; he graduated 122nd out of 200. Besides being a Surgeon Burns is also in charge of garbage detail, latrine digging squad, giving lectures to enlisted personnel on why the Korean War is being fought every Friday, and also the Camp's physical fitness officer; despite having anemia, high blood pressure, a bad back, and a hernia operation. Several times Burns gets knocked out cold after being hit by Klinger, Zale, Hawkeye, BJ, and Major Houlihan. His favorite general is Douglas MacArthur, and his favorite senator is Joseph McCarthy; who ironically was as crazy as Colonel Flagg. In one episode Hawkeye and BJ tried to keep a North Korean POW doctor after Burns is mistakenly taken POW by two disguised North Koreans; the two infiltrates are so tired of Burns idiocy that they let him goclaiming that is the best thing they can do for their side! Emotionally Burns can act, at times, very unstable and childish when he doesn't get his way-twice he had fits of petulant anger when Hawkeye became Chief Surgeon of MASH 4077 and when he lost permanent command to Colonel Sherman T. Potter; once when he became so worried about losing Houlihan -he decided to become a "hero" {Blood and Guts Burns} that he nearly blew himself up with a hand grenade and went wondering around in the dark with a M1 carbine. In his last performance Burns has a nervous breakdown when Houlihan leaves to get married and goes down to Seoul and gets drunk and tries to romance women he thinks are Houlihan, resulting in a court martial and being put under psychiatric observation-which in MASH 4077's fictional world means all charges are dropped and he goes home a Lt. Col in charge of a Veterans Hospital in Ft Wayne Indiana! The only person he has real affection for is his mother-apparently his father was unfaithful to her.
http://mash.wikia.com/wiki/Frank_Burns
27/03/2014
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Unfortunately, the character of Frank Burns was made perhaps too two dimensional, often lacking any degree of human complexity or nuance. He was portrayed as inept and evil at times, which, unfortunately, perhaps for Larry Linville, the actor who played Frank, served the comedy of Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds, as well as the series' Nielsen ratings well. One wonders how such a dumb and morally shallow person was able to make it through medical school, as well as have medical practice and to be able to work in a MASH unit where the survival rate was so high. Larry Linville, who so brilliantly played Burns, called the latter a "technical contrivance.'' This seems accurate. Frank Burns was lacking in anything even remotely connected to real human profundity, and was perhaps the only completely cartoonish character and most two dimensional (outside of Max Klinger, whose character was even made more three dimensional as the series wore on) of all of the characters of the series. Even with this, he was still described in one episode as "a fair to competent surgeon, and still able commander", albeit an acting one. A goof in the series is him being shown as a Major; according to the US Army Alamac 1959 {.p.149} Captain's rank could only be acheived after 14 years service; in fact he would probably have been a 1st Lt. {3 years}; likewise the rank of Colonel could come only after 21 years service.
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http://mash.wikia.com/wiki/Frank_Burns
27/03/2014