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Sherman T. Potter
Colonel Sherman Tecumseh Potter was one of the main characters from the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H; he replaced the departing CO of the 4077th MASH unit, Colonel Henry Blake, after he was killed off when his helicopter was shot down over the Sea of Japan at the end of Season 3 of the series. He was portrayed by Harry Morgan. At the end of the show's third season, McLean Stevenson had left the series, and his character, Henry Blake, died on his way home. Major Frank Burns had assumed full-time command of the unit at the end of that season, although it was to be short-lived (one full episode plus parts of two others). The producers wanted a different type of commanding officer for the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH). They decided on a "Regular Army" commander, a man who had made a career out of the service, and was close to retirement. The producers chose Harry Morgan to fill the role, after the strong performance he gave as a visiting General earlier in the first episode of the third season, "The General Flipped at Dawn"
Harry Morgan as "Col. Potter" on the M*A*S*H TV
Colonel Potter's first appearance on the series came in the second episode of Season Four, "Change of Command". Voiceover narration gives the date as September 19, 1952.
series.
M*A*S*H character
Vital information Rank Colonel (O-6), U.S. Army Commanding Officer/Senior Job/Role in unit: Surgeon at the 4077th M*A*S*H Pensacola, Florida\during Korean War, retires to River Home Bend, Missouri to work in VA Hospital with Klinger and Father Mulcahy afterwards Hair Color: Eye Color: Height: Weight: Grey Blue 5'7" 140 lbs.
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Despite the distance that military duty imposed upon him, Col. Potter was, at heart, a family man. He kept in regular contact with his wife, children, and grandchildren, and told them all about the people he served with at the 4077th. For the most part, Potter and his wife, Mildred, had to maintain a long-distance relationship, although he was able to meet her for a couple weeks in Tokyo at one point. Potter kept a framed portrait of his wife on his desk, and every morning gave his wife a salute. In the Season 6 episode "Lil", Potter befriends Colonel Lillian Rayburn, a visiting dignitary, much to Radar's consternation. But when the friendship begins to get too warm he reminds himself of the "lady back home with [his] picture on [her] piano." Col. Potter and wife Mildred have been married for twenty five years, since about 1923 they have two children, daughter Evy, and a son, whose name is never actually mentioned on the series, although the name of his daughter in law is revealed as Jeannie. Daughter Evy has a child, and is married to a man named Robert "Bob" Wilson, played by Dennis Dugan, who we actually get to meet in the eleventh season episode "Strange Bedfellows" in Season 11. This is the only Potter family member who shows up live during the run of 'M*A*S*H'. Colonel Potter also has a son, but we never learn his name. We do, however, learn that his daughter-in-law's name is Jeanine. In "Strange Bedfellows", Potter's son-in-law, Robert Wilson, pays a visit. But after learning of a one-night stand Robert had with a woman in Tokyo, Potter admitted to Robert he once had a brief extramarital affair himself. After handing the departing Robert a picture frame with a snapshot of him and his family, Potter said to Robert "promise me you'll stay in the picture". Colonel Potter also showed that he was a man of integrity, who, after surviving two World Wars, had grown tired of fighting. More than once, when old Army buddies committed serious errors that resulted in men being unnecessarily hurt or killed, Potter reported them to headquarters, even though it broke his heart to turn on his old friends:
Birthplace: Nationality/Race:
Evy (daughter) Robert "Bob" Wilson (son inRelatives/Children: law) Unnamed son Jeannie Potter (daughter inlaw) Appearances "Change of First appeared in: Command" (M*A*S*H, Season 4 opening) "Saturday's Last appeared in: Heroes" (AfterMASH, Season 2) Series/Film appeared in: Played by: M*A*S*H / AfterMASH Harry Morgan
In the Season 5 episode "Ping Pong", Lt. Colonel Harold Beckett, an old friend of Potter's, is given command of his own combat unit- needing five more days on the line to get his Combat Infantry Badge and an assured promotion to full Colonel. But when he and many of his men are wounded, one soldier reveals that it was Beckett's incompetence that got them in trouble; after suffering significant casualties the unit was ordered to withdraw and Beckett froze. But when Potter confronts Beckett about what happened he blamed it on Intelligence failure. Potter orders him sent back down saying "I don't give a damn about your promotion or your lousy C.I.B.; all I care about are those kids[...] and if one gets hurt the price is too high." In the Season 11 episode "Friends And Enemies", Woody Cooke, a close friend of Potter's dating all the way back to WWI, and now a Colonel assigned to 'I-Corps', comes into the 4077th with a bad leg wound. Two others tell Hawkeye and BJ they were ordered to stay clear of the ridge where they were hit, Cooke, having no business being there much less not knowing what he was doing, wandered into the area and ordered the soldiers to hold their position. At first Potter refuses to believe
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it, but when he himself questions the wounded sergeant in charge of the unit, he later confronts Cooke about it saying he would have to report him. Cooke, angered at Potter's refusal to let the incident slide, storms off, ending their friendship. Potter's integrity and sense of fairness were also exemplified when the doctors discovered that a covertly racist Engineering CO was deliberately sending Black soldiers disproportionately into hazardous duty so that they'd be rotated out of his unit sooner, provided they weren't killed in action. Col. Potter participated in a sting that got the officer to reveal his true intentions, and forced him to resign his commission. Although Col. Potter was able to keep his cool nearly all the time, he did occasionally lose his temper. In the season 10 episode, "Pressure Points", Col. Potter made a huge surgical mistake that nearly cost a soldier his life (and that Hawkeye had to go in and fix). The colonel quietly began to question his own surgical ability after finding out what happened. When a visiting captain came to the 4077th to discuss how to treat patients who came in with wounds caused by a then-new white phosphorus ammunition, Potter began to break. During the lecture, Potter became visibly upset and near the point of tears, and when the captain was nearly finished, Potter berated him screaming, "If they can invent better ways to kill each other, why can't they invent a way to end this stupid war??!" Following this outburst, Potter called on psychiatrist Sidney Freedman for a private consultation. Later, after finding out that Hawkeye had approved the release of the Colonel's patient, Potter, still showing how things had affected him, verbally castigated Pierce. So Freedman stayed on a few days with the unit, and helped Potter talk through his concerns. Potter slowly but surely regained his confidence.
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made it clear, looking at Hawkeye's and B.J.'s records, that he had no time for hijinks. Both were concerned about Potter's not having done any recent surgeries. Their fears were allayed when Potter proved himself capable in both roles. A sudden influx of wounded proved the competence of everyone, forming the basis for mutual respect. A night of post-surgery drinking bonded Hawkeye and B.J. with Potter from then on as he revealed his own experience with wartime drinking. Once Potter and his staff got to know each other, he became good friends with many of the people in the unit, and spoke of them as "my family". Almost always giving off the aura of everyone's favorite father, he was especially close to Hawkeye, B.J., Radar, Father Mulcahy, Klinger, and Major Houlihan. Potter became a father figure to Radar during his time at the 4077th, much as his predecessor Henry Blake had. In return, when Radar found a wounded stray horse, he gave him to Potter, so he could care for him (in later episodes, the horse is female, named Sophie). Potter was delighted to have a horse again, and rode her regularly. As part of his fatherly role towards Radar, he would defend him against snide comments by Frank Burns. His cavalry background revealed a set of quirky eccentricities that blended well with his staff, given his use of faux-profanities like "horse hockey." In the episode "The Interview", Potter, asked if his Regular Army background made it difficult for him to work with draftees, made it clear he did not care to run the unit by strict Regular Army standards, in part because of the conditions, "because these people aren't soldiers; they're doctors", and also because "I don't want to," adding his view that if he did so, he did not believe the unit would get the results (high survival rates for wounded brought to the 4077th) that they were getting. Potter quickly demonstrated that he knew every trick and dodge in the book, and like his predecessor Blake he continually refused to discharge Klinger while letting him get away with cross dressing. When Radar's Uncle Ed died at the beginning of the eighth season, Potter helped Radar get a hardship discharge so he could return home to Iowa, and when Radar began to have second thoughts about leaving, Potter sat him down and led him into a nice conversation, only to learn afterwards that Radar had already decided to leave after all, but liked Potter's speech anyway. When Klinger took over as clerk, Potter realized that Klinger needed time to adjust to the job. Remembering his own experience with having to replace Henry Blake, he told Klinger to make the job his own, as Potter had with Blake's former role. Klinger eventually did a good job, and won a promotion to Sergeant. Potter disliked Burns both personally and professionally. In his first letter to Mrs. Potter, he referred to Burns as "the head twerp". Burns made a lot of disparaging insults about Potter's age and once even called him an old dimwit, while he was castigating Radar, which Potter also didn't appreciate. When Frank said he loved serving in Korea, Potter told him that either he (Burns) or Klinger was nuts, and Potter would have to figure out which one it was. When Burns ultimately had a nervous breakdown and was transferred stateside, Potter arranged to have Major Winchester, sent as a temporary replacement, assigned permanently to the unit. Winchester was a much better surgeon than Burns, but prideful and not easy to get along with. Winchester resented the assignment, and having to perform non-surgical jobs, which led to several arguments between the two. (As the unit disbanded, Winchester told Potter he admired his surgical skills, and that he, having recently attained a supervisory position at a Boston hospital, hoped to be inspired in the future by the memory of Potter's wisdom and gentle good humor). Potter also had to occasionally deal with the intelligence officer Colonel Flagg, refusing to be intimidated or pushed around by him. Potter is also a confessed lover of cowboy ballads, Zane Grey and the song Sentimental Journey by Doris Day, having listened to the song more than 28 times. He'd seen every Doris Day movie... alone. But, while Mildred didn't know, he said "Doris doesn't know either". He also showed he had a sense of humor far superior to that of Hawkeye or Hunnicutt, or Margaret, or even Winchester, for all of his aristocratic pride. In the episode "April Fools," he furiously dresses down all four of them when the chief medical officer, Col. Daniel Webster Tucker (played by Pat Hingle) comes in (see Quotes, below). Tucker pushes the four past their limit and threatens to bring them up on charges he will court-martial them (He says in a smug, ominous voice, "Let's see you laugh that one off, gang...") Determined to get in one last jibe before the axe falls, Hawkeye and the others douse Tucker with beer in the Officer's Club, after Tucker appears to have suffered a heart attack, Hawkeye approaches to help but Potter growls, "Get the hell away, Pierce! Haven't you done enough?" Tucker suddenly says, "April Fool!" and he and Potter laugh maniacally, showing Hawkeye and the others that they have a lot to learn from two old pros ("We set this up weeks ago!"). Hawkeye concedes defeat, announcing, "Fellow jokers, we are in the presence of greatness. We have been royally had!" and they applaud. Two plot holes concern Potter competence as a Surgeon-in one episode when a cooling unit stopped working he has blood plasma cooled in a running stream-never mind the water born bacteria which could contaminate open wounds! In another episodes he keeps a horse stabled near the OR and recovery room-also never mind possibility of germ contamination to patients!
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