As with many questions about MASH, this one comes from the basic mistake of forgetting that it was a fictional comedy show first and everything else second. Nothing about the living quarters of the various characters on MASH had anything to do with reality and none of it made sense. They all served to advance the plot and be convenient to the plot. How did Klinger have his own tent in MASH? For one, he had it because it helped cement him as an outsider. More importantly, because he needed room for all his dresses, sewing equipment, etc. This way, we could see him at work making clothes or whatever he got up to in his tent, which was always sure to be funny, entertaining, and just plain old Klinger.
Klinger was such a great character in his own right. He remains, to this day, one of the favorite characters of many MASH fans. Although Klinger started as a bit character, just a weird guy in a dress, he was too good to let go. The showrunners wanted to center scenes and episodes around him, not to mention display his wardrobe. Giving him a roommate would have been problematic, to say the least.
They would have had to develop at least one other character. To make it more like military reality, they would have to include several characters. Having to develop and write for several other characters would have been a tremendous burden on the show, not to mention the burden of paying those actors. And, those characters would have served no purpose but to take attention away from Klinger and set up unnecessary dynamics between him and his bunkmates.
The only characters we actually saw bunking together in large groups were the nurses. Yet, there was an ever-changing crew of nurses. In fact, the name Nurse Baker and Nurse Able were used over and over with different actors. The only regular nurse who stayed during the entire run of the show was nurse Kellye. Again, this suited the convenience of the plot, as there was no intention of developing the nurse characters further. This only occurred with nurse Kellye to any significant degree, and that happened in much later seasons.
Klinger Gets a Roommate
At one time, Klinger is inexplicably given a roommate. This happened in Season 6, Episode 24, called “Major Topper.” Klinger was saddled with a crazy corporal named Topper, whom he is trying to train for guard duty and other general duties. The corporal talks to a sock puppet, which he seems to think is real, and tries to shoot down imaginary gliders. He is so crazy that he annoys even Klinger, whose every thought is about appearing to be crazy enough to be discharged from the Army. The entire purpose of this episode is obviously to set up a situation where Klinger has to deal with a character who is crazier than himself. Bunking them together just gave us more opportunity to see Klinger’s annoyance.
The crazy corporal is given the boot by Colonel Potter after trying to take imaginary prisoners from the shot-down gliders, and chasing the prisoners as they run off, shooting real bullets into the compound.
Klinger is never given another roommate. But, while Klinger, a corporal, had his own tent, the three doctors, Hawkeye, Trapper, and Frank Burns (later Hawkeye, BJ, and Charles) had to share a tent. In the first season, there was a fourth doctor sharing the Swamp with them, Spearchucker Jones of the problematic name.
Again, the 3 to 4 doctors sharing a tent served the plot perfectly. This way, various antics could occur in the tent. We could see friendship between Hawkeye and Trapper (later replaced by BJ) and the animosity between Frank Burns and the other doctors. We could see the pranks that were played on Frank and his comedic reactions, gin being taken from the homemade still, and Frank’s reaction to their prodigious drinking. And later, much more complex interactions were possible between Hawkeye, BJ, and Charles. Think of the doctor’s tent as like the apartment in a sitcom like Friends or The Big Bang Theory.
Would a Head Nurse Have Her Own Tent?
In reality, while Major Margaret Hoolihan, head nurse, had her own quarters in the show, the head nurse would have likely bunked with the other nurses in real life. Space and resources were short. Moving and setting up extra tents for one person to live in would have been impractical, to say the least. But having Margaret in her own tent enabled many funny plot moments between her and Frank. And, since they were trying to hide their affair, this further set up the opportunity for hilarity involving the other characters, should they come to Margaret’s tent when both she and Frank were inside.
There were other characters who, from time to time, would be portrayed as having their own tent for no other reason than the needs of a single scene or two. The hotheaded Sergeant Zale, who was always fighting with Klinger, had his own tent, for no logical reason other than, perhaps, having him bunk with other personnel would have caused the show to have to develop the other characters more. As it was, Zale was a fairly cardboard character and we never even see the quarters of other recurring background characters, such a Igor Straminsky.
At another time, a “supply sergeant” is shown as having his own tent. The reason for this is that the sergeant had a large collection of stuff he had acquired on account of being the supply sergeant. His having his own tent allowed his collection to be shown. While Zale, at one time, was also portrayed as the supply sergeant, the entire notion was eventually discarded.
Radar Sleeping “On Duty”
Walter “Radar” O’Reilly bunks at his duty station, the clerk’s office. This would have never occurred, especially since there would likely be other personnel to perform those same “company clerk” duties on shifts and to man the radio 24 hours a day. In reality, Radar would have bunked with other personnel like any other soldier.
In truth, the only person in a MASH unit guaranteed their own quarters would be the Commanding Officer, like Col. Henry Blake or Col. Sherman Potter. Noncommissioned enlisted men would have bunked in large tents with up to 20 men, with only room for a bunk and a locker with no shelves and various other personal items. Officers would have bunked with up to 8 at once, and still without the extra room for personal items we see in MASH. Speaking of doctors, the MASH 4077th had too few. There were up to 20 doctors assigned to individual MASH units.
