Unless you’ve seen the pilot episode of MASH dozens of times, as I have, you may be surprised to see someone other than William Christopher playing Father Mulcahy. Yes, that was the priest’s name in the first episode. He wasn’t replaced by another priest. This first actor to portray Father Mulcahy was George Morgan. He never speaks a line of dialogue in the pilot. Instead, he seems to exist only for comedic physical reactions. The actor was replaced by the second episode, but why?
Why Was George Morgan Replaced as Father Mulcahy?
Producer Larry Gelbart stated that George Morgan’s replacement had nothing to do with the ability of the actor. He went on to explain,
“George Morgan is a perfectly fine actor. We wanted someone who had a quirkier personality – one we wouldn’t have to “write” into the script.”
In other words, they wanted an actor who wrote himself into the script by being expressive, unique, and yes, quirky. Imagine if you were trying to build a human-like android and you had to start from the very beginning. It would be much easier if you had a template to start with. Some built-in features and personality plugins you could build on. Apply that to building a character in a TV show.
George Morgan could act but he would have to have been told how to play the priest and built from parts, as it were. William Christopher instantly brought a “template” into Father Mulcahy that the writers could more easily write for, instead of creating the character from the ground up. From the beginning, William Christopher jumped out of the screen as the gentle Father Mulcahy. Many people thought he really was a priest.
Watch for George Morgan in the Background!
As for George Morgan, he actually appears in the series. If you look closely, you’ll catch him in the background, looking much the same. He appears, sitting on a chair, after the bonfire scene in Season 6, Episode 4, War of the Nerves.
In the pilot, Morgan’s fiery red hair stands out and we hear Trapper calling him “Red” during an O.R. scene. And, in the first Dear Dad episode, Season One, Episode 12, Hawkeye refers to him as Red. This is a leftover from the original novel by Richard Hooker and the movie where the doctors call the Father “Dago Red”, the name of a cheap wine.
Father Mulcahy in the film was played by Rene Auberjonois who you may know best as playing Odo in Star Trek Deep Space Nine. You may also remember him as Clayton Endicott III on the TV show Benson, the chief of staff for the governor while Benson was the head of household, played by Robert Guillaume. Benson, you may remember, was a spinoff of Soap, but wasn’t done as a “Soap Opera.”
Father Mulcahy’s Name Changes Twice
In the show, the nickname “Red” for Father Mulcahy is not heard again after those few occurrences and it seems obvious why. William Christopher’s Father Mulcahy could never be called anything but “Father.” However, his given name is changed as the show goes on. His name began as John Patrick Francis Mulcahy. But, later on it becomes Francis John Patrick Mulcahy.
We learn this because in Season 8, Episode 7, Nurse Doctor, the Father is helping a troubled nurse who wants to become a doctor. They get to know each other very well, to the point that the young nurse develops feelings for Mulcahy, creating an uncomfortable situation for him, to say the least. During the course of his counseling, though, he reveals to her that his full name is Francis John Patrick Mulcahy. In the pilot, the Father’s name is stated as “John P. Mulcahy. It seems plausible that the two new versions of the name, is a way to explain the P (Patrick) but also the Francis, as stated in the Mash Wiki.
