In the TV series version of MASH, great pains were taken to make sure the audience knew Hawkeye was not married. This fact was verified time and again. The main character was a confirmed bachelor. In the original novel, Hawkeye, Trapper, and Duke were all married. In the film, Hawkeye is married, but no explicit mention is made of Trapper’s marital status. We can assume he was also married. Why was Hawkeye then made a bachelor in the TV series?
The decision to have Hawkeye be single in the TV show was an early one that started with the very first script for the pilot. In this initial episode, there were a lot of doctors hitting on a lot of nurses. Those doctors, and some of the nurses, were married. So, there were also a lot of extra-marital affairs going on.
Someone at CBS, or perhaps more than one person in authority, was concerned about all this infidelity being portrayed. Since Hawkeye was to be the main character, it was decided that he would not be married. His bunkmate, best friend, and sidekick Trapper John McIntyre, remained married, although he too had affairs with nurses. Clearly, the goal was to lessen the spousal cheating, not eliminate it altogether.
MASH co-creator Larry Gelbart, who wrote the pilot, recalled in an interview that in the original script, Hawkeye was married, or his love-interest Lt. Dish was, or both:
…they weren’t happy that so many doctors and nurses were hitting on each other. So, I think Hawkeye was married in the original draft, or Lieutenant Dish was, or they both were. Anyway we modified some of that…
It is almost certain that Hawkeye was married in the original script since both co-creators Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds, wanted to be true to the spirit of the film. Gelbart would have originally had no reason to want to make Hawkeye single, since he was married in the film.
In the show, not only was Hawkeye a bachelor, but, in time, the character expressed a complete aversion to having an affair with a married woman, something not shared by other characters, such as Trapper John or Henry Blake. Major Frank Burns expressed disapproval of such affairs while having one himself with Major Margaret Houllihan, however.
While Hawkeye’s marital status was a major continuity shift from the book, he wasn’t the only character with a complex origin; for example, Corporal Klinger’s persona was famously inspired by Lenny Bruce.
Radar’s Report: Hawkeye is Reluctant to Be With a Married Woman (Season 2, Episode 3)
In Season 2, Episode 3, titled Radar’s Report 1Written by Sheldon Keller (story) and Laurence Marks (teleplay), Hawkeye becomes interested in a nurse who is new to the 4077, Nurse Lt. Erica Johnson (Joan Van Ark, famous for playing Valene Ewing on Knots Landing). He begins hitting on her as soon as they work together during an operation.
In this initial scene, a Chinese soldier is brought in for surgery. He is terrified, thinking he is to be killed or tortured. After finishing his surgery, Hawkeye begins his preparations to operate on the Chinese prisoner. He looks at the man’s X-rays as the patient is brought in. Pierce instructs the anesthetist to put him under, and as the doctor looks away, the terrified man throws off the mask and jumps off the operating table. He grabs a scalpel off a surgical tray and brandishes it at the staff.
Henry yells for help from a guard, and Father Mulchahy yells “bung jau” thinking it means “Peace and Friendship.” A staff member grabs the prisoner from behind, but the patient manages to turn and cut his arm with the scalpel. Another man grabs him, and as he breaks loose, he knocks down the last bottle of AB Negative blood that Trapper is using for his patient, “contaminating the entire field.”
Lieutenant Johnson slowly advances on the prisoner, speaking softly, trying to tell him, “No one’s going to hurt you. Give me the knife…” As the frightened man looks away for a moment, she seizes the opportunity and lunges forward to grab the knife. He slashes the knife at her, though, and cuts her wrist. Hawkeye gives her a sponge to hold on the wound and continues trying to calm the man.
Then, Klinger, wearing a dress and carrying a gun for guard duty, rushes in and sees what’s going on. The Chinese prisoner slashes at Klinger, cutting the strap of his dress. Klinger, angered that he wrecked a 39 dollar dress, cocks his rifle and points it at the man, who is now being held by Igor and another man. Seeing the rifle pointed at him, he drops the scalpel in defeat.
Hawkeye, smitten with Nurse Johnson, appoints himself Lt. Johnson’s personal physician and supervises her recovery as an excuse to spend time with her. In the tent where she is recuperating, as she takes a drink of “wine” (gin with red food coloring), he notices that she is wearing a wedding ring and immediately announces that he has to leave.
Pierce visits her again and still cannot resist his attraction to he,r but is clearly ill at ease. She asks him what is wrong, and he says, “Us, you, him…you name it.” They kiss, and as Hawkeye touches her hand on his face, he feels the ring. Thus reminded once again of her marital status, he jumps up, saying, “What am I doing?”
“Whatever it is, I approve,” says Erica.
“You’re married, madame. You’re a married madame! Why don’t I go away?” replies Hawkeye.
“Hawkeye, I’m not married.”
Johnson explains to Pierce that she only wears the ring because it “cuts down on wrestling matches.” Upon learning this, he doesn’t hesitate to sit down and kiss her again.
While Hawkeye’s single status is reiterated time and again, However, in this episode, he is so smitten with Nurse Johnson that he begins talking about how they are getting married, even going so far as to talk about it around camp. Johnson doesn’t have similar feelings, however, so she has to let Hawkeye down and tell him she’s not looking for a long-term relationship. Pierce gets to find out what it’s like when “the shoe is on the other foot” since he is usually the one warding off such commitments. It is not clear how serious Hawkey was about all the marriage talk. He was likely sore over having his romantic advances rejected, rather than being disappointed about Erica not wanting to marry.
This is also the first episode in which Sidney Freedman appears.
Hawkeye’s Old Flame
In Season 4, Episode 23, titled The More I See You (written by Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds), we find out that there is perhaps more to Pierce’s story than just a simple aversion to the institution of marriage. In fact, he was once in a very serious relationship and has never gotten over it.
On a boring day at the MASH, a jeep arrives carrying two new nurses. B.J. and Hawkeye see them arrive from the Swamp. Hawkeye is shocked and dismayed when he realizes that one of them is his old flame, Carlye Breslin (Blythe Danner). Hawkeye explains to B.J. that the two were very close, so close, in fact, that they lived together for a year to a year and a half. After this, the relationship “busted up” Hawkeye explains, trying to sound like it was no big deal, although his nervous behavior betrays the truth.
After learning through Radar that Carlye is now married and goes by Carlye Watlon, the two Swamp-rats go to visit the new nurses in their tent, bringing gifts. Hawkeye and Carlye pretend they’ve never met, although she knows the origin of his nickname and finishes one of his jokes. The doctors invite the nurses for drinks that night.
Later, Carlye visits Hawkeye while he is alone in his tent. He is reserved and tries too hard to be nonchalant, but soon, the conversation becomes serious, and he expresses his anger that Carlye is married, but not to him. It seems to be a further insult that she is married to an ad man named Doug, now a naval officer on a destroyer. She reminds him that he never asked her and never wanted to get married. He complains that he was in residency, working his tail off, and struggling financially, so he couldn’t get married at that time. They continue to argue, and Hawkeye says, There’s been no one since you…faint copies at best.”
Unable to resolve anything, the two decide to try to work together and be professional despite their past, but Hawkeye is angry in surgery and snaps at Carlye. He asks her if they can talk later. After work, they meet in an empty hut near camp, and Hawkeye tells Carlye that he was wrong when he said that the two of them could just work together. “I don’t see how I could possibly behave like a normal human person around you unless I get rid of some of that…that unpleasant baggage I’ve been carrying around for years,” he says.
He explains to her in so many words that he never got over her and that he can’t be near her and just work. She tells him that it can’t be the way it was. “It can be better,” he says. He starts kissing her. She hesitates, but then gives in.
A few days later, Hawkeye and B.J. talk in Radar’s office while B.J. is waiting for a call to his wife Peggy to go through. B.J. makes a comment about a “married person,” and Hawkeye mentions not being around much lately. He tells B.J. that he and Carlye are happy, and they begin a discussion about Hawkeye having an affair with a married woman. Hawkeye asks B.J. if he has ever been unfaithful. B.J. says no, saying, “and not because God’ll send me to Hell without an electric fan, or it’s not the right thing to do… I simply don’t want to.”
Peggy’s call comes through, and Radar rushes in to give Hawkeye a document that he just got. Carlye has put in for an immediate transfer. He goes to her tent and demands to know why she would do such a thing. She tells him that she can’t stay at the unit with the way things are between them and intends to tell Colonel Potter the truth. She tells him that she loves him too, and even that she wants a divorce from Doug. Hawkeye tries to convince her of how great they would be together.
Thinking that the problem is that he didn’t want to get married before, he begins trying to convince her, and himself, that he can handle it now. While he gives this half-hearted, desperate proposal, he slowly puts himself further away from her, ending up in the corner of the tent behind a table. “Hawkeye, look at yourself! Look where you are,” says Carlye. “You’re trapped! You’ve just proposed yourself into a corner!”
He tries to tell her that it doesn’t matter, but his lack of conviction is obvious. She tells him that his work is always going to be the one most important thing in his life, and that it should be, because he is very gifted: “I just don’t want to take a backseat, again. I like it up front,” she finishes. Hawkeye, knowing she’s right, accepts this and hugs her goodbye. He tries to joke as he leaves, telling her, “Do me a favor. If anybody asks, I turned you down…”
This episode, while explaining more about Hawkeye’s past and his lack of seriousness about his relationships with women, further cements his status as a confirmed bachelor. Now, we have an explanation. His work is the most important thing to him.
Various Love Interests
Hawkeye’s various and ever-changing love interests made for plenty of comedic moments without having the complications of one committed relationship. However, having him available for these relationships was not the primary reason for making the character single. The writers simply took advantage of this status. This made the writing easier since they did not have to reference his marriage. It was not, however, completely necessary to have him be single for this reason, as some sources attest. Instead, the decision was made to make him single early on, to satisfy the concerns of the network, and the writers worked with the character based on this decision.
Did Alan Alda Influence Hawkeye Pierce’s Non-Married Status?
Alan Alda had no input into the pilot and in no way influenced the fact that Captain Hawkeye Pierce was to be single. However, it is well-known that Alda is a feminist and did not like Hawkeye’s womanizing ways. He had a great deal of influence on curbing this aspect of the character, especially in regards to cutting down on Pierce’s success with women.
However, in the early seasons, Alda understood that the character’s womanizing was a comedic device. It is unlikely that he had much influence on these early stories. Hawkeye’s success with women in the early seasons was, while comedic, a bit uncanny. Having him fall on his face once in a while was an improvement. Instead of his womanizing being something akin to a magic touch, it became a joke about how irresistible he thought he was. It was this change that Alda was most responsible for. By the final seasons, Pierce’s philandering was all but eliminated.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
- Was Hawkeye Pierce married in the MASH novel? Yes. In Richard Hooker’s original novel, Hawkeye is a married man with sons back home in Maine. The TV show creators decided to make him a bachelor to allow for his legendary “womanizing” persona and romantic subplots.
- Did Hawkeye have a sister in the TV series? In the first season, Hawkeye mentions a sister and even writes letters to her. However, as the series progressed and the writers tightened the continuity, he became an only child to his father, Daniel Pierce.
- Is Hawkeye Pierce from Maine or Vermont? While early episodes occasionally mention Vermont, the show eventually solidified Hawkeye’s hometown as Crabapple Cove, Maine.
