Frank Burns
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| M*A*S*H character | |
 Frank Burns as portrayed by Larry Linville. |
|
| Frank Burns | |
|---|---|
| Rank | Major (captain in Richard Hooker's original novel and later Lieutenant Colonel after leaving) |
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Eye color | Blue-green |
| Home city | Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA |
| Film portrayer | Robert Duvall |
| Television portrayer | Larry Linville |
| Spanish voice dubber | Francisco Gonzalez |
| First appearance | M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors |
| Last appearance | "Margaret's Marrige" |
- For other characters named Burns, see Burns (disambiguation).
Major Franklin "Frank" Marion Burns aka "Ferret Face" was a character in both M*A*S*H the film and the television series. In the movie, Burns was portrayed by Robert Duvall, and in the series he was portrayed by Larry Linville.
The character is radically different in all versions; in the original novel, Burns was a borderline incompetent and egotistical doctor who blamed others for his own shortcomings; in the film, he is a brooding religious fanatic (a result of merging Burns with another character from the novel in the screenplay), while in the television series he is an officious, frenetic, pompous twit obsessed with military order.
Contents |
[edit] Novel
In the original novel, Captain Burns (in other versions, he was made a major presumably for dramatic and story conflict) is described as a well-off doctor who had no true formal training as a surgeon other than a long apprenticeship with his father in Indiana. He comes off as being, therefore, dismissive of those (such as the Swampmen) who actually went to college for their training. However this masks serious shortcomings in his surgical style, which he dismisses as failures of others further in the process. Duke Forrest remarks that when one of Burns' patients dies "It's either God's will or somebody else's fault." This practice comes to a head when he accuses Pvt. Boone of killing a patient of his through improper administration of medicine and generally berates him. After a while, both Hawkeye and Trapper assault Frank, in separate incidents. It is this turmoil that causes Blake to nominate Trapper as Chief Surgeon.
Later, after Burns and Houlihan commence an affair, the Swampmen latch onto it, and one day at mess, Hawkeye makes some ribauld comments about Burns' and Houlihan's relationship. Burns, having reached the limit of his patience, violently assaults Hawkeye. The next day, he was sent away for psychiatric evaluation, leading Duke to remark: "If I nail Hot Lips and punch out Hawk, can I go home, too?"
[edit] Movie
In the movie, Frank Burns is portrayed as a very religious man who prays for all the souls to be saved. He also is a firm believer in military discipline who dislikes the undisciplined manner of both Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre. When the new head nurse, Major Margaret "Hot Lips" O'Houlihan (The "O" in her last name would be dropped for the TV series) arrives, the pair soon fall for each other.
When the two meet in O'Houlihan's tent to dictate a letter condemning Hawkeye, they soon begin having sex. What neither of them know is that a microphone has been planted underneath O'Houlihan's bed. Every sound the pair make during their lovemaking is heard in the clerk's office. Soon Trapper decides that this has to be shared with the rest of the camp, and he puts Burns and O'Houlihan on the PA.
The next morning, Burns gets into a fight with Hawkeye when the latter asks Burns how O'Houlihan was in bed, demonstrating noises. As a result, Burns attacks Hawkeye physically, and is next sent to a psychiatric hospital in a straitjacket. This is the last the audience sees of him in the movie.
It should be noted that the film's Major Burns was a combination of two characters from the novel—the small-minded twit Captain Burns (who had a liaison with Major O'Houlihan, as in the film, but did not live in The Swamp) and the religious fanatic Major Hobson (whom Hawkeye and Duke had ousted from The Swamp because of his obsessive praying).
[edit] Television series
In the television series, Major Frank Burns was played by Larry Linville. The character of Frank Burns was said to be diametrically opposite of Larry Linville in real life, who was generally a friendly, courteous, well-read man. (Reportedly, Linville could also be high-strung, and this trait played into his TV character.) He based Burns on "every idiot I've ever known". While the TV Burns would appeal occasionally to religious and moral values (typically in the process of showing himself up), the emphasis in storylines was more on his surgical and personality shortcomings, than on his sanctimony.
[edit] Personal life
Burns is a firm believer in discipline and unwavering patriotism (he keeps a photograph of Joseph McCarthy in his tent, which Hawkeye wrote underneath, "Know your Enema"), and dislikes intensely the fact that Pierce and McIntyre are so laid back. At the beginning of the series, Burns and Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan are a couple and their romance scenes were played in a way that could be described as a soap opera parody, with the main jokes being excessive sentimentality, sappy nicknames ("Oh, Margaret, you're my snug harbor--I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you to sail into."), and casual references to Frank's wife, Louise (whom he is said to have only married for her money). It is hinted at in the second season that Hot Lips really is not happy with Frank and, deep down, she knows he's not the man they both like to think he is, but she clings to him anyway because he's the only other person in the camp who shares her opinion that strict discipline is the only discipline (though even at her worst she showed more humanity than Frank), and because of their common contempt of Hawkeye and Trapper. Though Frank is hopelessly in love with Hot Lips, he is unwilling (he routinely lies on his tax returns to the IRS and receives secret kickbacks on patients' prescriptions (4/84)) to divorce his wife; when it was discovered (4/86) that Louise had heard of the affair and tried to get a divorce, Frank lied about Hot Lips' beauty and the whole affair to get the divorce called off. (He called Margaret, among other things, "an old war-horse" and "an army mule with bosoms.") This puzzled Radar, who thought Frank would have been happy to leave his wife and marry Hot Lips, but as Hawkeye noted, Frank did not want to leave "his mommy." (His wife owns the house and stocks in her name.) Furthermore, Houlihan is not his first extramarital affair, as he also slept with his receptionist twice a week back home {4/21) and after Houilhan's engagement Burns confesses in one episode to have a crush on Nurse Kelly {he passes out drunk while having a dance with her}, and in yet another episode proposes to Pierce and BJ that all three of them go to "Rosie's Bar" for a "little action"! In 5/23 Frank is also exposed on at least one occasion as having bought a Korean National Treasure on the Black Market. Despite the fact that he detests enlisted men, several episodes seem to point to Burns as having elements of trust in, if not concern for, Radar. He is also quite simple-minded: when Trapper's friend (2/24), an Army Intelligence officer, is working undercover as an engineering officer, Frank very willingly accepts the man's far-fetched story that the US Army Corps of Engineers is attempting to make MASH hospitals amphibious. In 4/21 he refuses to believe that a sergeant lost money gambling on the grounds gambling has been prohibited, so he concludes that the "missing" money must have been stolen. Even at home he is a klutz – while serving as a Scoutmaster, he apparently accidentally set fire to himself.
[edit] As a surgeon
Burns is portrayed as a barely-passable surgeon; throughout the series it is stated that he only became a doctor to please his beloved mother, and/or for the money (more than a few episodes spotlighted Frank's seemingly insatiable greed, making it a driving factor in his personality). He admits in different episodes that it took him twice as long to graduate medical school (having flunked out of two) as normal, and only passed his first year by buying the answers to a final exam. He stayed in medical school hoping to cure the acne that plagued him beyond his teen years, and would have settled for becoming a male nurse if he'd been able to master folding hospital corners in bedsheets.
Burns' bungling in surgery has led to more than one headache; it is suggested that only the intervention of other doctors has averted the death of his patients in some instances. His insufficient surgical skills were a constant source of humor throughout the series, even after he left. In the pilot episode, when Frank is chastising Hawkeye for his behavior in the operating room, Hawkeye replies "If you want to question my conduct as a soldier that's one thing, but as for my conduct as a doctor, if you seriously want to question that, I'm afraid I'll have to challenge you to a duel." Hawkeye then asks Frank if he's tired after "all that malpractice" he put in. Later, when Hot Lips threatens to file a formal complaint about the insult, Hawkeye retorts that he'll file a countercomplaint about Frank "posing as a doctor and as a human being!"
During an inquiry (In the episode "Novacaine Mutiny"), Burns quizzes a military lawyer about his service record, and is told "If you hadn't been drafted as a doctor, you'd have been assigned as a pastry chef." [Yet Frank's culinary talents are also suspect; he once was injured in his eye during a sniper attack while trying to crack an egg, an episode he passed off as an injury from "shell fragments" when putting in for a Purple Heart. Even the Korean doctors (North and South alike) are aware of Burns's ineptitude. In one such case, Burns is kidnapped by two North Koreans in disguise who plan to use him as a cover to get through a series of checkpoints. However, fed up with their captive's apparent incompetence, they order him out of the jeep as soon as they pass through, telling him "Go back to your unit. It's the best thing you can do for OUR side!" In the next-to-last episode when the 4077th buries a time capsule, Frank's replacement Major Winchester points out that they did not include any mementos from the "odious Major Burns", and Hawkeye replies "I thought about putting in Frank's scalpel, but I didn't want to include any deadly weapons."
[edit] As a soldier
With military weapons Frank has been demonstrated as inept, in an early episode during a poker game he shoots a lamp with a .45 automatic pistol and in a later episode he runs over Colonel Potter's jeep with a tank (4/5). In 4/13 Frank steals an old fashioned .45 cavalry pistol and then shoots himself in the foot trying to return it to the weapons bin. In 5/7 when Houilhan is "missing", Burns accidentally shoots B.J. Hunnicut and casues a flesh wound in the leg. Another time he nearly kills himself with phony heroics when he takes the pin out of a grenade and throws the pin away-which he manages to find again in a hurry!
Burns often tried to undermine Commanding Officer Lt. Col Henry Blake due to Blake's rather lax approach to those under his command and in his desire to take control himself. Several times he went over Blake's head to complain about events at the camp; one example of this is when Pierce was appointed chief surgeon over Burns, who appealed directly to General Barker (Sorrell Booke). Initially ready to send Hawkeye packing, Barker winds up so thoroughly impressed with him that he tells Col. Blake to give Burns a high colonic and send him on a ten-mile hike (with full pack) as punishment for wasting his time. Henry once threatened to note in Frank's personnel file that Frank did not work and play well with others. Frank spent most of his time on the series battling and antagonising virtually everyone in the camp, specifically his tentmates and his commanding officers. By the fifth season he was the show's main antagonist and, essentially, the closest thing the series had to an actual villain (aside from the enemy North Koreans and Chinese)--a fact commented on by B.J. upon hearing of his removal ("This reduces the enemy to just North Korea!"). He also seems to not know army regulations as well as he says he does. In the episode Officer Of The Day, when Col. Flagg brought a prisoner to be treated so he could execute him later and Hawkeye and Trapper refuse to release him, Frank ordered them to release him (which they didn't do), which is against army regulations. However, he may well have ignored the regulations in order to curry favour with the Colonel. Despite his bullying and gung-ho patriotism, in several episodes Burns shows himself to be a panicky coward in crisis situations. One trademark feature of Burns is that when he is drunk or happy or asleep he lets out an irrating high screech of a laugh {like The Riddler}!
When Blake left, and died on his way home, Burns (who actually cried when he heard of Blake's death, one of the few times he ever showed any genuine humanity) was initially slated to take command of the camp. However the Army soon appointed a new Commanding Officer, Sherman T. Potter. He was so upset that he ran away and returned several days later. Everyone except Burns liked the new CO from the start, even Major Houlihan. Burns did not get along with Potter, often making insulting comments regarding Potter's age. Potter in turn referred to Burns as the camp's "head twerp".
[edit] Departure
Eventually, Burns and Houlihan had a falling out. (The aforementioned situation where Louise finds out about Houlihan and Frank lies to her about her beauty. This gets a chair thrown at Frank) Houlihan married Donald Penobscot, another career military officer, and wasted few opportunities of praising Donald and her love for him. The two left on their honeymoon, leaving Frank alone and heartbroken, despite the fact he was already married. During their honeymoon, Burns was sent on leave to Seoul. While there, he suffered a breakdown and started running wild throughout the city with the Military Police in pursuit until he accosted a General's wife (whom he mistakenly thought was Houlihan) in a public bath. As a result of a psychiatric examination after his capture, he was sent back to the States. Potter, Radar, Pierce and Hunnicutt, have one last toast in Frank's honor. Hawkeye's last words on the matter, "Good-bye Ferret Face." However, Burns has the proverbial "last laugh:" to everyone's disgust, he is promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and posted to a VA Hospital in Indiana. Burns was replaced with Major C.E. Winchester III, who by contrast, was considered an excellent surgeon even by the people who disliked him. Winchester also had a relatively more bearable personality.
Burns was written out of the series at the request of Linville. Linville, who once commented that there was actually a very dark aura hovering over Frank, believing that Frank was not all that stable yet he was still operating on patients, felt that the character of Frank Burns had gone as far as it possibly could, with the way the series had developed.
[edit] Decorations
Several times throughout the series, the awards that Major Burns had earned during his service in the army could be seen on his uniform. He had earned the following:
National Defense Service Medal
At least twice Burns tried to claim a Purple Heart for minor injuries he incurred at the camp, but quick work by Hawkeye and either Trapper or BJ made sure Frank could never keep the spurious award-{one medal {1/17} goes to a wounded GI and the other medal {4/9} is awarded to a just delivered wounded baby} although he does keep the ribbon badge and will probably get a replacement Purple Heart medal to go with it. An anachronism is Burns getting the same medal twice-he would have received an service star.
[edit] Trivia
- In 1/10 a picture of Frank Burns' mother is seen; in fact it is a "stock picture" which can be seen in a Tarzan movie.
- Twice in the series Frank has his wrist nearly broken-once by "Buzz Brigthon" {Leslie Nielsen} in 1/16 and once by a Korean General in 4/17.
- In 1975 episode 4/2 there was a remark at the end about Potter arriving in 4/3 and also that among the "permanent members" assigned to MASH was Major Burns and a date of Sept 19, 1952-Burns stays on until 6/1 and 6/2 when he is replaced by Winchester.
[edit] External links
- Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website with character profile
- Best Care Anywhere - M*A*S*H website with character profile
| Preceded by Henry Blake |
Interim Commanding Officer of MASH 4077th (TV series) 1975 |
Succeeded by Sherman T. Potter |
| M*A*S*H | |
|---|---|
| Film: | MASH |
| TV series: | M*A*S*H | Trapper John, M.D. | AfterMASH | W*A*L*T*E*R |
| Characters: |
Hawkeye Pierce | Trapper John McIntyre | Duke Forrest | B.J. Hunnicutt | Henry Blake | Sherman T. Potter | Frank Burns | Margaret Houlihan | Charles Winchester | Radar O'Reilly | Father Mulcahy | Maxwell Klinger | Igor Straminsky | Luther Rizzo | Sidney Freedman | Col. Flagg | Spearchucker Jones | Ugly John | Walter Koskiusko Waldowski | Ho-Jon | Lieutenant Dish | Donald Penobscot |
| Episodes: | Season 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Books: | M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors | M*A*S*H Goes to Maine |
| Related material: | Guest stars | Differences between book, film and TV versions of M*A*S*H | Suicide Is Painless |
