MASH’s first season features a fourth surgeon in the swamp played by Timothy Brown, but his character was just dropped from the series.
MASH originally featured a fourth surgeon living in the Swamp played by Timothy Brown, but he was eventually cut from the series. CBS’ medical war dramedy ran for 11 seasons and is remembered as one of the best sitcoms ever. Alan Alda’s Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce is arguably the show’s true lead, but he was surrounded by a stellar ensemble that included Mike Farell’s BJ Hunnicutt and Loretta Switt’s Margaret. Over the years, however, MASH’s cast had gone through different iterations, with many of its original cast members ended up leaving during its earlier years.
Much has been said about MASH’s biggest character exits. At the end of season 3, the original 4077 commanding officer, Henry Blake was killed off in a tragic plane crash while on his way home. Immediately the following year, Wayne Rogers’ bid the series goodbye abruptly, forcing Trapper John McIntyre to be written out of MASH. Several years later, Frank Burns also went home, after Larry Linville thought that they had done everything they can with the character. The show had lesser-known character departures, however, including Brown’s Oliver Harmon Jones.
MASH Cut Timothy Brown’s Dr. Jones Due To Concerns Over Historical Accuracy
Jones was the fourth surgeon sleeping with Hawkeye, Trapper, and Burns in the Swamp. Unlike all three of them, who had their fair share under the spotlight, Jones, who was African-American, barely made any impact on the show. His nickname Spearchucker was controversial, as it was considered a racial slur and highly offensive to some viewers. The main reason why Jones was dropped from MASH was because the writers were led to believe that there were no Black doctors assigned to MASH units during the Korean War. According to co-creator Larry Gelbart, they scrapped the character after learning this following “extensive research.”
Aside from not wanting to deviate from history and doing empty tokenism, Gelbart also revealed a secondary reason for having to cut Jones’ character. According to the MASH series co-producer, they h ad to get rid of some players and slim down the ensemble due to budgetary reasons. Despite the series becoming a massive hit for CBS, its earlier years were rocky. MASH wasn’t an immediate hit, it took a couple of years before it found its footing and the network to provide it with additional funding.
Was MASH Right About Black Surgeons In South Korea?
Unfortunately, Gelbert and his MASH team were mistaken about the idea that there were no Black surgeons in Korea during the Korean War. Subsequent research from Wilson et al in an article for the Journal of the National Medical Association that came out in 2012 tackled the story of Alvin Vincent Blount, Jr. Not only did he serve as a surgeon in the 8225th MASH, but he was also the Chief of Surgery in the unit for a time. Previously in 2002, The Korean War Educator website mentioned Captain Miles, a black surgeon from Virginia who served in the 8055th MASH during the same war.
