Last week, I reviewed the script for “Dear Peggy” (04×10), and in that episode we get a glimpse at B.J.’s inner thoughts about the 4077th and learn more about his wife in California. That episode was only the tenth episode to feature Mike Farrell as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt, and that was one of two major cast changes in season four. At the end of season three, M*A*S*H had killed off one main character, but most viewers would be genuinely surprised to learn that Wayne Rogers’ Captain “Trapper John” McIntyre had also left the series. Enter Farrell as B.J., and the dynamics of the show changed. How did Fox prepare the audience for the cast changes of season four? The introduction of Harry Morgan and Farrell as new M*A*S*H characters began shortly after the third season ended in the spring of 1975, but as the fourth season approached, Fox and CBS sent out more materials promoting the “new” cast of M*A*S*H of season four, and this press photo from August 1975 was part of that campaign.
The photo shows Farrell as B.J. wearing his military dress uniform. The red markings on the photo were used by the publication to indicate how the photo would be cropped for publication. While the photo was great for publications to use to promote the premiere episode of season four, it is the information on the back that is more important. A fact sheet would have been sent along with the photo, and many publications glued the fact sheet to the back of the photo. This was practical at the time to ensure that information was not separated from the photo, but it is invaluable to collectors today as we can see the context of the photo. The document, dated August 22, 1975, advertises the premiere episode of season four, which would air on Friday, September 12. In the release, we learn that the first episode of the season, “Welcome to Korea” (04×01), was going to be a special, hour-long episode. The first hour-long episode M*A*S*H produced. The information teases that in that special episode, we will meet B.J., the new surgeon who was “fresh from civilian residency.” We know how quickly B.J. was thrown into life as a combat surgeon in “Welcome to Korea.”
The publication that received this photo didn’t just glue the information from CBS to the back of it, but they also included a clipping from when they ran the photo in their newspaper. The photo of Farrell ran September 14, 1975, so two days after the episode aired. It is interesting that the photo ran AFTER the episode aired, but Fox and CBS had sent out other materials announcing the cast changes for season four. This was very important because they needed to promote M*A*S*H in a positive light since the final episode of season three had angered many fans. Col. Henry Blake’s death triggered thousands of letters to the show’s producers, and it must have been uncomfortable knowing that they weren’t only replacing Blake, but Trapper as well. Bracing fans for the change through the press would help soften the blow. It must have been difficult for Morgan to replace McLean Stevenson, and Farrell wrote in his memoir about his concerns of replacing Trapper. Thankfully, the writers handled the cast changes extremely well, and fans quickly warmed up to the new faces at the 4077th. Farrell and Morgan would end up being on M*A*S*H more than twice as long as the actors they replaced, and I believe that the press campaign along with the strong writing are what made the cast changes successful.
The M*A*S*H Historian 