M*A*S*H Rewatch: W*A*L*T*E*R

Throughout 2025, I rewatched M*A*S*H and reviewed each season on the final day of the month. I also rewatched the original M*A*S*H movie, AfterMASH, and W*A*L*T*E*R. You can find an archive of the rewatch posts here.

It is not uncommon for popular television shows to spawn spin-offs, and M*A*S*H did generate three very different spin-offs. The first spin-off series was Trapper John, M.D. which ran on CBS from 1979 to 1986. The series followed Dr. Trapper John McIntyre in a stateside hospital. The hour long drama was in a completely different genre than M*A*S*H and it worked well because it did not star Wayne Rogers at Trapper, but brought in Pernell Roberts to play an older version of Trapper. Then, after M*A*S*H ended, the story continued with AfterMASH (1983 – 1985). It followed the lives of Col. Potter, Klinger, and Father Mulcahy after they returned home after the Korean War. It was an episode of AfterMASH that spawned the third M*A*S*H spinoff starring Gary Burghoff as Walter “Radar” O’Reilly. Of the three spin-offs, it is this one, titled W*A*L*T*E*R, that is judged the most harshly. There was only a pilot episode filmed, and it was not picked up for a full season. This month, I wrap up my year long M*A*S*H rewatch by rewatching the first (and only) episode of W*A*L*T*E*R.

The episode opens with Walter O’Reilly in St. Louis, Missouri in 1954. He is in an apartment with his cousin Wendell, and they are both police officers. Radar is new to the force, and while they are getting ready to go work, they want to watch an interview that Radar gave on TV. Clete Roberts followed up with members of the 4077th since they left Korea, and he interviewed Walter (Radar now prefers to go by his real name instead of his nickname). In the interview, we learn that Walter left Iowa because he lost his farm, his wife left him while they were still on their honeymoon, and he is starting a new life as a police officer in St. Louis. We see some of his new friends including Victoria, who works at a local diner/drug store. Walter explains that Victoria saved him from overdosing on sleeping pills after his wife left him. After the interview ends, Walter and Wendell are recognized and asked for their autographs. It is then that Walter realizes that his wallet was stolen, and he is upset to lose his photo of his MASH friends. They have to pause their search for the wallet to go break up a fight between two strippers, and Walter shows that he is still good with animals by coaxing one of the stripper’s bird to return. They find the pickpocket, and it turns out to be a kid who is struggling. Walter lets him go when he returns the MASH photo and offers to be the kid’s friend.

If you are confused by the storylines in the last paragraph…you are not alone! While I can see what the writers (Bob Weiskopf, Bob Schiller, Everett Greenbaum) were trying to do with Radar, the pilot episode of W*A*L*T*E*R is very disjointed. Wendell is clearly not a great police officer, but they hire his cousin to be a cop as well? We always saw Radar’s strengths in administration, with animals, and with farming, so seeing him as a big city cop does not feel right. The way that Radar’s farm life is quickly tossed aside is jarring since, in M*A*S*H, Radar was discharged to go home and run his farm. They also briefly mention that his mother went to live in Davenport, Iowa with her sister. They were clearly setting up Victoria to be a potential love interest for Radar, but he had just gotten divorced after we saw him in AfterMASH having second thoughts about getting married in the first place. The naive Radar returns and it makes him an easy target for a pickpocket. Aside from the character issues, there are other issues I have with plot. The humor is pretty standard police humor, and the hard ass police chief is pretty stereotypical. The pilot does not set up a compelling premise. Yes, it would have been hard for any show to live in the shadow of M*A*S*H. AfterMASH struggled with that. W*A*L*T*E*R doesn’t feel like it is in the same universe as M*A*S*H, which makes sense since there weren’t many M*A*S*H alumni involved with its production.

The series has been harshly criticized by M*A*S*H fans for years, and there is some debate on how many people saw it when it first aired. When it debuted in 1984, it may have only been seen by half the country. According to Television Obscurities (a site by RJ, the same as MASH4077TV.com), W*A*L*T*E*R did air on July 17, 1984, but only in the eastern and central time zones. In the other time zones with was preempted by CBS’s live coverage of the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Its ratings weren’t great, and it is pretty easy to see why. Radar had not been part of M*A*S*H in its final four seasons, and his appearance on AfterMASH wasn’t highly rated either. There is no doubt that Radar is a popular character on M*A*S*H, but he was popular as “Radar.” Not “Walter.” But even in M*A*S*H, Radar changed from season one through his exit in season eight. Then, in “The Foresight Saga” (09×19), Radar wrote a letter to the 4077th and we find out that he exaggerated his success as a farmer. The next time we see Radar is when he gets married in AfterMASH.

That leads to my biggest issue with W*A*L*T*E*R and why this version of Radar would have never worked. Radar becoming a police officer in St. Louis was NOT the next logical next step in his development. The series Trapper John, M.D. worked because Trapper was a doctor, so they followed his life after Korea as a doctor. Radar was well established as a small town farmer who went home to help his mom care for the family farm following the death of his uncle. Would Radar have abandoned his mom and the farm to go to St. Louis to be a police officer? That does not fit Radar’s character. W*A*L*T*E*R should have been a set in Ottumwa, Iowa where we saw a newly married, struggling farmer working in the general store to save his farm. We could meet Ottumwa characters as they come in and out of the store and interact with Radar. That would have been a more compelling Radar spin-off, but I know that it is easy for me to say in 2026.

Why did the show runners shy away from a rural setting for Radar and move him to the big city? I believe that can be attributed to the “rural purge” in 1971. In one year, the networks killed all of their small town, rural shows when they cancelled shows like Mayberry R.F.D., The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and Hee Haw. Perhaps they feared W*A*L*T*E*R wouldn’t be picked up as a rural show. The “purge” had it’s benefits because without it, there wouldn’t have been room in the lineup for shows like M*A*S*H, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Jeffersons, etc. Maybe by 1984 audiences would have been ready for a “rural” show after more than a decade of virtually no portrayal of rural life. I think Radar could have been a strong character to test in that situation, but we’ll never know. Today, W*A*L*T*E*R is pretty hard to come by. As with AfterMASH, fans have to rely on bootleg copies to watch it