Only one major character appeared in every iteration of the MASH TV franchise, and it wasn’t Alan Alda’s Hawkeye. There is a reality where MASH was canceled after season 1 due to poor ratings and became a forgotten curio. Instead, it became a shock success during re-runs and evolved over its first few seasons into one of the first real dramedies on television. The death of Henry Blake in MASH
season 3 sealed this transformation, while the departure of Wayne Rogers’ Trapper also cemented that Alan Alda’s Hawkeye was the lead of the show. 
