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The 1972 Korean war sitcom “M*A*S*H” has become one of the most beloved television shows of all time, but it’s fascinating to watch just how the series evolves over the seasons. The series was based on Robert Altman’s 1970 film of the same name, which was in turn based on the novel “MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors” by Richard Hooker, but it was a very different take on the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Altman absolutely hated the series and Hooker hated Hawkeye (Alan Alda), but series creator Larry Gelbart really knew what he was doing, even if he was clearly figuring it out as he went along.
Many of the characters on the show are different versions of their movie counterparts, but a few characters were created just for the series, and the first one was Corporal Maxwell Klinger, played by Jamie Farr. Klinger was an orderly who wanted so desperately to get out of the Army that he would do anything to get a Section 8 (a mental health discharge), including wearing women’s clothing. Originally, Klinger was only supposed to appear in that one episode, “Chief Surgeon Who?,” but he ended up getting a recurring role and then becoming a series regular. As problematic as the character could be, he’s also one of the best on the series, and his evolution is one of the show’s great hallmarks.
In an interview with the Smithsonian, Farr once shared the full history of how his character came to be — from a one-day shoot with just a few lines to joining the cast of one of the most important television shows of all time.
Klinger was only meant to last one episode
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While speaking with the Smithsonian, Farr explained that he was given the role because he had worked with director Gene Reynolds on a previous project, and when Reynolds became a producer on “M*A*S*H,” he wanted Farr specifically. The actor was having a rough patch and hadn’t worked in some time, so he jumped at the chance for something that paid $250 for a day’s work. “It made such an impact that they called me back, and I think I did six more of those first-year shows, and that’s how I got connected with the series,” he explained. From that initial episode, Klinger ended up becoming a major part of the series and was signed on with a contract in season 3. Heck, he even ended up being one of the few characters to make it to the (unfortunately ill-fated) spin-off series, “AfterMASH.”
Most of the characters on “M*A*S*H” really grew and changed over the course of the series (with one major exception), but Klinger undergoes the most dramatic change of them all. He starts the series as something of a recurring bit that uses his cross-dressing for laughs, a seemingly cowardly con man from Toledo who would do anything to get out of the Army, but he ends up becoming one of the most selfless and devoted members of the unit by the finale. Farr’s performance is fantastic, drawing from his own military experiences in Korea, but unfortunately Klinger has a complicated legacy.
We need to talk about Klinger
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Farr once said in an interview with Studio 10 that he felt as if Klinger “was like a cartoon character,” and in the early seasons especially he’s rambunctiously random in his desperation to get a military discharge. Later on, he realizes that he genuinely does feel more comfortable in women’s clothing sometimes because it’s a kind of armor against the horrors of war, but that complexity takes time. That means that for several seasons, audiences are treated to lots of awful jokes about men in dresses, the kind of “humor” that can be genuinely harmful to transgender people. Klinger is not trans and never pretends to be trans, but drag and crossdressing have been conflated with trans people for decades, often to the detriment of trans folks. It’s a deeply complex issue, and for a better understanding, be sure to check out the documentary “Disclosure” on Netflix, which provides some perspective from the people this impacts most.
The U.S. military has a long, painful history with LGBTQ servicemembers. Prior to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 1994, anyone who wasn’t cisgender and heterosexual was deemed unfit for military service — and prior to 1982, being anything other than straight was classified as a mental illness. There’s nothing psychologically unfit about LGBTQ people, and this belief was used to demonize them. (There’s a whole conversation to be had about how society views mental illness as well, but that’s a topic for another “M*A*S*H” article.)
Klinger has a complicated legacy with some extremely problematic material in the early seasons that turns into something more earnest. When he realizes that he actually is a crossdresser, the show stops treating him as “crazy,” and he ends up being steadfast and capable. The later seasons seem to say that a little gender-bending has no real bearing on a person’s character in any way, which is wildly progressive for the 1970s, but it takes some really awkward stumbles before getting there.
Corporal Klinger’s lasting legacy
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Though those early seasons can be really rough, where Klinger ends up as a character makes up for it somewhat. He started “M*A*S*H” as a frustrating one-note joke, and since non-binary and trans characters still have a hard time getting positive representation, it can be especially upsetting. Contemporary takes on his cross-dressing are mixed, with some transgender folks arguing that the “men in dresses” trope is too harmful to ignore, while others see is as a complicated but ultimately positive semi-representation. It’s the kind of thing that everyone needs to determine for themselves, but I personally feel like Klinger becomes a truly important and well-rounded character over time — a man judged by his character and not the clothes he chooses to wear. “M*A*S*H” had its heart in the right place most of the time, and even had an episode where Hawkeye and Trapper (Wayne Rogers) help a homosexual soldier try and avoid being kicked out of the army.
Perhaps because Klinger was created on the fly and wasn’t originally supposed to be around for more than one episode, he took a little longer to really become an integral (and non-problematic) part of the 4077th. In the end, “M*A*S*H” reignited Farr’s career like never before, and Corporal Klinger stole all of our hearts and made us laugh.