Few sitcom farewells have ever hit as hard as Radar O’Reilly’s. For millions of MASH* fans, his departure in season 8 was the definition of bittersweet — the gentle, innocent clerk heading home at last after years of chaos and bloodshed.
But what made Radar’s exit so perfect was exactly what later spinoffs managed to ruin.

Gary Burghoff was the only MASH* cast member who appeared both in Robert Altman’s 1970 film and the TV series. His Radar — wide-eyed, earnest, unfailingly kind — became the camp’s moral center.
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